The West Side of the Kingdom
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"Lincoln and Buy-Outs and Bears - Oh My!"
Is it me, or is anyone else sick and tired of Pooh everywhere you look? I’m talking about the one and only tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff; Winnie the Pooh.
The yellow bear is everywhere. Yeah, he and his cohorts from the 100-Acre Wood are cute and all, but when is enough really enough?
Case in point: I just received the latest Disney Store catalog in the mail. Usually, it goes directly into the "round file" beside my desk because the product the Disney company fills The Disney Store with these days is usually nothing short of lame. However, since the cover depicts the roll-out of the "100 Years of Magic" merchandise celebrating the birthday of Walt Disney, I was curious to see if the company had stepped up to bat for this occasion.
I could have sworn the publication was the Disney Store catalog, which showcases a wide variety of Disney personalities; however, page after page was crammed full of Pooh merchandise in every way you can imagine. I thought to myself that it’s obvious that Disney is bent on over-saturating the market with the characters from the 100-Acre Wood; Pooh in particular. It’s the way they do things these days not just at Disney, but everywhere in the entertainment industry.
Being the mad scientist I am, I decided to conduct an easy experiment. I would simply count how many pages Winnie The Pooh appears on in this current catalog and compare it to some other characters under the Disney label. This is what I found:
Out of 100 pages (not counting the cover or the paper insert in the middle of the catalog), Winnie The Pooh himself appears 48 times; keep in mind that is pages, not specific pieces of merchandise - that number would be much higher.
What about some of the other characters?
Mickey Mouse was depicted on 35 pages of the catalog. Tinker Bell appeared on 11 pages of the publication. And what about Walt Disney, the one this big 100 Years of Magic marketing bash is being thrown for? Walt Disney’s likeness appeared on a sad four pages of the Disney Store catalog; two pages were silhouettes of the "Partners" statue. Looks like in Disney’s eyes, Walt himself is the weakest link; goodbye!
I may be no marketing expert, but I am a consumer. I don’t like being hard-sold or force-fed anything, whether it’s Winnie The Pooh, Tomb Raider or Star Wars. Yet, Disney seems hell-bent on cramming every bit of their product full of Pooh. It’s all over the catalogs, it’s throughout the theme park stores and now the Pooh attractions are springing up around the world.
According to industry insiders, Disneyland is to be the next target as the company will rip out a classic attraction, the Country Bear Playhouse (known better as the Country Bear Jamboree) to make room for Winnie The Pooh and friends. Bear Band (its nickname, dubbed that way by Cast Members) has withstood the tests of time and while it’s no longer the original show, it still is a fun, charming and technically stunning experience. Now, I know there are going to be those readers that are thinking, "What do you mean it’s ‘technically stunning?’"
When you compare Bear Band to other attractions, it’s hard to find a show that is so dependant on Audio-Animatronics figures to make it work. Pirates of the Caribbean has lavish sets and huge show buildings. Indiana Jones has bouncing jeeps and massive show elements. Star Tours has complicated flight simulators. The Country Bear Jamboree has always been a showcase for fantastic, fluid AA figures and was brilliantly designed by Disney Legend Marc Davis many moons ago. When you compare the AA figures employed in all Disney attractions with Bear Band, few measure up. Marc’s bears were wonderfully crafted by WED, wonderfully designed and were so popular at Walt Disney World that a whole area was built around the attraction at Disneyland in the early ‘70s.
The difference between Country Bear Jamboree and a one-minute (I am guessing, based on the average time of dark rides these days) Winnie The Pooh ride is black and white. Personally, I could care less how popular Pooh happens to be at the moment; in 15 years, will the character be that hot anymore? Bear Band was changed twice; first for the Christmas show and then for the Vacation Hoedown. The show is one that could be updated all the time and continue to work well at Disneyland. You can’t really change Pooh too much.
It doesn’t really matter now; the virtual bulldozers are apparently poised and ready for the word and shortly, we’ll no longer have a Disneyland classic to enjoy anymore. It’s a sad time for Marc Davis and Bear Band fans everywhere.
Switching gears, I’d like to comment on what a sad and frustrating time it continues to be for Disney park enthusiasts in California. Ironically, I think that Disney’s newest nemesis is one they created themselves: Tokyo DisneySea.