The good news is that Disney’s next highly-marketed mega-franchise, akin to High School Musical or Hannah Montana, will be fantasy-themed.
The bad news is that it’s not based on The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Tales of Earthsea, The Prydain Chronicles, or any other classic childrens’ book series.
It’s Wizards of Waverly Place, a sitcom set in New York City about three children who are wizards-in-training. It stars Selena Gomez, a 16 year-old actress that Disney has long been grooming for Miley Cyrus-like tween superstardom.
The show is already in its second season and currently the second highest rated scripted show for viewers aged 9 to 14 (on cable or broadcast television).
The network has announced the renewal of the show for a third season, and a television movie, Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, will air in August, as a “Disney Original Movie” — the same marketing rubric that launched High School Musical.
The show has already inspired some tie-in merchandise, but Disney will release a much larger line of dolls and other Wizards-themed toys this fall.
Many of the show’s main characters are Latino, and the show has been lauded for their non-stereotypical portrayal.
But if Harry Potter is “hard” fantasy, Wizards of Waverly Place is very soft fantasy, much like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, a sitcom that ran from 1996 to 2003 on ABC and the WB network.
Still, Wizards, which includes much talk of magic, has received little of the vociferous criticism from far-right religious groups that Harry Potter has received — an indication that fantasy-based stories might have become more palatable for the young in recent years, even in conservative households.
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