Disney Imports W.I.T.C.H

[Sarangel]

Found this by way of Google's news search:

When it comes to exporting popular American kid culture
to other parts of the planet, the Walt Disney Co. is the hands-down champ.

Now Disney is turning the tables and importing a fad.

You heard right. Batten down the hatches and lock up your young ones. It's a book! It's a TV show! And it just might be a multimedia, money-minting onslaught coming straight from Italy.

It's "W.I.T.C.H."

Which, according to Disney's marketing machine, is a group of five girls, in their early teens, "with special powers to keep the world safe from evil." But there is nothing to keep America safe from "W.I.T.C.H."

The company is introducing the first couple of volumes this month in a series of paperback books selling for $4.99 apiece. A TV show based on the characters is slated for Disney cable next year.

Deborah Dugan, president of Disney Publishing Worldwide, says, "We are building a major franchise."

Disney, which bills itself as the world's largest publisher of children's books and magazines, is hoping to slip the world another Mickey.

"W.I.T.C.H." comic magazines are already published monthly in 64 countries and in 27 languages. More than 1 million copies are sold each month.

In France and Germany, kids buy more than 100,000 copies each month. In Italy, more than 200,000 copies are sold monthly.

Though the stories are mostly published as comic books, the Disney brain trust believes that American girls will prefer chapter-book storytelling, at least in the beginning.

The letters of the title stand for the first names of the main characters - Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin. Each heroine has control over a natural force or element: energy, water, fire, earth and air.

For the complete Article, Click Here

 

[YoHo]

Originally posted by Sarangel
Found this by way of Google's news search:
For the complete Article, Click Here

That sounds like a cross between the Babysitters Club and Harry Potter. That could actually work.

 

[Prince Eric1]

If its any good my kids would probably love it. They watch all those girl cartoons, Powerpuff, Totally spies, Lizzie, Kim Possible, etc.

 

[stal]

Sounds like Captain Planet! I am not sure if it is American and shown in the US but in the UK there used to be a cartoon called Captain Planet. But it was about saving the planet. There were a few kids and each had powers 'Earth, Wind, Water, Fire and Heart.

 

[Prince Eric1]

I remember that, it was on Superstation TBS here, a Ted Turner station. I don't think it went over big though.

 

[HauntedMansionFan]

*starts singing* "Captain Planet... he's our hero, gonna take pollution down to zero, he's our power magnified and he is fighting on the planet's side."

"We're the Planeteers, you can be one to, 'cause saving our planet is the thing to do. Looting and polluting is not the way, hear what Captain Planet has to say: The power is yours"

I can't believe I remember that.

 

[YoHo]

Captain Planet was all about Eco-problems though, this sounds more straight forward.