I attend the D23 Expos for the presentations and panels, but for many, it’s all about the shopping. The Dream Store, Disney Store, and Mickey’s of Glendale are some of the top shopping destinations, and it’s not unusual for there to be lines outside the shopping venues that rival anything across the street at the parks.
While many of the shopping venues have limited edition merchandise, if you’re looking for a truly one-of-kind item, then the silent auction is the place to look. While not everything in the auction is unique, or even rare, there are a few items that you aren’t going to find anywhere else.
Here, with minimal commentary, is a selection of items that were available for purchase at this year’s silent auction. Several of the items were used in the parks or were part of displays at Disney Stores – you might recognize some of them if you’re a frequent visitor to the parks or your local Disney Store.
Matterhorn Bobsleds, autographed by designer Bob Gurr. Track sold separately.About the only one I was tempted to bid on … but I heard it went for over $10,000, so I certainly would not have been the winner.
During the D23 Expo, I made many new friends, and there was a lot of sharing of what we were doing around the parks before and after the Expo. One thing that was mentioned more than once was the Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps guided tour at Disneyland. A version of this tour has been offered for some time, but it has been recently upgraded and revamped, and everyone who had taken it spoke of it very highly. Since I was going to be in town for a while after the Expo, I called the Disneyland Tour number ( 714-781-TOUR ) and reserved a spot for myself.
The tour meets at the Guided Tour garden, across from the Main Street train station and adjacent to City Hall. Upon check-in I was asked to make a meal selection from the Jolly Holiday Bakery menu, as we would be served a meal at the tour conclusion (since I was on the afternoon tour, this was essentially dinner even though the tour description referred to it as lunch). We were given bottles of water while we waited — nice since it was a warm day. A few minutes before our 2:30 tour was scheduled to begin, our tour guide, Mia, began introducing herself to the guests and handing out the audio devices we would use to hear Mia and also to listen to pre-recorded portions of the tour. (The pre-recorded portions were almost entirely snippets of Walt Disney talking about whatever we were currently seeing on the tour, and occasionally a bit of music).
The tour starts across from the Disneyland Train Station
Once everyone was wired up and name badged, we headed over to our first stop, which was the Main Street Fire Station. Mia told us a bit about the overall design of Main Street — that while it pulls some elements from Walt’s home town of Marceline, MO, it was really not intended to be any specific place. Every visitor is supposed to see a bit of their own home town in it. The train station and city hall are largely based on ones in Fort Collins, CO, the home town of Imagineer Harper Goff, who designed those buildings for Main Street.
First stop: The Fire Department. Walt’s private apartment, above, is where we will conclude the tour.
From there, we made the short walk over to the Town Square. We stood in front of the flagpole, right about at the spot where Walt delivered his opening day dedication. We listened to a recording of that speech. Mia shared several stories about the park’s opening day, which was not practically perfect in every way.
Hearing about Walt’s opening day dedication
We proceeded down Main Street, making particular note of the many windows in the upper floors of the buildings which are dedicated to particular figures in Disney history that made lasting contributions. I saw Imagineer Rolly Crump’s window; I was actually looking for the Sherman Brothers but missed it, so I’ll have to go back and look more carefully. At the end of Main Street we paused at the Hub, to the side of the Partners statue, while Mia discussed the overall hub-and-spoke design of the park and the use of “weinies” to pull the guest along from one area to another.
At the Hub
We moved on to the castle forecourt, and learned that the castle drawbridge is actually operational, and how opening the drawbridge was a dramatic flourish on opening day. We made our way across the drawbridge, through the castle, and into Fantasyland.
In Fantasyland we rode Peter Pan’s Flight, one of the original opening day attractions, and still one of the more popular attractions in the park.
In Fantasyland, about to ride Peter Pans Flight
From Peter Pan, we made our way over to New Orleans Square. Here Mia told us about some of the non-public areas that were designed for Walt’s personal use and to entertain important visitors: an expanded apartment over Pirates of the Caribbean (that Walt never got to use), Club 33, and a planned but never completed Jazz club.
We proceeded to the entrance to Club 33 — a very exclusive dining establishment for members only. The waiting list for membership is quite long, and the membership cost is quite extravagant. It’s on my bucket list to dine there someday, but for now, we were able to enter the lobby, which is not open to the public. So while it’s not lunch or dinner at the Club, it’s still a very special opportunity, and I think one that everyone there really appreciated.
In front of Club 33We wait by the door while Mia bribes some guards, or somethingIt appears to have worked, we’re in!The small, but very elegant, lobby areaStairs or an old-fashioned lift provide access to the dining areas upstairs
In the lift — should I just push ‘2’ and go for it?
After spending a nice amount of time in the Club 33 lobby — it’s very nice that we didn’t feel rushed through here and everyone got to take pictures in the lift — we made our way over to an area next to the Haunted Mansion, where we learned a little about the various early concepts for both the Mansion (or The Museum of the Weird) and Pirates of the Caribbean (or Blue Bayou Lagoon). Here we listened to more audio of Walt, along with Imagineer Claude Coats, describing the concepts of the attractions as they were envisioned at the time. We’ll hear more about these attractions later, but the interesting bit at this point was that both of these rides were originally conceived as walk-though attractions.
At this point, roughly the midpoint of our tour, we paused for a restroom break. When we resumed, we crossed the park into Tomorrowland, taking up a spot in front of the Carousel of Progress. (Yes, it’s Innoventions now, and if you’re a bit younger than me perhaps to you it’s America Sings.) While standing here Mia told us some stories about the various incarnations of the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland Autopias that have existed over the years. (I can’t share all the great stories, as then there’d be less reason to take the tour)
From here we moved over to a location between the Finding Nemo submarine voyage lagoon and the Matterhorn. We heard about the major expansion of Tomorrowland in the late 1950s that brought the Matternhorn and Monorail attractions to the park, and how innovative the steel tube, block dispatch system for the Matterhorn was.
We moved over to it’s a small world to hear stories about what a turning point the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair proved to be for Disneyland. Creating rides and attractions for a theme park like Disneyland is an expensive proposition … but with the World’s Fair, Disney was actually paid by sponsors to develop attractions that would later find their way back to the parks. The attractions that were designed this way included Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, The Carousel of Progress, it’s a small world, and Ford’s Magic Skyway (which morphed into the PeopleMover System). The Primeval World diorama seen along the Disneyland Railroad also came from the Magic Skyway exhibit.
I was aware of these attractions, and their World’s Fair heritage, prior to the tour. But I didn’t realize that the Magic Skyway ride system was also the precursor to the Haunted Mansion’s OmniMover system (also used on a number of later rides), and the small world boat system was similarly served as a prototype for the Pirates of the Caribbean flume. So we can also credit the Worlds Fair experience of the Disney Imagineers for giving us those attractions in their current forms.
Now we crossed the park again, making our way to the Enchanted Tiki Room. While this is an attraction many guests love to hate, I’ve always enjoyed it. We experienced the show after hearing about Walt’s early work with audio animatronics.
Now our tour is almost at an end. We make our way back up Main Street and stop in the gallery outside Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Here, standing in front of the last picture of Walt Disney taken inside his park, we hear about his illness and death in 1966.
We then cross back over to the tour garden, where we are divided into smaller groups to go upstairs over the Firehouse and view Walt’s apartment. Although we aren’t allowed to take photos in the apartment, our tour guide will take a picture of each of us, using our cameras, so I get a picture in front of the lamp that is always lit to signify Walt’s ongoing presence in the park.
In Walt’s apartment above the Fire Dept.
The tour was a wonderful experience — the access to Club 33 and Walt’s apartment are two very special experiences that by themselves justify taking the tour. Hearing Walt talk about the park — the only Disney park in the world that he personally visited — while standing in the places he stood, or in front of the attractions he was talking about on his show, is just a really special way to experience these stories, even if you’ve heard them before.
At the conclusion of the tour, we came back to the Guided Tour area for the final time, and sat at the shaded tables there to eat the meals we had ordered at check-in. Mia circulated around the tables, continuing to answer questions or share stories, or pose for pictures with the guests. We all received the Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps pin, featuring a well-known photograph of Walt on the front and a reproduction of the park dedication plaque inside, along with a silhouette of the Partners statue. Even though I don’t collect many pins this one is a very nice keepsake from the experience.
I had to get a picture with Mia after the tour
The Walk in Walt’s Footsteps Tour is currently offered twice daily, at 9:30 a.m and 2:30 p.m. For more information and reservations visit the official tour page.
I’m only a casual gamer, but even as someone who doesn’t follow gaming that closely, it was impossible to miss hearing about Disney Infinity prior to the Expo this year. But even having heard about it multiple times, I still wasn’t quite sure what it was. A new console (there definitely seemed to be a hardware component). A single game, a series of games? The bits and pieces I’d heard were not giving me a cohesive picture, but there was enough to intrigue me a bit and make me wonder what it was going to be. (And as far as the other games introduced at the Expo — I had heard nothing about them prior to the Expo, so those were all completely new to me).
In preparation for the Expo, I did do a bit of research — mainly because I needed to figure out whether the Disney Infinity presentation was worth my time — in particular, whether I was willing to forgo the Imagineering and Pixar presentations happening at the same time in order to see what Disney Infinity was all about.
So I did my research, watched many of the YouTube videos on the game, and was hooked. Enough so that I pre-ordered the game and put the Disney Infinity presentation on my schedule.
The To Infinity and Beyond presentation at the Expo actually covered 4 different games or interactive series: Fantasic: Music Evolved, a couple of web series (Blank: A Vinylmation Love Story and it’s a small world), the Disney Animated app for the iPad, and Disney Infinity. In this post I’m only going to cover the Disney Infinity system; I may circle around and write up posts on some of the others later on. (In particular, I’ve downloaded and have enjoyed playing with the Animated app and may have more to say when I’ve had a chance to explore it more).
Disney Infinity
The Disney Infinity system is a combination of software and hardware; it is available for the most popular console systems (Wii, XBox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii U). The Wii version is somewhat more limited (less multiplayer capability) so if you have multiple consoles to pick from, one of the others may be preferable. I’m a Wii and Playstation 3 owner myself so went with the PS3 version.
The analogy to think of with Disney Infinity is your toy box. Watch any kid play with toys from the toy box, and there is no separation of toys into “franchises” — there isn’t any thought that you can’t have your old west cowboy play together with your futuristic space ranger, no idea that “those don’t go together”. Anything you can imagine is fair game. This is obviously the concept that brought us the Toy Story films, and is also one of the key ideas behind D:I — the ability to mix and match toys from such diverse worlds as Toy Story, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, etc. and have them all play together.
To dive into Disney Infinity, you purchase the Starter Pack appropriate for whatever your console system is. The starter pack will cost you about $75, and includes the “Infinity Base”, which is a bit of hardware used to allow you to use characters and power disks (I’ll get to that in a minute). Once you’re purchased the Starter Pack, all of the add-ons (characters and power disks) are console-agnostic and can be used with any system.
The starter set comes with 3 figures — these are molded plastic figures, about six inches tall, that are themselves nice collectible action-figure type toys. But when set on the Infinity Base, they cause the character to appear in the game. The Infinity Base has a place to set two characters, and the software supports two-player cooperative play. (Up to four players can play simultaneously in an online multiplayer mode)
The starter pack includes Jack Sparrow, Sully, and Mr. Incredible figures. Many additional characters are available for purchase (see below for the complete list).
The starter set also includes 3 play sets corresponding to the included figures — Pirates of the Caribbean, Monsters University, and The Incredibles.
There are two modes of play with Disney Infinity — a more structured mode involving “Play sets”, and a more unstructured, free form mode called the “Toy Box”. In the play set mode, you’re given an environment to play in the represents locations from the movie — so the Pirates of the Caribbean play set obviously involves ships and the high seas, while the Monsters University play set is a college campus. Characters cannot be used in non-native play sets — you can’t use Jack Sparrow in the Monsters University play set. But that’s where the Toy Box comes in — if you want Mater and Buzz Lightyear to play together, they can do so in the toy box, just not in a Cars or Toy Story play set.
Additional characters are available, at about $13 each, and are not machine specific, but you must have the appropriate play set to be able to use the character other than in the toy box. There are also multi-character packs that give you a bit of a discount — 3 sidekicks (Violet, Barbossa, and Mike Wazowski) or 3 villains (Davy Jones, Randall, and Syndrome) for $30.
Additional play sets, such as Cars or the Lone Ranger, are about $35 and include two characters.
Finally, there are power disks. These are another accessory that you place on the Infinity Base, as you do the characters. There are two different flavors of power disks. The round disks confer special capabilities to a character — such as greater strength, or resistance to injury — and are used by placing them between the character figure and the Infinity base (I’m not certain how many can be stacked). Round disks work in both play sets and the toy box.
The hexagonal disks are played onto a special hexagonal port on the infinity base, and are used only in the toy box. They unlock features or themes (appearance overlays) in the toy box. Power disks come two to a pack, at $5 a pack; there are about 20 different power disks available at introduction. The power disks are a blind item — you won’t know what power disks are in a package until you open it, so I am sure this will create opportunities for trading and a secondary market for the disks.
Playsets & Characters
Available at Introduction:
Pirates of the Caribbean
– Jack Sparrow (Starter Set)
– Barbossa
– Davy Jones
Monsters Inc
– Sully (Starter Set)
– Mike
– Randall
Cars (additional play set)
– Lightning McQueen
– Mater
– Francesca
– Holley
Toy Story (no play set — toy box only?)
– Buzz Lightyear
– Jessie
– Woody
Lone Ranger – Additional play set with both characters
– Lone Ranger
– Tonto
Several new characters were introduced at D23 Expo; these had not been previously announced and I’m not sure if they are going to be available at release or sometime after.
Phineas and Ferb
– Phineas
– Agent P
Frozen
– Anna
– Elsa
Nightmare Before Christmas
– Jack Skellington
Tangled
– Rapunzel
Wreck it Ralph
– Ralph
– Vanellope
One final character introduction was The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Mickey Mouse. Everyone in attendance received Sorcerer Mickey as a gift (and many of them are already up on eBay). The Sorcerer Mickey will be supported in-game at release, but will not be available for retail purchase until January. (I also heard that the retail version will have a different paint scheme than the giveaway item — I guess we’ll have to wait to see if that is true).
We also saw a sneak peek of Infinity on mobile devices — this is really a couple of different apps that enhance the Infinity experience in various ways. A free app was shown that allows you to add Infinity character animations to your own videos. There will also be a not-free app for the iPad that works with the console, but that was not being introduced yet so we weren’t shown or told anything about it other than it exists.
We saw an extended demo that involved creating a race track in the Toy Box mode; it is fairly easy (at least for the experienced person doing the demo — not sure how long it will take to get proficient at this) to set up a customized racetrack through the toy box, with various loops, jumps, and hazards, and then have characters race each other around the toy box.
One interesting feature of the toy box — especially for park fans such as myself — is that many park elements are reproductions of locations from the parks, such as Epcot’s Spaceship Earth. It was mentioned that the game designer’s interpretation of Disneyland will be available at launch as an online download; you can be certain I’ll be adding that to my toy box right away.
So the game is out today …. if you have it, please share your initial impressions. Due to my being in the middle of a move, all my gaming stuff is stored away for the next few months, so it will be a while before I have a chance to try this out myself. (But I can play with my Sorcerer Mickey figure in the meantime, so that helps).
Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey, available in January
One of the highlights of any D23 Expo is the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives. D23 curates an exhibition of interesting items (props, costumes, etc.) from the archives and takes over a large area on the second floor of the convention center to display the item.
This year’s exhibition was smaller and more focused than last year’s. There were three primary themes to this years display. The first was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Mary Poppins. The second theme was looking at Disney’s long association with Oz; not just the recent release, but a number of other Oz-related projects (some that never came to completion) Disney has done over the years. And the final theme was ABC’s Once Upon a Time series.
For this exhibit, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are the pictures.
Exhibit Entry
There was no flash photography allowed in the exhibit, and light levels were frequently low (and I did not think to bring along a tripod or monopod to steady the camera). So there are a lot of blurry photos here; I apologize for the quality).
From Harrod’s, a set of Disney-inspired dresses interpreted by famous designers.
Costumes from Alice in Wonderland
Costumes and props from Once Upon a Time
Costumes from “Once Upon a Time”Props from “Once Upon a Time”“Once Upon a Time” costumes
Some of the Oz-related props from earlier projects
Props from “Return to Oz”
Costumes from “Oz: The Great and Powerful”Props from “Oz: The Great and Powerful”
Getting into the Mary Poppins section of the exhibition now
StoryboardsConcept art
Mary’s bag from Mary Poppins
One of the costumes worn by Julie Andrews as Mary
Costumes from Mary PoppinsSherman Brothers costumes from “Saving Mr. Banks”Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) and P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) costumes from Saving Mr. Banks.The Sherman Brothers with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke
At the conclusion of the exhibition was a display of fan art celebrating Mary Poppins. A number of these were quite good, I only included a couple of my favorites.
My favorite fan art piece — Mary Poppins done as if from the haunted mansion’s stretching room (with Peter Pan thrown in as well)Another clever bit of fan art
(Part I of the Studios live-action presentation recap is here).
Disney Nature
The next Disney Nature film will be released on Earth Day 2014, and is titled Bears. We saw the trailer, being shown for the first time anywhere, which featured footage of a family of bears in the Alaskan wilderness.
Disney
The last portion of the Studios live-action presentation was from Disney Studios, and was presented by the studio’s President of Live Action Production, Sean Bailey
Muppets Most Wanted
The setup here is that there is an international jewel thief that looks exactly like Kermit (well, almost — the jewel thief has a mole that Kermit lacks). We saw a bit of footage from the film and an especially-for-D23 filmed bit from the set, where Miss Piggy was under the mistaken impression that she was addressing P23, the world’s largest gathering of Miss Piggy fans. Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey, and Ty Burrell join the Muppets. Ty then drove onto stage in a very tiny car and chatted about the film for a bit before shoehorning himself back into the car to drive away.
Into the Woods
This filmed adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical fairy tale was previously announced, but this presentation was the first announcement of the film’s cast.
Meryl Streep will play the witch. Johnny Depp with play the Big Bad Wolf. Other cast members include Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, and Emily Blunt.
Rob Marshall (Chicago, Pirates of the Caribbean 4) directs.
Cinderella
Director Kenneth Branagh brings the classic fairy tale to the big screen in March 2015. We were the first audience to see a sneak peek. There isn’t much at this point, really just some costume tests (and we were told Cinderella’s gown may change). Cast includes Lily James (Cinderella), Richard Madden (Prince Charming), Cate Blanchett (Stepmother), and Helena Bonham Carter (Fairy Godmother).
Maleficient
Coming July 2014; Director Robert Stromberg, Producer Joe Roth, and writer Linda Wolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King). Starring Angelina Jolie (as Maleficient) and Elle Fanning (as Aurora).
Angelina Jolie was on hand to talk about the film; says that since a child she has been drawn to the Maleficient character. We were the first audience to ever see the trailer for the film; the trailer mostly features Maleficient laying a curse on the infant Princess Aurora, but that scene was intercut with various other scenes from the film. Angelina looks quite frightening in the role and shared that when children would visit the set, they would generally want nothing to do with her if she tried to approach and greet them in a friendly manner. (And in fact, her daughter plays the infant princess in some scenes because they were unable to find anyone else that wasn’t scared of her!)
Tomorrowland
Just not sure what to say about this one … if may turn out to be something very interesting, but the entire setup for the film is just a huge campaign of lies and misdirection, and I don’t think that’s the way to set about getting people excited about your project.
The presentation starts with the explanation of this mysterious box (labeled “1952”) that was found deep in the Disney archives. Director/Producer/Writer Brad Bird and Writer/Producer Damon Lindelof came on stage to show us some of the contents found in this mysterious box — like a photo of Walt Disney and Amelia Earhart dated two years after her disappearance, an “Amazing Stories” comic book from 1928 with a mysterious hidden message, and a blueprint for the It’s a Small World attraction which, viewed under black light of the appropriate wavelength, reveals hidden rooms under the ride.
After the presentation ended, for the rest of the Expo you could view the contents of this mysterious box on the show floor, but any attempt to photograph anything would bring security on the run. Must protect these precious fake artifacts!
Lindelof is best known as one of the produces behind Lost — which I loved. But in Lost, we were drawn in first and foremost because we cared about the characters, and then we were presented with a complex, layered mystery to unravel. Here we are being given what I’m sure is an equally complex and multi-layered mystery — but we aren’t being given any reason to care. Maybe that will change as we learn more.
Tomorrowland is a December 2014 release starring George Clooney. OK, I think I see why people will care.
Saving Mr. Banks
The story behind the story of bringing Mary Poppins to the screen; in particular, the difficult relationship between Walt Disney and author P L Travers as Disney attempts to get the rights to make the film. Mrs. Travers (as she insists she be called, to no avail) has no interest in selling the rights, especially not to this man who makes cartoons.
As must as I’d like to, in the short amount of film we saw I just can’t stop seeing Tom Hanks; putting a mustache on him doesn’t make him disappear into the role. I hope that’s just an initial reaction and that in a feature length film I’ll be able to forget it’s Tom and completely accept him as Walt Disney.
The footage we were shown looks great; I’m not sure how much of it is “true” and how much of it is “based on a true story”, but either way it looks like it’s going to be very entertaining, and quite funny.
Besides Hanks and Thompson, the film features Jason Schwartzman and B. J. Novak as composers Richard and Robert Sherman, Bradley Whitford as screenwriter Don DaGiadi, Colin Farrell, and Paul Giamatti.
B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman came on stage to talk about playing the Sherman brothers and getting to work with Richard Sherman (Sherman even worked with Schwartzman, who plays the piano, to show him how to handle the phrasing). An upright piano was then rolled out onto stage and they led us in a sing-a-long of Let’s Go Fly a Kite. Richard Sherman joined them onstage (to a standing ovation) to close out the studios presentation and send us off to our next Expo experience.
The second day of the D23 Expo was again led off by a presentation of upcoming studio releases. While Friday’s day one presentation was focused on animation, the Saturday presentation was about live action films. Again, the presentation was segmented by the studio: LucasFilm, Marvel, Disney Nature, and Disney features. Part I of this post covers Marvel (and the tiny bit that was shared about LucasFilm).
Bob Iger again kicked things off, but then quickly handed off to Alan Horn, Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, to talk about the upcoming films.
Alan shared that Disney has grown its portfolio of studios quite a bit over the past years; with the acquisitions of Pixar in 2006, Marvel in 2009, and LucasFilm in 2011.
LucasFilm
Alan welcomed LucasFilm to the Disney family but disappointed the audience by saying there would be nothing new to share regarding LucasFilm projects. He repeated some of what we already know — Episode VII will be released in Summer 2015; JJ Abrams will direct and is currently working on the screenplay with Michael Arndt; and John Williams will once again score.
Marvel
Marvel has been a very successful acquisition for Disney; they have two of the top 5 grossing films of all time with The Avengers and Iron Man 3. Alan introduced Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige to cover the upcoming Marvel films.
The Avengers was the culmination of Phase I of the Marvel cinematic universe. We are now seeing Phase II (which will conclude with Avengers 2). Iron Man 3 was the first of the Phase 2 films. There are 3 more Phase 2 films before we cap it off with Avengers 2.
Thor: The Dark World will be the next release. Director Alan Taylor took the stage and we got an extended first look at the feature. (I believe this same footage was shown at Comic Con). Cast members then came out on stage … Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Natalie Portman (Jane), and Anthony Hopkins (Odin). Hopkins received a standing ovation; I think most of the audience was surprised he was in attendance. Hiddleston did not sing for us this time. We saw a new clip, of Jane’s first day on Asgard where she is suffering some sort of infection. Odin insists that she be sent back to Midgard (Earth) where doctors there can take care of her. She is fascinated by the technology being used (and appears to understand it far better than the Asgardians expect of someone from such a primitive place). There is a good bit of humor in the scene while at the same time setting up a conflict between Thor and Odin regarding Jane that might be a significant plot point.
Captain American: The Winter Soldier was up next. We were shown two clips, both action-oriented fight scenes. The first, taking place in an elevator, was shown previously at Comic-Con. I believe the second scene, taking place (mostly) on a boat, was being shown for the first time; much of it was in pre-viz stage with very rough blocked-in CGI. Cast members Chris Evans (Captain America), Anthony Mackie (The Falcon) and Sebastian Stan (Bucky / The Winter Soldier) were on hand to talk about the film. Filming has been completed and the film is now being edited for an April 2014 release.
And now for something completely different. Guardians of the Galaxy is just underway (4 weeks into shooting). We were shown some footage assembled from the first few weeks of shooting, but surprisingly some of the CGI characters looked very good for such early footage — so clearly they wanted to have something flashy to show for Comic Con and D23, and it worked. The characters of Groot (an Ent-like character) and Rocket Racoon (I think that one is self explanatory :-) ) look amazing. This looks like it will be very humorous. Release scheduled for August 2014.
We were then shown a brief teaser trailer of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. There was nothing shown other than the face plate of the Ultron robot character. The feature is scheduled for 2015.
Part 1 of the Art & Animation presentation (Pixar) is here.
Part 2 of the Art & Animation presentation (Disneytoon Studios) is here.
The final segment of the Animation presentation covered upcoming releases from Disney Animation Studios.
Before beginning the Disney Animation Studios portion of the presentation, host John Lasseter took a few minutes to recognize 60-year Disney animator Burny Mattinson. Burny started as an animator with Disney in 1953, and is still working today. He’s the last active animator at Disney who worked directly with Walt Disney. Burny was in the VIP section of the audience and apparently unaware that he would be honored; he received an enthusiastic ovation from the crowd when he joined John on stage.
We were then treated to something both new and old. The Disney short Get a Horse was shown; I think this was the first time it was shown to an audience. This is a very interesting mash up of a film — and I think the less you know about it going in, the more you’ll enjoy it. It will be released as the short in front of Frozen later this year.
The first Disney Animation Studios feature we were told about is Big Hero 6. Director Don Hall took the stage to introduce the film, based on a relatively obscure Marvel comic. We were shown a trailer for the film, that introduces a brilliant young robotics student whose invention falls into the hands of super villains. He then must assemble a team of would-be super heroes to save San Fransokyo (a visually interesting city that mixes features of San Francisco and Tokyo). He is assisted by the robot Baymax, an inflatable robot intended to function as a nurse, but modified by Hiro extensively.
Zootopia was the next film presented; this feature is being announced for the first time at the D23 Expo. Director Byron Howard (Tangled) and writer Jared Bush presented. This is a buddy action comedy set in a world where humans never existed, so we get a view of how the world would be different if it was designed for, and run by, animals. Cities aren’t divided up into ethnic neighborhoods, but rather into habitats, so you have a tundra area, a desert area, etc. The film’s creators were trying to get the feel of some of the classic Disney films where you had animals in clothes such as Mr. Toad and Robin Hood.
Frozen is the next feature coming from Disney, releasing on November 27th of this year. Director Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee took the stage to introduce us to the world and characters of Frozen. Frozen stars Kristen Bell as Anna, Idina Menzel as Elsa, Jonathon Groff as as Kristoff, and Josh Gad as Olaf. The story is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen.
Kristen and Josh joined the directors on stage to talk about the film and show a few clips. The first is when Olaf (the snowman) first meets Anna and Kristoff. The second clip shows Olaf singing a funny, if somewhat clueless, song about how much he looks forward to experiencing summer for the first time. (Yes, he’s in for quite a disappointment). Songs for Frozen were written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Book of Mormon).
To wrap up the presentation, and end the animation presentation, Idina Menzel (Elsa, or Elphaba in Wicked if you prefer) came on stage to perform Let it Go, from the film, while the audience was showered with confetti snow. A powerful ending to the morning session and kickoff of the D23 Expo.
continuing the coverage of Disney’s upcoming animated features started in this post
Disneytoon Studios is the producer of mostly direct-to-video releases, usually sequels. We were given a brief update of their upcoming animated features.
Disneytoon has been doing a series of Tinkerbell friends involving Tink and her fairy friends (not that there’s anything wrong with that). We were shown preview information about the next two entries.
Legend of the Neverbeast is an action-adventure story, coming in Spring 2015. We were given some story details but honestly, given that I’m not exactly the target demographic for these movies, I didn’t make any note of the details.
The second Tink film looked a little more interesting, simply because it begins to tie Tink’s story in to what we already know about the character. (We, in this case, mean those of us that haven’t been following the Disneytoon films of Tink’s adventures in Pixie Hollow). In The Pirate Fairy, Tinkerbell leaves Pixie Hollow and encounters more of Neverland. She meets Zarina (the titular Pirate Fairy, voiced by Christina Hendricks), and James, voiced by Tim Hiddleston.
Both Christina and Tim were on hand to talk about their characters. James, a cabin boy on a pirate ship, turns out to be more than he appears … he is the character who will eventually become Captain Hook (this story takes place in his two-handed days).
Tom treated us to an a capella rendition of The Bare Necessities. A very un-Loki moment.
After the Tinkerbell series, we moved on to the Planes series of films. The first film in this series released Friday (the same day as the presentation). They are already at work on the second film in the series, Planes: Fire and Rescue, about a wildfire air attack team working out of Piston Peak National Park. It features Dusty Crophopper, the character introduced in the first Planes film, working as part of a wildfire fighting unit. Julie Bowen will voice Dipper. We saw the first footage ever presented from this film, in rough form, and it definitely fits into the world introduced in the Cars films and now being continued with the Planes series.
That concluded the DisneyToon Studios portion of the Animation presentation. Next up, Walt Disney Animation Studios. That’s for another post.
The 2013 D23 Expo kicked off with a presentation of upcoming animated feature releases from the various Disney studios.
We were welcomed by Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company. (Bob was here live this year; two years ago his introduction was taped). He mentioned that since the last Expo, Disney has acquired LucasFilm, but that we wouldn’t be getting details of Star Wars Episode VII during the Expo. He also said this Expo was the biggest yet.
Bob then turned the floor over to Bob Lasseter, who was the host for the remainder of the 3-hour presentation. John is the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, Disneytoon, and Walt Disney Animation Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering (in other words, he has ALL the best jobs at Disney).
The presentation was divided by studios, so I’ll divide the blog posts accordingly. First up: Pixar.
We first heard about the success of Monsters University, currently in theaters. John mentioned that one of the break-out characters from the film that really surprised them was the slug. And then John was joined on stage by SNL alum Bil Hader, the voice of the slug. They had a brief bit of banter before John announced the first D23 Exclusive of the day: we were shown a new Monsters University short film, Party Central. This was a really cute short film that will be released theatrically in front of The Good Dinosaur.
And that lead us in to a discussion of The Good Dinosaur, Pixar’s next film. The premise here is: what if the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs missed the Earth? director Pete Sohn and producer Denise Ream came on stage to discuss the film. The first clip shown was of the dinosaurs engaged in farming activities. This was a very lovely, pastoral scene that was different in tone from the funnier scenes that followed. The animation style (particularly the character design) is more cartoony, and less photo-realistic, than I had anticipated based on what I heard previously.
The voice cast includes John Lithgow, Frances McDormand, Bill Hader, Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Green, and Lucas Neff. Bill and Lucas came out to talk a bit about the film, they both play siblings in the featured dino family. We then saw another clip of the film, where Arlo (Luca’s character) meets a human for the first time.
The Good Dinosaur will be in theaters in 2014.
The next film presented was Inside Out. (Announced at the 2011 Expo as The Untitled Pixar Film That Takes You Inside the Mind, but for some reason they chose not to stick with that title). I can’t help but think of this as Cranium Command: The Movie — fans of that shuttered Epcot attraction will recognize the story line similarity.
The movie as about 11 year old Riley, a young girl whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. As she adjusts to her new surroundings, we see her emotions personified as characters in her head. The voice cast features Lewis Black as Anger; Mindy Kaling as Disgust; Bill Hader as Fear, Amy Poehler as Joy, and Phyllis Smith as Sadness.
Phyllis Smith (The Office) and Bill “I’m not Dwight” Hader then came out to talk about the film. Phyllis certainly nailed the Sadness role as she was in character throughout.
The film takes us various places inside the brain, from HeadQuarters (the command center) to Long Term Memory, Imagination Central, Abstract Thought, and Dream Production. All these areas are connected by the Train of Thought.
We saw a story reel (essentially storyboards plus temp voice tracks) showing how a family dinner goes with the family — we get to see the inner emotions of the Mom and Dad as well as Riley, and the hilarious scene went over very well with the audience. This looks like a gem.
Next: Finding Dory. Director Andrew Stanton and producer Lindsey Collins set up the film, which takes place about a year after Finding Nemo. Dory’s homing instinct kicks in and she takes off to search for her original family; her new family then has to search for her. Voice cast includes returning Albert Brooks (Marlin) and Ellen DeGeneres (Dory), plus Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy as Dory’s parents, Ty Burrell, and more voice cast to be announced later. At this point Bill Hader came on stage dressed as a Sea Cucumber to beg to be cast in the movie … with 3 Pixar films in a row under his belt, if he could just get one more, he could become Pixar’s “Lucky Charm”.
Well, that comment just could not be allowed to stand. At this point Pixar’s reigning lucky charm, John Ratzenberger, came onto stage accompanied by a full brass band that punctuated his every joke with a rim shot or appropriate flourish. We saw a slideshow of all 14 of the characters John has voiced in Pixar films. I don’t think Bill will be unseating John anytime soon.
John Lasseter then explained that Pixar has been thinking about TV specials even before they did the first Toy Story, but now have finally created their first. Toy Story of Terrorwill debut this Halloween, and we were treated to the first 10 minutes of the special.
That concludes the Pixar portion of the animation presentation … the next post will pick up with the Disneytoon Studios project calendar.
A fun evening took place in Stage 23 last evening as Disney Theatrical Productions put on a special one-time showing, “Broadway and Beyond”, featuring musical selections from many current, previous, and even future Broadway productions.
The show opened with a selection of songs from Beauty and the Beast — appropriate since that show was Disney’s first foray onto the Broadway stage. We first heard “Be Our Guest”, done by all five performers, then “Beauty and the Best” by Heidi and “If I Can’t Love Her” by Alton.
After this opening, Thomas Schumacher, President and Producer at Disney Theatrical Productions, came out to make introductory remarks. He shared that there are currently 17 productions playing around the world under the Disney Theatrical Productions banner. He introduced the 5-piece orchestra (can you be an orchestra with only 5 pieces? I think yes if one of them is a violin) and the performers. All of the performers remained onstage throughout the show — so whoever wasn’t currently performing was a back-up singer, or, frequently, just an enthusiastic spectator. Clearly they all enjoyed each other’s performances and it was always fun to watch everyone, not just whoever was currently in the spotlight.
The performers were:
Heidi Blickenstaff. Played Ursula in The Little Mermaid
Ashley Brown. Originated the role of Mary Poppins in the stage version, previously played Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Non-Disney roles include Laurey in Oklahoma and Maria in The Sound of Music.
Merle Dandridge. Played Kala in Tarzan and Aida in Aida. Also in Broadway productions of Rent, Spamalot, and Jesus Christ Superstar
Josh Strickland. Originated the role of Tarzan.
Alton Fitzgerald White. Mufasa in The Lion King. Also in Broadway productions of The Color Purple, Ragtime, The Who’s Tommy, and Miss Saigon.
Photography wasn’t allowed during tonight’s performance, and words just can’t do it justice … so I’ll have to settle for providing the set list. It was truly a fantastic evening.
And we had a few special guests in the audience — Alan Menken and Richard Sherman, both of whom will be performing tomorrow night, and between them responsible for well over half of the music we heard tonight.
The second featured musical was The Lion King. We were treated to “Hakuna Mutata” (Alton and Josh), “Shadowland” (Merle), and “They Live in You” (Alton). (By the way, if your only exposure to these stories is from the movies, many song titles will be unfamiliar as in the process of taking these stories to Broadway, the book and score are both expanded — usually with the original composer providing additional songs.
Next was a song from the German production Der Glockner Von Notre Dame. This production will probably be reworked into an English-language version at some point, and the song performed by Josh, “Made of Stone”, was in English suggesting this may already be underway.
Next up were a few songs from Aida. “Easy as Life” was performed by the original Aida, Merle, then Josh did a fun and funny interpretation of a spoiled, fashion-obsession princess in “My Strongest Suit”.
Tarzan was well represented with the original Tarzan (Josh) and Kala (Merle). The two of them sang a duet of “You’ll be in my Heart”, and then Josh performed “For the First Time” with Ashley (performing Jane).
Another musical where we had an original lead was Mary Poppins. Ashley first performed “Practically Perfect in Every Way”, one of the songs added for the stage. Then Alton and Ashley gave us “Jolly Holiday” and “Chim Chim Cheree”. Then, perhaps the most moving moment of the evening, Ashley gave a goosebump-inducing version of “Feed the Birds”. This received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the crowd and reportedly brought Richard Sherman to tears; it was Walt’s favorite song and after tonight I suspect it will be a favorite of quite a few more attendees.
Things then got more upbeat with selections from The Little Mermaid. The entire ensemble performed “She’s in Love”. Then Heidi gave a subtle, nuanced interpretation (not!) of “Poor, Unfortunate Souls”, and Ashley concluded the segment with “Part of Your World’.
From here we continued to Newsies. “Carrying the Banner” was performed by the quintet, then Ashley sang “Watch What Happens” and was followed by Josh and “Santa Fe”.
We then got to hear a couple of selection from the rarely-performed King David. Heidi gave us “Never Again”, Alton was joined by the others in “The Long Long Day’.
To wrap up the evening, we got to hear a new song from an under-development Aladdin musical. Alton (as the Genie) and Josh (as Aladdin) performed the buddy song “Somebody’s Got Your Back”, supported by the other performers.
It was a very entertaining evening; D23 has really been on a roll with the evening performances since the Destination: D Animation event, and I hope they continue to provide these wonderful nightcaps at future events.
Nodes and Edges 