The D23 Expo for 2019 came and went this past weekend. Lines were long, purchases were made, news was given, and smiles were aplenty. Here is a recap of a packed weekend in Anaheim.
Friday (Day 1)
On Friday we followed along with the news cycle as news came out about the forthcoming Disney Plus service and the new Disney Legends were honored. The Disney Legends ceremony panel kicked off the information, shopping, and exhibit overload. New Disney legends include Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, Christina Aguilera, Robin Roberts, Bette Midler, Wing Chao, James Earl Jones, Kenny Ortega, Barnette Ricci, Diane Sawyer, Ming-Na Wen, and Hans Zimmer. In the world of Disney Plus there was a trailer for the Star Wars show titled “The Mandalorian”. Lucasfilm also announced that Ewan McGregor would reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a new series along with a brief reminder that there will be a show based on Cassian Andor and K2-SO who are characters for 2016s Rogue One film. Marvel announced a few more shows that will be produced for Disney Plus – She-Hulk, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel. There will be more than 5,000 episodes of content from The Disney Channel as well as more than 100 Disney Channel Original Movies. Pixar offerings include “Forky asks a Question” and “Monsters at Work.” Lastly, they have a few movies in the pipeline for the service including a live action “Lady and the Tramp” and a Christmas film “Noelle.” There is going to be a lot of content on the service which rolls out on November 12th of this year. You can read a full rundown of everything from the panel HERE.
Saturday (Day 2)
Saturday was the premium day of the experience. The day started with the “Go Behind the Scenes with The Walt Disney Studios” panel in Hall D23. The panel covered news and information from four of the five branches of the Walt Disney Studios (Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, and Disney Animation).
Lucasfilm got the panel started, and they didn’t hold back as Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and the cast of “The Rise of Skywalker”, which is being billed as the conclusion of the Skywalker Saga, came to the stage. After a bit of talking amongst each other about the upcoming film they treated us to a featurette which included about 40 seconds of new footage. The audience was buzzing after they saw Rey wielding a red, double-bladed lightsaber at the end of the footage. The featurette was released to the public today.
After that Marvel studio head Kevin Feige brought Ryan Coogler out to announce that the next Black Panther movie will be released on May 6th, 2022. He brought out most of the cast of “The Eternals” for a brief bit of banter. Feige then talked about Black Widow for a moment before showing us a 4-5 minute clip of the movie. The Marvel segment was my least favorite, but that was to be expected after they revealed so much new information at the recent San Diego Comic Con.
After Marvel left the stage the live action branch of Walt Disney Studios brought out Dwayne Johnson (who entered on a boat) and Emily Blunt to talk about the Jungle Cruise movie. They showed us two separate trailer-like clips (one focused on each of the two main characters). It definitely had Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, and Romancing the Stone vibes. They then introduced “Cruella” starring Emma Stone (we only saw one photo of her in costume). Next, they brought Angelina Jolie out to talk about Maleficent 2 and showed us a clip from that movie as well. Lastly, they showcased the live action Mulan movie which looks like it is going to be stunning. The clip we saw honored the animated version, but also brought humanity and depth that wasn’t in the cartoon. It looks like it is going to be the best of the live action remakes in my opinion (but we shall see!).
Next up was the Pixar branch of Walt Disney Studios and this portion was fantastic. Two movies that I knew nothing about beforehand. Soul and Onward. They both look amazing. Pixar, unlike any other studio, tackles weighty subjects and brings them to the screen in a lighthearted yet serious manner. Soul is tackling the metaphysical, philosophical topic of the soul while Onward grapples with two brothers who never knew their dad because he died when they were too young to remember him. Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey were the headliners for Soul. They didn’t talk in great depth about Soul other than introducing the concept of the movie, showing a beautiful clip of our new protagonist Joe Gardner. Lastly, they brought Tom Holland and Chris Pratt out to talk about Onward. They showed us about 10 minutes of the movie and I’m hooked – it looks phenomenal (I don’t want to spoil it for everyone by describing what we saw).
Disney Animation finished the panel by introducing us to Raya and the Last Dragon which looks like it will be a ground-breaking movie in terms of the quality of animation. We saw a short scene and it was breathtaking. That movie comes out late next year, so there will be plenty of time for the hype train starting on that one. The last movie showcased of the day was, of course, Frozen 2. We were treated to a new scene/song from the movie before being serenaded by the core cast with a song that may or may not be from the movie about “change.” It was a jam packed two and a half hours (it went 30 minutes long, but I don’t think anyone was complaining). At the conclusion we were all given exclusive posters for “The Rise of Skywalker,” “Frozen 2,” and “Onward.”
Later in the day Hall D23 had “The Disney On Broadway: In Concert” panel which packed the people in, but while that was happening I chose to go to the “Musical Journey of Disney’s Aladdin” panel in the D23 Arena. We were treated to performances by Aladdin’s from the original cartoon, the Broadway production, and the recent live action film. You can view much of the Aladdin music panel on the story highlights on our Instagram account.
Sunday (Day 3)
Sunday brought the much anticipated Parks panel. For us who call the Disneyland Resort Parks our home parks it was a bit of a letdown. They told us about a new parade coming in the spring of 2020 called “Magic Happens,” briefly touched on the new “Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway” ride coming to Toon Town. They also mentioned that the 2nd attraction in Avengers Campus will be an E-Ticket styled ride flying through Wakanda and fighting alongside the Avengers. There had been heavy rumors of a Tomorrowland refurbishment project, but nothing about Tomorrowland was mentioned, much to the dismay of the Disneyland Resort focused panel attendees. Guests were also shown some teaser clips of the Rise of the Resistance ride which is coming to Disneyland in January 2020. Perhaps most perplexing was a collaboration announcement between Target and the Disney Stores. Nobody was upset about the announcement, just perplexed why it was announced during the Parks panel. Epcot in Walt Disney World has a lot of changes coming. We personally have only been to Epcot one time, so I don’t want to comment or speculate on how good the changes coming to the Park are or aren’t. From an outsider’s perspective all the changes and updates look great.
At the end of the weekend, my feeling is that it was a successful D23 Expo. The exhibits on the show floor were good (my personal favorite show floor exhibit was the Disney Heroes and Villains Costume Exhibit), the panels were good, and the kinetic energy on the show floor was phenomenal. I was only able to experience the Disney Dream Store shopping experience because the lines were too long at Mickey of Glendale’s and Box Lunch. For a one-day attendee it was just prohibitive to wait that long, but the merchandise opportunities were definitely there for those who wanted to devote themselves to it. I can’t help but feel excitement for the opportunity to go to the next D23 Expo when it happens.
