D23 1st Anniversary Party - Disneyland CA - Review
The advent of D23 last year in the vision of its expo showed the sheer devotion of many Disney fans in their intent to make a new exclusive fan club their own kingdom. With panels and high wattage stars like Johnny Depp and John Travolta making the trek to Anaheim, the thought would be to keep the energy flowing.In buzz building fashion, the D23 Expo will be alternating every two years to keep the vision fresh while bringing a new function is Destination D to the forefront. This conference will be held in September in the Disneyland area but will be focusing on the aspect of the park, its lore, the creation of the rides and numerous other behind-the-scene experiences instinctual to the neo-phytes who thrive on the details.
In giving life to the intention of the club, Disneyland hosted a 1st Anniversary Party after dark optimizing the vision of Fantasyland in the late night hours with the newly revitalized Captain EO playing in endless run in Tomorrowland.
With pastries and cupcakes adorned in luscious icing and sweets beckoning around every corner with Disney characters from the witch in Snow White to the Bears of the Jamboree opting for photos, the rides allowed for free reign as these park riders know how to optimize. Snow White offered the most newly minted thrills as the forests had a bit of the darker nudge as "Small World" reverberated with echoed sentiments.Heading through the castle intensity, the talk of Richard Sherman holding court near the carousel gave a whimsical attention to the proceedings. His music graced the vision of "Mary Poppins" and gave life to the underrated gem "Bedknobs & Broomsticks" starring Angela Lansbury.
The re-emergence of "Captain EO" held particular interest having only opened days before. The current interest in 3D always harked back to this experiment in 1985 using prototype cameras. The question was the aspect of the technology holding up. In a much more compacted space of time, the need was to nitpick and watch the abilities of the camera. A behind-the-scenes featurette outside the ride recollects the cameras and sets used to create this unique collaboration.Upon the viewing the initial progression is to whip the idea back to the 80s but the sheer energy of the music prevents that from happening. Jackson has an innocence still that infects the screen against all better judgment. Using certain humor, more "Blade Runner" in terms of Sebastian than "Star Wars", every shot seems retrospective of a work of art able to be rewatched. In seeing the short film three times in a row, the technical bumps fell aside for the sheer pinpoint performance.The 3D itself, seemingly structured on the multi-plane elements of early animated films works on the basis of separating the effects plane in certain scenes. This might be not very cost effective on bigger films but shows the true structure of 3D which to this reviewer was always related with the idea of something expounding forth from the screen. This film takes full advantage of that but understands the editing necessary to make it work.
Ultimately though it is not the filmmaking but the showmanship of Jackson that wins out in the structure of creating a necessary and fantastic background upon which to create these moments. Captain EO retraces those happy accidents between artists which happen in selective progression which allow experimentation to take hold and flourish.This kind of implementation truly personifies D23 because it is a community of fans and technical knowledge junkies that wanted to know the workings, backwards and forwards, of one of the most imaginative arenas on Earth.