On the first full day of Comic-Con, it was geek heaven.
The day began with a panel on Imagi’s upcoming Astro Boy feature film. The footage, much of which we’d seen a few weeks back and already reported on, went over extremely well with fans. The film’s mix of humor and action played really well, and director David Bowers, producer Maryann Garger and stars Kristen Bell and Freddie Highmore did a good job of selling the project to the crowd. We’ll have more on the film, including interviews with the panelists, as soon as the crazy Comic-Con schedule allows!
The highlight for animation fans was the Drawn to Life panel on the legacy of Disney animator and mentor Walt Stanchfield. Our own Ramin Zahed reports on it here.
Later on, we made it into Hall H and caught tremendous presentations from director Terry Gilliam on The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, which features some wonderful visual effects, and Matthew Vaughn’sKick-Ass, based on the Marvel/Icon comic and featuring some animation based on the artwork of John Romita Jr.
The party scene kicked in big time, as well, with several video game bashes from the likes of Sony and Ubisoft, as well as a big bash hosted by comics publisher IDW, management and production house Circle of Confusion and Wired magazine.
Tomorrow will see the animation highlight of Comic-Con, with the first-ever appearance of Hayao Miyazaki, who’ll be interviewed by John Lasseter in a special Disney Animation panel.
