- What really went down at APCC 2018’s Hall M and Hall D
- The Walt Disney Philippines rolled out to promote their beloved brands in a packed room at ‘Hall D’ and ‘Hall M.’
By Matthew Escosia – The Walt Disney Philippines rolled out to promote their beloved brands in a packed room at ‘Hall D’ and ‘Hall M.’
The letters stand for “Disney” and “Marvel” respectively, and are the talk of the town during this weekend’s AsiaPOP Comicon 2018. Both events are part of Disney’s initiative to showcase upcoming content, offering new looks to the company’s shows, movies, games, and more.
What really happens were never really revealed to the public nor to media people. The organizers even go to the extent of requesting all attendees (over a thousand) to deposit their gadgets prior to entry.
Here’s a recap of what went down.
Hall M
The Marvel-themed presentation was hosted by Stephen Wacker, VP for Creative Development at Marvel’s Television and New Media Department. Wacker was the second Marvel executive to present for ‘Hall H,’ after Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief CB Cebulski’s announcement to not return after 3 years of hosting.
For new footage, there was no shortage here. Marvel Television’s ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Cloak and Dagger’ kicked off the list with new footage from upcoming episodes of both series. A second season for the latter show was also formally introduced, hinting for an upcoming “Mayhem.” This could possibly be a direct reference to the character Mayhem, a pivotal element in the ‘Cloak and Dagger’ comics.
The video game portion got the most applause with trailers and gameplay videos from ‘Spider-Man,’ ‘Marvel Battle Lines,’ ‘Marvel Future Fights’ and ‘Marvel Powers United,’ a virtual reality game that allows you to “become the superheroes” through Oculus Rift consoles.
Official cover arts to the revival of ‘Fantastic Four’ was the highlight in the comics section. Also revealed are new looks and creative processes behind future runs of announced titles such as ‘Infinity Wars Prime,’ ‘Spidergeddon,’ and ‘The Life of Captain Marvel.’ The animation section only revealed a trailer for ‘Marvel Rising,’ a brand new series from the brand.
The highly anticipated film portion was intentionally placed to be the last. Wacker then awaken the crowd with a featurette of Marvel Studios’ journey from 2008’s ‘Iron Man’ to the recent ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’ When that was finished, everyone from the crowd screams more, and are hopeful to see materials from 2019’s ‘Captain Marvel’ and ‘Avengers 4.’ However, ‘Hall M’ got on a bittersweet finish when Wacker said that there’s nothing else to show.
Hall D
This Disney presentation commence only minutes after the last one. Host Boom Gonzales introduced Daniel Tan, Media Networks Executive Director of Marketing for Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia, to explain the brand’s streaming service application ‘DisneyLife.’
The app serves as a new place to watch content under the Disney umbrella, including Star Wars and Pixar, and is currently available for download now at Google Play and App Store. It will also be home to upcoming releases which includes a ‘Freaky Friday’ series, ‘Big City Greens,’ and ‘Star Wars Resistance,’ Tan announced.
No footage from ‘Star Wars Resistance’ was shown, but Tan revealed it will be set before the events of ‘The Force Awakens,’ and will feature Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie provide voices for their characters Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma, respectively. It will reportedly be out this October. Also revealed are ‘101 Dalmatians Street’ and ‘Descendants 3,’ which will both arrive soon.
Cobonpue’s Star Wars
After Daniel Tan, well-renowned Filipino furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue came on the stage to give a short talk on his work. Cobonpue narrated his early beginnings in the industry and how he manages to infuse Filipino culture on his art.
Disney collaborated with him for a line of Star Wars-inspired furniture sets. Cobonpue unveiled first-looks on the designs, each resembling the characters of the popular film franchise.
This means tables and chairs are named Stormtrooper, Vader, Empire Moon (based on the Death Star), Sidious, Little Jedi, and Chewie. It’s up to you to figure out which is which.
Legendary animator
Long-running 2D Animation Supervisor from the Walt Disney Animation Studios Mark Henn made a grand entrance after Cobonpue’s brief talk. Henn became a supervising animator to many classic Disney titles like ‘The Little Mermaid,’ ‘The Lion King,’ and ‘Frozen.’
Henn was generous to present many artworks for the films he’s done, including rough early draft sketches to Disney characters. Like Cobonpue, he also discussed his success in nabbing a position at Disney, and how he took three separate applications before being able to get in.
But the scene-stealer was his unveiling of a clip from ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet,’ where he was also 2D Animation Supervisor. The long clip was essentially a run-through of Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman) accidentally breaking in a room full of Disney princesses, and how the character’s interaction with them resulted to an instant wardrobe change. It got quite possibly the loudest laughs in the entire Hall D (including Hall M combined).
