Greetings from this year's E3. Mind you, there's always a bit of a line as you try and enter the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
But it's always worth it once you get out on that show floor, where you're then surrounded by all these amazing displays which have been assembled by the top companies in the video game industry.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
All with the hope that E3 attendees — once they go home with bags filled with spectacular swag and/or have used Facebook (or some other form of social media) to share the truly killer photo ops they've encountered as they have wandered through the hall …
Photo by Noe Valladolid
… — that these E3 attendees will then evangelize for some of the soon-to-arrive-on-store-shelves video games that they saw at the show.
And speaking of spectacular swag, Noe and I just had to make a stop at the Disney Games booth so that we could pick up our personalized Oswald ears.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
These items were being given away to (of course) promote the November 2012 release of Disney Interactive Media Group / Junction Point Studios' highly anticipated sequel to "Disney Epic Mickey," "Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two." But being the huge Disney history buff that I am, I have to say that — as much as I enjoyed getting my very own official Oswald ears — what truly impressed me about the Disney Games booth was the terrific display of Oswald memorabilia that D23: The Official Disney Fan Club had put together for this year's E3.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
The staff of the Disney Archives really dug down deep for this one, unearthing all sorts of Oswald-related items that haven't seen the light of days for years now.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
Mind you, what was truly cool about a number of these items …
Photo by Noe Valladolid
… was that they had come from Warren Spector's personal Disney memorabilia collection …
Photo by Noe Valladolid
… These were the sorts of items / pieces of items that Warren and his team at Junction Point drew their inspiration from …
Photo by Noe Valladolid
… as they tried to figure out which classic Disney characters …
Photo by Noe Valladolid
… they'd use to populate the Cartoon Wasteland.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
As you might expect, Mr. Spector made an appearance at E3 yesterday to talk up the November 28, 2012 release of "Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two."
Warren Spector, Creative Director and Vice
President of Junction Point Studios /
Disney Interactive Media Group.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
And to add a little extra show business pizazz to this presentation, Disney Games trotted out two painters. Who — to a driving musical beat — quickly threw together a colorful portrait of three of the memorable characters from The "Disney Epic Mickey" universe.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
Mind you, "Epic Mickey" wasn't the only product that Disney Interactive Media Group was hawking at this year's E3. As you wandered through the Disney Games booth, you saw displays and game consoles hyping DIMG's Facebook games like Disney Animal Kingdom Explorers …
Photo by Noe Valladolid
… not to mention funny photo ops promoting the Company's popular online & mobile games like "Where's My Water."
Photo by Noe Valladolid
And as you might expect, there were consoles & displays here hyping new video games that have been built around the Company's Disney Princess brand …
Photo by Noe Valladolid
… as well as displays set up to promote games that had been built around Pixar's very first princess: Merida, the feisty Scottish royal who stars in "Brave."
Photo by Noe Valladolid
Before I forget, I guess I should mention that the Square Enix booth at this year's E3 had a pretty impressive display which promoted that company's next "Kingdom Hearts" title, "Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance."
Photo by Noe Valladolid
Event attendees got to try out this Nintendo 3DS game a full eight weeks ahead of its July 31, 2012 release date.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
But if I had to pick my favorite aspect of the Disney Games booth at this year's E3, I'd have to say that it was all of the cool "Wreck-It Ralph" items that were on display.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
It will probably comes as no surprise that the gaming community is really looking forward to this Rich Moore movie, which promises to be the "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" of the video gaming world.
Photo by Noe Valladolid
Of course, what's really kind of cool is that Walt Disney Animation Studios is right in the middle of creating this fun mythology around the "Wreck-It Ralph" arcade games …
Photo by Noe Valladolid
… which I'll have to discuss in my next article. Because now it's time to line up again outside of the Los Angeles Convention Center so that I can then cover Day 2 of this year's E3.