Many people think that the D23 EXPO is sessions, pavilions and shopping. Well, yes, of course, but it’s a lot more. When chatting with someone who said she could not stand waiting in all of those lines, I told her very matter-of-factly that she could have taken less than ten steps on to the Show Floor, stopped, and been entertained for the entirety of the the Exposition. (All photos courtesy of D23)

That big empty expanse in the photo above is the Center Stage viewing area. It was just inside Hall C during D23 EXPO 2015. Waaay up ahead, you can see the stage and a video screen. This is pre-opening, by the way. This view was impossible during operating hours. From Friday opening to Sunday closing, this one area held some amazing entertainment for Disney fans of all sorts of ages and interests.

I’ve kind of grouped these together by subject, and some of these, like some of the dance parties, the American Tourister Hidden Mickey Challenge, Jedi Training Academy and a few other things, repeated several times during the Expo; content was a varied mix throughout the weekend.

A Fresh and Fun Start

Radio Disney Welcomes You to D23 EXPO started off Saturday and Sunday with a very brief (and a little loud, if you’re over 30) hello, and got things rolling.

Radio Disney Junior’s popular DJ Genevieve Goings hosted several showings of Radio Disney Jr with songs we all love from DJ Shuffle vol 1&2 and Choo Choo Soul. If we have toddlers or preschoolers, that is. She signed autographs later, as did most of the talent that appeared on Center Stage.

This was a great way to get the ants out of the pants of little ones if standing in lines was in the near future as well.

Do You Know That Voice?

Another great thing for the smaller set was Disney Jr. Story Time: the Secret Library with Ariel Winter (voice of Sofia from Sofia the First) and A Dragon’s Best Friend with Loretta Devine (voice of Halle from Doc McStuffins) reading a story to kids during Disney Junior Story Time, featuring, naturally, characters from their television shows.

Live Musical Performances

“Fine,” you say. “But what if I’m not five years old? What if I’m TEN years old? Or twelve?” Don’t fear. Radio Disney was there, with DJs playing songs and making appearances, but best of all for the tween set, there were some amazing live performances that made all their friends SO JELLY when they went back to school Monday.

Olivia Holt from the hit Disney Channel show I Didn’t Do It rocked Center Stage on the 14th with a fantastic cover of “Uptown Funk” and got an enthusiastic reception (to say the least) from her audience of teens and tweens.

Former Clear Channel aka IHeartRadio Up and Coming Stars Before You Exit also played Friday. It was difficult to hear the music above the screams, which I could hear almost back to the MiceChat booth in the back of Hall B. Almost.

Bea Miller’s new album Not an Apology’s been out about five minutes, but she’s apparently Radio Disney’s NBT (“next big thing”, to those of us in the Vault Disney set). I was not there to see her performance, but an mp3 of it is burning up the download sites, which is both a good thing and a bad thing, depending upon what you do for a living and how you are able to leverage and/or spin the information.

Sabrina Carpenter, star of the buzzy hit Girl Meets World, put on a great performance Saturday at 12:30, performing songs from her album Eyes Wide Open. Surprise! Her sister Sarah joined her onstage as well!

Two of the stars of the huge hit Disney’s Descendants, Dove Cameron & Sofia Carson wowed the crowd:

Finally, the cast of Teen Beach Party 2 sang, danced, and pulled fans onstage to join in the fun.

Newsworthy Announcements

While the press was, for the most part, elsewhere, there were some pretty big announcements made. Well, big if there weren’t other huge announcements like Star Wars Land and such being made the same weekend. First was a special announcement from Disney VISA from a galaxy far far away . . . Star Wars VISA cards!

The other announcement was for a campaign to help Cinderella reach a million words of kindness “…this online initiative invites fans everywhere to pledge their commitment to be courageous and kind in the hopes of achieving “A Million Words of Kindness” in time for World Kindness Day on November 13th, 2015…”

The Special D23 EXPO Edition

Many attendees may have passed on Jedi Training Academy because they had seen it inside a Disney park. Big mistake. This was the Special D23 EXPO Edition, and it had some special things that one didn’t ordinarily find during the shows in Tomorrowland or at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:

So even if you think you might know something, make sure, because at the D23 EXPO, everything Disney is extra-special!

Demonstrations and Presentations

Most of my Facebook friends have been playing with the Show Your Disney Side app, and I have to say, most of my gentleman friends make spectacular Maleficents. Very malevolent and burly indeed. Attendees got to experiment with the app in front of several hundred of their close friends:

The Just Dance: Disney Party 2 Experience had players hopping around, arms and legs flying, looking like they were having a ball!

I don’t know how long the Mousequerade took, or how long the wait was to get in. If you just wanted to cut to the chase, there was a Procession and Presentation of the winners not too long after the event, right on Center Stage, no waiting necessary.

Making Magic

First, literally. Magician Todd Migliacci appeared onstage for several sets throughout the Expo, the winner of Walt Disney World’s “Best Specialty Act” made a repeat appearance this year. The charming young Massachusetts-based prestidigitator is also one of us, a Disney fan, often wearing a Mickey t-shirt under his vest or a teeny Mickey pin that only sharp-eyed audience members will notice.

Live Painting is a Thing right now, and as you know, they had Shane Grammer working his magic over at the Walt Disney Birthplace booth all three days of the Expo. Well, over at Center Stage, they had not one, but two doses of the breathtaking Disney Fine Art LIVE! Featuring Trevor Carlton and Stephen Fishwick. The two artists created Disney works of art simultaneously, twice over two days.

The triumphant return of Record Your Personal greeting with Bill Rogers means that a lot of my friends’ voicemail greetings are going to sound very familiar to me. I always end up missing this. I really want to find that guy who sounds like Rex Allen…

So Many Contests

If you were in a competitive mood, there were plenty of opportunities for you to test your mettle.

The American Tourister Hidden Mickey Challenge: Contestants had to paw through densely-packed luggage to find a teensy little Mickey. Whomever found it first was the winner!

For the Disney Inquizitive Trivia Challenge, contestants used questions from the new app, Disney Inquizitive from DisneyGames

Name that Disney Tune with Lisa Donahey, pretty self-explanatory, and one I know several of my friends could waltz away with. Donahey sang in Tangled, acted in the Haunted Mansion video game, voiced various and sundry Disney Princesses and perfect Cast Members in all sorts of projects, and was in the Groundlings, so she was a great choice for the job.

And the ultimate skill-based contest for Center Stage, Your Wish Can Come True. Amateur songbirds were invited to come try out to sing live with the singing voice of Aladdin, Brad Caleb Kane…and they DID!

Coming Attractions

We also got a look into the future of Disney entertainment; Paul Rudish came onstage to talk about his Mickey Mouse shorts. Do you like the Mickey Mouse shorts? Would you like to see the guy who made them talk about them and show you a sneak peek of the next, unreleased one? That’s exactly what happened.

“When You Wish Upon a Coin” is completely disrespectful to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs revered place in Disney history, and if I hadn’t been laughing so hard, I would have been outraged! I know some traditionalists don’t care very much for the new Mickey Mouse shorts, but core Mickey remains unchanged. This is just a riff on his character, and it’s a hilarious one. I hope it lasts.

The Lion Guard crew showed up as well: Executive Producers Don Hahn (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) and Executive Producer/writer Ford Riley(Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi, Recess) talked about the premise of the new show, which is being directed by Howy Parkins (Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). This Disney Junior series will start with a movie, The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar. Kion, the younger of Simba and Nala’s two cubs, gathers a group of various animal friends to protect the Pride Lands. As an added treat, Beau Black and his band appeared onstage to perform an original song from the series.

Animation Academy

If you are a serious Disney fan, any one of the following three presentations is worth a day’s admission in itself. It is almost unheard of to be able to get a lecture or a drawing lesson from a Master Animator, let alone a Disney Legend, unless you cough up big bucks for a charity or grant scholarship fundraiser or what have you. But at the D23 EXPO, you walked up and watched, no extra fee, no waiting in line. This was something to tell the grandkids (if they’re Disney fans) about.

Andreas Deja – Learn to Draw. I was lucky enough to have been able to attend one of Andreas Deja’s animation lectures as part of the Marc Davis series with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is something I will never forget. He was such an excellent teacher that time flew while the audience sat transfixed while he showed them how Marc Davis saw the animated world and some of the methods he used to make pencil lines come to life. Friday’s lecture was much more light-hearted, probably a welcome relief after the gravitas of that morning’s Legends Awards ceremony, but seeing a Master Animator at work is an amazing treat, and one who is as gifted a teacher as Andreas Deja is a rare find.

Mark Henn gave us Belle and Ariel and Baymax, and on Saturday, he quite literally gave fans a lesson on how to draw, by bringing them onstage and teaching them. He spent some of the rest of the time walking the floor like a regular guy instead of the groundbreaking history-changing animator he is.

How do I begin to explain how HOLY COW Sunday’s Eric Goldberg demo was? Well, if you wanted this without going to the D23 EXPO, the closest I could advise you off the top of my head is to cough up about 65,000 dollars, because that’s what the University of Southern California, where he teaches animation under Department Head Tom Sito, will set you back. This is the man who held his own against Robin Williams at his most explosively hilarious and sweet all at once, animating Aladdin’s Genie. He made Rhapsody in Blue something entirely his own in Fantasia 2000. He turned animation into a believable time machine in Get a Horse!, touched our hearts in Paperman, and gave Louis his music in the Princess and the Frog. And here he was, live and in person, and in the most adorable shirt ever.

So there you are. The only breaks in the entertainment are for setup and breakdown of equipment, but it was wall-to-wall entertainment beyond that. Would everything there have been your cup of tea? Of course not. Personally, I lean toward the latter end of the events described here. Your kids might prefer the stuff in the middle, or the stuff at the beginning. But it’s nice to know that if you didn’t feel like spending the night in a hallway, there was still so, so much worth seeing, really great stuff. If you missed it, it’s something to keep in mind for the next time.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to reader Dawn, who won the Disney Infinity Mickey Mouse. As of today she has it in hand, but can’t play with it til the game comes out. Enjoy!  We’ll have another contest for you very soon.

Thank You!

Thank you so much for your support on Square and on Patreon, especially to my $25 supporter Dusty Sage. Your support means the world to me, and I don’t just mean the Patreon kind.

If you have any questions for Dear Fabby, news to share, or want to get a Flat Brown at that place in Costa Mesa, email me at [email protected]