Disney Is Genius

In late-2013, the animated branch of Disney released a little movie called Frozen. Said film has gone on to become the highest grossing animate movie of all-time with merchandising galore that can be found all over the place. Even the ABC series Once Upon a Time has introduced the Frozen characters into their storyline. Little girls sing the songs (I've heard them regularly on multiple buses since last winter) and even dress up as the princesses on for Halloween. There's no denying that Frozen is one of Disney's best animated movies in years and has impacted pop culture like none of their other movies have since 1991's Beauty and the Beast. A year-a-half after Frozen's release, there is no end in sight for this hysteria.

While watching Disney Jr. with my son Nicky, I recently saw a commercial that I found to be most brilliant. While Disney just recently announced plans for a sequel, they have also done an animated short film called Frozen Fever. The promo I recently watched treated this short as though it was a full-length feature film but also told us the only way to see it. You see, the only way to see Frozen Fever is by going to the theater to see the one movie that it's playing in front of; their live-action remake of Cinderella.

The moment I heard "to see Frozen Fever go see Cinderella only in theaters" I was blown away by the brilliance of this move! It's not customary for an animated short film to get a TV ad but Disney did it while telling us how to see it! If I had a daughter, I knew the first thing she would've said to me is "Let's go see Frozen Fever!" It wouldn't have mattered that we'd have to see Cinderella to do so; all she would be interested in is seeing Frozen Fever. I'm sure that's precisely what Disney intended and is likely what happened. I find this move to be brilliant as it capitalizes on the success of Frozen and makes it more likely that Cinderella will be quite profitable for the studio.

I fully expect that not only will there be further animated shorts spun from the Frozen world, but that they will also be promoted in similar fashion.