What is the future for Disney's D23 showcase?
Disney put the "show" into its eighth D23 theme parks showcase like never before. But did this new approach to the Disney Experiences Showcase work?
Disney moved the Disney Parks presentation from the Anaheim Convention Center to the bigger Honda Center for 2024 D23 event and kept the show in the NHL arena again this year. Yet the bigger house demands a bigger production, and Disney obliged this year by hiring Neil Patrick Harris to host. Harris brought in other actors to stage several skits and bits during the production, which ultimately led Disney to cut some parks announcements for time during the two-hour show.
Some of the extra content hit, such as Gloria Gaynor's thrilling "I Will Survive" send-off to the "Disco Yeti" broken animatronic in Expedition Everest. But other moments fell flat, such as a confusing bit with Glenn Close playing Cruella de Vil that misled some fans into thinking that the actor had announced a Cruella-themed ride for Walt Disney World's upcoming Villains Land. (There are no such plans. I have heard some people suggest that Close did not say what had been written in the show script.)
Speaking of that script, Disney made the creative choice not to organize the script as a timeline of upcoming attractions, or by grouping the reveals by their resorts. Instead, Disney chose to frame the show as a "Carousel of Progress," with announcements grouped into themes that it framed as reflecting the spirit of the soon-to-be-revamped Magic Kingdom attraction.
If you came to the 2026 D23 Disney Experiences Showcase expecting an arena show that celebrated Disney's theme parks with some news about their future, I suspect that you probably left the Honda Center or the Disney+ livestream satisfied. Disney's delivered a fun production, highlighted by the Gaynor performance and Harris's opening-number tribute to Disney animatronics.
But if you watched this show expecting the next edition of what the Disney Parks showcase had been in past D23s - an inspiring resource for imagining and planning future Disney theme park visits - I can understand why you might have come away disappointed. Disney provided almost no practical information about its upcoming plans, save for the news that Monstropolis (minus the land's centerpiece door coaster) would open next year, with Disney California Adventure's Avengers Campus expansion coming in 2028.
Want to know when to visit Walt Disney World to see the repaired Yeti, or new Dreamfinder animatronic, or Piston Peak National Park, or Villains Land? Want to know when to visit Disneyland to see the new Coco ride, or Avatar experience, or reimagined Tomorrowland? Tough luck. Disney did not tell us.
The biggest news from this year's show may have been Disney's trio of announcements for projects that many fans long ago had given up any hope that they would ever see: the Yeti repair, a Tomorrowland refresh at Disneyland, and the return of Dreamfinder to EPCOT. This is the first year of Josh D'Amaro's leadership of The Walt Disney Company and Thomas Mazloum's of Disney Experiences. The message of the show from those two to Disney fans seemed (to me, at least) to be... don't give up hope. We are listening to you, and we will deliver.
Whether that happens, and in what form, remains to be seen, of course. Trust moves like a glacier. It build slowly, but breaks instantly.
The 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games will run from July 14 through August 27 across Southern California, creating a huge conflict for a 2028 D23 event in Anaheim. D'Amaro might decide that he wishes to tinker with, or outright reimagine, the D23 event, now that he is in charge of the company. Will Disney go further down the road of staging a Disney Experiences Showcase that feels like a Broadway production, or it will return to making the presentation more focused on news rather than spectacle? And how might Walt Disney World's Destination D23 fit into Disney's plans for fan events going forward?
As a journalist covering the theme park industry, I love a big, on-the-record presentation of upcoming attractions that I can report to Theme Park Insider readers and viewers with context and analysis based on my many years' experience with the industry. I also like when that presentation happens in a venue where I have the space to write and edit and post using a high-speed Internet connection, which are amenities that the Honda Center has lacked during Disney Experiences Showcases.
If Disney just wanted to get the news out with a bit of theatrical flair, it could host an Imagineer-filled press conference in the Disneyland Hotel ballroom and I - and many other reporters - would be happy. But Disney also wants to sell tickets to its D23 events and use parks announcements as one of the attractions to drive those ticket sales. So that creates the need for a production of a different style and scale.
I know that Disney is taking notes from a wide range of voices inside and outside of the company about last weekend's D23 event. Again, the message from D'Amaro and his team is, we're listening. So, in that spirit, I would love to hear what you think a D23 event should be... and how Theme Park Insider should cover it.
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Replies (5)
I noted this in my initial impressions of the event (I watched live on Disney+ from the east coast), but I found the overall production grating and unnecessary. I guess if you're going to go out of your way to hire a multi-talented actor to MC your event, you want to go all out, but there was so much time wasted and bits that just didn't work. While Gloria Gaynor's performance was fine, it was sad to see that she essentially had to be wheeled out in a throne for her song, and introducing her as the "Queen of Disco" was a slap into the face of the true queen, Donna Summer, who sadly is deceased. Also, it was an unnecessarily extravagant given the scope of the announcement it accompanied - sure fixing the Yeti is a noteworthy announcement, but lacking a timeline and details of how they're going to do it, was it really worthy of a massive song and dance number? I thought Sheryl Crow was really good, but felt it was odd that during her second song they didn't show any clips from Cars or even drawings/images from Piston Peak and/or Radiator Springs. Los Lobos had serious technical issues that resulted in a woefully imbalanced sound mix that made them sound like they were performing in someone's basement. Robert already covered the issues with Glen Close, who did an amazing job riffing and playing to the crowd but was an odd choice given that none of what WDI presented for Villains Land featured Cruella DeVille, so having Glen Close appear as her iconic character understandably led to some confusion (though I caught on pretty quickly that her dialogue was clearly appealing for a ride in the new land but did not in any way indicate her character was getting an attraction aside from perhaps being featured in the Magic Mirror boat ride).
I thought the overarching Carousel of Progress theme was clever, but the motif of changing scenes/acts was very inconsistent and led to some awkward transitions, particularly as NPH was trying to segue as John from CoP.
I understand that Disney wanted to make this more of a show to sell tickets, but it seemed that style won out over substance, and trying to broadcast the event live on Disney+ was problematic (started 15 minutes late and ran 30 past its broadcast window). Perhaps next time Disney can run an invitation-only event ahead of D23 (with strict embargoes until after the public release at D23) where WDI can run through all of the announcements and then they can do the song and dance show where some details can be omitted for the sake of entertainment.
@ Russell Meyer, THANKS for the Donna Summer "shout out" - she was the true Queen even though I have to give Gloria Gaynor a nod for what I call the "Disco National Anthem". Boston even puts on a free Donna Summer disco party on Boston City Hall Plaza every year in her honor - I think there's even roller disco so you can rock/skate/roll/bounce.
My biggest complaint with the Parks presentation was that it was simulcast live. Why did I pay so much money to be at the Honda Center when I could have easily watched it on Disney+? I know everyone wants to see it, but I think they should have put it on an 8 hour delay.
I found it disappointing to not get any timelines. I don't think they even said a year for Tropical Americas. That led me to think it may be pushed to 2028. I know construction can hit delays, but it would have been great to hear more on their anticipated timeframes.
Tomorrowland at Disneyland and Figment both gave me the initial thought of blue sky, but with Disneyland 75 coming in 2030, it would make sense for them to want to have at least some of the work done for that anniversary. It also makes sense to push Avatar. I imagine they would want that done in 2031 in time for the 30th anniversary of DCA.
Again, it would have been nice for them to say, we are reimagining Journey to Imagination. To prepare for a new experience with Figment...and Dreamfinder...the attraction will close in early 2027. Yes, I would have been happy just to learn the closing timeframes.
I want concrete facts. I want dates, I want behind the scenes, I want detailed concept art. I want information on ride systems and capacities and the such.
I liked the models though. Those were very cute.
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I watched the show live on Disney+ at 3am in the UK I totally agree the lack of details was really annoying for me personally as I’m high detail person. As a viewer at home I don’t give a hoot about the “show songs and dance routines”. The imagineers inclusion was nice, shows their passion and builds trust knowing what they are doing. As others have said it could have really been an email and not worth getting up at 3am to watch.