I agree with this too.
Disney's in an odd position because I'm sure nobody within the company expected Burton's Alice to be this big. It would be wise for them to take it slow with any kind of park tie-in/merch push for either his or Walt's version. But it's worth trying IMO.
The biggest missed opportunity was not releasing Walt's Alice to Blu-ray in a combo pack deal. A DVD only re-issue with hardly any new supplements when a 2-Disc release already existed wasn't the best incentive to double (or triple) dip on the format. The "Un-Anniversary" Edition is about to cross the 900,000 copy mark though.
(This post got way long. Sorry for the rant.)
I was wondering how well that re-issue did. Not too shabby. We already own the previous 2-disc version. So we didn't pick up the latest re-issue. Although my daughter was convinced from the commericals that it was somehow different from what we had and she really wanted to buy the "new" Alice.
I'm sure no one saw Burton's Alice breaking out the way it did. I imagine expectations were that it would perform along the same lines as the Burton/Depp Wonka re-make. Like I said before, I think Alice benefitted tremendously from being in the right place at the right time. Namely, being the only 3-D release available when people had tired of watching Avatar.
If Maleficent gets made (which seems likely) I think Disney will be ready for it to succeed. Also, it won't be in direct competition with Sleeping Beauty the way Alice was with, well, Alice. You'll be able to do something with Maleficent at DHS without cannibalizing the original film.
Odds are, Maleficent probably won't be as successful as Alice (even if it turns out to be a superior film). There's no way to recreate that perfect timing again. But I suspect Disney will be more ready for whatever success it has.
Another factor is the the lifespan of live-action movies. Aside from films that have a tremendous cultural impact (Star Wars, Jaws, The Godfather) most live action films become culturally irrelevant pretty quickly. Even a lot of movies that were blockbusters in their time don't have a lot of staying power today. Look at ET. ET was the biggest movie in history through most of the 80's and well into the 90's. But now, it's a relic.
The three films I mentioned as having staying power were all from the 70s. It's hard for me to think of any live-action movie from the 80s or later that has a lot of staying power. I think that's because the way we experience movies started to change with home video.
It used to be that a hit movie would play for months. Some ran over a year. And then they would be re-released a few months later. There would be lines around the block. And people would see a movie over and over. A hit movie lasted in the public conscience for months if not years.
Little by little, movies became all about the opening weekend. In the 90s, they started opening every major release on multiple screens. Eventually, things got to a point where there was a major release on every screen every weekend. Movies became dispoable. These days, if you didn't catch a movie opening weekend, odds are you'll just wait for video.
(Thanks to anyone who stayed with me through all of that!)
Point being that basing any attraction on any live-action movie kind of puts an expiration date on it. Sure, something like Star Wars is likely to feel timeless as long as the franchise continues. And an attraction like the GMR plays on nostalgia. The live action Alice has the benefit of being based on a timeless story. But the film itself was kind of a fluke and will likely be forgotten in a few years.
Whereas animated films appeal primarily to kids. They grow up with them. And then they share their favorites with their own kids. So that keeps them perpetually relevant. That's less true today than it was in the days when these films were re-released for each generation. Also, animated features are no longer rare (and therefore less of an event). But the great ones still have more of a timeless quality than most live-action movies.
Hope I didn't drift too far off topic!
