Anomaly of Disney's Star Wars Weekends

Hi, I'm Sue.  I could never be a hipster because my superhero t-shirt aren't ironic.  And I am an Anomaly.

In addition to being a big sci-fi fan, I'm also a DisNerd (or "Disney Nerd", for the uninitiated).  I somehow seem to find myself at a Disney park several times throughout the year for different events or, you know, a random weekend.  But, until recently, I had never attended Star Wars Weekends at Disney World.  And now that I know several WDW cast members, I decided that had to change.

The event spans 4 weekends in late Spring, usually the last 2 weekends in May and the first 2 weekends in June, at Disney's Hollywood Studios park. I went down to Florida for the third weekend, June 1-3.  The first thing I noticed was that the atmosphere in the park was different - and I'm not talking about the monsoon on Friday or the scorching heat on Saturday.  People at Disney parks, both cast members and guests, are generally always nice, but tend to keep to themselves or their own group of friends in line and at attractions.  This weekend had much more of a convention vibe.  My little group made new line-friends several times, gave and received clothing and accessory compliments and purchasing tips, and veered off into geek chatter with complete strangers.  Furthermore, Disney rarely allows adults to enter the parks in costume (because they don't want kids mistaking you for a character, mostly), but those rules fly out the window during SWW (and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, FYI).  I saw several Jedi and Sith Lords, and even a Slave Leia.  It was like worlds were colliding... in a good way... without explosions.

There are always several celebrity guests - for this weekend, they were Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka, The Clone Wars) and James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Clone Wars), Catherine Taber (Amidala [among others], The Clone Wars), Silas Carson (Nute Gunray/Ki-Adi-Mundi, The Phantom Menace), and Jake Lloyd (Anakin, The Phantom Menace) - who all participate in the daily motorcade and parade with other Star Wars characters.  The celebs have special seminars or panels, and will take you inside working as a voice actor or talk about some behind-the-scenes stuff on The Clone Wars, or really anything else they fancy...

As you'd likely expect, no merchandising opportunity is wasted at Walt Disney World.  What is usually part of backstage was opened up to park guests and turned into the main Star Wars Weekends shopping area, called Darth's Mall, of course.  There were limited edition pins and figurines, vinylmation, a special Muppets Star Wars figure (my personal weakness), t-shirts, hats, Jedi robes, R2D2 churro buckets and steins, customizable Star Tours nametags printed in Aurebesh... You could even have a mini-fig of yourself cast in carbonite!  After wading through all of the merch, you reached the art gallery, featuring both Star Wars art and Disney-Star Wars art.

Disney goes all out for events like this, with several special characters roaming the parks, including Star Wars characters like R2D2, C3PO, Dark Vader, Boba Fett, and more...  Not to mention the Star Wars-ified Disney characters such as Jedi Mickey, Princess Minnie, Stormtrooper Donald, and Darth Goofy.  And the Cantina Band even roams the groups from time to time, entertaining guests on line for Star Tours.

Oh, my!  I nearly forgot about Star Tours, the actual Star Wars-themed attraction at DHS (and Tatooine Traders, the permanent Star Wars store)!  The attraction was completely renovated and updated in 2011.  It's a motion simulator with a hi-def 3D screen, and it's some of the best 3D I've ever seen.  You enter the attraction, and board your StarSpeeder for a normal trip...  but things go wrong right away, when R2D2 begins your trip without the captain on board, and 3PO has to take the controls.  The rest of the ride sequence is randomized, with a total of 54 different possible journeys.  But, somehow, the rebel spy on board your StarSpeeder is always delivered to safety.

And, of course, each evening ends with the special show, Snig and Oopla's Hyperspace Hoopla, a dance-off with the Star Wars Stars.  It sounds ridiculous and silly, and it is - in the best possible way.  I've heard some people say that they just don't like the idea of the Star Wars characters dancing... but I think this is worth the watch, at least one time.

After just one experience, this is an event that I know I'm going to have to get back to in future years.  Just remind me to go as early as possible, because Florida in June is crazy hot!  And keep an eye on the Anomaly feed early next week for a video slideshow of the photos I took during Star Wars Weekends, including character greetings, the motorcade, and the art show (super-dooper extra special thanks to Rick Moyer for making that happen).

May the Force be with you always.

Sue
Staff Writer for Anomaly
Co-Host of Anomaly Supplemental
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Anomaly of New York Comic Con

I'm Anne and I had a press pass to New York Comic Con because I'm an Anomaly.

I spent the last three days at my first ever Con and it has been an absolute blast! Between walking through Artist's Alley, seeing the ladies of Battlestar Galactica, and playing new video game demos, I've had a full dance card.

When I first got there, I was completely overwhelmed. I was supposed to meet up with some friends and as soon as I saw how many people were inside and how gargantuan the exhibition floor was, I feared I'd never find them. Luckily I spotted a Jayne Cobb doll in the Tonner booth and was so happy to see a familiar face, albeit a fictional one, that I stayed and checked out all of their collections for quite some time. They had sets from Dr. Who, Lord of the Rings, Firely, and a bunch of other cult classics. The detail was astounding and a little creepy. I started picturing Jayne arriving at Barbie's beach house to party with Galadriel and Skipper. Luckily one of my friends spotted me just as my brain descended into complete insanity and we all continued our Comic Con adventure together.

My favorite thing was getting to see all of the cosplay. There was such a range from girls who simply threw on a brightly colored wig and some awesome steampunk goggles to one girl who had commissioned an insanely detailed Tali costume (from Mass Effect) that had taken over 6 months to complete.

I also saw some awesome Avatar cosplay of Katara and Toph from the animated series.

The most overpowering presence in terms of cosplay was undoubtedly Star Wars. There were Jedi's everywhere! After a while they all started to blend in together, until steampunk Boba Fett showed up and blew everyone away. Well, not literally, but it was very impressive.

That was only topped by Chewbacca. The funny part about this picture is that I have a similar one taken when I was a little girl at Disney World. My parents somehow thought it would be a great idea to thrust tiny me into the arms of seven-foot-tall-Chewbacca and I was completely terrified. As you can see, it's a different story now that I'm an adult Anomaly. Hold me closer, giant wookie.

Of course, there were a fair share of Anomalies-to-be.

The craziest thing about the R2D2 model in that last picture was that the father of those two kids was using a remote to make it roll ahead of his children whilst it sounded a horrendous alarm so that the family would have room to walk and not get trampled. Part of me hated him because whenever they got close, that's all you could hear for about 10 minutes as people could barely move due to sold out crowds on Saturday, but most of me was jealous.

I also ran into a girl who had created her own Astrid of Berk costume from How to Train Your Dragon. We chatted for a bit about how she'd managed to construct the leather armor at home with tile glue. As it turned out, she's a 2D animator- that is, while she's not defending her village from an onslaught of pesky fire-breathers. We both came to one singular conclusion: Dragons are awesome.

I knew Angela and Jen would appreciate this hardcore Battlestar fan-couple.

They also had a bunch of new action figure models on display that haven't been mass produced for sale yet. My favorites included Bioware's Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age figures as well as Blizzard's new series of World of Warcraft models. Finally, Boomkin get immortalized (even if it had to be of the Alliance persuasion). My personal favorite is the Undead Priestess. The detail and the dynamic position is really eye-catching. The shoulders guards took me back to the days when I was raiding Black Temple and wished I was a cloth wearing class so that I could wear them.

I've been considering getting into some table top RPG's and I found one I'm really intrigued by called Eoris. I talked to the creators and not only were they passionate about the game, but their artwork is incredible. Everything has a completely unified look to it and the books are really beautiful. The only reason I didn't end up buying them right then and there is because every time I want to try a table top RPG and I buy a book, no one wants to play it. So here's the deal- NEW YORK ANOMALIES: ASSEMBLE! Let's make this happen.

I wanted to save most of my money for Blizzcon since I'm traveling to LA for that convention in a few weeks, but I did pick up two special items. Number one, I ran into Georges Jeanty in the Artists Alley who was displaying some of his artwork for the Buffy comics as well as one of the covers for The Guild comic books. He was such a nice guy and we ended up talking about how he met Felicia Day at a Con in London and encouraged her to get into writing comics. The rest is history, folks! I ended up buying a print of his cover for The Guild and he signed it for me. I also discovered the booth for Her Universe which is a company created by Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka on Star Wars: The Clone Wars) to sell "geek chic" apparel for women. They have the most awesome Star Wars baseball caps with sparkly lettering! That was what initially caught my eye until I realized I probably would never wear it since I don't wear hats. Their shirts are amazingly comfortable and I was impressed that they came in plus sizes as well as the regular sizes. They also don't run insanely small like some women's apparel. I ended up buying the Han and Leia "I Know" shirt, but it was a close call between that one and a purple shirt with Leia and Darth Vader that said "Daddy's Little Girl."

I recorded a ton of great audio interviews with other Anomaly con-goers, artists, writers, webseries creators, actors, and musicians and sent them off to Jen and Angela so hopefully you'll get to hear more about NYCC first hand in the near future!

Anne

Staff Writer for Anomaly

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