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The hottest panels at D23 were for companies Disney recently acquired, like Pixar and Marvel
On Tuesday I looked at the exciting news about Pixar’s next projects that came out of Disney’s D23 convention. Today I’m going to wrap up my examination of the reports from D23.
Now it’s time for the Muppets. D23 didn’t tell us a lot about the film that we don’t already know from the movie’s many trailers, but the two previewed clips cement what we’d suspected: that this is the most Muppet-y Muppets film we’ve had in a long time.
The first clip expanded on a scene we’d already seen in a trailer: Gary, his girlfriend Mary, and his Muppet roommate Walter trying to find a way into Kermit’s Hollywood mansion. The frog himself appears behind them in a halo of light, amidst a heavenly chorus – until the halo speeds on past him, and we see that Kermit was backlit by the headlights from a tour bus containing a practicing church choir.
The other clip shows the whole gang back together, exploring the derelict Muppets studios. Everyone begins the cleanup to a montage scored by Starship’s “We Built This City,” while Kermit goes through his rolodex calling old friends to help. We see brief clips of many of the people he’s calling, assuring us that this latest film is indeed in the Muppets tradition of star-studded cameos.
Perhaps the funniest bit of the Muppets preview, however, didn’t come from the film (well, they can’t screen all their best parts ahead of time, can they?). Miss Piggy rolled onto the stage in style astride a motorcycle. She left in a giant huff moments later, however, upon learning that none of the clips about to be shown contained her. She ran off the stage shouting for Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross.
When I previewed D23 earlier I made an erroneous statement: that the Avengers had a presence at Comic Con. That was incorrect; in fact, one of the great shockers at this year’s Comic Con is that there was no Avengers film presence. That’s because Disney, Marvel’s new owner, was saving the panel for its own con.
At least D23 didn’t disappoint: Marvel screened two clips from the still-filming movie. The first features an enraged Loki pacing in a glass cell, with Nick Fury looking on. The two exchange heated words, Fury taunting Loki about his chances of standing up against The Avengers, a team that contains Loki’s foster brother and Norse god Thor, the Hulk, and Iron Man.
Loki is unaffected by Fury’s barbs. He coolly gazes on and sneers at Fury’s expectations for the power of the tesseract (the cube seen in the after-credits footage for “Thor” and used as a source of power by the Red Skull in “Captain America”).
The other clip shows Tony Stark reclining at his private bar, having a drink while sitting next to a sneering Loki. It’s not clear if this clip comes before or after the previous in the film. Stark’s listing the lineup for the Avengers: two assassins, a living legend that turns out to be up to his hype, and a mythological god. Loki retorts that he has an army. Stark gets up in his face and retorts: “We have a hulk!” Aaaand scene!
What a con! I’m still surprised that they don’t announce the best of their lineup in advance, but right now I’m too excited about the coming year in film to complain.
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*(This image by Alan / Falcon is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
