Disney's tie-in extravaganza with 'Tron: Legacy'

By Sarah Sluis

Guests at Disneyland and Disney World will now be treated not only to attractions featuring their favorite cartoon and movie characters, but also to creations based on a film yet to be released--Tron: Legacy.

Variety reports that Disney has revamped its theme parks to advertise the upcoming sci-fi tentpole. The monorails have been wrapped with artwork to make "tronorails" resembling Tron lightcycles. A neon-themed Glow Fest has been repurposed and transformed into an elecTRONica attraction/promotion. While the advertising's reach is limited by the number of people that will go to the park, the message that reaches guests will probably have more impact, since it will be promoted along with the "best of the best" stories and characters that make it into the theme park.

Disney also plans to copy Fox's twenty-minute preview idea that helped promote Avatar. Like the James Cameron film, Tron: Legacy is (pretty much) brand new, with only a core of followers that remember the 28-year-old film. Though the graphics of the first film are impressive when viewed within the context of the time (about ten years after Pong but still before the original Mario Bros.), seeing the blocky graphics of the original can be a bit distracting. Tron: Legacy has cutting-edge special effects that will benefit from word-of-mouth, especially in 3D.

The multi-channel marketing is an interesting addition to Disney's plan to create high-profile, high-quality projects that can be re-used across all their channels, from spin-off television shows to theme park rides to straight-to-DVD movies. Disney is now showing that they want to use the combined strength of their business not only to give a movie multiple lives after its release, but to build up a movie before its release.

Disney has been "off-brand" in the past. Growing up, when I saw the Disney castle logo play before a film, singing along as the star made an arc across the castle, my response was pure Pavlovian, generating anticipation and emotion before I saw a frame of the film. No other opening credits generated that kind of involvement on my part. They say that ninety-something percent of kids recognize Mickey Mouse. Disney is trying to make more Mickey Mouses, and if they can, especially with Tron, they'll be the studio to bet on.