My husband Josh and I got to attend the D23 (Disney) Expo in Anaheim yesterday. I had gone to the first one two years ago and had fun, so I was really looking forward to going this year, and in costume. We decided to go as young Carl and Ellie from the Pixar movie “Up,” instead of Jack and Sally from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” simply because we figured all the makeup and wigs would get annoying really fast.  I’m so glad we chose that! But oh my goodness, we became instant celebrities. I can’t even tell you haow many photos we had taken of us, it was probably in the hundreds. We even got interviewed for the news, and videotaped by Pixar’s in-house cameramen, so I like to think that the artists there got to see our tribute to their work. 🙂 It was fun getting oohed and ahhed over, but boy, I sure would hate the papparazzi thing if I was really famous…it gets old fast!

I figured that we should get there a little early because we knew the Disney Studios presentation was at 10:30, and we wanted time to see the floor, so we arrived at about 7:45 am, walked around the corner, and saw….this:

Wha?!? Last year we walked right in, it wasn’t very crowded. This time, the line wrapped around the convention center…and we were early! I was shocked. But I knew the Arena held 4000 people, so I figured we’d make it into the presentation just fine. Not exactly…as soon as we got inside about an hour and a half later, they informed us that the arena was almost filled and they’d be cutting it off soon. Ack! Luckily, we JUST squeaked by, and they cut it off right behind us…phew! That was the ONE thing I really wanted to see, since I could only afford a one day ticket. They made us check in all our cameras and phones to prevent recording, which really makes no sense whatsoever and seems like a massive waste of time and space. I mean, really? If they wanted things kept secret, they wouldn’t announce them to thousands of fans who immediately run out and blog them afterwards. And the trailers they showed are out there anyway. Silly. It wouldn’t be any trouble to let us photograph, especially just to get a shot of the celebs! (The pics below are from various media outlets)

And there were celebs…we saw John Crier, Jennifer Garner, Taylor Kitch, Willem Dafoe, Billy Crystal (loooved him, his entrance was awesome…he first appeared in a video message w/ John Goodman, who said he was sorry they couldn’t attend. Then in the video, Billy looks at John and says “what do you mean? I’m gonna be there!” and walks onstage. Epic!).

Also the major Pixar guys (one of whom did the voices of Dug the dog, Roz, and Mr. Ray for us), Jason Segal, Kermit and Miss Piggy, Kevin McKidd, Scarlet Johannsen, Chris Helmsworth, and Robert Downey Jr. A lot, right? It was very cool.

After the Pixar portion, we were even surprised when they brought a big cake onstage to celebrate Pixar’s 25th year anniversary. Then one of the guys said “my mom always taught me if I bring cake, to bring enough for everyone,” and they handed out cupcakes to all 4000 of us! I was excited…they were decorated like little Luxo Jr. balls. Awww! 

The Studios presentation was a lot of fun; I loved seeing the upcoming projects on Disney and Pixar’s animated slate. Wreck-it Ralph looks cute, and Brave’s artwork is gorgeous…definitely wanna see that. Pixar also announced two untitled projects, a “dinosaur movie” that will take place “as if the asteroid never destroyed them” and a movie “that takes place inside the mind.” Hmm, interesting.

So waiting in line and attending the presentation took up most of the day, and we could tell that there was no way we’d make it into any of the smaller presentations. I would have liked to see the Imagineering ones, but people had already been lining up for hours. Sigh. I really wish Disney had planned this out better…or at least videotaped/broadcast the panels outside of the small rooms. Spending all day in line, and even then not getting in, sucks. We figured we wouldn’t even try, and thought we’d go see the show floor instead.

I have to say, the expo show floor was a little underwhelming compared to last time. It seemed like most of the focus was on “buy this!” There were probably 5 or 6 stores (and even those had long lines to get in) full of ridiculously overpriced things. I don’t care about collecting pins or vinylmation figures, so most of it didn’t interest me. There also weren’t many (if any) freebies, and the ones that were handed out (after more long lines) were kind of lame…plastic-y cheap tote bags or mouse pads. Woo hoo.

There were a few exhibits that stood out; I loved the animatronic booth with pirates, parrots, and a unicyclist high overhead…that was amazing! We saw quite a few semi-celebs, like Margaret Kerry, the model for Tinkerbell, and the cast of the original Tron movie. Also saw Bill Farmer, the voice of Goofy. I enjoyed watching some amazing artists paint and airbrush in real time, and was in awe of some of the gorgeous colors. Wow, I wish I could paint like that! I’d love to hang some of the pieces on my wall, but couldn’t afford anything I wanted, in the $500+ range. Ouch! Yet being an artist myself, I totally get why they’d charge that…it’s deserved. I was also quite impressed by the Fan Art, this year’s theme was 101 Dalmations. Look at this cute one make with layers of wood:

There were actually a lot more people doing cosplay than I thought, so we weren’t alone. I saw lots of princesses and Rapunzels, Alice and Mad Hatters, a few Indys, a murderous bride and gravekeeper from the haunted mansion, the “redhead” from the Pirates ride, “pinup princesses”, various Ariels (I loooved this girl’s idea, Ariel in the rope dress)

…and even found a Russell from Up to go with us! Yes!

I even heard there was a drag queen going around who was dressed up with pieces of every princess. I would have loved to see that.

All in all, it was a fun day, but there were a lot of things I think Disney could have (and should have) done differently. Something needs to be addressed about the whole line system/people not getting into popular panels unless they stand in line all day and even then aren’t guaranteed…likely releasing videos of the panels or broadcasting them on tvs outside the rooms. But I think the biggest difference I noticed this year is that it kind of felt like a big giant store…the focus seemed to be on getting us to buy more and more, and less on the announcements and history and love of Imagineering. I mean, it’s great to be able to get exclusive merchandise, but I would have rather seen all that store space occupied by some neat exhibit or another panel space…I had spent enough money that day already, with purchasing tickets, plus paying for membership, and expensive convention center food. What I love the most is the behind-the-scenes look at things and tidbits about the history.

So we had fun, and I’ll probably go again next time, because, well, it’s Disney. ‘Nuff said. I just hope it’s a little better organized. There were some fun things to see, and I took pictures of some of the fun exhibits (including the Disney Archives and set pieces from Lost), so if you’d like to see my album, you can visit it here:

D23 Expo 2011