Google has partnered up with Disney in celebration of the 90-year run, so far, of the latter company’s iconic Mickey Mouse character, opening a new exhibit in New York and highlighting recently revealed features for Assistant and Google Home Mini. The headliner of the partnership will be a long-running 16,000 square-foot exhibition featuring both modern and historic Mickey Mouse content and exploring the impact of the character on a variety of arts, in general. That will be open from November 8 through February 10 at 60 10th Avenue in the Big Apple and admission costs $38. For Google’s part, the company has worked with Disney to create an exclusive interactive experience that uses Google Home Mini, found in the last room of the exhibit.
Background: As of this writing, the company hasn’t provided any details as to what that special exhibit entails but, in the meantime, isn’t leaving out those who can’t make it to New York in time to join in. Instead, it has also added an experience for Google Home users to access from their own home. By saying, “Hey Google, Play Mickey’s Game Show,” participants will be able to take part in a trivia-style game alongside some of the animated mouse’s most well-known supporting characters – including Daisy and Donald Duck, Goofy, and Minnie Mouse. That’s in addition to a huge variety of Mickey Mouse and Disney-related features that the company has revealed over recent weeks for a variety of its products.
The most intriguing of those have centered around Google Home and have specifically been marketed in conjunction with Google Home Mini, although the work with Google Assistant in general. For example, parents who buy select Little Golden Books stories to read to their children can say “Hey Google, let’s read along with Disney” before reading the book aloud and Assistant will chime in with appropriate effects and music to bring the stories to life. Beyond that, the companies have even collaborated with Otterbox to create a Mickey Mouse-styled dock for Google Home Mini that makes the device look very nearly exactly like the character, complete with a red-colored base emulating Mickey’s clothes. Better still, homeowners who own a Google Home Mini can bring a bit of that Disney magic to their decor for just $20.
Furthermore, Disney has gone quite a long way to celebrate the nearly century-long existence of its most familiar creation with other partners too. Among those efforts, the company worked with Samsung to help bring the character and his significant other, Minnie Mouse, to life for users of that company’s Samsung Galaxy S9 family of handsets through AR masks. That’s on top of previous collaborations that brought other famous and recent Disney characters ranging from those found in Pixar’s The Incredibles to its own Frozen to the platform. Moreover, Disney has also worked tirelessly with third-party developers to bring Mickey and many others to Android through a host of Android Games and apps covering the gamut of gaming genres and for players of all ages on any device.
Impact: Of course, Mickey Mouse doesn’t require much introduction for most, even 90-years after he first made his way into the public consciousness and the new partnership won’t necessarily equate to many more sales of the search giant’s already-popular ‘Home’ family of smart speakers. With that said, this is a great continuation of ongoing collaborations nonetheless. It’s also almost certainly worth visiting the exhibit for those who reside in or will be visiting the New York area over the next few months. Conversely, it does equate to just a few more ways to gather around with the family – or by oneself – and have a good time with Disney’s most beloved character, for those who can’t make it to the exhibit.