The year that Mickey & Minnie almost got married

Jim Hill

14 years ago

Take a moment. Go check out your Disney t-shirt and coffee mug collection.
There’s an awful lot of anniversary logos & celebration slogans there,
aren’t there? 35 Years of Magic. 40 Years of Adventure. 100 Years of Magic. Remember
the Magic. Year of a Million Dreams. What Will You Celebrate? Give a Day, Get a
Day. And – of course – Disney Parks & Resort’s most recent effort, Let the
Memories Begin.

But for every one of these Disney Parks promotional
campaigns that receive major media buys, which were then supported by splashy
newspaper ads & numerous TV commercials … There were an equally large
number of campaigns that never quite made it out of committee.

Take – for example – that promotion which Jack Lindquist
dreamed up for Disneyland‘s Summer of 1991. Which was when Jim Henson’s
Muppet*Vision 3D was supposed to have replaced the Great Moments with Mr.
Lincoln show at that theme park’s Main Street Opera House.

Jack wanted to do something genuinely big to make the public
aware that the Muppets were now in residence at the Happiest Place on Earth.
Which is why he proposed sending Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto & Goofy off
on vacation for the entire Summer of ’91. So that — while the Fab Five were away
from Anaheim — the Muppets would then be left in charge of Disneyland.

And from the moment that you came thru the turnstiles that summer,
you would have known that this theme park had a new (albeit temporary) head
honcho. Given that the Mickey-shaped floral planter that’s adorned the lawn in
front of the Main Street, U.S.A. train station for decades now would have been replaced
by a Kermit-shaped planter.

Mind you, even if you were out driving by on the 5 during
the Summer of ’91, you would have known that something unusual was going on at
Disneyland. Given that – as part of this promotion — Jack wanted to paint the
Matterhorn Kermit-the-Frog green.

The “Here Comes the Muppets” stage show as it was presented at Disney-MGM
Studios theme park. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

These two over-the-top touches were just the beginning of
the Muppet-type madness that was to have invaded the Happiest Place on Earth
that summer. Over on the Videopolis stage, there were to have been several
performances daily of the “Here Come the Muppets” stage show. Which was to have
been this Disneyland-specific version of that Disney-MGM stage show which ran
at the Studios from May 1990 through September 1991.

And when the Muppet walk-around characters weren’t onstage performing
at Videopolis, they were supposed to be down in Town Square doing meet-n-greets
and/or waving to Guests from floats during Disneyland’s twice-daily
presentation of the Magnificent Muppet All-Star Motorcade. Which was to have
featured Gonzo riding on a rolling camera platform as he directed this music
video which starred Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. And did I mention that Fozzie, Scooter and
Rowlf would be riding aboard the Muppet tour bus as it rolled through that
theme park?

That was Jack’s grand plan for introducing the Muppets at
Disneyland in a big way. But all of Lindquist’s hard work was for naught. Given
that – in December of 1990 — The Walt Disney Company’s first attempt to
acquire the Muppets fell apart in December of 1990 when Mouse House management
and the Henson family failed to come to terms.

Anyway … I told that story today because I wanted to give a
sense of the hundreds of hours of hard work that The Walt Disney Company will
sometimes put into the development of a brand-new promotional campaign for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.
Only to then suddenly abandon that effort. Which means that the public never
gets to see any of that artwork / see that particular PR narrative unfold.

The other reason that I’m exploring this aspect of the
Company’s history today – on Valentine’s Day of all days – is … Well, did you
see the big news coming out of Toy Fair this morning? Where – after seven years
of being apart — Barbie and Ken have officially announced that they are once
again a couple?

This is – of course – a PR stunt that Mattel dreamed up not
only to spur sales (i.e. look for a special limited edition of “Together Again” set of Barbie & Ken dolls
to hit store shelves shortly) but to also help
reinvigorate this brand. But where this gets interesting is that – back in the
mid-1990s – The Walt Disney Company toyed with doing something very similar
with Mickey & Minnie.

As I recall, the initial discussion reportedly began back in late 1992 / early 1993. There was supposedly a concern on the PR side of things at Walt Disney Parks
& Resorts that the Company had maybe gone back to the anniversary well once too often. To explain: That – by continually hyping artificial events like the celebration of Disneyland’s 35^th & WDW’s 20^th anniversaries – there was a danger that the public would start losing their enthusiasm for these sorts of cooked-up campaigns. Which is why Disney officials were looking to do something different – something big, bold & dramatic – in order to recapture people’s attention / imagination.

And given that 1986’s “Totally Minnie” program — with its record album, TV special on NBC, merchandise line
as well as a daily parade
at Disneyland — had proven to be so popular with the public (More importantly, had helped redefine that character. Get Minnie out of the kitchen, out of Mickey’s shadow and then show off this character’s independent spirit & fun nature) … Given that Mickey Mouse’s 65th birthday was coming up, the Company’s Corporate Synergy & Special Projects office toyed with the idea of commemorating this special occasion back having Mickey & Minnie become Man & Wife … er … Mouse & Wife during a year-long event that would run from the Fall of 1993 through the late Summer of 1994.

The scenario (as it was explained to me) was that – sometime just after Labor Day 1993 – Disney officials were to have announced that Mickey had just
proposed to Minnie. More importantly, that she had “Yes.” And since it had
taken these two nearly 70 years to finally make it to the altar … Well, a single day-long
wedding wouldn’t cut it. Which is why Walt Disney Parks &
Resorts wanted to stage this year-long celebration of the marriage of
Mickey & Minnie Mouse. Where the daily Guests at the Parks would then automatically
become guests at Mickey & Minnie’s wedding.

If all had gone according to plan, this was to have been a multi-media extravaganza. With ABC
airing a “Mickey & Minnie Mouse’s Wedding” TV special, plus a daily parade at
the Parks where Disney characters from around the world were to have arrived with
gifts for the happy couple. I also remember something about a nightly marriage ceremony
in front of the castle – with Pluto as the ring bearer and Donald & Goofy continually
jostling to see who Mickey’s best man would wind up being. And then – when the happy couple
had their first official kiss as Mouse & Wife … Well, that was supposed to
have signaled the start of the Park’s nightly fireworks display.

So why didn’t the marriage-of-Mickey-and-Minnie happen? Well, the way I heard it, there were actually people who worked at the Mouse House who were concerned that — by marrying Mickey — Minnie (as a character) would then be taking a step backwards. That — by marrying Mickey Mouse — Minnie would then be forced to settle into the stereotypical housewife’s role.

Then there were those at The Walt Disney Company who were uncomfortable with all the real-life baggage that would then come with these two much-beloved characters finally getting hitched. As in: How were they supposed to answer kids questions like “If Mickey & Minnie’s marriage doesn’t work out, will they then get divorced” ?

Given that there was something that was obviously special about Mickey & Minnie’s relationship (i.e. that they had managed to stay sweethearts for 65 years) … And given that — at least from a little kid’s point of view — marriage is often seen as icky and/or loaded with all sorts of complicated adult-type emotions … Well, it just didn’t make sense to screw up something that had worked — and worked well — for six decades plus just to temporarily boost attendance at the Disney theme parks and/or sell some collectibles.

Which is why the Company never pursued the Mickey-and-Minnie-get-married idea. More importantly, why Walt Disney Parks & Resorts
went back to promotional campaigns that keyed off of
anniversaries. Like 1996’s Remember the Magic, 2000’s 100 Years of
Magic and 2005’s the Happiest Homecoming on Earth events.

And given the carefully parsed way that Mattel is approaching the promotion
of Ken & Barbie’s reunion (i.e. “She said Yes. Ken and Barbie Rekindle
their Epic Romance” rather than saying that these two dolls are now gong to get
married), I think that that the Mattel Corporation – just as Disney did back in late 1992 / early 1993 – recognizes the dangers involved in taking a couple that the public has
loved for decades as dating singles now and then making them man & wife.

That said, I still think that it’s kind of cool that — according to the official Barbie & Ken timeline that Mattel sent along earlier — it was this couple’s reunion on the set of “Toy Story 3
” that supposedly let to the rekindling of their relationship.

But what do you folks think? Even if this had just been a promotional
campaign that Walt Disney Parks & Resorts cooked up in order to get you
& your family to return to the Resorts in 1993 & 1994, would you have still made a
special trip to Anaheim or Orlando in order to attend the marriage of Mickey
& Minnie Mouse? Or were Company
officials wise to take a pass on this particular PR stunt?

Your thoughts?

The article was updated / corrected on February 19, 2011 to fold in additional information