Disney Does Electronics
By Brent Lang

Finally, consumers will be able to have cordless phones sporting images of Mickey Mouse or a two-way radio featuring the unmistakable voice of Buzz Lightyear.

The introduction of a series of kid-friendly wireless communications devices from The Walt Disney Co. (nyse: DIS - news - people ) and Motorala (nyse: MOT - news - people ) marks the first tentative steps by Disney toward what may well become a veritable blitzkrieg on the consumer electronics arena. In most cases, the products will be designed by the Silicon Valley integrated design firm, Frog Design, and co-branded by Disney and various other electronics manufacturers.
You won't be purchasing the new cordless telephone featured in Disney's initial products launch because of any technological breakthrough, however. Rather, the selling point seems to be a series of ring tones inspired by Disney characters. The pastel cordless phone that Disney and Motorola are offering has purportedly been inspired by popular princesses from the Disney animated canon. In keeping with this theme, the phone's ring tones feature characters' voices and songs like "Under the Sea."

An almost identical red and yellow cordless is presumably intended to appeal to young boys and draws its inspiration from iconic characters like Mickey Mouse. This phone's ring tones include snippets of "The Mickey Mouse Club March" and "It's a Small World (After All)."

Both phones offer standard features like visual call-waiting, a ten-number SpeedDial memory and a phone company voice-mail indicator. One particular feature that is sure to delight kids and drive parents batty is a base that uses popular Disney characters to "page" misplaced handsets.

Aside from cordless phones, Disney seems to have finally noticed that all the families visiting its theme parks are carrying two-way radios. For the most part, those radios have been Motorola-made family radio service handsets that let anyone using them stay in touch within a two-mile radius. The deal with Motorola includes a series of Disney-themed FRS radios.

The radios have a similar design to the cordless phones: one is a pastel-colored Princess radio, while the other is a red- and yellow-colored Classic radio. In addition to these two designs, the folks at Motorola, Frog and Disney have crafted a red, white and green "adventure two-way radio," which features the voices of such Disney/Pixar (nasdaq: PIXR - news - people ) heroes as Buzz Lightyear uttering catchphrases like "Come in, Star Command."

With their target audience of children ages six to 12 in mind, the phones and the radios have been specifically designed to fit comfortably into small hands. Both the phones and radios are priced at about $60 and will arrive in stores just in time for the Christmas season.

One thing's for certain: For families with small children, this Christmas won't be the last time that their children clamor for Disney-inspired electronic gadgets. Disney's assault on the world of electronics will eventually include everything from clock radios to DVD players, with a second line of products planned for launch in the spring of 2003.