Tag: Toy Story

  • D23 Expo 2013: To Infinity and Beyond (Disney Interactive)

    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

    Incredibles
    – Mr. Incredible (Starter Set)
    – Elastigirl (Mrs. Incredible)
    – Violet
    – Dash
    – Syndrome

    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
    Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey, available in January
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  • D23 Expo 2013: Art and Imagination (Part I: Pixar)

    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 Terror will 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.

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