It hasn’t exactly been a bellweather summer for the House of Mouse. Yeah, TOY STORY 5 had a moment but in hindsight its success was neither as extended nor as monetarily monumental as what we’ve seen from just about everything at Universal old and new and even what we just got from SPIDER-MAN that Sony has extracted a significant amount of their own upside from. THE MANDOLARIAN AND GORGU and the live-action MOANA sent their franchises significantly backwards. Pretty much nothing has broken though on Hulu nor Disney Plus in either tonnage or zeitgeist, and ABC has made more news with its ongoing battle with Brendan Carr than it has for anything on its air since the NBA Finals ended. And Bob Iger has already found a much cooler new gig, which puts him way ahead of the thousands of Disney employees that new czar Josh D’Amaro bid ta-ta to.
But you wouldn’t likely be giving that even a second of a second thought had you been among the zealots who last night made their way to the convention center that literally sits across the street from Disneyland’s main gate and the nearby arena that typically houses the once-Mighty Ducks that Disney also cut ties with for the opening night of D23, which the appropriately named MICKEYBLOG.com enthusiastically described thusly:
The Ultimate Disney Fan Event is a weekend full of Disney fun, with over 50 panels, immersive experiences, and the largest show floor ever…D23 is Disney’s official fan club event where the company reveals major updates across its brands, including Disney Parks, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and more.
Big Announcements Expected:
✨New Disney Parks attractions and expansions
⭐️Upcoming Marvel and Star Wars projects
✨Pixar and Disney Animation film updates
⭐️Exclusive first looks and trailers
Exclusive Merchandise:
Limited-edition collectibles, pins, apparel, and D23-exclusive items are available only to attendees.
🎭 Fan Experiences:
✨Character meet-and-greets
⭐️Immersive photo ops
✨Interactive exhibits and themed displays
📺 How to Participate at Home!
🖥️ Stream official Disney presentations and panels online
📱 Follow Disney’s social channels & @mickeybl0g for real-time updates and announcements
🎥 Watch trailers, sneak peeks, and surprise reveals as they drop
If your juices are flowing more rapidly from that hype, you’re likely of the special breed that “reporters” such as TOTAL FILM’s Lauren Milici seems to be cut from. Witness the giddy recap she dropped early this morning:
The Disney Entertainment Showcase at D23 has come to a close! The 2+ hour mega-panel featured news and announcements from across the full spectrum of Disney studios, so it wasn’t just the Marvel and Star Wars show… but there’s no question that Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm were the night’s biggest highlights. For one, Marvel finally revealed the much-rumored X-Men cast. Some were expected (especially if you’ve seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day), but there were also some Adam Driver-shaped surprises too… Meanwhile, from Lucasfilm we finally got an Ahsoka season 2 trailer, and a behind-closed-doors glimpse at Star Wars: Starfighter.
Witness how she opened up several of the live blog entries she practically exploded into her interface between 6:48 PM Friday and 1:10 AM Saturday:
8:12 PM – Whoa. The first look at the layout for the X-Mansion as seen in Avengers: Doomsday is on display at the TVA experience at the Marvel booth.
8:37 PM – Star Wars is ready for D23! The official Twitter account posted a brief walk-through video of the Lucasfilm Pavilion, and it includes everyone’s favorite little guy Babu Frik (and yes, Baby Yoda is there, too… but he’s not in talking animatronic form like the cute little Anzellans).
10:19 PM – Is that Rosario Dawson holding up a new poster for Ahsoka season 2?!
10:35 PM – After much delay, the panel has begun! Ginnifer Goodwin and Ke Huy Quan are the hosts.
10:46 PM – A sneak peek at the upcoming Simpsons movie was shown! It’ll be titled…. The New Simpsons Movie, which is quite on the nose.
And so it droned on. You can pore through the balance at your own risk, assuming your sugar high can handle it.
One no longer has to wonder why D’Amaro essentially gutted the experienced marketers across the company as a significant chunk of his “right-sizing”. With that many exclamation points and details being overshared by ostensible media who aren’t on his payroll, who really needs them anyhow?
And when one considers the price point that fans were willing to shell out merely to have the opportunity for those fan experiences and to run up their credit cards for all of that swag and merch, all things considered this was one of the few positive cash flow days for D’Amaro and Disney since the last solstice.
I’ve never not amazed at the degree of addiction that Disney has inflicted upon otherwise well-intentioned families who have been known to cash into entire IRAs for vacations, cruises and these days even FAST passes. A typical day at a theme park for a family of four can now easily run into four figures. So what’s another $300 or even $1300 to merely see a bunch of trailers about stuff that won’t be seeing the actual light of day for a year or more?
But I would like to remind those who are in attendance or even merely following online as ordered by Mickey about the fact that whomever you may be seeing proudly wearing their Mickey Mouse badge are more than likely a temporary employee or at best a much less seasoned and far less compensated person than the ones you might have rubbed shoulders with in recent years past. This summer’s results are a grim reminder that hype, much like ice, melts quickly and by the time it’s ready to be served up it has often disintegrated into inconsequence. Out of sight, out of mind. And with far fewer people to actually strategize campaigns that don’t simply preach to this sort of choir it’s gonna fall far more on your shoulders to amplify your own enthusiasm to any meaningful extent. Folks like Milici, or BAM! SOCK! POW!’s Cody Schultz, or even the allegedly mainstream Casey Loving and Drew Taylor of THE WRAP can only do much.
There’s two more days left this weekend, and a coupla pretty jammed agendas. You want to give whomever you might be taking a selfie with a better-than-even chance they might be around next August? Start sharing now. Feel free to start with this. And hey, Disney, maybe throw me a day pass for at least doing my part now?
Until next time…