Today, Friday, August 9th is the first day of the D23 Ultimate Disney Fan Event (UDFE)! Pronounced “Ooo-Duh-Fee!” The last D23 expo was in 2022. It is held every two years. Now we have UDFE! I was able to find out about the Lorcana exclusives from the website and the Lorcana night. This was my first objective. I walked past the Mickey sorceror hat statue by the fountains and then the queue into Hall A. This was the wait until the expo opened at 9 a.m. Then, it was a hustle down Hall B with Ravensburger next to the Avatar Pavilion. The crowd actually shut down the hall and the queue wound back to the other hall! It is just a waiting game of patience. Then, the queue moved and we were given wristbands to return at 2 p.m. The Avatar Pavilion was said to be a short wait, it had busts of Jake and Neytiri.
Then, a walk through the Pandoran jungle, nightsapes with bio-luminiscence. Including the purplish strands of the Tree of Souls. Past it was a sleek Thanator. Then, there was a screen showing the whale-like Tulkun with constant flow of water. It has a dedication to producer Jon Landau. Some Na’vi costumes followed with full size figures of Jake and Neytiri. Another screen with the flying skimwing. Then, a well lit Ikran and a scientist who carried a baby Ikran. I saw models of Ikran and then you were given a mini-poster. I just saw the outside of the Lucasfilm Pavilion. There was Professor Huyang and a Loth-cat in a case.
Shifting to the Disney Entertainment Showcase, this was the first time that it was held at the Honda Center, usually it is the arena at the Anaheim Convention Center. There was more control at the convention center. All of the attendees were released and then the crowd would just move to get posters at the exit. The Honda Center is a much larger venue and setting it at the end of the day rather at the beginning may mean the trailers could be released like Comic Con. There was a bracelet handed out that had interactive lighting that went off during the presentation. I didn’t arrive at the start, I had to wrangle to get past the others in the row, but I think it was an introduction by Bob Iger.
First up was the Moana 2 presentation which had Auli’i Cravalho come out and sing with Polynesian singers and dancers. She was of course was joined by her co-star, Dwayne Johnson, who had the crowd give out a loud, “Cheehoo!” Cravalho mentioned a new baby sister and finding new lands to unite th people. Then, the new trailer was shown, we get Moana trying to unite th peole acoss teh oceans as Wayfinder, then finding an island that will break a curse. She needs of course the help of Maui and faces again the Kakamora. Johnson also said it had “high emotional stakes.” He continued with his new action film, this had jets of flame at the stage, to announce the monster truck movie, Monster Jam.
Afterwards, James Cameron came on stage, emphasis was noted that he had just arrived from the set in New Zealand. He brought in Zoe Saldana. Then, Cameron showed concept art and the title of the new film, Avatar: Fire and Ash. Next, Pete Docter arrived, and noted the success of Inside Out 2. The is a new series, Dream Productions, which has a crew prepare dreams when Riley falls asleep. Docter then presented Pixar’s first original series, Win or Lose, which will debut on Disney+, December 6th. He was followed by Andrew Stanton who will write and direct Toy Story 5. The new sequel will have “Toy meets tech”, with the appeal of online games and phones over toys. 50 Buzz Lightyear toys have gone into rogue mode!
Then, Hoppers was presented Bobby Moynihan is the voice of Beaver, Piper Curda voices Mabel, and Major Jerry is played by Jon Hamm. Mabel is put into the brain of a robot beaver! The new Pixar film, Elio, had the young actor, Yonas Kibreab come out and also the actress who plays his aunt, Zoe Saldana. This moved to Disney Animation with Jennifer Lee who introduced Frozen 3 which she said answers many questions. Zootopia 2 brings us to the new part of the city, Marsh Market, which was previewed at the Disney Animation Pavilion. It was great to have Ginnifer Goodwin come out on stage and she said, “The bunny is back!” She said that reptiles are part of the story including the snake Gary! Then, it was announced that Ke Huy Quan voices him! A clip was shown of Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde, getting information from a walrus!
#D23, #UltimateDisneyFanEvent, #UDFE, #AvatarPavilion, #LucasfilmPavilion, #ProfessorHuyang, #LothCat, #DisneyPlusPavilion, #DoctorWho, Ncuti Gatwa, #MillieGibson, #PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians, #TaylorSwift, #TheErasTour
No comments:
Post a Comment