The Disneyization of everything began in earnest around 1989. That’s when Disney Stores rolled out nationwide, hawking Goofy neckties and plush Pluto dolls, and when the company launched Hollywood Records, a pop/rock label. “This is the ’90s,” said CEO Michael Eisner, “the decade we reinvent the Disney experience not just in California, but worldwide.”
Today, there are more than 300 Disney Stores, including a superstore on the Champs-Elysees. The merchandise – Mermaid dolls, Aladdin undies and collectibles like a sculpture of “Bambi’s” Field Mouse – account for a stunning 20 percent of Disney’s operating income. The soundtrack of “The Lion King” has shipped nearly 5 million copies, making it (unofficially) multiplatinum. Hyperion Books will release 95 titles this year; authors run the gamut from Pulitzer winner Edna Buchanan to Regis and Kathie Lee (whose TV show is a Disney syndication).
And Disney continues to colonize. There’s the Disney cruise line, now in the works, which will take vacationers from Florida to the Caribbean, and the Disney Vacation Club, a time-share resort in Orlando. The long-range plan is to have Disney Vacation spots worldwide; you could go from Toronto to Tibet with- out ever leaving the Wonderful World. Disney has even come to 42d Street, with plans to revive the New Amsterdam Theater, which could house more musicals like its first Broadway retread, “Beauty and the Beast.”
For the ultimate in corporate bonding, Disney will help you tie the knot. So many couples have combined wedding plans with a trip to Disney World that the company has installed a chapel on an island in the Seven Seas Lagoon. The decor is traditional; Eisner nixed a Disneyized motif. But wedding planners will realize “fantasy” receptions, for example by delivering bride and groom in a Cinderella glass carriage with six white ponies.
The limits to this empire remain to be seen. Disney does have its flops: Hollywood Records has reportedly suffered yearly losses of $20 million to $25 million. Who’s to say how much will be too much for a public that’s already gobbling up $8.5 billion in Disneyana every 12 months? For the moment, though, Disney seems to have proved a point: it’s a small world after all.
