D23 Expo

Disney seems to be at every convention lately, announcing something huge and exciting.  Lesser known than say San Diego Comic-con or E3 is D23–a convention for Disney and only Disney.  This of course means huge properties like Marvel, Star Wars, Disney Parks, Pixar, Disney Animation, and of course The Mouse in general are expected to have showings.  Most importantly, however, Sub-Cultured is going to be there this year, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Jen, Jeremy and Sam will all be in attendance for Saturday and Sunday’s convention showings, and they’re all looking forward to something different. Jeremy is looking forward to video game and Star Wars announcements, and possibly getting a shot at playing Battlefield. Jen can’t wait to see the archival stage, and find out behind the scenes secrets of Disney parks and movies. Sam will spend his weekend blending the two styles, with some historical panels combined with lots of video gaming.

For those of you not quite in the know, D23 is a Disney insiders club that was created as a very exclusive group that has recently been opened to everyone.  There are two tiers gold and silver.  Gold has more benefits obviously but you pay for those benefits.  Silver is free but gives you access to some fun things still.

Here’s our schedule for the weekend:

The “Good thing the show closes or he would not sleep” of D23: Jeremy

Jeremy’s plan is to see as much as possible–it will be a crazy whirlwind weekend.  He’s starting bright and early on Saturday with the One Little Spark: Ten Commandments, the road to Imagineering, followed by Disney on Broadways: “The Originals”. The Broadway concert will be a great way to see the actors who originated some of our favorite Disney roles on the stage. Welcome to Zootopia will hopefully give us a sneak peak at the upcoming Disney film about a world without humans. The Walt Disney Parks and Resorts will hopefully reveal the updates coming for Star Wars, Avatar and Marvel additions.  Toy Story In Retrospect will be interesting to see what they think of the movie franchise that put Pixar on the map.  Aladdin: Making a classic will be equally fun because it is objectively the best Disney sound track(think about it, we did… a lot).  At some point he plans to see the show floor as well.  All of that is just Saturday.

Sunday doesn’t slow down the content party at all.  Disney Kingdoms is a comic book collection that tells the stories of the park attractions.  Disney Interactive Takes the Stage on Sunday and we’ll hear all about Battlefront, Kingdom Hearts 3, Disney Infinity 3.0; need more be said?  Disneyland: Fond Memories of the Past sounds like it should be a great talk about the old attractions of Disneyland.  Disney in concert: A Silly Symphony Celebration, a fun, silly concert, yes please.  Best of Destination D, the tunes behind the toons. Clearly the music of Disney has always been one of its stronger creative areas.  With all this running around it is a good thing Jeremy’ll be travelling all the next day and will have time to relax because it promises to be one hell of a weekend.

The Historian of D23: Jen

Jen is just as ambitious an attendee, but has fairly different tastes.  She starts out the same as Jeremy with one little Spark and Disney on Broadway, but from there she plans to move onto the archival stage- new addition to the D23 festivities. On the Archival stage she plans to see Disney Animation: Preservation-Restoration-Reconstruction, Bringing the Past Back to Life: Recreating Disney’s History in a Virtual Setting, In conversation: Council of Disney Archivists.

Sunday starts again with Disney Kingdoms and Its Game time. From there she’s considering standing on line for what will surely be the biggest show on Sunday: Frozen Fandemonium. If she hasn’t Let It all Go, she’ll return to see Tunes behind the Toons.  No matter what she sees it will be amazing!

The Go With The Flow-er of D23: Sam

Sam lives in Anaheim and spends a lot of time in Disneyland, so this weekend is mostly about going with the flow for him. He plans to see a fair mix of new announcements (like Disney parks and Resorts, and Disney Interactive) as well as revisiting some of his old favorites on the archival stage. Sunday he plans to do little other than playing Battlefield and sharing everything he learns with you, as he live-tweets from the show floor.

All three of our roving reporters will share up-to-the-minute reports from panels and shops, exhibits and previews. Follow us on Twitter and facebook to catch all the content coming out of this year’s D23 with Sub-Cultured.

Jeremy Harris
Contributor
Jeremy@sub-cultured.com

Jen Schiller
Staff Writer
@Jenisaur

Sam Smith
Staff Writer
@Samwasbornanerd