D23 Wrap Up

Yesterday, KT and I went to D23 aka Disney Con! It was a lot of fun, like a mini Comic Con. Here's a review of everything we saw.

Muppet Presentation
One of the heads of Jim Henson came to chat about what the Muppets have been up to recently, and what they're going to be doing soon. I've been a muppet fan since I was kid, so it was great to see that they're still going strong! I was really impressed with their digital work - check out Muppets.com for their viral videos and other content. This video of theirs won a 2009 Webby and is pretty funny.



I'm sad they didn't touch on The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made more than just a throwaway mention. I guess getting Jason Siegel to come chat about it would've been too much, since they're filming How I Met Your Mother in NYC.

Toy Story Mania Wii Game
It's just like the game at California Adventure! It's a lot of fun, and they even had it in 3D! My only complaint is that there were so many objectives to complete within the game, that it was hard to keep track. I ended up just shooting at everything instead of trying to specifically complete the tasks. But I had a whole lot of fun anyway!

103 inch 3D Home Theater
They showed some 3D Disney trailers on tv sets that will be available starting next year. The trailers weren't anything new, but it was really neat to see them on an home television set instead of a large movie theatre. The screen we watched it on is one of only 4 screens released in the entire US. While it was really impressive, and a great idea to have 3D capabilities at home. I just don't know if it'd be worth all that extra money.

Modern Family
This show was hilarious! It's sort of in that documentary style, but not as obtrusively as The Office or Arrested Development. I still see Al Bundy whenever I see Ed O'Neill, though. I would watch this show, but it's on Wednesday nights at 9pm and that's when Glee is on. Wednesday is looking to be my most packed TV night with America's Next Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, Glee, and maybe Eastwick. But, that's what hulu is for, I guess. If you're Wednesday nights isn't as packed as mine, I recommend you check it out.

FlashForward
The hype around this show is completely deserved. It was an engrossing hour with great acting from Joseph Fiennes and John Cho especially. I'm intrigued to see what's going to happen next. I hope this gets viewers, because if this show lives up to its potential I could see it becoming the next LOST. Tune in for the series premiere on Sept 24th, 9pm. I'll probably watch it when it airs, just because it was so good.

Toy Story Panel
The Toy Story panel is the main reason I went to D23! We got to see an extended, never-before-seen clip from Toy Story 3 which was AMAZING. It ended way too soon and I am so excited to see the rest of the film. We also got to see Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D weeks before it's October 2nd release in theaters. The movies looked great, but you can tell they weren't originally designed to be in 3D just because there are no scenes that truly take advantage of the medium. Toy Story 3 probably won't have that problem though, since it was always intended to be in 3D.

Overall, it was a great day! I wish I could have gone for more since they had some great panels with Robert Zemickis, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and for Prince of Persia. Maybe next year I'll go for more than just the one day.

[image courtesy of Disney]