Disney Puts a Cork in Ratatouille Wine Promo

Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille, which has made $165 million at the box office so far, has faced a number of marketing challenges, one of them being its merchandise. While other Pixar movies made truckloads of cash off spinoff products (Cars, for example, generated retail sales of $2 billion in its first year), no one expected Ratatouille, about a cooking rat, to do that kind of business. Still, Ratatouille lined up the usual plush toys, action figures, books, video games, etc. and even cooking ware. But the product announcement that raised the most eyebrows was Rataouille branded French chardonnay wine ($12.99 per bottle), to be sold at Costco, marking the first time Disney was promoting an alcoholic beverage. Well, it seems that Disney has U-turned on that idea and has abandoned the booze business. From the LA Times:

C'est la vie, Remy. The Mouse has decided that Costco's wine aisle is no place for a cartoon rat.

Walt Disney Co. said Friday that it had abandoned the wine business -- even before its first bottles of Ratatouille Chardonnay were scheduled to hit the big-box store's shelves in August.

Bottles of the French 2004 vintage white Burgundy were to carry labels featuring Remy, the haute-cuisine-loving rodent who stars in "Ratatouille," the latest movie from Disney's Pixar Animation Studios.

Disney said it and Costco Wholesale Corp. canceled the promotion after getting flak from California winemakers and opponents of underage drinking.

"We've decided to just not go through with it," Disney spokesman Gary Foster said. "We've been getting a trickle of inquiries and complaints."

[Photo credit: Everett Collection]