What better way for a company to say danke schön to its rising-star creatives than hiring Wayne Newton and a bevy of feather-plumed showgirls to help express its feelings? Any lingering doubts Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh might have had about Disney’s faith in their animated show, Phineas and Ferb, dissolved when Mr. Las Vegas himself started belting out the theme song for the program’s Perry the Platypus character at last June’s 2010 Licensing International Expo in Vegas. As Newton gave his own spin to lyrics like “He’s a furry little flatfoot who’ll never flinch from a fray” and dancers and actors, dressed like the show’s characters, circled Newton on stage, Povenmire thought, This has to be the most surreal moment of my life.
The only scenario more unlikely may be the one in which this decidedly quirky cartoon — kiddie MythBusters meets sitcom-sibling hijinks meets classic spy spoof — becomes such a hit for Disney that the company is now trying to turn it into a SpongeBob SquarePants — like cash machine. Second-season ratings so far have made Phineas and Ferb the top cable animated series among 6- to 14-year-olds, attracting 3.5 million viewers overall.
In addition to being Disney Channel’s first animated hit, it has helped the company connect with boys, an important demographic that had largely eluded Disney, and the show now anchors the spin-off Disney XD network’s tween-boy lineup. It has also shown Disney new ways to create original, humorous animation — a highly lucrative arena where your stars never grow up enough to produce a lap-dance video.
But for all of the creative ferment Phineas and Ferb has inspired within Disney, “if there’s an upside to a show, it’s because we’re able to exploit it off TV,” says Gary Marsh (no relation to Swampy), president of entertainment and chief creative officer of Disney Channels Worldwide. That means licensed products. Disney Consumer Products, a $2.4 billion division, typically pushes established brand families such as Disney Princesses or Pixar’s Toy Story franchise. But it is heavily promoting this offbeat show, because the merchandising potential seems huge. “This is completely out of the box,” says Steven Ekstract, publisher of License! Global.
