D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

[Jeff In Orange County]

Anyone find any more information about this event other than the sales info?

When do the gates open?

Since they have no assigned seating, when do the lines form?

Parking at WDS?

Here is Hoping it will be a Blast!

Jeff

[VonBaroketch]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The information that came with my ticket said to arrive for check-in at 6pm and to drive through the Riverside Gate and park in the Zorro Parking Structure. It does not sound like there will be difficulty dealing with lines, nor could we queue up any earlier than 6pm if we wanted to. I am planning to make it a Disney Double Feature day and hit the 1pm Christmas Carol at the El Capitan on my way to Burbank.

I have been looking forward to this since I bought my ticket during the Expo; see you there (I'll be the one with the bow tie)!

[Jeff In Orange County]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Excellent Info! Leaving OC now

Thanks Von

Ill see you there..in the HKDL Hat..Pirates shirt...goofy grin

[DOOM BGI]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Sounds great, wish I had bought tix before they sold out. Please give us a report on what it was like!

Have fun!!!

[ryanvalle]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Im curious to know what will be the D23 twist on this event since its one of the first publicly open events where people could get tickets to watch the same movie at the same event for much less

[btowndude]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

I was very disappointed with this D23 event. The movie is great and I recommend it. But there wasn't very much special about the event, itself. The two directors made a few comments before the start of the film, but there was no Q&A session after the film, like you would have at a film festival. The "free" soda was just a choice of bottled Coke products, which they ran out of Sprite and Barqs. There was no special cup. The popcorn was in a plastic bucket that had scenes from movie. The popcorn was yummy.

The 25 minute studio tour was basically walking around the studio buildings. The one building with exhibits the tour guide rushed you through the main corridor. We were brought inside the lobby of the Frank Wells building, but again rushed through the lobby displays.

The ultimate fan experience was for the most part photo ops with the princesses. The "Tiana" was rather short compared to the other princesses. There was no Prince Naveen, no Louie the Alligator, no display of original sketches from the film. There was a concession stand selling cupcakes with princesses theme. There were two carnival booths: one involved throwing magnetic darts at voodoo dolls and the other involved flipping bean bag frogs onto wooden lily pads. There was also a foam bayou for little kids. There was a small store selling mostly toys and clothing for kids. There was only one limited edition pin available. None of the other Princess and Frog pins from the parks were sold. There wasn't much for adults or boys!

The D23 gift bag included the holiday button with tweedledum and tweedledee (I didn't see the connection to the movie; plus these are buttons being given out at Disneyland), a Princess and the Frog fortune card game, and a three song cd sampler of the film's sound track. I was disappointed that there was no special pin, like the one given out at the D23 event for the opening night of UP.

This event was definitely not worth the money! I should have waited and saw the movie at the El Capitan.
Now, I am glad that I cancelled my tickets for the D23 Candlelight Celebration and the D23 Disney and Dickens events.

[VonBaroketch]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Given that the only prices I can find for the general public to see "The Princess and the Frog" at the Studios is $50 (I am curious to know what lower prices others have found; I may recommend it to friends if the price is right), I was not expecting much extra from D23. The movie itself was great, and I am enjoying the bragging rights of telling my friends and family how great it was 2 weeks before they get to see it! As for the event, I was fine with the price because of the location. I have been unlucky in getting tickets for the D23 tours, so the opportunity of walking the sacred grounds of TWDS was the biggest highlight for me.

The D23 perks were already mentioned: both co-directors greeted us at the beginning, we got free popcorn and coke, and we got a goodie-bag that was unfortunate considering it was mostly swag given out at other D23 events (the card game was the same from the Expo, the button was the same given out at DL, the D23 window decal was the same that came in the first issue of the magazine, and the cd was a three-track sampler). However, if the general public price for the screening is $50, then D23 did not actually charge any extra for their extras. It was nice, then, to see the film with the like-minded fans of the D23 community.

As for the event, once we checked in and received our beads, popcorn, and coke from Stage 2, we were escorted to the theater where they checked our phones and cameras (the intimidating security was present again, but they were much more friendly than at the Expo). Rob Richards from the El Capitan was playing the organ as we waited for the film to begin, then John Musker and Ron Clements gave us some opening remarks. Walt Disney Animation has a new production logo (or at least it was new to me) featuring Steamboat Willie. I loved the emphasis on getting back to a tradition, which implies a consciousness that a standard had been lost in the meantime. I am hesitant to say much about the film, for I do not want to give away any spoilers. I will say it was better than I expected, even though I was extremely enthusiastic about it ever since the Expo. My main reservation going in was that it might be formulaic and that this was the first time an animated classic was made with a brand in mind (the Princess brand). I was afraid they would overdo the princess-ness, especially since royalty translates poorly in an American setting. But, they did not, and I will leave it at that. Go see the movie!

The Ultimate Disney Experience event has already been described (photo-ops, games, cupcakes, mini-store), except it missed the Animation Academy section where people can learn how to draw frog Tiana. It was the same kind of presentation that can be found at DCA. I was not expecting them to offer studio tours, so that was a surprise. According to our tour guide, the tours are standard for the general public screenings as well. While I loved the mere opportunity to see more of the studios, I am looking forward to a better tour in the future, hopefully through D23 or maybe Adventures by Disney: Backstage Magic. Our tour guide was a young college student who works at Disneyland as a tour guide. He was fine at delivering a scripted tour, and he was more than capable at keeping us moving when we wanted to linger around Legends Plaza and the Archives window exhibits. I only wish we could have heard more about historical Disney productions and less about Alias. I also could have done without knowing that Chad Lowe is currently residing in Walt's office. We were told Walt would not have wanted it to have been treated as a museum, but is it asking too much for it to be honored as a special office? Why not put John Lasseter in there? Walt moved the whole building that Snow White was produced in to the Studios, so do not tell me he was all about utility and not about honoring the past.

Overall, it was a great evening. I appreciated D23 bringing us together for an exclusive viewing. I would have gone anyways, and knowing what I know now, I would still have paid the $50 for general public admission. Being treated as a guest on the Walt Disney Studios and watching their film in their private theater was worth the premium. And, I cannot think of a better way to rekindle a tradition than to do it where it all started.

[ryanvalle]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Looks like mixed feelings about the event. As far as the ticket pricing I found that was less, Disney offers the same movie at a $50 price point where you get a royal treatment (popcorn bucket, reserved seating, beads, soda, and i think a lithograph) and a regular ticket at $30 where you get just the movie. Both tickets would get you into the after movie experience thing inside the sound stage.

Also, I ran into offers on a facebook fanpage where they sold tickets for the regular experience for about $20.

But had I known they were doing the tour, I would've definitely got tickets. Oh well, I'm following my path of someday working at the studios and once that dream comes true, I'm sure that I'll be able to treat myself around the lot during my free time

[bradk]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

if anyone's interested, I was able to attend the special by invitation-only preview of the Ultimate Disney Experience in NYC for the exclusive Princess and the Frog engagement and have posted my review and photos here: Report: ‘The Ultimate Disney Experience’ Brings Mardi Gras to Broadway | StitchKingdom.com

at the bottom are a few photos of John Lasseter to whom I ran into at the event

[*Arielle*]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

I went to see Princess and the Frog on Wednesday, but not with the D23 group. I was able to get my tickets for $20 through Facebook and went to the 9:30pm showing. I didn't think that the extra $30 was worth the popcorn, soda, beads, and lithograph. I really thought they should have given the mardi gras beads to everyone, because they looked pretty cheap looking. My heart broke when these two little girls were asking the people at check in for beads, and they were denied because they didn't have the "royal" tickets. But oh well.

Other than that my experience was pretty much the same. It would have been cool to see the co-directors at the beginning of the film, but since there wasn't a Q&A I'm not too disappointed that I didn't spring the extra money.

The movie was fantastic, and there was just a special feeling you got from seeing the movie opening night at one of the two theaters that were playing it. I will save my review of the movie itself for another thread.

The "experience" afterward was decent. It was fun to see all the princesses there and I was just so excited that I forgot they were just people in costume. When I met Ariel, I started to go into this tangent like I was meeting a celebrity telling her that I was always compared to her because of my red hair. I had to stop myself in the middle because I realized that this was not the real Ariel. Haha. We didn't wait to see all the princesses, as it would have taken forever. I thought it would be fun if we could have lined up to take our picture with all the princesses at once. Now that would have been a fun time!

The animation class was fun -- we drew frog Naveen. However, as the other user said, it was much like the Animation class at California Adventure. I also wasn't a big fan of the teacher. He went waaay too fast, even for me and I do have a little bit of artistic talent. The poor kids were trying hard to catch up and were extremely frustrated.

The special props that we got to see were mostly from movies I didn't really care about like Beverly Hills Chihuahua and the Hannah Montana movie. I snapped a picture of Hannah's wig for my younger cousin.

The store was small, but had a lot of cute P&tF merchandise. I got a pin that was specially made for the event. I was thinking about getting the cookbook (it had a lot of great recipes in it) but during my hesitation it sold out.

We didn't do the studio tour, as it was approaching 1am at this time and I had already done the D23 studio tour this past summer. Plus we had to get up early to prepare for Thanksgiving. After reading that it wasn't anything special, I thought we made the right decision.

It was definitely worth the $20 that I paid on facebook. I'm not sure I would have been as happy if I paid the full $50 price.

[VonBaroketch]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Are they still selling tickets on Facebook for $20? That is a deal! I agree, the extra $30 was not worth the perks (the popcorn and coke were available for purchase, presumably at a price under $30, and the beads were cheap; go to Disneyland and get some from Tiana's Jubilee, or better yet, try to get picked to be on the boat for extra large beads). I bought my ticket back in September after the Expo; I wonder if the Facebook deal was due to lack of early response. I would highly recommend going at $20, but I would only recommend the $50 to the diehard fan if the cheaper tickets are no longer available.

[ALIASd]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Are they still selling tickets on Facebook for $20? That is a deal!

I wonder if the Facebook deal was due to lack of early response.

WDP did it as a promotion for the film's Facebook fans beginning in early September:
http://micechat.com/forums/news/1109...post1055552834


The page currently shows a few dates left:
The Princess and the Frog Exclusives | Facebook

[bluesky28]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

i'm going tomorrow at 9:30. does anyone know if they will still have the event in sound stage 3 afterwards? since it will be so late?

[*Arielle*]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

i'm going tomorrow at 9:30. does anyone know if they will still have the event in sound stage 3 afterwards? since it will be so late?

Yup! I went at 9:30pm and they had everything still. We stayed pretty late!

Are they still selling tickets on Facebook for $20? That is a deal!

Yeah it looks like there are a few times left!
http://www.facebook.com/ThePrincessa...p_157966850411

[Jeff In Orange County]

Re: D23 Event - Princess and The Frog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009

It was good meeting you Ludwig von Baroketch.

I for one had a great time and found it was well worth it.

I posted a report on an adjoining thread.

Jef