Disney unveils its newest princess

ORLANDO, Fla. The Walt Disney Co.'s newest princess doesn't arrive in movie theaters for another month, but she is already easy to find at Walt Disney World.

Theme-park guests can meet Tiana, an African-American princess, and watch her perform in a musical riverboat show. They can buy Tiana dolls, undergo Tiana makeovers, and eat Tiana's Magical Kisses -- bite-sized, white-chocolate-covered graham crackers. They can even get vouchers for a child's ticket to Tiana's movie.

The in-park promotional blitz, extensive even by Disney standards, is part of a companywide push to pump up "The Princess and the Frog," the animated film that is one of Disney's most important movies in years.

Set for nationwide release Dec. 11, "The Princess and the Frog" is Disney's first attempt in more than a decade to add a new heroine to its stable of fairy-tale princess -- a wildly lucrative franchise that now generates an estimated $4 billion in sales across Disney's entertainment empire.

The Disney princesses are particularly important to the company's theme parks. They are, for example, the focal point of the sweeping expansion that Disney World plans to begin work on next year in the Fantasyland section of its Magic Kingdom park.

The possibility of expanding that franchise has Disney pulling every lever it can to ensure "The Princess and the Frog" is a hit.

Disney has a long history of using its theme parks -- which drew an estimated 118 million people worldwide last year -- to gin up interest in upcoming film releases. Characters from Pixar's 2009 release, "Up," began greeting guests at Disney's Hollywood Studios two weeks before the film was released.

But the marketing push for "The Princess and the Frog" is both larger and longer. The most obvious example is "Tiana's Showboat Jubilee," a lavish parade and revue now performed three times a day in the Magic Kingdom. The show began more than six weeks before the film's scheduled national release.

Elements from "The Princess and the Frog," which is set in New Orleans, have been added to the holiday overlay at Disney's Port Orleans Resort. Disney plans to have the characters appear during Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom.

Giveaways will launch in the parks through November and December featuring "The Princess and the Frog" items. Many of the same elements have also been added at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.

-- The Orlando Sentinel