The Walt Disney Co. announced Tuesday the dates for the 2017 D23 Expo, a fan convention showcasing its theme parks, television, m
usic, gaming and film projects: July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
That’s a month earlier than the 2015 event.
Why, oh mouse eared one?
To position D23 closer to Comic-Con International, the annual pop culture celebration traditionally held in July at the San Diego Convention Center and surrounding venues. (Dates for the 2017 Comic-Con have not yet been announced.)
It proved particularly vexing at D23 2015 when the Mouse had a bunch of Star Wars-related announcements that folded better time-wise into Comic-Con rather than the event presented by Disney’s official fan club.
Expect Disney stars, characters, Imagineers, animators and filmmakers at the biennial expo put on by D23, which was founded in 2009 and pays homage to 1923, the year Uncle Walt Disney opened his first studio in Hollywood.
More details will emerge as we get closer to the opening of what will be the fifth expo, but for now we know there will be:
* a Disney Legends Ceremony honoring those who have made significant contributions to the Disney legacy;
* a new exhibit curated by the Walt Disney Archives;
* Mousequerade, showcasing creative costume designs by fans;
* D23 Expo Emporium, where attendees can buy, sell and trade Disney collectibles, memorabilia and merchandise.
Advance tickets will go on sale online at D23Expo.com beginning this July 14. It’s open to the general public, but D23 members receive special pricing.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.