Greetings from the Licensing International Expo. Which — this year — is being held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.
This is where the various studios — in order to impress would-be licensees — annually put on elaborate displays for their upcoming TV shows & movies. Take — for example — Universal Pictures‘ over-the-top effort to promote “Despicable Me 2” (which won’t be showing up in theaters ’til the Summer of 2013) …
… as well as their next CG release, “The Lorax” (which is due to debut on March 2, 2012)
Speaking of CG, DreamWorks Anmation was hyping a number of their upcoming releases. Among them “Madagascar 3” …
… the sequel to last spring’s smash hit, “How to Train Your Dragon” …
… as well as Chris Sanders‘ next project for that animation studio, “The Croods.”
But perhaps the most intriguing project that DreamWorks Animation currently has in the works is “Rise of the Guardians.” Which –drawing its inspiration from a soon-to-be-released William Joyce book — reimagines Santa Claus, Jack Frost and the Easter Bunny (among other supposedly fictitious creatures) as protectors of our planet.
And speaking of protectors of our planet … You should have seen all of the people crowding around the Marvel Entertainment booth, oohing and aahing at the teaser poster for Joss Whedon‘s “Avengers” movie.
Which wasn’t the case with the teaser poster for Universal Pictures’s “Battleship” movie. I observed a number of conventioneers just shaking their heads and chuckling when they spied this promotion for that Summer 2012 release. Which will be based on the Hasbro board game.
I observed the same sort of thing when people would come across the teaser posters for those dueling “Snow White” reimaginings …
… both of which are supposed to show up in theaters sometime in 2012.
But — then again — it was nice to see people chuckling at the stuff that was legitimately supposed to be funny. Like the enormous Scrat at the Fox booth. Who — as he clearly strained to get that oversized acorn — was the perfect promotional gimmick for the next movie in the “Ice Age” series, “Continental Drift.”
“Enough about Scrat,” you say. ” What was the Mouse up to at this year’s Licensing International Expo?” Oh, there was no avoiding The Walt Disney Company at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. From the moment you went up to the registration desk and try to pick up your badge, Disney was front and center.
Huge banners hyping different Disney brands and characters hung down from the ceiling of the entrance hall to the Mandalay Bay convention center.
And once you walked in the convention center itself, what’s the first booth that you see? Disney.
Now what was kind of interesting about this year’s Licensing International Expo is that Disney was placing a new emphasis on Minnie Mouse. Using this 83-year-old character as the hook for a new line of clothing for young women. Which — according to the ad copy — will have ” … confidence, class and a bit of sass.”
While at the same time, Mickey’s longtime girlfiend will be getting her very own series on Disney Junior, “Minnie Mouse’s Bow-tique.”
Mind you, there were meetings being held in Mandalay Bay function rooms away from the main convention center where Disney executives talked about the “teal takeover” (i.e. The Company’s ambitious plans to further the expansion of the Phineas & Ferb franchise) …
… But sadly I wasn’t able to get access to that particular informational session. Even so, I came away from yesterday’s visit to this year’s Licensing International Expo with lots of great info & pictures to put up on the world wide web …
… slinger.
But what do you folks think? Are any of the upcoming films mentioned in today’s JHM of interest to you? And — if so — which ones? And why?
Your thoughts?