It’s not easy being Disney. It’s a company that’s based on a tradition of storytelling and tried and true formulas. What happens when it meets the digital age where everyone is a content creator and everyone has a story?

Looking at Disney’s just-announced products, it’s nice to see that the company is embracing technology that puts creativity in the hands of kids. New MP3 players, videocams, and digital cameras done the Disney way are being readied as I write. Hopefully these products will inspire creativity along with deepening a kid’s affection for Hannah Montana or High School Musical, two of the hottest items for the tween-set this year.

When I was growing up, Disney-inspired creativity was styling my hair like Annette Funicello’s. The new Disney lineup is a lot more impressive than those original Mouseketeers.

The star of the Disney lineup of products is the Disney Flix Video Camera, a $99 video camcorder that fits comfortably in the palm of young hands. The flip preview LCD screen makes it seem just like mom and dad’s camcorder. The resolution of the camera, though, is only 1.3MP and 15 frames a second, which is pretty low resolution and herky-jerky motion to watch. At that price it doesn’t store much video either, but you can buy additional SD memory cards. What Disney adds to the camera is Disney Director. It provides templates to help kids build their own movie/stories and even lets them include Disney characters in the movie.

You’re going to see lots of kid cameras this fall, but Disney PixMax Digital Camera combines the right price ($80) with reasonable functionality. It’ll take 3M-resolution photos and hold about 50 photos at a time. For a little less ($50) you can get the smaller Pix Click with less resolution and zoom and a smaller display preview. On the creativity front, Disney supplies special editing software for both cameras. Using the software it’s trivial to do things like stick Mickey in the photo with you. No waiting on line required.

Disney LCD Screens

Other Disney technologies are not quite as creativity inspiring, but they’re certainly well-branded. Disney is selling LCDs designed with their most popular characters in mind. If you don’t like the Hannah Montana version you might try High School Musical or the old standbys like Disney Princess. At 15-inches these LCDs are comparable in size to most laptop monitors but they are easier on the eyes than the old CRT screens. For portable passivity, Disney announced the Disney Mix Match, an inexpensive portable media player, and the Disney Dual Screen Portable DVD Player for watching movies together in the car, and other branded items like USBs and iPod accessories.

So how do we feel about Disney branded items?

The pros: You’re not spending any more on the Disney technology than you are on others with comparable features. And you’re getting some nice extras like the Disney software.

The cons: My gut tells me that kids outgrow brand loyalty faster than shoes. So what happens when they don’t like Hannah Montana anymore?