Disney Races to Get Boys Hooked on 'Cars'
By MERISSA MARR
April 24, 2006; Page B1
When Pixar Animation Studios director John Lasseter told Walt Disney Co. several years ago that he was making a computer-animated movie about cars, there was much excitement. While Disney has cornered the market for girls with the multibillion-dollar Princess line, relatively few of its characters in recent years have appealed to boys.
Mr. Lasseter's movie, "Cars," opens in theaters June 9, and the Disney-Pixar team is hitting the gas to make sure it doesn't miss the opportunity. In the run-up to the film's release, Disney has prepared its most aggressive consumer-products push for a new movie since its 1994 animated blockbuster "The Lion King."
"Cars," the tale of a cocky race car that gets waylaid in a remote town en route to a big race, is loaded with rip-snorting race sequences that showcase Pixar's ever-advancing computer-animation capabilities. Next weekend, retail shelves will start filling with everything from "Cars" racetracks to lunchboxes, cereal and wheelie shoes.
The merchandise features Disney's first electronics line for a Pixar theatrical release, including television sets and boom boxes. The star, however, will be a $34.99, bright-red programmable car based on the movie's lead character, Lightning McQueen, which does tricks and talks (in the voice of actor Owen Wilson) through a moving vinyl mouth on its front bumper.
The buildup for "Cars" provides important clues about how Disney plans to exploit Pixar in the future. As a result of Disney's recent deal to buy Pixar for $7.4 billion, Mr. Lasseter has an expanded role overseeing the animation operations and helping design Disney theme-park rides. He will continue to direct movies and play a key role in promoting them, too.
Mr. Lasseter has long played a central role in bringing his animated stars to life through toys. When his first feature-directing effort, "Toy Story" came out more than a decade ago, he spotted a kid at an airport grasping a cowboy doll of the character Woody. "It hit me that this character wasn't mine anymore. It belonged to that kid," Mr. Lasseter says. "In every movie now, I think of that little boy and what that character meant to him."
For "Cars," Mr. Lasseter pushed carts full of toys into early meetings with Disney's consumer-products team to help brainstorm on product lines. The 49-year-old animator is a big fan of Mattel Inc.'s Hot Wheels die-cast vehicles, and he brought along some from his own collection. "I wanted the merchandising to be clever and above all, high quality," Mr. Lasseter says.
In the fickle world of merchandising, it isn't enough these days to pair a couple of action figures with a movie. The "Harry Potter" movies marked a shift to more imaginative products, such as "earwax" and "dirt" jelly beans and a "magical" trading-card game.
Indeed, toy campaigns based on movies have been in decline in recent years, forcing studios and toy makers to find ways to make their offerings more interactive. "Spider-Man" -- one of the most successful of the modern-day movie-merchandising franchises -- spawned a big hit with the Mega Blast Webshooter, a glove that shoots webs. "Kids themselves want to be part of the story now," says toy consultant Chris Byrne.
With that in mind, Mr. Lasseter spent many hours briefing licensees on the "Cars" characters at a presentation two years ago at Pixar's Emeryville, Calif., studio. He recounted how he formulated the idea for the movie while on a cross-country driving trip with his wife and sons.
Building on Pixar's track record -- all six of its films have been hits -- Disney decided to reach out beyond its usual starting point of toys, videogames and books to include electronics, home furnishings and even auto accessories in the first merchandising run. "Buyers are pretty conservative about the commitments they're willing to make on a new theatrical release," says Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney's consumer products division. "The one exception to the rule is Pixar because of its phenomenal track record."
It wasn't always that way. Major toy manufacturers passed on Pixar's first movie, "Toy Story." Even after Pixar was an established studio years later, toy makers were cautious about "Finding Nemo." They didn't think fish would sell.
As it turned out, "Toy Story" was a big hit both on screen and in stores, although Disney and retailers were famously caught off guard by its early success and faced frustrating product shortages. And "Nemo" struck gold with a videogame and a roaring trade in repeat summer business like swimwear. "That's the Holy Grail: something that starts out as a movie franchise and migrates to a staple product," Mr. Byrne says.
For "Cars," Disney is homing in on a primary target market of boys ages 3 to 8 (or ages 7 to 11 for electronic and interactive games). "In terms of a franchise that is so directly applicable to boys, I don't think we've ever had one with this much potential," Mr. Mooney says. The bulk of the campaign is built around the character boys are most likely to identify with, Lightning McQueen. However, Mr. Lasseter was convinced Mater, a goofy small-town tow truck, also would be a breakout hit. (Among the Mater products is a talking plush toy made by Disney partner Mattel.)
To win over the big retailers, Disney is making some exclusive toys and apparel for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. "Cars" is among the big movies Wal-Mart is promoting this summer; another is "Superman Returns," which is likely to pose Disney's toughest competition for the attention of boys. However, Disney also is weighing in this summer with a major merchandise campaign for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," which also has boys in its sights.
Still, Disney isn't leaving anything to chance: "Cars" also will be aggressively marketed, including a premiere on four giant outdoor screens before 30,000 guests at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., home to various Nascar events. It is the type of costly Hollywood spectacle that Disney used to mount regularly for animated movies but has pulled back on in recent years. After the initial theatrical release, Disney's merchandise team will come back with another wave of products for the pre-Christmas DVD release.
For future movies, Mr. Lasseter has even bigger ambitions. With Pixar a part of Disney, he says he wants to tap other parts of the empire with plans, for instance, to build theme-park rides to come out at the same time as his movies. Mr. Lasseter also is plotting to build Pixar franchises with sequels to past movies. Mr. Lasseter won't say which movie will be first, but the "Toy Story" franchise is likely to be a strong contender.
Write to Merissa Marr at merissa.marr@wsj.com
By MERISSA MARR
April 24, 2006; Page B1
When Pixar Animation Studios director John Lasseter told Walt Disney Co. several years ago that he was making a computer-animated movie about cars, there was much excitement. While Disney has cornered the market for girls with the multibillion-dollar Princess line, relatively few of its characters in recent years have appealed to boys.
Mr. Lasseter's movie, "Cars," opens in theaters June 9, and the Disney-Pixar team is hitting the gas to make sure it doesn't miss the opportunity. In the run-up to the film's release, Disney has prepared its most aggressive consumer-products push for a new movie since its 1994 animated blockbuster "The Lion King."
"Cars," the tale of a cocky race car that gets waylaid in a remote town en route to a big race, is loaded with rip-snorting race sequences that showcase Pixar's ever-advancing computer-animation capabilities. Next weekend, retail shelves will start filling with everything from "Cars" racetracks to lunchboxes, cereal and wheelie shoes.
The merchandise features Disney's first electronics line for a Pixar theatrical release, including television sets and boom boxes. The star, however, will be a $34.99, bright-red programmable car based on the movie's lead character, Lightning McQueen, which does tricks and talks (in the voice of actor Owen Wilson) through a moving vinyl mouth on its front bumper.
The buildup for "Cars" provides important clues about how Disney plans to exploit Pixar in the future. As a result of Disney's recent deal to buy Pixar for $7.4 billion, Mr. Lasseter has an expanded role overseeing the animation operations and helping design Disney theme-park rides. He will continue to direct movies and play a key role in promoting them, too.
Mr. Lasseter has long played a central role in bringing his animated stars to life through toys. When his first feature-directing effort, "Toy Story" came out more than a decade ago, he spotted a kid at an airport grasping a cowboy doll of the character Woody. "It hit me that this character wasn't mine anymore. It belonged to that kid," Mr. Lasseter says. "In every movie now, I think of that little boy and what that character meant to him."
For "Cars," Mr. Lasseter pushed carts full of toys into early meetings with Disney's consumer-products team to help brainstorm on product lines. The 49-year-old animator is a big fan of Mattel Inc.'s Hot Wheels die-cast vehicles, and he brought along some from his own collection. "I wanted the merchandising to be clever and above all, high quality," Mr. Lasseter says.
In the fickle world of merchandising, it isn't enough these days to pair a couple of action figures with a movie. The "Harry Potter" movies marked a shift to more imaginative products, such as "earwax" and "dirt" jelly beans and a "magical" trading-card game.
Indeed, toy campaigns based on movies have been in decline in recent years, forcing studios and toy makers to find ways to make their offerings more interactive. "Spider-Man" -- one of the most successful of the modern-day movie-merchandising franchises -- spawned a big hit with the Mega Blast Webshooter, a glove that shoots webs. "Kids themselves want to be part of the story now," says toy consultant Chris Byrne.
With that in mind, Mr. Lasseter spent many hours briefing licensees on the "Cars" characters at a presentation two years ago at Pixar's Emeryville, Calif., studio. He recounted how he formulated the idea for the movie while on a cross-country driving trip with his wife and sons.
Building on Pixar's track record -- all six of its films have been hits -- Disney decided to reach out beyond its usual starting point of toys, videogames and books to include electronics, home furnishings and even auto accessories in the first merchandising run. "Buyers are pretty conservative about the commitments they're willing to make on a new theatrical release," says Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney's consumer products division. "The one exception to the rule is Pixar because of its phenomenal track record."
It wasn't always that way. Major toy manufacturers passed on Pixar's first movie, "Toy Story." Even after Pixar was an established studio years later, toy makers were cautious about "Finding Nemo." They didn't think fish would sell.
As it turned out, "Toy Story" was a big hit both on screen and in stores, although Disney and retailers were famously caught off guard by its early success and faced frustrating product shortages. And "Nemo" struck gold with a videogame and a roaring trade in repeat summer business like swimwear. "That's the Holy Grail: something that starts out as a movie franchise and migrates to a staple product," Mr. Byrne says.
For "Cars," Disney is homing in on a primary target market of boys ages 3 to 8 (or ages 7 to 11 for electronic and interactive games). "In terms of a franchise that is so directly applicable to boys, I don't think we've ever had one with this much potential," Mr. Mooney says. The bulk of the campaign is built around the character boys are most likely to identify with, Lightning McQueen. However, Mr. Lasseter was convinced Mater, a goofy small-town tow truck, also would be a breakout hit. (Among the Mater products is a talking plush toy made by Disney partner Mattel.)
To win over the big retailers, Disney is making some exclusive toys and apparel for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. "Cars" is among the big movies Wal-Mart is promoting this summer; another is "Superman Returns," which is likely to pose Disney's toughest competition for the attention of boys. However, Disney also is weighing in this summer with a major merchandise campaign for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," which also has boys in its sights.
Still, Disney isn't leaving anything to chance: "Cars" also will be aggressively marketed, including a premiere on four giant outdoor screens before 30,000 guests at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., home to various Nascar events. It is the type of costly Hollywood spectacle that Disney used to mount regularly for animated movies but has pulled back on in recent years. After the initial theatrical release, Disney's merchandise team will come back with another wave of products for the pre-Christmas DVD release.
For future movies, Mr. Lasseter has even bigger ambitions. With Pixar a part of Disney, he says he wants to tap other parts of the empire with plans, for instance, to build theme-park rides to come out at the same time as his movies. Mr. Lasseter also is plotting to build Pixar franchises with sequels to past movies. Mr. Lasseter won't say which movie will be first, but the "Toy Story" franchise is likely to be a strong contender.
Write to Merissa Marr at merissa.marr@wsj.com