Sunday, July 29, 2007

Observations On San Diego's Fantasyland Part 1...


Greetings everyone...

Back from Comic-Con where my friends and I had a great time wandering San Diego. The only problem is that the event has gotten so big since we first started going that it was difficult to move(attendance has doubled since we started going). I met up with several friends and a few Imagineers I know.

I love attending all the panels, the movies, the television shows, the comics, the dealers on the floor and all things there that are Disney(which is really only a small part), but every year when they have people come to ask questions I cringe. Not because of the silly, sometime very elaborate costumes, but what they ask. Some questions are just boring, while others make you wonder how these people's mother let them out of their basement. All in all, it was a fun, silly and sometimes embarrassing affair. Over the course of the day we got to talk and see many things(most non-Disney related). The Warner Brothers panel featuring Zach Snyder's "Watchmen" presentation was great except everyone was a little disappointed there was no "Dark Knight" presence. I got to hear from the director of one of my favorite movies "Blade Runner", when Ridley Scott, cast and crew spoke at a panel about the new DVD release. There was a large "Pirates of the Caribbean" presence on the main floor with a huge pirate ship and hi-def screens advertising the upcoming Blu-Ray disc of the film. Disney's presence was very clear here, although I surprised at how little there was related to movies like "Enchanted" or "National Treasure 2". It's clear though that Disney as well as the other studios are looking to this built in audience as a major place to do promotion for future projects.

There was a Pixar panel that announced the release on November 6th of the first 13 Pixar shorts on a DVD. A nice, little history of the company was presented as well.

I bumped into an idol of mine on the floor. Ron Clements, the co-director of "Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "Hercules" and the forthcoming "Princess and the Frog" was there with his lovely wife. Both were very nice, very gracious and quite patient with my fawning praise upon him.

Next time I'll cover the panel on "Narnia: Prince Caspian" and Pixar's "Wall-E" as well as a few things I've found out over burgers and beers...

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