Didn’t you used to have to be a long-time beloved character to get a balloon? Snoopy. Underdog. Bullwinkle. Kermit. I remember when Garfield was introduced it was a big deal.
What do I see bouncing down the streets of New York this morning? CHICKEN LITTLE! As in, the main character of the movie that just came out not a month ago! Disney lined some pockets, apparently.
Gads…
The sky is falling!
My father’s second wife said one of her lifelong goals was to go see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. However, we all lived in Southern California and this woman had ample opportunities to see the Rose Parade, which IMHO is a far superior event.
I still don’t get along with her because of this.
Let’s go back a bit. In 1990, Bart Simpson was added to the parade.
I was thinking the exact same thing as the OP this morning when I saw Chicken Little coming down the street. Ugh.
Chicken Little’s balloon was introduced in last year’s parade, long before the movie was even out. Therefore, we can see Disney’s power of promotion is big, big, big.
I don’t know. Of the four new balloons that appeared in the parade, two (JoJo the Clown, Dora the Explorer*) were based on children’s TV shows which premiered in the past five years. The other two, Scooby-Doo and Mr. Potato Head, are based on characters who debuted in 1969 and 1952, respectively. The oldest veteran character represented in the parade is Charlie Brown, who debuted in 1950.
*Dora is one of five Nickelodeon character balloons in Macy’s parade history, which seems to put a dent in your “long-time beloved character” theory. They are beloved characters, but not for a long time. The other four were the Rugrats, Jimmy Neutron, Blue the dog, and SpongeBob Squarepants (still in parade).
Ironically, the balloon that crashed was a balloon shaped like a hot-air balloon, with the Red M&M character in the basket and the Yellow M&M hanging on by a string, attempting to get the balloon in line. Looks like they didn’t make it.
Why do they even still call it a “parade”? It has turned into a really bad variety show with more product placement than supermarket shelves.
And did you catch the really bored expressions of those people sitting on the grandstands in the background. It was like they lost a bet and had to sit through it.
I thought there was always product placement, seeing as we have the balloons of all the copyrighted characters. And what’s the name of the parade again?
But how did it compare with this parade?
Who is the parade for? Kids or adults? Because my kid LOVED seeing Dora the Explorer in the parade. All the other kids at my Thanksgiving celebration got excited when she came by.
Sure you should keep some of the timeless ones (universal love for Scoobie Doo was obvious!), but why not cycle through a few for the lil’ ones?
Marzipan, help! I woke up in this pile of sw eatshirts and I’m supposed to watch over Bubs’ concession stand.
The look is new but the character itself dates back to at least 1943. The exact origin of Chicken Little is unknown.
The Chicken Little from the 2005 Walt Disney picture is not the same as the Chicken Little from the 1943 Walt Disney short. I haven’t seen the 1943 short, but I believe the main idea was how rumors could spread (which was particularly important during WWII- “loose lips sink ships” and all that). About 90 to 95% of Disney’s animated films have been based on classic fairy tales. Disney had a big promotion with Chicken Little, which started with the balloon which debuted in last year’s parade. As for using balloons for promotions, I recall Izzy the Whatzit in the parade in 1995- he was the mascot for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
That’s the idea, yes, but the character is still the same “the sky is falling” oaf she (?) has always been.
Who do you think pays for the balloons? Macy*s? Not with their bottom line. So when a comporation offers to add a balloon to the parade, they listen to them.
As for the variety show, the NBC version is always in front of Macy*s, where people perform; they’ve been doing that for decades. The CBS version of the parade was further up the parade route, and just had the parade passing by.
