Today, August 23, the D23 Expo kicked off and the Disney+ keynote found many people with their jaws on the ground due to the sheer volume of content which was highlighted. Guests were able to get a glimpse at many of the new shows coming to the highly anticipated streaming service on November 12, like the Marvel animated short, What If…?, or Star Wars’, The Mandalorian. Attendees also got a sneak peek at additional details from Forky Asks a Question, Monsters At Work, and the newly announced, Pixar In Real Life — which we’ll, of course, cover here.
Although no additional information for Lamp Life (the short film following Bo Peep) was shared, that was to be expected since the show had its own panel during the Expo (more to come).
PIXAR IN REAL LIFE
Updated Oct 30 – Pixar has released an official teaser poster for Pixar In Real Life featuring WALL•E. Read even more details below.
Probably the most surprising news from today’s panel (from a Pixar perspective) was the announcement of, Pixar In Real Life (Pixar IRL). The live-action shock-style show where real people are surprised to find (and experience) characters or scenes from Pixar films…in real life. Filmed in New York City, this finally explains the pop-up shops and other Pixar happenings which took place in May of this year — read our post here for more details.
Dan the Pixar Fan noted that they showed a very brief clip of the show and said that it, “Looks so funny! An old man dressed as Carl running after Russell, CDA Agents piling out of a van, etc.”. We cannot wait to see more from this. No release date was officially announced, but it seems like a brief set of shorts that will probably be in line with the length of the Forky Asks A Question shorts (approximately 3-4 minutes each).
MONSTERS AT WORK
Monsters At Work, the 3D-animated television show produced by Disney Television Animation will pick up right after Monsters, Inc. ends — with laughter being the main source of energy. Interestingly, an earlier piece of concept artwork revealed at the Annecy International Film Festival showed a much smaller, yellow-orange character (pictured below) as Tylor (the main character). But, today’s artwork shows Tylor to be a much larger, purple monster (pictured above).
Tylor Tuskmon’s vocal actor, Ben Feldman, was on stage with Aisha Tyler (voice of Tylor’s Mom, Millie) and noted that the show takes place the day after Monsters, Inc. ends. Being a recent graduate of Monsters University, Tylor was trained in the traditional scaring method — so, where does this leave Tylor? Well, he already has to reinvent himself and he wasn’t even really fully-formed yet!
You can get a sense for the uneasiness Tylor is feeling in these additional images we spotted online. The first image (from Pinkvilla) below shows new posters going up on the wall with the updated catchphrase, “Think Funny!” (which incidentally, is as a nod to Apple’s “Think Different” campaign in Monsters, Inc. as well).
Tylor’s uneasiness with statements like, “It’s Laughter We’re After” must have been the reason his character design was changed from a smaller monster to a more imposing scarer. This instantly adds more weight to the story since he’s Sully-sized and we know (from Monsters, Inc.) that many of the large, scary monsters are now the assistants to smaller monsters like Mike Wazowski.
The picture above (from Boardwalk Times) shows concept artwork of Tylor in action as a scarer.
Although the show is set to premiere in 2020 (no official month was announced), you can learn all about Monsters At Work in our earlier post.
FORKY ASKS A QUESTION
Guests were also treated to Tony Hale, the voice of Forky, coming on stage to share details surrounding the short series, Forky Asks A Question. Although no new information was revealed (like the number of shows in the series), guests screened one of the shorts featuring Forky and Hamm.
The approximately 3-to-4 minute short finds Forky asking Hamm about money — who better to ask, right? While remaining as distracted as ever, Forky had guests laughing and they also noted how sweet the short film was.
Forky Asks A Question will be available to stream alongside the launch of Disney+, on November 12.
DISNEY+ PRICE DEAL
Now that you’ve learned about some of the Pixar-related shows and short films which will be available on Disney+, you may be wondering how can you watch and how much will it cost?
The base price will be listed at $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year — but, for those in attendance at the 2019 D23 Expo (and for D23 Gold Members not in attendance) they will be able to take advantage of a one-time “Founders Circle” offer to pre-pay for three years of the service at $140.97 ($23 off per year). (Image below via Mouse Info.)
D23 Gold Members not in attendance at the Expo will have additional details will be forthcoming — stay tuned. If you’re not a Gold Member, you can sign up on the D23 website.
So, the only other question is, “Can November 12 get here any quicker?”
