Disney is giving Mickey Mouse a make-over

[savafan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/bu...ckey.html?_r=2

By BROOKS BARNES
Published: November 4, 2009
LOS ANGELES — For decades, the Walt Disney Company has largely kept Mickey Mouse frozen under glass, fearful that even the tiniest tinkering might tarnish the brand and upend his $5 billion or so in annual merchandise sales. One false move and Disney could have New Coke on its hands.

Now, however, concerned that Mickey has become more of a corporate symbol than a beloved character for recent generations of young people, Disney is taking the risky step of re-imagining him for the future.

The first glimmer of this will be the introduction next year of a new video game, Epic Mickey, in which the formerly squeaky clean character can be cantankerous and cunning, as well as heroic, as he traverses a forbidding wasteland.

And at the same time, in a parallel but separate effort, Disney has quietly embarked on an even larger project to rethink the character’s personality, from the way Mickey walks and talks to the way he appears on the Disney Channel and how children interact with him on the Web — even what his house looks like at Disney World.

“Holy cow, the opportunity to mess with one of the most recognizable icons on Planet Earth,” said Warren Spector, the creative director of Junction Point, a Disney-owned game developer that spearheaded Epic Mickey.

The effort to re-engineer Mickey is still in its early stages, but it involves the top creative and marketing minds in the company, all the way up to Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive.

The project was given new impetus this week with the announcement that, after 20 years of negotiations, the company has finally received the blessing of the Chinese government to open a theme park in Shanghai, potentially unlocking a new giant market for all things Mickey.

Disney executives are treading carefully, and trying to keep a low profile, as they discuss how much they dare tweak one of the most durable characters in pop culture history to induce new generations of texting, tech-savvy children to embrace him. Disney executives will keenly watch how Epic Mickey is received, to inform the broader overhaul.

Keeping cartoon characters trapped in amber is one of the surest routes to irrelevancy. While Mickey remains a superstar in many homes, particularly overseas, his static nature has resulted in a generation of Americans — the one that grew up with Nickelodeon and Pixar — that knows him, but may not love him. Domestic sales in particular have declined: of his $5 billion in merchandise sales in 2009, less than 20 percent will come from the United States.

“There’s a distinct risk of alienating your core consumer when you tweak a sacred character, but at this point it’s a risk they have to take,” said Matt Britton, the managing partner of Mr. Youth, a New York brand consultant firm.

In Epic Mickey, the foundation of which a group of interns dreamed up in 2004, the title character still exhibits the hallmarks that younger generations know: he is adventurous, enthusiastic and curious. “Mickey is never going to be evil or go around killing people,” Mr. Spector said.

But Mickey won’t be bland anymore, either. “I wanted him to be able to be naughty — when you’re playing as Mickey you can misbehave and even be a little selfish,” Mr. Spector said.

In many ways, it is a return to Mickey at his creation. When the character made its debut in “Steamboat Willie” in 1928, he was the Bart Simpson of his time: an uninhibited rabble-rouser who got into fistfights, played tricks on his friends (pity Clarabelle Cow) and, later, was amorously aggressive with Minnie.

Epic Mickey, designed for Nintendo’s Wii console, is set in a “cartoon wasteland” where Disney’s forgotten and retired creations live. The chief inhabitant is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character Walt Disney created in 1927 as a precursor to Mickey but ultimately abandoned in a dispute with Universal Studios. In the game, Oswald has become bitter and envious of Mickey’s popularity. The game also features a disemboweled, robotic Donald Duck and a “twisted, broken, dangerous” version of Disneyland’s “It’s a Small World.” Using paint and thinner thrown from a magic paintbrush, Mickey must stop the Phantom Blot overlord, gain the trust of Oswald and save the day.

Consumers will not be able to buy the game before fall of next year. Anticipation is intense. “Wow! This is amazing,” said Eli Gee on GameInformer.com. “I’m really... REALLY excited.”

Other observers are less impressed. “The approach warrants a lot of caution given the difficulty that publishers have had gaining traction on the Wii,” said Doug Creutz, a media analyst at Cowen and Company.

Industry veterans with experience in the family niche think that the Disney brand can overcome such hurdles.

“This is a huge opportunity to create more relevancy for Mickey and pull him into the fastest-growing entertainment medium,” said Jim Wilson, the chief executive of Atari’s North American business. “If it’s a good game — and given the strength of the developer and I.P., the likelihood of that is high — people are going to buy it.”

Not that the idea is not radical. “I was told to withhold judgment until I had seen the whole pitch,” said Graham Hopper, executive vice president for Disney Interactive Studios.

Disney has big video game ambitions, spending at least $180 million on their development this year alone. It has had successful spinoff titles, but no true self-published blockbusters. Disney generated about $86 million in retail sales from January to September in the United States, according to NPD data. Nintendo of America, the leading seller of games, had about $1 billion in sales.

Mr. Iger solved a right problems with the game by making a deal with NBC Universal in 2006. In the negotiations, Mr. Iger persuaded NBC Universal to trade the Oswald rights for rights to Al Michaels, the sportscaster. NBC wanted Mr. Michaels for its new football franchise and Mr. Michaels wanted to go, but Disney held him in a longtime contract through its ESPN unit.

In the interim, Mr. Spector has struggled with the correct 3-D model of the mouse, consulting with animators and John Lasseter, the Pixar co-founder.

Considerable effort has gone into instilling a backdrop of choice and consequence. Players can either behave in an entirely happy way and help other characters — and have an easier go of it in the wasteland — or choose more selfish, destructive behavior with a harsher outcome, including a Mickey that starts to physically resemble a rat.

“Ultimately,” Mr. Spector said, “players must ask themselves, ‘What kind of hero am I?’ ”

When it comes to Mickey, Disney is asking it, too.

[Chip R]

Didn't South Park already do this?

[Johnny Footstool]

Poochie.

[RBA]

Has the New York Times been pranked?

[Eric_the_Red]

Looking at the screenshots for the game, I'm excited to play it. I'm an admitted Disney fanatic, and love the nods to the company's past the game features.

[durl]

My kids are fine with the "old" Mickey.

I wonder if this is another case of someone having too much free time and wanting to do something big. As Thomas Sowell has said, "People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do."

[George Anderson]

Originally Posted by durl

My kids are fine with the "old" Mickey.

I wonder if this is another case of someone having too much free time and wanting to do something big. As Thomas Sowell has said, "People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do."

I think its Disney wanting to squeeze more money outta the consumer with new merchandise featuring the new and improved Mickey. Having just got back from Disney I can vouch that they are very good at getting their visitors to spend.

[WVRed]

Originally Posted by Chip R

Didn't South Park already do this?

[Unassisted]

"Disney executives are treading carefully, and trying to keep a low profile,"

"The game also features a disemboweled, robotic Donald Duck"

The presence of beloved, disemboweled characters in a family game should help keep the effort low profile by discouraging parents from buying it.

[Raisor]

Originally Posted by Johnny Footstool

Poochie.

"and when Poochie isn't around, everyone should ask "where's Poochie?"

[GAC]

Sonic would still kick Mickey's butt!

[Sea Ray]

Sounds like they're going to take the wholesome Mickey and turn him into a bratty, backtalking kid like today's cartoons. I much prefer the old cartoons to the ones of today like SpongeBob and Ed, Ed and Eddy.

[Yachtzee]

I think the image problem Disney has with regard to Mickey is that Disney has been putting out cheaply made dreck featuring Mickey Mouse for years simply to cash in on the Mickey Mouse name. One of my boys got a Mickey Mouse video once as a birthday present and it was one of the most poorly animated cartoons I've ever seen. It's as if Disney just slapped it together thinking people would just buy it because it has Mickey in it. Needless to say, my boys have watched it maybe 2 or 3 times and forgotten about it, as opposed to the countless times they've asked me to throw in a Pixar movie or a classic Disney film. The only people I know who still like Mickey Mouse are 30+ year old Disney fanatics. Stop making cheap junk and put Mickey in a well-animated and well-scripted cartoon and maybe he'll be relevant again.

[Eric_the_Red]

Originally Posted by Yachtzee

I think the image problem Disney has with regard to Mickey is that Disney has been putting out cheaply made dreck featuring Mickey Mouse for years simply to cash in on the Mickey Mouse name. One of my boys got a Mickey Mouse video once as a birthday present and it was one of the most poorly animated cartoons I've ever seen. It's as if Disney just slapped it together thinking people would just buy it because it has Mickey in it. Needless to say, my boys have watched it maybe 2 or 3 times and forgotten about it, as opposed to the countless times they've asked me to throw in a Pixar movie or a classic Disney film. The only people I know who still like Mickey Mouse are 30+ year old Disney fanatics. Stop making cheap junk and put Mickey in a well-animated and well-scripted cartoon and maybe he'll be relevant again.

Historically, Mickey has only been featured in quickly made cartoon shorts. There have been a few exceptions (the Sorcerer Mickey segment in Fantasia, Mickey's Christmas Carol, etc.) but mostly his cartoon shorts were made very quickly at the height of his popularity between the 30's and 50's.

Comparing Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts to Pixar feature length films is like comparing the HR derby to a playoff game.

[Yachtzee]

Originally Posted by Eric_the_Red

Historically, Mickey has only been featured in quickly made cartoon shorts. There have been a few exceptions (the Sorcerer Mickey segment in Fantasia, Mickey's Christmas Carol, etc.) but mostly his cartoon shorts were made very quickly at the height of his popularity between the 30's and 50's.

Comparing Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts to Pixar feature length films is like comparing the HR derby to a playoff game.

Not necessarily. Regardless of the length of a film, there's a huge difference between good quality and cheap knock offs. Short films can be great if the effort is put into them. There are plenty of cartoon shorts from Disney, Warner Bros., et. al with great animation and artwork and a great script.

If you saw the video I'm talking about, "Mickey's Around the World in 80 Days," you'd quickly notice how bad it is. It's not a short, coming in at around an hour I believe. It's supposed to look cell animated, but it looks like it was done with clip art. The script basically involves Mickey traveling to different parts of the World announcing that he's going around the World in 80 days upon arrival at each destination. Insert characterizations of the cultures in each spot and happening upon Minnie in India as a princess and rescuing her from a bad arranged marriage and showing up in London just in time and that's basically the whole show.