Mattel goes to the movies; will toys now drive cinema?

Mattel is turning the movie business on its head; at least from a toy industry perspective. There is a very interesting piece on UGO.com entitled: “Mattel Toy Line Crafted for the Big Screen; New toys created specifically for film and TV.” According to the article, Mattel is creating a toy line with the specific intent of turning the property into a movie. 

What Mattel is doing is engaging in transmedia story telling. What is transmedia story telling? Here is how Wikipedia puts it: 

Transmedia Storyteller Jeff Gomez defines it as "the art of conveying messages themes or storylines to mass audiences through the artful and well planned use of multiple media platforms." [RG-In other words across movies, music, books, video games and toys] …
"Most of us flow naturally from one medium to the next. Unfortunately most of our content doesn’t. Instead the stories are repurposed and repeated. They do not extend the franchise nor do they build brand equity. With transmedia, each part of story is unique and plays to the strengths of the medium. The result is a new kind of narrative where story flows across each platform forming a rich narrative tapestry that manifests in an array of products and multiple revenue streams.

This is potentially a major move by Mattel as it brings them more into the media business. A place where I think toys, video games, movies, TV and more are converging (think Hasbro’s move into television).

How does the movie industry feel about it? That’s another story and I will write about that in my next posting.