Remember the theme song to The Mickey Mouse Club with Cubby, Annette, and the rest of the Mouseketeers? If I recall, Disney's(NYSE: DIS) "Mickey Mouse March" went something like this:

Who's the leader of the bland,
Beleaguered industry?
And I see, this is why
M-O-U-S-E.

Hey there! High there! 52-week lows there!
You're as dumbstruck as can be,
M-I-C-K-E-Y
M-O-U-S-E.

Eeek-a-Mouse,
Eeek-a-Mouse.
Forever leisure stocks are stranded --
Why? Why? Why? Why?

Well, maybe not exactly like that.

The market has turned to Disney for a glimmer of hope that not all is lost in the entertainment sector. Between AOL Time Warner's(NYSE: AOL) record $98.7 billion loss for 2002 and Vivendi's(NYSE: V) eventual fire sale, the industry hoped to catch a break. Would the Big Cheese pull through?

It did. Disney posted a 6% gain in fiscal first-quarter revenue, while earnings before one-time charges rose from $0.15 a share last year to $0.17 a share this time around. Every segment, save for the company's troubled consumer products division, delivered top-line gains, while the big winner, in terms of operating profits, was the company's theme park division.

Then again, a 20% climb in operating earnings at the park and resorts comes on the heels of sparse attendance figures in the December 2001 quarter. Travel-shy tourists stayed away from the iconic destinations like a double feature of Disney's Treasure Planet and The Hot Chick. But, they're coming back... slowly.

The company predicts healthy bottom-line growth over the next two years, with profit gains between 25% and 35%. Although, that's coming off the current sandbagged base of lackluster earnings. Still, it's taking steps in the right direction.

If I recall, the show used to end with a song that went something like this:

Now it's time to say, "Let's buy our favorite company!"
M-I-C-K-E-Y
M-O-U-S-E.