Happy Thanksgiving from The Disney Blog

It’s Thanksgiving and at the Frost household it’s time for some turkey and all the fixin’s. In the spirit of the flavorful bird, I’m kicking off what might turn out to be an annual tradition here at The Disney Blog, the awarding of the Biggest Turkey Award for the last year of Disney related news. To be balanced, we’ll highlight a couple of successful projects too.

This years runner-up Turkey Awards go to:

• Twitter and Disney for taking the @Disney username away from its owner. Yes, Disney probably had the rights to its name on Twitter, but it’s not so much that they did it, but the way it was done. They gave no notice or accommodation and now, six months later, the handle still sits unused.
• When Disney decided to sell off the name and assets for its art house label Miramax, they opened it to competitive bidding. The two brothers who created the brand, naming it after their parents, were in the running, but Disney decided to go with another group. The money was just about equal and the gesture would have gone a long way, but oh well.
• Sorcerer’s Apprentice – The flop cost $150 million to produce and only made $63 million domestically. It might have made it up internationally, and in coming DVD sales, but don’t expect a trilogy.

Biggest Turkey Award:

And the absolute biggest Turkey for the last 12 months has to be the Fantasyland Expansion at the Magic Kingdom. Yes, technically this was announced earlier in 2009, but when Thomas Staggs switched roles with Jay Rasulo and took over the Disney parks division, it became obvious to him what a Turkey it really was. Luckily there are widely held rumors that Staggs has asked for the original recipe comprised almost entirely of Princesses and Fairies to be thrown out and a more widely palatable mix of attractions to be built. We do know that construction of phase two has been delayed somewhat.

Now on to the good stuff. The Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream Topping award goes to:

Pixar Studios for the ultra successful Toy Story 3 film and Tim Burton and crew for the similarly successful Alice in Wonderland. The two films combined to earn The Walt Disney Company well over $2 billion at the box office and uncounted hordes of money from merchandising and increased synergy in other divisions. This made Disney the first studio ever to have two billion dollar films in the same year. This year a new regime is in charge of the studios; they’ve got a lot to live up to.

Add your own Turkey and Pumpkin Pie candidates in the comments below.