“Once Upon a Time,” Disney wasn’t always so careful when it came to the licensing of the Company’s characters

Jim Hill

10 years ago

I’m sure — by now — that you’re heard that “Once Upon
a Time” teased that Elsa from Disney “Frozen” will be coming to
Storybrooke for Season 4 of this hit ABC series.

Now some of you out there (I’m sure ) will see this as a
naked cash grab. The Mouse finding yet another way to make money off of this
mega-hit Walt Disney Animation Studios release. But that’s really not what
happened here. As Edward Kitsis, one of “Once Upon a Time” executive
producers revealed to Time Magazine yesterday, this “Frozen“
character crossover has actually been in the works since last November. More
importantly, that it took months of meetings before Disney’s Brand Management would
finally give Kitsis and his co-producer, Adam Horowitz, permission to make Elsa
part of the “Once Upon a Time” universe.

And I gotta tell you folks that Kitsis & Adam have had
to do this sort of thing ever since they first pitched this series to ABC. I
got to interview Edward & Adam back in August of 2011, a few weeks prior to
“Once Upon a Time” ‘s premiere on the Alphabet Network. And at that
time, they told me all sorts of stories about the stuff that Brand Management
had to sign off on (EX: Snow White wielding a sword. Given that Disney’s first
princess had never before portrayed as an action hero, it took a little while
to persuade Company executives that “The Fairest One of All” had mad
skills when it came to blades, bows & arrows).

Ginnifer Goodwin gets ready to do battle.
Copyright American Broadcasting
Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Now I know that the very idea that The Walt Disney Company
has a Brand Management office may be off-putting / over-controlling to some. But
trust me, folks. There’s a reason that Disney has executives whose main purpose
is making sure that the characters stay true to themselves. Because it wasn’t
all that long ago that the Company making some pretty questionable decisions
when it came to Disney characters.

And no, I’m not talking about Mickey Mouse Disco …

… the Company’s clumsy attempt to piggyback on Paramount
Pictures’ 1977 smash, “Saturday Night Fever.”

Or worse than that, “Totally Minnie,” Disney’s 1983effort to reimagine Mickey’s longtime girlfriend …

… as a kind of a family-friendly version of Madonna.

And I’m not even talking about that Mickey Mouse gas mask
that Walt himself helped develop during World War II.

As the story goes, the Sun Rubber Company only produced a
thousand of these back in 1944. And though the Company threw a lot of its
promotional might behind the launch of this personal safety product (Hence the
photo below of a senior military official demonstrating how this child-sized
gas mask works to Charlie McCarthy & Edgar Bergen).

I actually got to see one of the few surviving masks in
person back in the Summer of 1983. I was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri
back then. I had just finishing up basic training. And before the U.S. Army
shipped me off to Fort Benjamin Harrison to begin journalism training, I found
myself with an afternoon to kill. Which is why I wound up touring the United
States Army Chemical
Corps Museum.
Which is where I discovered — grinning up at me out of a dusty display case —
one of the scariest Mickeys that I’d ever seen.

And if the above image doesn’t haunt your dreams tonight …
Well, you’re made of stronger stuff than I am.

No, the period of Disney Company history where — me
personally — I think that the Mouse was somewhat lax when it came to character
integrity / quality control was late 1937 / early 1938. Which was right as “Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs” was being released to theaters.

Given that Walt had spent $1.5 million on the production of
the Company’s first full-length animated
feature (which was 10 times what Disney originally thought it would cost to
produce “Snow White”), the Studio was very eager to recover that
cost. Which is why Company officials made some pretty questionable licensing
decisions.

Don’t believe me? Okay. Then let’s take a look at Showplace,
the official magazine of Radio City Musical Hall (By the way, if you’d like to
page through this entire publication, be sure and head on over to Brian
Sibley’s delightful Decidedly Disney website. He has all sorts of cool
Mouse-related curios on display there).

Look, don’t get me wrong. I don’t have an issue with the Snow
White-themed toys that Saks Fifth Avenue
had on sale at that time.

Or the Snow White charms that Cartier was selling.

But when Helena Rubenstein began offering Snow White-themed make-up session
(which started with a liberal application of ” … Snow Lotion … which
spreads a film of loveliness over your face”) …

… and Rockefeller Center
used the Dwarfs to promote that year’s version of their skating pond, things
were starting to get a little weird.

But then when Disney’s licensing department actually allowed
the Rogers Peet Company to use Grumpy & the Dwarfs to promote that store’s
line of men’s wear …

… or when they allowed Dopey (the one character in
“Snow White” who didn’t talk) to be turned into a ventriloquist dummy
… You just know that Kay Kamen & Co. were trying to wring every possible
dollar out of the licensing of this animated feature.

Mind you, Dopey did talk. Once. But that was in the stage version of “Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs” that Disney Legend Robert Jani staged at Radio
City Musical Hall in the Fall of 1979.

And if you’d like to learn more about that live stage version of Disney’s 1937
animated feature or many of the other shows that the Mouse has staged in NYC
over the past 35 years … Well, you may want to come along on the
walk-and-talk that I’ll be presenting this Saturday in Times Square with the
help of Evan at ETC Custom Events. For further information on this presentation,
please click on this link.