If not then maybe you should steer clear of the Disney Channel tonight between 7:30 & 8 p.m. For that’s whenPlayhouse Disney ‘s expensive new computer-animated series, “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,” finally makes its debut.
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
Don’t get me wrong, folks. I’m not saying that “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” is a particularly bad program. Far from it, in fact. This new “Playhouse Disney” series is quite solidly put together. More importantly, it has great production values. Which is why I’m sure that this show is going to a big hit with children three-through-six.
What I object to is this program’s origins. You see, the Walt Disney Company felt that it had to create a TV program like “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” because … Well … To be blunt, the kids of today aren’t all that interested in the corporation’s core group of characters. Disney has been losing significant market share to newer, more hip creations like “Spongebob Squarepants.” And the Mouse had to do something to turn that situation around.
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
Disney’s first attempt at solving this problem was to try & make Mickey seem more hip & appealing to modern audiences. Which is why the “Mickey Mouseworks” and (later) the “House of Mouse” TV series were created.
Unfortunately, these two programs (as well put together as they might have been) only had limited success. In that “Mickey Mouseworks” & “House of Mouse” appealed to the fan base that Disney’s core group of characters already had. But these two programs didn’t actually succeed at winning over a significant number of new fans over to the Disney cause.
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
Which is why Mouse House execs then decided that — if they couldn’t lure all of those Spongebob fans back into the Disney fold — maybe it was time to take an entirely different approach to this problem. Rather than try & win over pre-teens & tweens who had already decided who their favorite cartoon characters were, maybe it was time to go after a previously untapped portion of the viewing audience.
As in: What if Disney were to deliberately create a program that appealed to preschoolers that starred the company’s core group of characters? Would these pre-K viewers then form a bond with Mickey & friends? A bond that perhaps might last long after these kids had exited kindergarten?
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
With this goal in mind, Disney execs then supposedly took a hard look at their competition. As in: They closely examined Nick Jr. ‘s most popular programs with the 3-through-6 set, “Blue’s Clues” and “Dora the Explorer.”
After pulling the more kid-friendly, interactive elements out of these two Viacom-owned shows and then folding them into their new Mickey Mouse-based show, Mouse House executives then began looking for a way to make this somewhat tired group of characters look brand-new. And given the continued enthusiasm that today’s children have shown for all things CG … Well, there was really only one way to go with “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
I’ll say this much about the CG versions of the “Sensational Six” (I.E. This is what Disney’s marketing staff is now calling the core group of characters that consist of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy & Pluto): They’ve done a really nice job with these characters. As in: Disney opted to go with the classic 1940s look of Mickey & friends. Rather than try & update their look yet again.
More to the point, were you to go frame-by-frame through an episode of “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” (As I just did), you’d notice that the animators who worked on these programs have really struggled to add some squash & stretch to the show. So that the CG versions of these classic Disney characters at least have some of the same bounce that they exhibited in those traditional animated shorts that Walt Disney Studios released back in the 1940s & 1950s.
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
So will this great experiment work? Will “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” ultimately convince an entirely new generation of kids to form an attachment to Disney’s core group of characters? The Walt Disney Company certainly hopes so. Why else would the corporation now be attempting a coordinated global launch of this new animated series? With “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” premiering on 22 different Disney Channels & 5 Playhouse Disney Channels across North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa & Japan?
That’s one hell of a roll-out for what is basically a television show that’s aimed at children 3-through-6. But once you understand what’s actually going on here (I.E. That the Walt Disney Company isn’t just launching a new TV series here. But — rather — is making a large-scale investment in the future of the corporation’s core group of characters), the approach that Disney’s now taking with “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” then finally makes sense.
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
FYI: Mickey & friends aren’t the only group of characters that the Walt Disney Company is currently worried about. That’s why Disney Television Animation is already hard at work on a CG Winnie the Pooh series. Look for “My Friends Tigger & Pooh” to get a similiar large-scale promotional push when that computer-animated series debuts on the Disney Channel on the Spring of 2007.
Anyway … If you’d like to see what all the fuss is about, “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” debuts on the Disney Channel tonight at 7:30 p.m. This new “Playhouse Disney” series then shifts into its regular airtime. Which is 9-9:30 a.m. every Saturday & Sunday on the Disney Channel.
Anywho … What are you folks’ thoughts on this issue? Do you think that this is really the right approach for the Walt Disney Company to take in their attempt to make Mickey Mouse & his pals evergreen characters?
