Events: Disney's Annual Content Showcase

Published August 26, 2016

I was lucky enough to be invited to Disney’s Annual content showcase that was held at Melrose arch. I had never attended one of these events before, so I went in with a bit of trepidation, uncertainty and overall excitement regarding what we would be treated to by the guys from Disney Africa. I have to admit that I was actually a bit surprised by the atmosphere when I got there. There were numerous people from different media houses there and it was actually quite chilled and laid back. It was at this point that my anxiety evaporated and the excitement and anticipation was dialled up to 10! There was a large screen at the front of the hall where the various logos for the various studios that fall under Disney (Marvel, Lucasfilms & Pixar) were displayed. Everything looked very cool and I couldn’t help but geek out at the pieces of art on display. After a while, they ushered us towards our seats and that’s where the presentation began.

The presentation was given by Disney Africa’s Senior Vice president and Country Manager, Christine Service who outlined where the company has found success over the last year in terms of the movies that it has released and also regarding the way in which the various studios under Disney have, and continue to find success. They have produced their first long form series, “Disney Cookabout” which is aimed at showing children how go about enjoying a healthy lifestyle through cooking. It started airing on SABC 2 on 5 August and can be seen every Friday at 15:30. Disney has also partnered with e-tv and will be airing some of the Marvel movies, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” and their animated series such as “Avengers Assemble” and “Hulk and the agents of smash” later this year.

The other interesting highlights were the scenes from the new show “Counterfeit cat” which will start airing this September on Disney XD. It’s a show about an alien, Gark, who crash lands its ship and has to wear a cat suit to blend in who then becomes friends with a real cat, Max. It seems like it will be a lot of fun so I’ll wait and see how it shapes up. It will air from 26 September at 18:35 on Disney XD (DSTV Channel 304) .

On the movie front things got interesting. First of all we were treated to what I think will be an interesting movie, “Queen of Katwe” which was shot here in Johannesburg as well as Uganda. It’s a story of a girl who is introduced to the game of chess and starts to excel in it and due to this her life changes in ways that she had not predicted. It stars Lupita Nyongo and new comer Madina Nalwanga and was directed by Mira Nair.

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Lies” is the fifth instalment in the pirates franchise and it seems like it will be interesting. Jack Sparrow will return and so too will Captain Barbosa but they will be pitted against Jarvier Bardem’s Captain Salazar. We got to see concept sketches of Captain Salazar’s final look and it does seem quite creepy. Unfortunately I can’t show you what those look like as the movie is still in production so you will have to take my word on it.

Next was up we got to see how “Guardians of the galaxy vol. 2” is shaping up.Again we were shown the concept sketches and they do look quite cool. Groot has grown quite a bit from when last we saw him and in one of the sketches he was spotting the uniform of the Ravagers. We got sound bites from Kevin Feige and James Gunn, the producer and Director of the movie, talking ablout what to expect from this sequel and how it will differ from the first one.

The Star Wars section consisted of the recently released “Rogue One” trailer as well as information on the actors that have been cast in “Star wars ep. VIII”

From Pixar we were treated to the trailer and some footage to the upcoming movie Moana which looks like it will be another home run from them.

All in all it was a great day and I was quite impressed by what we were treated to. I actually do hope to return again next year.

Article Tags: disney · Disney annual content showcase · Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 · Lucasfilms · marvel · Pirates of the caribbean 5

Article Categories: Events