Things were winding down on the show floor at that point (yes, the show floor only stayed open til 5pm. Apparently Comic Con's is open til something like 7pm, and it sure woulda been nice to have something to do between 5pm and the 10pm movie screenings they held. I wish I'd remembered to mention this when I filled out DH's Expo survey...). We'd made plans to go to dinner and see
Walt & El Grupo at Downtown Disney with Sean & Victoria and A-T-G & Mr. A-T-G, but Mr. A-T-G was still in the
Tron presentation and screening. So we kidnapped A-T-G and took her with us to check in at the
Disneyland Hotel (she likes to pull my suitcases. No, really!), then walked over to Downtown Disney to meet the rest of the group. (And by "walked" I mean "got pulled by A-T-G in a rickshaw"... no, really!)
We met at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, which I love for its decor. The food is good but overpriced.
I'm a sucker for New Orleans atmosphere, and I like how each room is themed differently. We were seated in the Parlor.
One good thing about going with a big group is you get to take lots of food porn!
French Quarter Salad - Mixed greens with a cider vinaigrette, candied pecans and cherry tomatoes.
A-T-G and I started with the Soup of the Day, which was an amazing baked potato soup with bacon and cheese!
Baby Arugula & Goat Cheese Salad - yellow teardrop tomatoes, fried goat cheese, watermelon croutons, lemon-thyme vinaigrette
For dinner, DH and I split the Bourbon Street Sampler for two - A taste of New Orleans with our BBQ pork sliders, Creole calamari, blackened chicken spring rolls and coconut shrimp
A-T-G had the Panéed Chicken & Grits - Parmesan-herb crust, ham, smoked mozzarella cheese, poached asparagus, bourbon-Creole mustard reduction
Mr. A-T-G had the Grilled Chicken & Penne - Pancetta, caramelized onions, basil, Asiago cheese, pink vodka sauce
And Sean & Victoria had the Grilled Medallions of Beef - Filet mignon, crawfish mashed potatoes, bacon & pecan-crusted green beans, zinfandel reduction (we've had this before, and it's pretty dang good.)
After dinner we walked over to the AMC at Downtown Disney to see the new documentary
Walt & El Grupo, which uses lots of never-before-seen footage and covers Disney's South American goodwill tour, which inspired
Saludos Amigos and
The Three Caballeros. It also changed the lives of many of the illustrators and animators Disney took with himmost notably Mary Blair, whose illustration style went from being a near mirror of her husband's to something completely new and fresh and made her one of Disney's favorites for many years. She's most famous for conceptualizing it's a small world, but she also did lots of gorgeous conceptual artwork for classics like
Peter Pan and
Cinderella. She's one of my favorites!
By showing our
D23 Expo wristbands to the ticket-taker, we each got a pin of the movie's poster.
For some reason, although there was a discussion of the movie and a screening of
Saludos Amigos at the Expo, they didn't show the film - maybe cuz they'd convinced the AMC to run the movie at regular intervals every day of the Expo (a pretty big deal, since it's being show in only a handful of other cities across the US and usually as a one-off presentation - see the schedule here:
http://www.waltandelgrupo.com/). The documentary was directed by Theodore Thomas, son of Frank Thomas, one of Walt's Nine Old Men and director of
Frank & Ollie - a wonderful, touching documentary about the two animators' friendship.
Which is all to say that I expected "Walt & El Grupo" to be fascinating, edifying, and insightful. Instead - I almost fell asleep three times! I felt terrible - here was all this rare footage, some of it shot by Walt Disney himself, and I could not keep my eyes open to look at it! I thought maybe it was cuz we got up at 5:30am, or maybe cuz we'd just eaten dinner, but when the 6 of us talked about the movie afterward, I discovered that it wasn't methe movie was just really boring! (Patrick dubbed it "Walt & El Snooze-o"!) For one thing, there was no narrator providing continuity and context. Clips played too long and sometimes were just not that interesting. There were interviews with people who remembered that time, but a lot of the subjects didn't have much to say. Thomas also had people read the animators' letters to home from the trip, but, again, some of them were just kinda dull. Another thing that drove me nutsand maybe it's just because I'm an editoris they introduced something as being one of three reasons that something important happened and then never told us what the other two reasons were - ARRRRRRRRRRGH! Really, it felt kinda like a student film, which is weird, because
Frank & Ollie was so polished.
Anyway, don't listen to me... go see it if it comes to your townyou might like it!
After the movie we went back to our room in the farthest tower at the Disneyland Hotel, and I made DH take pictures while I propped myself up against a wall and rested my eyes for a bit.
Um, okaaaaay DH...? Oh, I get it - it's the Kleenex dispenser built into the sink!
So, it looks pretty nice in these pictures, but we were kinda shocked by the rundown condition of the room - most notably the huge swatch of peeling, mildewed wallpaper in the bathroom:
There were also big scuffs and badly patched paint on the doors and door jambs, the towels were thin and wornsome even had holes in them!and in general the room felt more "motel" than "hotel" in its upkeep. It seemed like they'd decided to stop maintaining the place in anticipation of the makeover, but 3 years out seems a leetle bit early for that. Also, some of the fundamental problems with this 59-year old hotel will not be addressed by the cosmetic enhancements, like the paper-thin walls that allowed us to hear everything going on in the room next door. Originally the plan was to demolish the hotel one tower at a time and build a completely new one, but now they're just going to give them a facelift.
At least the rooms will look nice, in a dark, heavy sort of way.... and there will be fiber-optic fireworks in the headboard... I just wish our Disney hotels had themes, like the ones at WDW.
OK, enough complaining for today - next up
Saturday at D23 Expo!
).
they're great. I just got all caught up. And I just love your commentary. I feel like I was there!!
about the NOT discontinuing the headband bride ears. I haven't even found my prince yet and heard that rumor and snagged some off ebay! Then I went to WDW (while you were at this expo, I might add) and saw them and thought "oh hmmm ebay wasn't nessacary!" and then I hear this!! Oh well. At least I got them!!
Also, I lurve those Kermit hair clips!
I love it when you go Donald (and now new ship) hunting for me!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I think it's OK you got the ears - now you won't have to stress about it when the time comes.... you can stress about a bunch of other things! 
I am shocked at the condition of the room you were in! The make over that they are planning looks to be fantastic but still you can't wait 3 years for that. That should be fixed now and not left for guests to see. 
.
I feel like I know you vicariously thru InkedUpMomma!
