CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT Disney hopes to cast a spell with 'W.I.T.C.H.'

Five teens have powers to keep the world safe from evil.
WASHINGTON POST
When it comes to exporting popular American kidculture to other parts of the planet, the Walt Disney Co. is the out-and-out, hands-down, no-doubt-about-it world champ.
Now Disney is turning the tables and importing a fad.
You heard right. Batten down the hatches and lock up your young ones. It's a book! It's a TV show! And it just might be a multimedia, money-minting onslaught coming straight from Italy. It's "W.I.T.C.H."
Which, according to Disney's marketing machine, is a group of five girls, in their early teens, "with special powers to keep the world safe from evil." But there is nothing to keep America safe from "W.I.T.C.H."
Paperback books
The company will introduce the first couple of volumes in a series of paperback books, selling for $4.99 apiece, this month. A TV show based on the characters is slated for Disney cable next year.
Deborah Dugan, president of Disney Publishing Worldwide, says, "We are building a major franchise."
Disney, which bills itself as the world's largest publisher of children's books and magazines, is hoping to slip the world another Mickey. "W.I.T.C.H." comic magazines are already published monthly in 64 countries and in 27 languages. More than 1 million copies are sold each month. In France and Germany, kids buy more than 100,000 copies each month. In Italy, more than 200,000 copies are sold monthly.
Although the stories are mostly published as comic books in other countries, the Disney brain trust believes that American girls will prefer chapter-book storytelling, at least in the beginning.
Their names
The letters of the title stand for the first names of the main characters -- Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin. Each heroine has control over a natural force or element: energy, water, fire, earth and air.
In the first American paperback, "The Power of Five," the girls meet at their school, Sheffield Institute, and discover they have super powers. They also have wings. Together, they battle monsters. Translated from Italian, the book is written in a breezy style.
The blitz
Disney sees grand possibilities for "W.I.T.C.H.," including action toys, clothing and maybe even a movie. There is a TV series in development in France. Disney has also created Web sites for fans in Finland, the Netherlands and other spots around the globe. "Girls in Poland are talking to girls in Brazil," Dugan says.