Two years after introducing a four-day Disney version of Comic-Con, Disney’s D23 Expo is back in a three-day edition Friday – Sunday, Aug. 19-21 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.
The line-up of exhibits, seminars, conferences and previews will once again include the preview and introduction of some of the studio’s biggest new projects at Walt Disney Studios theatrical and home entertainment divisions, The Disney Channel, ABC, and Disney Parks and Resorts.
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Top filmmakers, execs, and stars will make appearances, including Walt Disney Studios chairman Rich Ross, production president Sean Bailey, chief creative officer of Disney and Pixar studios John Lasseter, and Marvel studios president and producer Kevin Feige, all in a single presentation of new studio films on Saturday, Aug. 20. Films to be discussed will include “Disney’s The Muppets,” the 3D “John Carter,” “Disney•Pixar’s Brave,” “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie,” and “Oz The Great and Powerful.”
There will also be an advance screening of the 3D version of “The Lion King” presented by Real 3D and screenings and panel discussion of Pixar shorts, including “For the Birds,” “One Man Band,” “BURN-E,” “Partly Cloudy,” “Day & Night,” and “La Luna.”
Show floor exhibits will include Walt Disney Studios Animation Pavilion; Walt Disney Studios In-Home Entertainment Pavilion; and Inside Tides: Pirates of the Caribbean Film Prop Collection.
And where the first Expo featured a screening of a documentary about The Sherman Brothers and an evening discussion with one of them, this year’s event will feature a Friday evening program called Dick Van Dyke & The Vantastix, featuring songs from Van Dyke’s varied entertainment career and various Disney hits.
— By Scott Hettrick