News Mickey and Minnie are not popular anymore

[brb1006]

I love you Mickey and Minnie, but Oswald seriously desereves to get back in the limelight again! At least we have the upcoming Disney+ series.

 

[Disneyson]

To add something to this, nearly EVERY store in China is currently celebrating the “Year of the Mouse”, with H&M and Miniso all the way up to ultra-boutique stores advertising boatloads of Mickey Merch. I don’t think I’ve seen as much Mickey stuff as I’ve seen in Asia. Minnie, Donald, and Daisy fall in place after Mickey, but Goofy seems to be a harder sell, probably because he isn’t traditionally “cute”, as they can manipulate Donald to be.

 

[Jon81uk]

Wasn't there a huge amount of Mickey Mouse merch in 2018 to celebrate his 90th birthday? The year after a big push like that is always going to have a drop in sales as stores don't have a message to push out the merchandise anymore. Whereas 2019 had Frozen2 giving a reason to push that merch instead.

 

[Kman101]

It's because they spent years and years only marketing the Fab 5 to infants and toddlers. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was the only show Disney was producing involving the Fab 5 for YEARS. By the time a kid was 4 he/she thought Mickey was for babies because of this. They are only now starting to hold on to the kids as they age up. Hopefully they stick with it and make Mickey have longer lasting appeal.

YES! Very much agreed with this!

 

[Piebald]

I think Donald and Scrooge are more popular than Mickey in Europe, but this article is dumb. Kids love Mickey Mouse.

 

[The Visionary Soul]

The article, as click-baity as it is, is not incorrect. Years ago Disney realized there was going to be a slump in Mickey and Minnie related merchandise because the only active Mickey-related show was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That show doesn’t appeal to an adult demographic at all. It’s actually pretty bad as far as kids shows go. (The hot dog song excepted) To give credit where it is due, Disney Consumer Products actually realized the problem before it happened. The writing was on the wall that unless they could appeal to an older and wider demographic quickly, there would be a huge issue with selling Mickey Merch in the future. The solution?

Consumer Products put the order in for an adult-targeted Mickey Mouse Cartoon Series. This series would target a demographic older than Clubhouse, or even House of Mouse’s MouseWorks Shorts. But Who would get to work on it? Would you believe some of the creators of Ren and Stimpy, along with the Brothers Chaps, best known for the internet cartoon series / website Homestar Runner and Strong Bad. Together, along with their own diverse teams of talent, came up with the concept for an international zany take on Mickey... but a problem was found later... the “official” voice of Mickey Mouse couldn’t emote well enough for a show like that. Bret Iwan just didn’t have the acting chops. The guy is a Wayne Allwine sound-alike, (the former voice of Mickey) and a mediocre one at best. He couldn’t give enough energy to Mickey for that series, and it seems like everyone knew it. They had to select someone else. Enter Silicon Valley’s token jerk, Russ Hanneman. Russ’s character on Silicon Valley is off the walls crazy... but Chris Diamantopoulos was perfect to play a zany version of Mickey. So he became the voice of Mickey for the series of shorts. He might not sound like Wayne’s Mickey, but he sure gave life to the new shorts in a way that Bret just couldn’t do at the time.

These shorts have breathed new life into the characters. And like the new character designs or not, they actually are pretty popular. The stories are crazy, they are filled with references to classic Disney films and theme park attractions, and most importantly to the company, they sell merchandise. As much as there is a slight slump in sales with fab-5 character merch right now, the situation would have been more dismal had they not done the new series. It’s only natural that they open the new ride based on the new shorts in the parks as part of this push as well. I believe this slump in the merchandise sales will turn over quickly because Consumer Products caught it in time. And when you combine it with Ducktales, it makes everything even more successful.

 

[Tanna Eros]

Kids absolutely love the new style/show. And there’s plenty of the older style on Disney+ to keep boomers content.

Honestly, I love the new style.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

A decline of sales does not equate to a loss of popularity.

If M&M sales went from $110,000,000 to $105,000,000, then that would be a "decrease in sales," but not one worth an article about that M&M are in a downward unpopularity spiral that the clickbait article is implying.

Sales for an IP just can't keep climbing year after year for ever. There will be some peaks and valleys. Perhaps interest in M&M is as strong as ever, but the interest in the other IPs that Disney has been cultivating is currently stronger?

The clickbait article surmises a scenario that is possible but not likely. The clickbait is trying to make us think that it's probable when there is zero proof that this quarter to quarter drop is a sign of significant drop in popularity of M&M.

Also... Yahoo Finance News.

Yahoo indeed.

Indeed.

You can't complain about Disney chasing the need for constant growth in profits which results in price rises, add-ons, etc. then buy into the notion that there's an issue when one line of merchandise sells less than it did in a previous quarter.

If there was a trend, then maybe there would be something to talk about. As it is, as far as I can tell they're managing the Mickey and Minnie brand well with different projects that target different audiences and a major ride soon to open at WDW, DL, and (apparently) DLP.

 

[TsWade2]

I'm sorry and forgive me that my talking is old fashioned, but that article is fiddlesticks and nonsense. Disney does care about Mickey and Minnie. Whoever wrote this article is an idiot.

 

[brb1006]

The article, as click-baity as it is, is not incorrect. Years ago Disney realized there was going to be a slump in Mickey and Minnie related merchandise because the only active Mickey-related show was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That show doesn’t appeal to an adult demographic at all. It’s actually pretty bad as far as kids shows go. (The hot dog song excepted) To give credit where it is due, Disney Consumer Products actually realized the problem before it happened. The writing was on the wall that unless they could appeal to an older and wider demographic quickly, there would be a huge issue with selling Mickey Merch in the future. The solution?

Consumer Products put the order in for an adult-targeted Mickey Mouse Cartoon Series. This series would target a demographic older than Clubhouse, or even House of Mouse’s MouseWorks Shorts. But Who would get to work on it? Would you believe some of the creators of Ren and Stimpy, along with the Brothers Chaps, best known for the internet cartoon series / website Homestar Runner and Strong Bad. Together, along with their own diverse teams of talent, came up with the concept for an international zany take on Mickey... but a problem was found later... the “official” voice of Mickey Mouse couldn’t emote well enough for a show like that. Bret Iwan just didn’t have the acting chops. The guy is a Wayne Allwine sound-alike, (the former voice of Mickey) and a mediocre one at best. He couldn’t give enough energy to Mickey for that series, and it seems like everyone knew it. They had to select someone else. Enter Silicon Valley’s token jerk, Russ Hanneman. Russ’s character on Silicon Valley is off the walls crazy... but Chris Diamantopoulos was perfect to play a zany version of Mickey. So he became the voice of Mickey for the series of shorts. He might not sound like Wayne’s Mickey, but he sure gave life to the new shorts in a way that Bret just couldn’t do at the time.

These shorts have breathed new life into the characters. And like the new character designs or not, they actually are pretty popular. The stories are crazy, they are filled with references to classic Disney films and theme park attractions, and most importantly to the company, they sell merchandise. As much as there is a slight slump in sales with fab-5 character merch right now, the situation would have been more dismal had they not done the new series. It’s only natural that they open the new ride based on the new shorts in the parks as part of this push as well. I believe this slump in the merchandise sales will turn over quickly because Consumer Products caught it in time. And when you combine it with Ducktales, it makes everything even more successful.

I honestly wish Disney would someday do an animated Mickey Mouse series that was based on the Floyd Gottfredson "Mickey Mouse Comic Universe" (Bill Walsh, Bill Wright, Romano Scarpa, Casty, Carl Fallberg, and Paul were also involved). The Mickey Comic Universe had Mickey and friends involved in more interesting situations than Mickey's animated counterpart.

For example, the comic "The Ice Princess" has Mickey accidentally goes to a land where both buildings and residents are made of ice. An individual named Mrozek has a problem - he must make the princess fall in love with him, otherwise all the bachelors in the town will melt. Mickey decides to help him. Hilary ensues and here's the first page (it's in Spanish thought).

Then there's "Wizard of Mickey" set in a medieval period (Exclusive in Italy, only one has been published in English) which currently has five parts. While it's not available in America, it's the most interesting that thing we've seen that involved Mickey and Friends.

There's so much potential they could do with Mickey outside of being aimed at Toddlers. But the closest Disney could get with Mickey being more adventurous and invovled with more action was in Runaway Brain (or The Three Musketeers). It was the only time we get to hear Wayne Allwine giving his all with Mickey Mouse (especially during the final act).

 

[MisterPenguin]

The article, as click-baity as it is, is not incorrect. Years ago Disney realized there was going to be a slump in Mickey and Minnie related merchandise because the only active Mickey-related show was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That show doesn’t appeal to an adult demographic at all. It’s actually pretty bad as far as kids shows go. (The hot dog song excepted) To give credit where it is due, Disney Consumer Products actually realized the problem before it happened. The writing was on the wall that unless they could appeal to an older and wider demographic quickly, there would be a huge issue with selling Mickey Merch in the future. The solution?

Consumer Products put the order in for an adult-targeted Mickey Mouse Cartoon Series. This series would target a demographic older than Clubhouse, or even House of Mouse’s MouseWorks Shorts. But Who would get to work on it? Would you believe some of the creators of Ren and Stimpy, along with the Brothers Chaps, best known for the internet cartoon series / website Homestar Runner and Strong Bad. Together, along with their own diverse teams of talent, came up with the concept for an international zany take on Mickey... but a problem was found later... the “official” voice of Mickey Mouse couldn’t emote well enough for a show like that. Bret Iwan just didn’t have the acting chops. The guy is a Wayne Allwine sound-alike, (the former voice of Mickey) and a mediocre one at best. He couldn’t give enough energy to Mickey for that series, and it seems like everyone knew it. They had to select someone else. Enter Silicon Valley’s token jerk, Russ Hanneman. Russ’s character on Silicon Valley is off the walls crazy... but Chris Diamantopoulos was perfect to play a zany version of Mickey. So he became the voice of Mickey for the series of shorts. He might not sound like Wayne’s Mickey, but he sure gave life to the new shorts in a way that Bret just couldn’t do at the time.

These shorts have breathed new life into the characters. And like the new character designs or not, they actually are pretty popular. The stories are crazy, they are filled with references to classic Disney films and theme park attractions, and most importantly to the company, they sell merchandise. As much as there is a slight slump in sales with fab-5 character merch right now, the situation would have been more dismal had they not done the new series. It’s only natural that they open the new ride based on the new shorts in the parks as part of this push as well. I believe this slump in the merchandise sales will turn over quickly because Consumer Products caught it in time. And when you combine it with Ducktales, it makes everything even more successful.

Not to mention the upcoming fight to extend copyright on Mickey. Disney, if they are to win a hearing with Congress, needs to show that they're actively developing new content for the character, like a new animated series and big E-Ticket ride.

 

[Touchdown]

Not to mention the upcoming fight to extend copyright on Mickey. Disney, if they are to win a hearing with Congress, needs to show that they're actively developing new content for the character, like a new animated series and big E-Ticket ride.

I think Mickey and the fab 5 have a high likelihood of remaining trademarked; they have a compelling argument that the public associates those characters with the company. I do not think Disney will be as lucky with the feature animated classics.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Guys, everyone calling this clickbait and wrong....

The quote the article is based on came directly from Disney's quarterly report. The author of the Yahoo article didn't make this up. It's an actual fact from Disney's reporting.

'Clickbait, troll...' I think the very purpose of a financial / corporate analysis escapes the peanut gallery. even one just as pedestrian as 'is there a decline in Mickey merch sales, a decline in his popularity, and does this pose a problem for the Mouse?' (TWDC, not the character)

I would link to the WSJ that shows in 2019 Mickey moves only half the merch that he did fifteen years ago, but I'm afraid of being labelled a clickbait, a troll and an idiot - because they saw lotsa Mickey ears in the parks last week!

 

[xdan0920]

'Clickbait, troll...' I think the very purpose of a financial / corporate analysis escapes the peanut gallery. even one just as pedestrian as 'is there a decline in Mickey merch sales, a decline in his popularity, and does this pose a problem for the Mouse?' (TWDC, not the character)

I would link to the WSJ that shows in 2019 Mickey moves only half the merch that he did fifteen years ago, but I'm afraid of being labelled a clickbait, a troll and an idiot - because they saw lotsa Mickey ears in the parks last week!

The reactions to that article are genuinely bizarre, even for this group. It’s as if the author postulated that their mothers were hamsters and their fathers smelled of elderberries.

the reality is, the author asked a question based off TWDCs own reporting.

 

[Kamikaze]

It is a click-bait article because of the headline alone (which is what clickbait is)

Lower sales of their merch vs very popular other IP merch does not equate to a "problem"

I guess all those ears headbands came from Elsa's mouse ears?

In the world they're talking about (stocks and company value) anything down is a 'problem'. Even flat is a problem. Its ridiculous, and its why Disney (and almost every public company) operates the way they do - every single quarter must beat the previous years quarter, or they get labeled as failing.

I'm not saying anything about this particular case, because I didn't read the article or look into sales levels, but this is how it is by-and-large.

 

[wdwtopten]

I don’t think they would’ve green-lit Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railroad if this was the case?

One might see that as a way to bring Mickey and Minnie back to the spotlight.

Kids love Mickey Mouse.

Many are pointing out that then problem is that only kids seem to be attached to Mickey and Minnie, whereas (historically speaking) they are meant to be for all ages.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

the reality is, the author asked a question based off TWDCs own reporting.

And a question that is likely being asked/discussed within the company.

 

[RSoxNo1]

The article, as click-baity as it is, is not incorrect. Years ago Disney realized there was going to be a slump in Mickey and Minnie related merchandise because the only active Mickey-related show was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That show doesn’t appeal to an adult demographic at all. It’s actually pretty bad as far as kids shows go. (The hot dog song excepted) To give credit where it is due, Disney Consumer Products actually realized the problem before it happened. The writing was on the wall that unless they could appeal to an older and wider demographic quickly, there would be a huge issue with selling Mickey Merch in the future. The solution?

Consumer Products put the order in for an adult-targeted Mickey Mouse Cartoon Series. This series would target a demographic older than Clubhouse, or even House of Mouse’s MouseWorks Shorts. But Who would get to work on it? Would you believe some of the creators of Ren and Stimpy, along with the Brothers Chaps, best known for the internet cartoon series / website Homestar Runner and Strong Bad. Together, along with their own diverse teams of talent, came up with the concept for an international zany take on Mickey... but a problem was found later... the “official” voice of Mickey Mouse couldn’t emote well enough for a show like that. Bret Iwan just didn’t have the acting chops. The guy is a Wayne Allwine sound-alike, (the former voice of Mickey) and a mediocre one at best. He couldn’t give enough energy to Mickey for that series, and it seems like everyone knew it. They had to select someone else. Enter Silicon Valley’s token jerk, Russ Hanneman. Russ’s character on Silicon Valley is off the walls crazy... but Chris Diamantopoulos was perfect to play a zany version of Mickey. So he became the voice of Mickey for the series of shorts. He might not sound like Wayne’s Mickey, but he sure gave life to the new shorts in a way that Bret just couldn’t do at the time.

These shorts have breathed new life into the characters. And like the new character designs or not, they actually are pretty popular. The stories are crazy, they are filled with references to classic Disney films and theme park attractions, and most importantly to the company, they sell merchandise. As much as there is a slight slump in sales with fab-5 character merch right now, the situation would have been more dismal had they not done the new series. It’s only natural that they open the new ride based on the new shorts in the parks as part of this push as well. I believe this slump in the merchandise sales will turn over quickly because Consumer Products caught it in time. And when you combine it with Ducktales, it makes everything even more successful.

I knew about the Ren and Stimpy team but didn't know about the Homestar Runner team, that's pretty cool.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I would link to the WSJ that shows in 2019 Mickey moves only half the merch that he did fifteen years ago, but I'm afraid of being labelled a clickbait, a troll and an idiot - because they saw lotsa Mickey ears in the parks last week!

Avatar 2 will make $1 billion for every hour of wait time Flight of Passage has on opening day!

 

[The Visionary Soul]

I knew about the Ren and Stimpy team but didn't know about the Homestar Runner team, that's pretty cool.

Yeah, it was. Sadly, I’m not certain they are still on the series.