Guest PostingMovies/Films/Television

WonderCon 2025: Pop Culture Paradise Returns to Anaheim

Jeanine Yamanaka

The annual celebration of all things comic books, science fiction, fantasy, and pop culture returned with renewed energy as WonderCon 2025 once again took over the Anaheim Convention Center. From April 4-6, the convention drew thousands of passionate fans, cosplayers, artists, writers, and industry professionals for a weekend of panels, exclusive announcements, and community building that once again solidified WonderCon’s place as one of the premier gatherings for genre entertainment enthusiasts.

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This year’s convention featured an expanded showroom floor, a star-studded lineup of guests from upcoming film and television projects, and thoughtful discussions that reflected both the playful spirit and serious craftsmanship that defines modern fandom.  As usual, there were so many activities and presentations that one person couldn’t hope to see more than a thimblefull of what was available, but here are some of the highlights:

 

The Official Disneybound Panel:  Bringing Bounding to All Fandoms!

In what has become a convention perennial, Disneybounding was the topic of the hour as pros Leslie Kay, Dolly Lee, Clarione Gutierrez-Owens, Pernell Langhorne III, and Helen Kelly Davis shared their knowledge on creating, wearing, and enjoying bounding across all fandoms, moderated by Kelsey Walmer.

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  • Balance your Disneybould with the 10ft rule:  If it looks good at ten feet, then it’s all good.
  • Incorporate your personal style into your bounds; shop the stores you know for what looks good on you.
  • Know the character you’re portraying.  Lack of heart stifles the creative process when you don’t know the character.
  • At the same time, get out of your comfort zones and try different characters for inspiration.
  • Use your environment to your advantage.  What would be a red carpet Stitch look?
  • The panel was asked what their most versatile pieces were, that they used over and over:
    • Yellow shoes
    • Loungefly bags
    • Grey and beige and brown shoes
    • Yellow tops
    • Black leather pants and boots
    • Glasses–especially yellow lens sunglasses which can represent animal eyes

A Conversation with Ronald D. Moore:  Why Replicators Are [Still] The Worst

Writer/Producer/Showrunner Ronald D. Moore, who was recently at Disney developing a Swiss Family Robinson series and an extended Magic Kingdom Universe with a series based on The Society of Explorers and Adventurers (SEA,) talked about his extensive career in genre television with moderator Mary Anne Butler.

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While none of his projects at Disney came to fruition, such is not an uncommon outcome in film production.  Moore discussed briefly the fate of his first potential show, an adaptation of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, which hit a wall after the studio had his script rewritten into something unrecognizable and insisted on shooting it.  The night before his meeting with the studio, Moore attended a panel at the Museum of Television and Radio with other writers such as J. Michael Straczynski and Harlan Ellison…

@justjeanine1

At WonderCon 2025, Ronald D Moore talked about how his first potential show—an adaptation of DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN—was scuttled when the studio rewrote his script into something unrecognizable and unacceptable. The night before his discussion with the studio he went to a panel of writers… #RonaldDMoore #wondercon2025 #HarlanEllison

♬ original sound – JustJeanine

A Faith-Full Dickens Tale:  The King of Kings Animated Movie

Now in theaters, Mofac Studios and director/producer Seong-ho Jang have brought the story of Jesus Christ to animated life through the eyes of Charles Dickens in The King of Kings.

Jang, along with cinematographer Woo-Hyung Kim, co-screenwriter Rob Edwards (Captain America: Brave New World, Disney’s The Princess and the Frog,) casting/dialogue director and executive producer Jamie Thomason, James Arnold Taylor (voice of multitudes in the Star Wars animated franchise), and Fred Tatasciore (Hit Monkey, I Am Groot) held a panel where they discussed the making of the new retelling of this fabled story.

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With a star-studded voice cast including Kenneth Branagh as Charles Dickens, Uma Thurman as Catherine Dickens, Mark Hamill as Pierce Brosnan as Pontius Pilate, Forest Whitaker as Peter, Sir Ben Kingsley as High Priest Caiphas, and Oscar Isaac as Jesus, Jang interprets the Dickens’ story “The Life of our Lord” in a fashion that is, as Tatasciore said, “topical and understandable, whether you’re religious or not.”

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Cartoon Voices

Always a fun addition to every WonderCon/SDCC, Mark Evanier’s zany Cartoon Voices panel this year included Kimberly Woods (Archer, X-Men ’97), Wally Wingert (Invader Zim, The Garfield Show), Candi Milo (Looney Tunes, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends), and Daniel Ross (Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures.)

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@justjeanine1

At the #WonderCon “Cartoon Voices” panel, Daniel Ross, voice of Donald Duck, picks out Kaitlyn Robrock, voice of Minnie Mouse, watching from the audience! #DonaldDuck @Daniel Ross @Kaitlyn Robrock #MinnieMouse

♬ original sound – JustJeanine

 

The 2025 WonderCon Masquerade

As is typically the case, Saturday’s programming ended with the traditional WonderCon Masquerade, hosted again this year by Her Universe founder and voice of Ahsoka Tano, Ashley Eckstein.

Science of Disneyland

Closing out WonderCon 2025 were two back-to-back Disney panels, the first of which had astrophysicist Lisa Will, geologist Garrett Vice, paleontologist Stuart Sumida (Matterhorn animations), and biologist Elizabeth Rega (Hall of Presidents) discussing how science is involved in creating all your favorite park attractions.

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  • In the Hall of Presidents, they talked about working on the audio-animatronic for President Obama
    • Obama was the last generation of the mark 4 audio-animatronics
    • They found the key to making his replica was recognizing the asymmetry in his face and expressions.

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  • “We’re not science police.  We help them (Imagineers) tell stories, and stories are important.”

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  • Creatures are built out of things we already know.
  • The scenarios should be recognizable and do their jobs within 2-7 seconds.
  • You can tell if something looks right or something looks wrong in that amount of time.

25th Anniversary of Emperor’s New Groove

Finally, the last panel of the convention was a great look back at the turbulent development of Emperor’s New Groove with Director Mark Dindal, writer Dave Reynolds, character designer Joe Moshier, head of story Steve Anderson, and story artist Jeff Ranjo.

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  • The film’s evolution from the dramatic musical Kingdom of the Sun to the wacky comedy we know today was captured in the documentary The Sweatbox which remains unreleased by Disney.
  • The film features the first pregnant mother in Disney feature animation.  She was added to increase the stakes for Pacha in the plot, although a line had to be added to emphasize that she was not due any time soon, to keep people from wondering why Pacha was wandering off and potentially missing her delivery.
  • On designing Yzma:  “I knew she needed to look like a skeleton on a hanger.”

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  • An effort was made to keep bold shapes in the character designs without over-elaborating the details in the interests of economy.

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  • An early concept had Pacha and Kuzco staying in the village for the whole film, enjoying the village’s annual pickle festival.

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  • The filmmakers had to fight hard to keep Kronk in the movie as he was initially deemed irrelevant.  To prove his comedic contributions, they had to write and board his scene at the dinner party in a couple days to keep him from getting cut.
  • The studio initially wanted Brad Garrett for Kronk’s voice, but the filmmakers had always envisioned Patrick Warburton in the role.
  • Kronk’s ability to speak squirrel came from a reading Adam West did for an earlier version of the script.

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  • Ultimately, one of the learning points from the film was the importance of collaboration and the need to be open to change.  “You have to be open because you did not have time to be precious about any moment or any joke or anything that we think is funny.  It just has to be, what is the best thing for the movie?  What’s going to make the show?  And if you have the best one, you win.  It goes in because at the end of the day, the movie wins.  Not us.”

As sister convention to the larger San Diego Comic-Con, WonderCon 2025 continues its tradition of offering a more accessible yet equally exciting experience for attendees of all ages.  For more information about WonderCon, or to watch for information about tickets to future WonderCons, visit the WonderCon Homepage.