And just like that….it was done. Yes, day 4 of the first ever D23 Expo has come to an end. Okay, technically its ending as I’m writing this (I didn’t stay for the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 screening). Summing up the whole thing is nearly impossible. Overall, it was a great experience with many really cool moments to remember. Big announcements were made, unseen footage shown, and lots of cool panels and exhibits were viewed by the Disney fan masses. On the last day, we all kind of knew what to expect and had the whole thing figured out (just in time for it to end).
The day, for me, started in the big arena with the Disney Animation and Pixar presentation by John Lasseter. There weren’t really any announcements, apart from the Winnie-the-Pooh feature film. I did like the idea that they are going to use the same style as the original films, water painted backgrounds and all. Most of the other films previewed we had already heard about. They did show all kinds of footage, including a scene from the second half of The Princess and the Frog. This scene showed Lewis, the trumpet playing crocodile, singing a song with the two lead characters, and I thought it was a nice little number. We also got details on the plot for Toy Story 3, which will involve Andy going to college and the Toys sent to a horrible daycare center. Apparently, Buzz will also be reset into Spanish mode for at least part of the film, which seemed pretty funny. Lasseter also showed some new Car Toons (cute, but not my favorite) and discussed the plot for Cars 2, which will take the Cars on a world racing tour, during which Mater gets caught up in an international espionage plot. The footage that excited me the most though, was the very rough compilation of concept art and test footage for Rapunzel. The art is simply stunning, and the test animation has a really cool look. Sure its CG, but even in its early form you get the feel that it is almost hand painted. It is a different artistic take on computer animation than we’ve seen before and it could be special.
Next on the schedule was the Imagineering Pixar for the Parks panel with a bunch of Imagineers and John Lasseter. It became apparent that besides Johnny Depp, Lasseter is the rock star at the Expo. I arrived for the panel an hour before hand and was in the stand by line. Luckily, I got in and it was an okay discussion. Mostly, it was a recap of the history of Pixar in the theme parks with a little talk about the new Carsland for DCA. The best part of this panel was Lasseter talking about his philosophy regarding theme park attractions. Essentially, he believes that quality and creativity should be a higher priority than budget and finance. I’m going to paraphrase something Lasseter said that was pretty awesome. Basically, he said he was in a meeting with some of the finance executives and he was told that they were going to have to cut some aspects of a ride that he felt were necessary to make the ride great. He asked them how they were going to put people at the end of the attraction and explain that there were cuts that need to be made and that’s why the ride was a “piece of crap.” The crowd gave a huge applause for this and if that doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will.
The night ended with a fairly lackluster presentation for Toy Story 3. Both the director and producer were there to tell us about it but, unfortunately, most of the information was already told to us during the morning presentation. They did show some new test animation and to top off the whole thing, they showed a scene from the beginning of the film in a work-in-progress form. They told us it was the most of the film anyone has seen outside of the Disney Company. In the scene, Andy is packing up his room to go to college and must decide what to do with all his toys. In a mix-up the bag of toys gets sent to the curb to be picked up by the garbage truck. Woody, who is left behind (Andy is going to take him to college), races to save the toys while they all try to escape from the trash bag. The scene ends with the bag being thrown into the back of the garbage truck and crushed as Woody looks on helplessly. It was a cliffhanger, but that is how they left us and in a way it was a nice way to end the expo. Now, we all have to wait, in anticipation, for next year.
Columnist, Ryan Weeda, of WDW Daily News, summarizing the days happenings at the end of each day at the Expo.
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