You might be wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain. In October 2021, someone asked Muppet veteran Kirk Thatcher if the Muppet Babies character Summer would appear in regular Muppet media. He then said that it's not up to him since a different division does the show, though could ask Disney about it. I then said how the possible legal reasons might be due to the show being developed by the Disney Junior Educational Resource Group. While he didn't give a direct answer, he did like my tweet, which is probably as close to confirmation as one can get. It seems like, when a Disney franchise gets some kind of preschool project, anything created specifically for it can't be used in other media without some kind of permission. Let's look at some examples of this.
Let's start with the Disney Junior Mickey projects. Elements created for these shows, such as Cuckoo Loca (from Minnie's Bow Toons), Trickini the magician (from Mickey And The Roadster Racers), and places like Hot Dog Hills (also from Roadster Racers) seem to only be used in the Disney Junior projects. You're not really going to see them be greatly used in other projects that aren't for the preschool audience, like the Paul Rudish Mickey shorts. Something like Sofia The First has used characters from various Disney movies that show up from time to time, but you're not going to see references to any Sofia encounter in Non-Disney Junior media (like Tangled The Series). Something like Muppet Babies also seems to follow suit given how the show's characters were only used in videos and promotional material for other Disney Junior shows. Plus, clips from the show are uploaded to the Disney Junior YouTube channel, not the Muppet YouTube channel, most likely to show that this is meant to be a Disney Junior project that just happened to star Muppets. Also, this is more on the speculative side of things, but I've heard some people theorize that the Rocketeer series from 2019 was cancelled in order to make way for an official sequel to the original movie that was announced a few years ago. You can apply the idea to other shows, like how after The Lion Guard ended, the only new material based on the show is from the Disney Junior Wonderful World Of Songs shorts show, with a short video being a condensed version of Circle Of Life. You wouldn't really expect to see references to The Lion Guard in something like say the live action Lion King movies.
This is definitely a different approach from something like Nickelodeon, where their Nick Jr shows can sometimes be marketed alongside regular Nickelodeon shows (like how the promo for Tooned In shows Dora The Explorer, or how Yo Gabba Gabba guest starred on Big Time Rush), unlike how Disney Junior shows are usually only marketed alongside other Disney Junior shows.
Of course, what do you think of this?
Let's start with the Disney Junior Mickey projects. Elements created for these shows, such as Cuckoo Loca (from Minnie's Bow Toons), Trickini the magician (from Mickey And The Roadster Racers), and places like Hot Dog Hills (also from Roadster Racers) seem to only be used in the Disney Junior projects. You're not really going to see them be greatly used in other projects that aren't for the preschool audience, like the Paul Rudish Mickey shorts. Something like Sofia The First has used characters from various Disney movies that show up from time to time, but you're not going to see references to any Sofia encounter in Non-Disney Junior media (like Tangled The Series). Something like Muppet Babies also seems to follow suit given how the show's characters were only used in videos and promotional material for other Disney Junior shows. Plus, clips from the show are uploaded to the Disney Junior YouTube channel, not the Muppet YouTube channel, most likely to show that this is meant to be a Disney Junior project that just happened to star Muppets. Also, this is more on the speculative side of things, but I've heard some people theorize that the Rocketeer series from 2019 was cancelled in order to make way for an official sequel to the original movie that was announced a few years ago. You can apply the idea to other shows, like how after The Lion Guard ended, the only new material based on the show is from the Disney Junior Wonderful World Of Songs shorts show, with a short video being a condensed version of Circle Of Life. You wouldn't really expect to see references to The Lion Guard in something like say the live action Lion King movies.
This is definitely a different approach from something like Nickelodeon, where their Nick Jr shows can sometimes be marketed alongside regular Nickelodeon shows (like how the promo for Tooned In shows Dora The Explorer, or how Yo Gabba Gabba guest starred on Big Time Rush), unlike how Disney Junior shows are usually only marketed alongside other Disney Junior shows.
Of course, what do you think of this?
