Con-Man: D23 Expo '15 Sunday

 
Ah, Sunday. After a quick workout, we hit the hotel breakfast buffet instead of going to Carl's Jr. where we could have gotten the same amount of food for 1/3 of the price, ah well, I loaded up on buttered toast and sausages to make up the difference. Again there was a huge line out in front of the convention center, not waiting to find out for what, we entered the lobby and headed for the exhibit hall. Our main objective of the day was to check out the Disney Archives Exhibit, the line moved decently quickly while I traded cards with people and read few pages from Ready Player One while we waited. The lady received an update that a new card was being handed out with all signs pointing to Ducktales' funny but not a very good pilot, Launchpad McQuack. I headed upstairs and saw people running excitedly for the escalator. A huge line had already formed but there were plenty of cards to be handed out. We ended up grabbing 22 of the 31 available cards, not bad for a random convention time wasting activity.

The Archive Exhibit was pretty cool, lots of photos, plans and pieces of the park's past and present. One guy was taking photos of the first ticket handed out forever so I just sidled up next to him and took a look, I don't care if he didn't like it, nobody gives a shit about your photos, bro, so stop holding up the line. There was a wall of menus from eras past, one with Aunt Jemima! Since you know, back in the day, Walt had brands sponsor attractions and restaurants inside the park to finance it's construction. Also cool were all the set ups from Star Tours, Alice In Wonderland, Fantasmic, The Matterhorn, so on and so forth. While it was disappointing that Kirk Douglas was nowhere to be found over the weekend (I guess you get semi-erased from Disney history when you sue the big guy...) but D23 pulled through as both James Garner and protege Tom Selleck were included on the Guests of the park portion, showcasing celebrities and world leaders visiting Disneyland.

Taking one last loop around the floor we stopped at one of the multiple pin vendors. I heard that many of them are knock offs, that's why they only cost a few bucks. There was a cute one of Rowlf the piano playing, bartender dog from The Muppets but his frigging name was spelled ROLF! Thanks, Marcus Ray and Tommy Hendricks! We headed over to the Shanghai Disney display where many familiar rides were updated for the eastern audience. I don't know why Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters artwork looked so much cooler with that Asian style OOMF! artwork and coloring, but it did. I kind of wondered how the characters would translate across the world as they eat animals we don't and vice versa. There was a cool Disney version of the Zodiac calendar which upgraded The Rat to Remy from Ratatouille. For me as a Dog, I got Goofy, I think. My memory ain't what it used to be. It was a fun and relaxing morning to wind things down, I enjoyed my time at D23 and will check it out the next time it comes around. Until then, see ya at Star Wars Land...in 5 years.

Con-Man: D23 Expo '15 Saturday

Saturday was a big day at D23 Expo as the live action panel was expected to unveil news on Star Wars, Captain America: Civil War, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Book and many other titles. People waited in line on concrete floors and in sweltering heat for 12 hours just to get a seat. I don't do that. Instead we headed over when the show floor was to open but there was a huge queue of people who didn't even know what they were waiting for outside the front sitting in the sun. I'm pretty good with crowds and lines and found us a door that lead us straight into the exhibit hall, no fuss, no muss. But seriously, why were so many people waiting outside to get in if doors were already open? Walking around some more we passed the TV stage where various casts were being introduced, we just happened to catch a glimpse of Ben Savage and players from Girl Meets World.

We braved a short line at the Disney Dreamstore with event exclusive shirts, toys, artwork and the like before checking out more of the floor. Mattel had a diorama of Cars Land set up while Ed Asner was back at it, signing autographs and meeting the fans. We were just in time for the Feast poster sale and signing with artist XYZ and grabbed one for a friend. The lady received an alert that some con going group had just dropped off a Big Hero 6 swag bag, even though we were on the other side of the hall, I managed to navigate us over to the Limited Edition Print zone where lo and behold, the bag was still there. Since we were nearby we jumped in the queue for Disney World's Pandora from Avatar attraction. A video featuring producer Jon Landau looking nearly unrecognizable welcomed you, promoting the wondrous vision of the future land that will include floating mountains and an entirely new eco-system to experience. Past the video was a diorama of the park along with some statues of Pandora's wildlife and finally a Na'vi bust for photo ops. I have no clue how floating mountains will work but I won't put it past James Cameron and Disney's Imagineers.

Cosplay was consistent throughout with Pixar's Inside Out being the clear fan favorite. There were a few Woody's from Toy Story, a Dick Tracy, lots of Princesses and outside we saw what was probably one of the most clever and memorable; a Buzz Lightyear from the Mrs. Nesbit tea sequence from the first movie, complete with missing arm. News started to trickle out that Star Wars Land had been officially announced, a Drew Struzan exclusive poster was handed out, Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie flew in from Germany for Cap, Stan Lee announced Soaring Over the World along with an Iron Man ride in China and Orlando Bloom is coming back for the fifth Pirates flick. While it would have been fun to see live, it was all online 5 minutes later complete with slews of press releases.

Con-Man: D23 Expo '15 Friday

 
Another jam packed weekend, complete with heat wave! It was another first as we traveled to Anaheim for the every other year Disney celebration that is D23 Expo. D23 is the official fan club of all things House of Mouse and the Expo is like their version of Comic-Con to showcase all of their latest and greatest in film, animation, television, video games, toys, theme parks and the like. We arrived Friday evening with just enough time to walk the floor for a bit. Sadly, unlike previous shows at The Anaheim Convention Center WonderCon and Star Wars Celebration, there were no bars on the floor. #ThanksLittleKids. Since we got there so late we also missed The Goofy Movie Anniversary panel, double sadly.

It was surprisingly not crowded walking in as food trucks had virtually no lines. Greeting us was the Buzz Lightyear balloon from the Macy's Day Parade. Buzz aka animated Tim Allen looked great as we entered the empty lobby to pick up lanyards, event guides and bags (that I ripped right away, Damme lats). Heading into the show floor I really had no clue what to expect. I hadn't done any research and just figured there'd be a lot of Disney things. What shocked me was how empty it was. The entire exhibit hall was set up with colorful carpet, displays, attractions, stores and more; basically a trade show to highlight upcoming products while displaying the history of the Disney brand. Right away you had sections devoted to Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, ABC, the new Muppet Show, Red Cross, on and on.

There were three stores set up, each selling show exclusives like art, shirts and those little Tsum Tsum things. Unlike a typical comic and pop culture show, there were only a handful of non-Disney vendors, many of them selling pins and other collectibles like statues, paintings and park memorabilia. We walked into a sudden influx of attendees as I realized where the crowd was, in the D23 Hall watching a panel. Earlier in the day the likes of George Lucas, Danny Elfman and Johnny Depp greeted the crowd. One upping San Diego's 6,500 capacity Hall H, D23 passed on using the Convention Center arena and set up 7,500 chairs in Hall E. Even with the new wave of people, it wasn't that crowded. Ed Asner was set up selling autographs and there were tables for the likes of Dick Van Dyke, Sean Astin, Corey Feldman and several voice actors.

Walking around the memorabilia sections I was very disappointed in the lack of items from either The Rocketeer or classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring one Kirk Douglas. On the other side of the show floor there were Star Wars video game set ups along with Disney cartoons, more Marvel, more Pixar and a large booth selling fine art with several artists dropping by for signings and sketches. Every few aisles you'd run into a Trading Card post where you'd be handed one of thirty cards being given out during the show for trading. Little did I know that this would become one of my hobbies for the weekend. Afterwards we caught an Uber to Anaheim favorite spot The Lazy Dog Cafe that had crowds of people waiting outside but we walked right in and sat at the bar. It was a terrific start to a fun weekend. Saturday and Sunday coming right up!