My 2024 D23 cosplay gallery, part one

Once again, I attended D23 for 2024. This time, my family and I were dressed up as characters from James and the Giant Peach. I was James. I went for a day and a half, due to circumstances beyond my control.

As always, too, I have taken pictures of other people in their costumes, so many that, as usual, I cannot fit them all into one page. This post is from the first day:

That's it for the first day of cosplays. Stay tuned for day two.

Custom ideas for Disney Lorcana cards, part two

Continuing on with my ideas for new Disney Lorcana cards, I thought I would finish up with some of the ideas I have for new cards themed to Mickey Mouse and friends, as I have with the first two cards.

The first card I thought was a second Goofy card. Like the first one, it is based on the old cartoons. In this case, it is based on Aquamania, in which Goofy takes his son out for some waterskiing, only to get caught up in a waterskiing race:

Another card idea I've had is similar to the Donald card idea I had, in that it's also in response to something actually happening. It was revealed that, at this year's D23 Expo, an addition to the game would have Mickey and friends as pirates:

However, Pluto appears to be inexplicably absent. That is something that bugs me about the game: Pluto has had little representation in the game, and that's a shame, as I like Pluto. Anyway, this card idea of mine below tries to rectify that:

Images of the other pirate cards are too rough to give a full idea. Therefore, it is likely that the final Pluto card will need some work (it was really hard to find a picture of Pirate Pluto without bringing up either Pluto in a Halloween costume or the Pluto cartoon Pantry Pirate), but it gives you an idea of what to expect.

Custom ideas for Disney Lorcana cards, part one

One of my newest interests at the moment is the Disney card game Disney Lorcana, which is basically Disney's answer to Magic: The Gathering.

I've become so enamored of the game that I've not only played it every so often, but I've also come up with some of my own ideas for game cards. I've tried to fit them to the actual game as much as possible so that they would seem like real cards that could realistically be used in the game, even though they probably never will. Most of my ideas are either expansions of preexisting franchises or the addition of new franchises.

To start things off, I decided to create some card ideas for Donald Duck (for his 90th birthday) and Goofy, one each (though they both will have many more to come in their own franchises). I actually came up with the idea for the Donald card, based on the addition of a real card in the game called "Mickey Mouse - Leader of the Band", which is based on The Band Concert:

My idea for Donald, in this case, is another card based on that cartoon. I used an online card creator to create this card and all other cards, and I've tried to make it fit as best that I could:

I think I did a good job with this card. It also shows how and where you can make your own cards.

As for Goofy, especially with the Olympics coming up, I gravitated towards his iconic sports cartoons to see what would be best:

Anyway, those are the first of a few new cards that I came up with for Disney Lorcana. I have several more ideas to come.

MouseCon 2023 cosplay gallery

In November of 2023, I went yet again to MouseCon. I dressed up this time, again as Mickey Mouse, as I did in 2019. Among the guests I saw this time were John C. Morris (again!), Amy O'Neil (who played Amy Szalinski in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) and one particularly great surprise, Tony Anselmo, the voice of Donald Duck! Unfortunately, I could not get pictures of them.

And of course, I got pics of cosplayers like usual, although they were fewer in number this time:

I will be going to D23 like usual this August, and of course, MouseCon in November next.

"Once Upon a Studio" was robbed!

...or maybe not.

Sorry for starting on such a dramatic title, but it's just that Once Upon a Studio, one of the greatest things Disney has done in recent years, was denied an Oscar nomination. It seemed like such a shoo-in, considering what it is and what it was celebrating (the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company). Everyone seemed to think it was going to happen. Presented below is the full and complete video:

Basically put, it's a love letter to Disney animation fans and quite an emotional E-ticket from start to finish (speaking of, incidentally, the film is also playing at Disneyland, if I recall).

I myself have felt that given the enormous crowd of Disney characters, heroes and villains alike (albeit only from Disney proper; no Pixar characters), I initially was reminded of the closing scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which, of course, features a whole crowd of Toons, Disney and non-Disney alike, all gathered together to learn that Marvin Acme had bequeathed Toontown to these lovable characters, who then all sing "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile":

For sheer raw emotion, however, I was not sure if the comparison with Roger Rabbit was entirely accurate. Another, equally apt comparison would have to be the finale of The Muppet Movie:

As in that movie, Once Upon a Studio ends with the camera pulling away from the enormous crowd of classic Disney characters from the last 95+ years, as they all sing "When You Wish Upon a Star", with little bits of the crowd joining in little by little, until finally the entire crowd is singing.

I also have made comparisons with the closing scene of the Disney anthology series episode "This Is Your Life, Donald Duck", which ends with a huge crowd of Disney characters, parading onto the stage to pay tribute to Donald:

Another comparison I made was with this one old ad for Eastern Airlines, one of the earliest sponsors for Walt Disney World. In 1973, Disney produced an ad that featured a crowd of Disney characters, including those from the latest movie at the time, Robin Hood, accompanying a nondescript family to the new vacation destination via Eastern:

Getting back to Once Upon a Studio, it was originally supposed to be released in theaters alongside Wish in November of 2023. However, they changed their minds and instead aired it on TV in October, with it being available on Disney Plus a few days later. Indeed, when I went to see Wish, although it did pay homage to Disney's past history in the closing credits, and indeed all throughout the film, it played alone, without this short. The one country that did show these two together in theaters was Japan, on December 23. It has also been confirmed that Once Upon a Studio will be released as a bonus on the Blu-Ray release of Wish in March.

Anyway, the short film struck such a chord with everyone who saw it that it seemed like a natural for the Academy Awards nomination for Best Short Film. Indeed, the film was first screened in June at the Annecy Film Festival. This would have been a breath of fresh air for Disney, considering its less-than-stellar performance over the last year. Even Wish ended up underwhelming with a lot of people, which is not good for it to be a celebration of the company's 100th anniversary. Even I admit it's not that great of a movie, even though I wouldn't dismiss as the total washout that many critics wrote it off as.

However, it seems the idea that Once Upon a Studio would receive a nomination was not much more than online chatter, particularly since it wasn't even really shown in theaters, only on TV and streaming. In hindsight, they seemed to have dropped the ball by not showing in theaters as planned (save for in all of one country). That, combined with Disney's currently dismal performance, probably contributed to the Academy's decision to not include this film in their shortlist.

That said, I have to wonder, does that make it any less of a great film? Probably not, but it does give me pause. I was shocked at first, but from reading about it, it makes more sense. But it still seems to have diminished its greatness. I don't know.