Disney Lovers – Are You Going to the D23 Expo?

It’s here, it’s here! It’s the Disney D23 Expo that is starting on the 19th at the Anaheim Convention Center. Are you going? You may want to mosey on down there because I heard it’s got some amazing Disney artifacts from their Archives that you may want to check out!

Trust me, I had my own little peek 🙂

Yes, I held an Oscar!! A few weeks ago I got a tour of the Disney studios in Burbank and let me tell you… it was amazing! There are no public tours of the studios so I felt so lucky to have been invited! This post is going to be picture heavy, so I’m just warning you.

The lowdown is that D23 (named because Disney opened in 1923) is the official Fan Club of Disney and was launched in 2009.  If you enroll, you get all of the benefits and an info filled magazine all about… Disney! Duh. 🙂

The expo is coming up in August, this weekend! It’s a 3 day event in Anaheim. The highlight of the expo is the legends ceremony. We were so lucky, we got to meet Bill Farmer who is the voice of Goofy!

D23 is all about access and experiences.  The many events they put on from Magic & Merriment, intimate backstage passes and dinners, Sip and Stroll in Florida, Fabulous and 50 at the studio lot, TCM Classic Film Festival, and they are also part of the Vacation Club.

If you love everything Disney and want MORE, you should think about being a part of the Official Fan Club of Disney

What will be at the expo? Tons of things but the highlights are

• Treasures of the Disney archives is triple the size at the expo. Most of the stuff has never been seen outside of the context of the movies.
• Sneak preview of the 3D Lion King, live auction, and treasures. Carousel of projects for the park.
• The expo will have artists, authors, and animators and film makers.
• Some reveals might also be talking about some Marvel related items that people are excited about. The primary Marvel presence is the studio presentation and are very large scale. No other details about that!
• The Disney channel has a huge presense will be there and all the cast. Essentially every different show.

The expo really wants to be for the whole family from small children to adults.

Are you going? It looks like it’s going to be fun! Here are some tips if you will be showing up.

Here is my heavy overload of pictures. 🙂

The famous water tower!

I love this statute that is in their Legends pavilion. See the top windows above the dwarfs? We were eating lunch up there!

Below is our lunch table with all the accessories. Super cute!

Meeting Bill Farmer, the voice of Goofy.  Below that, he was fitting his hand in his Legends hand print. 🙂

Chilling in the Legends Pavilion.  I had to get a picture of these two statues because the Studios is the only place where you can get up close and personal with them. The other statues they have of Walt at Disneyland are protected by gates and bushes so you can’t get any pictures!

 

 

 

We then had a tour through the Animations department and a few of the other buildings. I snapped these really quickly. I have to say that we can’t wait for Brave to come out, their next movie.

 

 

 

 

Finally, above, some of their Archive items. That wardrobe was from…. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe! The dress that they are holding is the dress of Mrs Banks from the original Mary Poppins.  It was pure chance that we were there at the time someone was bringing it back to Disney. It had been floating around in a private collection for years because in Mary Poppins, that was the only movie they did their outfits from an outside company. So the company kept and then sold the outfits and Disney has been trying to track them down.

Fun trivia. 🙂 It was a great day and I am still sad we don’t have our Disney passes any longer. I love that park.

Have fun at the Expo!