D23 Time Again! Let's Talk About the News. (D23 2024 Wrap-Up)

     Hey there, friends! Do you smell the excitement in the air? That means it's D23 time once again, and while it did happen this past weekend, I would like to spend some time this week to talk about some of my favorite announcements! In case you're not familiar, D23 is a convention that takes place every 2 years or so, where the Walt Disney Company announces the newest ideas for upcoming films as well as attractions for the Parks and Cruise Line. Let's go ahead and dive into the film roster... made up of a lot of sequels with a few original products sprinkled in. A lot of folks have thoughts on that, but we'll see how they go!

From "WDW News Today"

Coming Soon to Theaters Near You (or Disney Plus)

    We got a lot of titles being announced in the presentation for all of the movie news along with some movies that are coming out this year and a bit sooner. We'd be here all day if I listed all of the information that we got for these things, but I'll do my best to at least put all the titles here. For the short term future, we have the Mufasa movie coming out this December, Moana 2 coming this November. Notice the fact that these are tied to pre-existing properties? Get ready for a lot more of that. We finally got a trailer for the controversial Live Action Snow White and the Seven Dwarves remake which is coming next year, Zootopia 2 (coming 2025) was announced along with Incredibles 3, Toy Story 5 (coming in 2026), Frozen 3 (which is coming in 2027, Frozen 4 was teased), and Live-Action Lilo and Stitch (coming 2025), which did show off how the CGI version of Stitch is going to look, and I'm a fan. They did a good job of capturing the cartoon in a way that doesn't take away from the cute factor in the way that the Live-Action Lion King did. There was an original film announced called Hoppers, which is about a little girl who puts her brain into a robotic beaver to communicate with other beavers... and I don't know how I feel about it, but hopefully it'll be good! It's supposed to come out in 2026. Tron: Ares was announced as the third movie in the Tron Franchise, apparently starring Jeff Bridges and Jared Leto, and it's coming in 2025, with Nine Inch Nails composing. I'm going to be interested to see how that plays out, the Daft Punk soundtrack for Tron: Legacy was so good, I'm excited to see what the new film sounds like. Freaky Friday 2 was announced earlier this year to be in development with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis back in the roles of the main characters, we were told in this panel that the official title is Freakier Friday.

    As we all know, Disney now has many brands under their belts, so let's talk about some of the projects from other studios that Disney has acquired over the years. Avatar 3 was announced as Avatar: Fire and Ash, teased by James Cameron to be "not the film that you're expecting, but the film that you want," whatever that means. Marvel brought all kinds of new information, though a lot of it is not available for the public, instead releasing only in the convention. Agatha All Along is coming out later this year, and did release a new trailer to the public, which looks good! Event-goers were also treated to a trailer of Daredevil: Born Again, Captain America: New World Order, and Ironheart. Hopefully we'll see those soon! They put out a teaser for Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2, though they're apparently in the early stages of filming so far, so we're not sure when that show is coming out. Monster Jam is a movie in development about monster trucks starring The Rock, so that should be fun. In Star Wars news, they announced Skeleton Crew, which looks to be kind of a Goonies meets Star Wars type situation, it looks very different from the norm, which could be pretty cool. In 2026, we're getting a movie called The Mandalorean and Grogu, obviously following the events of the TV show, and could also be used to carry forward the plots for the other TV shows set in the same timeline, such as Ahsoka.

News in the Most Magical Place(s) on Earth!

    Like the movies coming down the pipeline, there are also pretty significant changes in the works for the different parks around the world! Walt Disney World will go first just because I happen to be the closest and it's also the only one that I've been to! Magic Kingdom is getting two new Cars rides which apparently don't take place in Radiator Springs, instead they're about going off road in the great outdoors. As such, they deemed it a good idea to put these new attractions in Frontierland, and reportedly they're getting rid of Tom Sawyer Island to put these in, but we'll have to see. In addition to this, Magic Kingdom is getting a "Villains Land," which will feature two major attractions, even though we didn't get any news about what they are. This was teased at the last D23 I think, but it's cool to get some official news about it, even if it's nothing incredibly substantial. In Epcot, Test Track is being reimagined currently, but will be open again sometime in 2025. I'm excited to see how in-depth this change is going to be, since it sounds like it's much more than a cyber overlay like they did a few years ago. That was cool, but this sounds a bit more substantial. Hollywood Studios is getting a Monsters Inc. themed area, complete with a suspended coaster that will take riders through the door vault from the movie. It sounds like such a cool idea, but many fans are skeptical of where this ride will go. A lot of the buzz consists of fans being concerned for Muppet Vision 3D, which would truly be a shame if anything were to happen to this fantastic 4D movie. If this does end up going away, I will be very sad, but I'll continue to watch the "Tribute to all nations of the world, but mostly America" every fourth of July as an annual tradition. 

    Animal Kingdom is saying goodbye to Dinoland U.S.A. and putting in a new area based on "Tropical Americas," called Pueblo Esperanza. In this new land, we're getting two new attractions, one based on Indiana Jones, and one based on Encanto. While this is good news for the most part, unfortunately it does mean we will be bidding adieu to the mischievous Dr. Seeker and his plan to "get those Dinos" sometime in the near future. They've announced that Dinosaur is being shut down in 2027, so we still have a few years before it completely closes, though the rest of Dinoland may not be there quite as long. "It's Tough To Be A Bug" is being replaced with "Zootopia: Better Zoogether!" in the Tree of Life, and let's just hope that this new show isn't quite as frightening for young audiences as the last one was when it opens next Winter. Along with all this news, of course, we have some other smaller details such as two new lounges opening next year, after Spaceship Earth and Pirates of the Caribbean in Epcot and Magic Kingdom respectively. Magic Kingdom is getting a new nighttime parade called Disney Starlight, which is replacing the long running Main Street Electrical Parade. According to the post on Disneyparksblog.com, it will feature characters from Peter Pan, Encanto, Frozen, and more, all powered by the magic of the Blue Fairy. They don't list Pinocchio in this release, but with the Blue Fairy being there, the little wooden boy is likely to come along as well.

    In other news from Disney Parks across the world, Disneyland is getting an Animatronic Walt Disney show, which will be rotating with "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln." Seems like it could be kind of creepy, especially since I've seen something about the family of Mr. Disney speaking out about his image being used so long after his death. We'll see how that plays out, but maybe it'll be interesting. California Adventure is getting an Avatar Land, which is based more on the world as it was elaborated upon in Avatar: The Way of Water, and there will be some new experiences based on that. The concept art does show a boat ride of some sort, though it looks a lot different from Na'vi River Journey at Animal Kingdom, which is probably for the best. The first ever ride based off of Coco is opening in California Adventure in 2026, which seems like a perfect fit! Tiana's Bayou Adventure is opening November 15 at Disneyland Resort, just a few months after it opened at Magic Kingdom. In Marvel news, two new attractions will be opening at the Avengers Campus at Disneyland, Infinity Defense, and Stark Flight Labs. The first looks to be a ride like Flight of Passage, but jumping through all kinds of different Marvel worlds to stop King Thanos from conquering everything. The latter attraction seems more like a chill experience where Tony Stark's robots help to simulate the feeling of flight for you.

    Shanghai Disneyland is getting a new Spider-Man themed roller coaster, which from how it's described, it sounds like it'll be a launch coaster, and definitely looks to have some cool themed scenes in there, based on the concept art. Hong Kong Disneyland is also getting a Spider-Man ride, though it sounds closer to the Web-Slingers ride that has already been put into some different parks around the world. It may not be, but that's what it kind of sounds like from the information here. Disney Adventure World, Disneyland Paris's second park, is recieving a Lion King ride, which looks to be a log flume like Tiana's Bayou Adventure, and it looks cool from the concept art! The drop appears to be right next to Pride Rock, so we'll see how this ride turns out when it opens soon!

    Boy, that's about all the Disney news that I can handle right now, so while there's still some to be shared, I think I'll cut it off there, and recommend you look at the Disney Parks Blog if you care to do any more digging than what I've already shared! I love D23, it's so interesting to see what plans are in place in the future. It's sad sometimes, because we see things get announced that just never come to fruition (still waiting on the Mary Poppins attraction in Epcot's UK Pavilion), but it's nice to hear some of the ideas that are shared by the imagineers and studios working on all of these different products and experiences.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! I know I can get a little overboard when reporting all this news, but I hope there's something here that you thought was interesting! Is there an announcement here that caught your eye? I'd love to hear from you somewhere on the internet or in person! Thanks again for all the support, and I hope you're doing well! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Reporter, and I'll see ya real soon!