Walt Disney has decided to release their new animated feature THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE in 16 Los Angeles theaters dubbed in Spanish. The experiment is part of Disney's plan to attract Latino buying power, which is estimated to reach US$452 billion nationwide next year. For years Disney has released Spanish dubbed or subtitled prints of their films to theaters that have requested them. However, most of those films were on their third run after they had been released in Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries. This is the first time that Disney is releasing a film in English and Spanish in the States at the same time. Whether the experiment will cash in is yet to be seen. Some skeptics say that the Spanish-dubbed version of the movie won't increase sales by much because the big movie-going Latino demographic is 12-24 years old and that group is increasingly assimilated and bilingual.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
