Sadly, no. The restoration panel on Sunday was an overview of what the restoration process is, along with a focus on the 4K restorations of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella. Was hoping for some sort of announcement, but the most we got was just that restorations are still an active part of Disney's work. If we wanted to read further into some of the stills selection, then maybe we might get Mary Poppins? One of the stills during the presentation was a whole stack of film reels all labeled Mary Poppins. But they also showed a picture of a stack of reels housing personal home videos from Walt Disney, so it may just have been used as an example.Were there any home media announcements at D23 this year? I haven’t heard anything. Before the expo, there was speculation on this forum that a Sleeping Beauty 4K might be announced and similarly, I was hoping a Mary Poppins 4K might be announced at that movie’s panel.
Any announcements or any rumblings about anything?
The other vague nugget of information I got this year was from Randy Thornton, who gave an hourlong lecture for Mary Poppins entitled The Road to Cherry Tree Lane. We ran into him hanging out at the Disney Music Emporium later, he was kind enough to sign that $300 Mary Poppins LP set that my friend Steve had just purchased. During our talk (mostly me and Aaron fawning over his lecture), I asked if we'd see more Legacy Collection titles get a vinyl like Mary Poppins. He said they're still trying to get more titles out on CD, but didn't say which ones. So, again this is a maybe, but I'd take it as indirect confirmation again that the Legacy Collection line is still active, just very slow going in getting new titles out there. Another Disney Music Emporium cast member there also made an off-hand remark about The Sword in the Stone as if it were already out in The Leagcy Collection, but he might have been confusing it with Robin Hood. Either way, if The Sword in the Stone is coming but not yet announced, that could also be confirmation.
Adding to the list of vague maybe coming, but we can't say news, the directors of Not Just a Goof were part of the Making A Goofy Movie panel and showed more clips of their documentary. The panel was a great mix of both reminiscing from the cast/crew as well as getting more of the word out about the documentary thanks to all the behind-the-scenes material they compiled for it. A lot of it came from Kevin Lima himself as he personally recorded a lot of things that Disney otherwise didn't think to save. At the end of the panel, before the "Nobody Else But You" performance (by Bill Farmer and his own son Austin), they made mention of looking for possible homes for the documentary on streaming platforms, but nothing concrete yet. I'd just as soon accept a physical media release, honestly, but if I have to pay to own the film digitally on Prime Video, I'll gladly do that, too.
With five D23 Expos now under my belt, I've learned to navigate the lines, pick and choose the panels I know will interest me, and make time to walk the show floor to see the experiences, shops, and celebrities without ever feeling overwhelmed by it all. This one was probably my least stressful Expo yet, and certainly one with a lot of unexpected run-ins and fun memories. Waved to Floyd Norman (and he waved back at me) as he stood at the balcony of Club 33. Shared an elevator with half the cast of Descendants: The Rise of Red as they were staying at my hotel. Ran into Josh D'Amaro no less than three times during my entire week. Chatted briefly with Don Hahn at an escalator. Said hi to Jodi Benson very briefly in between a meet-and-greet she had. Took a selfie with Eric Goldberg right before the restoration panel. Walked behind Tony Baxter for about fifteen seconds before realizing it was him. Literally bumped into Josh Strickland and James Michael Scott on the show floor. Admired Manny Jacinto from afar when he was at Lucasfilm's The Volume stage. Continued my D23 Expo tradition of bumping into Margaret Kerry and being so embarrassed that I never see her before I run into her so I just slink back without saying another word. Yep, fun times.
Despite my initial lofty goals of attending five panels per day, I ended up with just eight in total (three each on Friday and Sunday, two on Saturday), but they were the panels I most wanted to see anyway so I was satisfied.
The Muppets 70: A Glamorous Miss Piggy Retrospective was my first panel of the weekend, opening my Friday morning. It kind of blends together a celebration of the Muppets' 70th anniversary (actually next year) with learning about when items are added to Walt Disney Archives. The focus was primarily on props and costumes relating to Miss Piggy, but there was a fair amount of broader discussion of artifacts and props from Muppet Studios that are now in the Walt Disney Archives. A very fun way to begin the weekend.
As mentioned earlier, the Making A Goofy Movie: The Road to Lake Destiny was a two-fold type of panel, as we got to see clips from the new documentary along with the recollections from the cast and crew. This panel made everyone cry by the end. Parenthood was the theme of the hour, particularly how it's presented through a traditionally-comic character like Goofy. So seeing Bill Farmer sing "Nobody Else But You" with his own son Austin brought tears to everyone's eyes, especially as you realize that's literally Max and Goofy in real life.
The Disney Entertainment Showcase was what it was. Honestly, every year I wonder why I even attend the "here's what's coming!" panels when they get more and more hollow every year. I don't need to be in the room watching a celebrity trotted out for 2 minutes to pretend they're excited for their movie.
Saturday started off with Unusual Artwork from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library. If you've ever navigated through a Disney DVD still gallery, you get an hourlong version of that here, culled from a huge variety of films and shorts. I enjoyed the (occasionally corny) narration from the two ARL cast members, as they talked about what is housed at the ARL, how they handle and store the more unusual pieces, and their own favorite pieces - along with material now lost that they wish they had. For example, a lot of the silent Alice comedies' art work does not exist as the sketches and drawings were reused in some fairly odd ways for later shorts.
The Road to Cherry Tree Lane: Walt Disney's Mary Poppins hosted by Randy Thornton took a unique approach to the traditional making-of story for Mary Poppins. Rather than just start at the beginning of production, Thornton began with Walt's daughters first encountering the book, and his initial interest to adapt it, along with Travers' refusal of the film rights. Then he walked us through the way that Disney's productions evolved and diversified throughout the next twenty years before he was able to secure the film rights. And how even during that evolution, he was finessing technology, hiring talent, and branching beyond animation. All to create the most perfect example of "A Walt Disney Film" if ever there was one. As Thornton had produced the 2004 and 2014 Mary Poppins soundtracks, there was a little overlap when it came to him talking about the Travers/Sherman/DaGradi story meetings, but within the context of this lecture as a whole, it took on a whole new meaning. He even made a compelling defense for Saving Mr. Banks as a dramatic piece that best captures the spirit of those story meetings. And his personal friendship with Richard Sherman lent us to a few stories that are otherwise not in the usual DVD documentaries. Honestly, it was probably my favorite panel of the entire weekend because he was so passionate about it, since Mary Poppins is his favorite film of all time. And it was the second panel to bring the audience to tears, as he closed it out with an audio recording of Richard Sherman on the piano playing "Feed the Birds," framing it in the context of "this is the way that Walt heard it every Friday, and so imagine, if you can, being on the lot, just sitting down in the office, and asking him to play it." It was a fitting way to end the panel and pay tribute to Richard, who had died two months ago.
I didn't attend the Disney Experiences Showcase on Saturday night, opting instead to spend the evening in Disneyland. However, I got all the news in real time thanks to social media. Honestly, I might do this again at the next Expo. There's nothing more fun than watching Fantasmic on Rivers of America while learning about a new land, or getting in line for a Fantasyland dark ride and getting updates from my co-worker about the new nighttime parade coming to Walt Disney World. Being in the park to learn about upcoming park experiences certainly seemed more fun than sitting in Honda Center for a mix of concert performances I don't need to see and park announcements that instantly get shared online.
Sunday's two panel's were both historical again. Disney historian Jim Fanning gave an hourlong lecture for Inside the Walt Disney Studios: A Cinemagical History, walking us first through the Hyperion days before they moved to the current lot in Burbank, as well as notable productions that featured the lot. It made me want to revisit a lot of the old live-action classics since this was basically akin to a walking studio tour, not just in the lot's current phase, but seeing it in construction, seeing it in Walt's days, seeing it modified and changed over time for different productions. Of the historic studio lots in Southern California, I still have yet to tour Disney's, as I've been to Universal, Paramount, Warner, and Sony. (The 20th Century Fox Studio Lot is not open to the public for tours, sadly.) So attending this panel felt like a virtual tour of that lot.
Finally, Restoring the Disney Animation Classics closed out my panels at the Anaheim Convention Center. As mentioned at the beginning, it was primarily just a discussion about what goes into film restoration and preservation, with a focus on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella. What I liked about this panel was the continued assurance that restoration is not done on the whims of "how do we make it look great?" but rather on "how do we make it look as it originally did?" They talked a lot about how restorations constantly need to be undertaken because technology advances and improves, and the limitations of the tech make what might have been acceptable in, say, 1988 now look unacceptable today. There was also some fun, winking references to how Cinderella's restoration is far and away better than what was done in 2005 by sheer virtue of getting the color of her dress and hair correct.
Because I did the restoration panel, I was late in arriving for the Disney Legends Ceremony. To be honest, I liked all the inductees and their speeches, but by the end of the weekend, I was just too tired to really pay as close attention as I normally would have. It was funny seeing which inductee stuck to their script (acceptance speeches were pre-written so they could be read from a teleprompter). James Cameron outright ignored what he wrote, and by the time he did go back to the script, he went off it again, leaving whoever handled the teleprompter very pissed off as they just turned it off rather than try to find the spot again. Also, presenters occasionally ad-libbed material that wasn't pre-written, including a lovely bit from Anika Noni Rose where she asked us to all close our eyes and listen to her voice, explaining how Mark Henn doesn't draw them, but he draws their voices. Or something akin to that, this is now nearly a week in memory and I don't want to pull up that segment on Disney+ right now. Ryan Coogler had a whole pre-written introduction for Angela Bassett, but chose to ad-lib it all. Unlike James Cameron, where it felt like he was giving the finger to protocol, Coogler not following the script felt more genuine. He was basically just talking to the audience on a fan-to-fan level, about how his upbringing and childhood and awe of Angela Bassett in films is what made him admire her for so long.
All in all, it was a fun weekend, and I'm glad I was able to go. Here's looking to 2026 and whatever news it might bring.
Alby
Statistics: Posted by Escapay — Thu Aug 15, 2024 9:45 pm