Many fans gathered around to check out the latest Disney has to offer from their animation and live-action plate at this year’s D23 Expo. This was Disney’s big year, showing off all of their latest projects in their own convention instead of doing so at the annual San Diego Comic-Con. They started off the presentation with a big montage of new films that they would be presenting, animation and live-action. Stepping out from behind the blue curtains was Rich Ross, the Chairman of Walt Disney Studios who welcomed us all to the event, saying that our overall love and enthusiasm for this company fuels each employee there to make quality entertainment. “You’re the reason we do what we do,” says Ross with a huge smile on his face.
Planes
Ross quickly brings out the chief creative officer at Pixar Animation and Walt Disney Animation Studios, John Lasseter. He walked in sporting an official Hawaiian shirt from “Cars 2.” First Lasseter showed us the official teaser trailer for the direct-to-DVD “Cars” spin-off film “Planes.” The Disneytoon Studios production has Jon Cryer of “Two and a Half Men” fame as the lead voice of our crop duster plane Dusty. Check out the teaser below to get a glimpse at what we saw earlier.
Wreck-It Ralph
The next one on the list was easily one of the most adorable-looking Pixar films that’s coming up in theaters soon. That happens to be a not-really-known production entitled “Wreck-It Ralph.” Lasseter describes the story as “an 8-bit video game bad who travels from the length of the arcade to prove he’s a good guy.” John C. Reily voices the oversized yet misunderstood bad guy who’s just tired of the work he does and wants to be good. The rest of the main cast includes Jack McBrayer as Fix-it Felix, Jane Lynch as the tough Sgt. Calhoun and Sarah Silverman as the dangerous yet cute Vanellope from the Sugar Rush racing game.
We then got a good look at the first four minutes of great yet unfinished footage from “Wreck-It Ralph”:
*Voice-over narration is done during the entire span of four minutes by Ralph (John C. Reily), talking about how he’s been a bad guy who bashes out buildings and throws people out of their homes, only to be defeated in the game by Fix-it Felix (McBrayer). The story quickly fast forwards from the early eighties to modern day where the arcade that holds the Fix-it Felix is being kept. All of the people in the building bring in Felix after a long day of video game work while poor Ralph is left outside, curling up literally under a pile of bricks with a tree stump for a pillow.
*Next scene shown is Ralph sitting down at Bad-Anonymous where several of the arcade’s bad guys have gathered up in order to let out their frustrations over being a villain. The one who’s come to accept who he is is a Pac-Man ghost while a zombie tries to explain to Ralph why another villain realized it’s useless to try and be good. In the end they all get up and hold hands, chanting that they’re bad no matter what, the chant being some-what reminiscent of the one given by the sharks during “Finding Nemo.”
“Wreck-It Ralph” is due out in theaters on November 22, 2012.
Brave
Lasseter begins the presentation of “Brave” as being Pixar’s “first sort of fairy tale period film,” discussing the challenges that animators had to face with creating the world of medieval Scotland. Mark Andrews, the director, pranced out in a shirt and kilt skirt alongside producer Katherine Sarafin. They then showed off some footage that included:
*Behind-the-scenes footage that shows tons of concept art from “Brave.”
*Clips of each character as they explained the story of the strong Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) who tries to look for a way out from marrying one of three unattractive suitors from different clans in order to keep the peace going on in her kingdom. Instead she runs off to the forest, looking for a way to escape that fate and ends up following the trail of the wisps who look like little blue orbs. The trail ends in front of a cottage where an old witch lives. The old witch ends up concocting a spell for her that goes horribly wrong, threatening the fate of the whole kindgom. Merida ends up going back into the once-kind forest that turned into a dark place where there’s danger around every corner, trying to defeat the spell before it’s too late.
*We get a glimpse of the three suitors trying to win the hand of Merida. They all take on an archery competition where only one can win over the tough maiden. Instead she tries to put her own fate into her own hands as she turns around the entire competition. Instead of spoiling this crucial moment in the film for you we’ll just stop right there.
“Brave” is out in theaters everywhere on June 22, 2012.
We caught a glimpse of some things that will be appearing in “Monsters University” but we’ll fill you in with more information once we attend the separate presentation taking part later today. Keep checking in with ShockYa for the latest D23 Expo coverage!
