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Mickey goes digital, Disney wants mouse to roar: The Economic Times
Los Angeles, July 24: Mickey`s back and going digital. Walt Disney Co. is preparing a Mickey Mouse publicity blitz to renew interest in the company`s most-famous character and capitalize on the 75th anniversary since he made his November 18, 1928 screen debut in the short `Steamboat Willie.`
Los Angeles, July 24: Mickey`s back and going digital. Walt Disney Co. is preparing a Mickey Mouse publicity blitz to renew interest in the company`s most-famous character and capitalize on the 75th anniversary since he made his November 18, 1928 screen debut in the short "Steamboat Willie."
"It`s Mickey`s 75th year in show business. We`ve got a lot of stuff to sell," comedian Drew Carey joked at a Disney presentation of Mickey apparel, movies and theme park attractions that the company will roll out over the next year.
Though known worldwide, Mickey only recently got a regular daily cable television program, "House of Mouse" and will only make his digital debut in a computer-animated feature late next year, in a straight-to-video feature, "Mickey`s Twice Upon a Christmas."
He also stars with Donald Duck and Goofy in a separate straight-to-video movie, "The Three Musketeers," due next summer. Although Mickey has been in feature films before, perhaps most notably "Fantasia," Disney calls the "Musketeers" his first starring role.
Disney decided it did not want to take the financial risk of a theatrical release, however.
That would require a level of animation far beyond that required for home video or DVD, Chief Operating Officer and President Bob Iger told reporters. "Walk before you run," he told reporters.
Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eisner said in a presentation that Mickey was reinvented for every generation and that it was time for a new "mutation" with the computer animated Mickey, who looked glossy and three-dimensional in a short shown to the audience.
Eisner made one of his first financial marks on the company by bringing out classic films on home video, and executives said they were similarly mining the archives with the new Mickey push.
Retro Mickey has shown up on T-shirts and apparel, and a line of Mickey comic books is in the works. The U.S. Postal Service is preparing Mickey Mouse stamps and Mickey takes another starring role this year in Walt Disney World attraction, a 3-D film called "Mickey`s PhilharMagic."
"It`s Mickey`s 75th year in show business. We`ve got a lot of stuff to sell," comedian Drew Carey joked at a Disney presentation of Mickey apparel, movies and theme park attractions that the company will roll out over the next year.
Though known worldwide, Mickey only recently got a regular daily cable television program, "House of Mouse" and will only make his digital debut in a computer-animated feature late next year, in a straight-to-video feature, "Mickey`s Twice Upon a Christmas."
He also stars with Donald Duck and Goofy in a separate straight-to-video movie, "The Three Musketeers," due next summer. Although Mickey has been in feature films before, perhaps most notably "Fantasia," Disney calls the "Musketeers" his first starring role.
Disney decided it did not want to take the financial risk of a theatrical release, however.
That would require a level of animation far beyond that required for home video or DVD, Chief Operating Officer and President Bob Iger told reporters. "Walk before you run," he told reporters.
Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eisner said in a presentation that Mickey was reinvented for every generation and that it was time for a new "mutation" with the computer animated Mickey, who looked glossy and three-dimensional in a short shown to the audience.
Eisner made one of his first financial marks on the company by bringing out classic films on home video, and executives said they were similarly mining the archives with the new Mickey push.
Retro Mickey has shown up on T-shirts and apparel, and a line of Mickey comic books is in the works. The U.S. Postal Service is preparing Mickey Mouse stamps and Mickey takes another starring role this year in Walt Disney World attraction, a 3-D film called "Mickey`s PhilharMagic."