Roto Rooter the sewage man, has sludged up some news on the product tie-in between MULAN and McDonalds, plus a tidbit on A BUG'S LIFE that can be seen in that big concrete tree in Florida. So take a gander and hold your nose...
I was at a luncheon this week with executives from Disney and McDonald's when I got a look at the Happy Meal tie-ins for Mulan. McDonald's execs were touting these as the new state-of-the art for hamburger-sack doo dads, and they are very excited about them.
The toys are a *lot* more sophisticated than any I've seen before. They are larger, more detailed and have better range of motion than other promotional toys.
One McDonald's exec said these would be the new "gold standard" for tie-in toys, and they were made possible by a 10-year exclusive agreement McD's made with the Mouse. The Mulan toys will be the first distributed at all 25,000 McDonald's in the world, and the economy of scale makes it possible to make them more elaborate.
McD's was so interested in producing toys that will bury the competition that they passed on the chance to get the Star Wars tie-ins when they signed with Disney.
The figure of Fa Mulan can change out of her battle armour and into a dress. She can straddle the saddle of her horse, and the horse itself will gallop across your dining room table. Very, very cool.
A BUG'S LIFE
Also, I agree with an earlier post about the new 3-D "It's Tough to Be a Bug" film at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The 10-15 show will make you convulse with laughter. It doesn't, though, give you any feel for how good the "A Bug's Life" film will be. The Disney World show is mostly special SF/X and you don't really get to know the characters.
But the SF/X are great. Don't even get in that line for Terminator 3-D at Universal. It's old hat now.
Examples. When a stink bug passes gas, you see a green cloud of vapor rolling out from the screen. The moment it hits your nose, you get a stiff whiff of foul-smelling sulfur. When bugs scamper all throughout the theater you can feel them on your body. Good stuff.
