Author Topic: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim  (Read 14926 times)

Offline Cubs23331

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #105 on: March 26, 2023, 05:36:10 PM »
Things I've been reading it sounds like it's been a little bit of a slow show with not an overwhelming turnout?

Offline demonchocobo

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #106 on: March 26, 2023, 06:09:29 PM »
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Yep, it was yesterday. The guy who plays Harry is a hoot! He could have carried the whole thing by himself.

I was surprised to hear there was a panel for it. I really like Steve Howey as an actor so I’m glad to hear he was great on the panel! I’m enjoying the show so far.

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #107 on: Today at 05:02:28 AM »

Offline hikanteki

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #107 on: March 27, 2023, 01:04:56 AM »
Full review to come but I more or less agree with all the comments here. Panels improved from last year (that didn’t take much) but many other things felt off in ways that WC has never been off before…a couple of them actually being pretty serious.
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Offline marcia29

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #108 on: March 27, 2023, 07:56:02 AM »
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Full review to come but I more or less agree with all the comments here. Panels improved from last year (that didn’t take much) but many other things felt off in ways that WC has never been off before…a couple of them actually being pretty serious.

Hmm...looking forward to your full review.  I did not make it this year to Wondercon.
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Offline perc2100

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #109 on: March 27, 2023, 09:19:27 AM »
I have huge mixed feelings about having to miss WonderCon this year.  My wife and I just closed on a house the week prior so not only do we not have a lot of money currently (educators in CA get paid on the last day of the month, so we're looking at the calendar the way a fan watches the clock tick down to 0:00 in a close football or basketball game) AND I tweaked my back moving.  Logically I know I made the best decision for the moment, but seeing vid and pics from panels, all the great cosplayers, etc. I have a TOTAL sense of FOMO.  This is the first time I've missed WonderCon while I was in town since it moved to Anaheim (I've missed it previously for being in Europe when WonderCon was during my spring break a few times), but I know this will just make attending Comic-Con in July that much sweeter

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #110 on: March 27, 2023, 10:50:46 AM »
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I was surprised to hear there was a panel for it. I really like Steve Howey as an actor so I’m glad to hear he was great on the panel! I’m enjoying the show so far.

You can check out my writeup of True Lies here.

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Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #111 on: March 27, 2023, 11:01:16 AM »
Here is my (general) review of WonderCon 2023.

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I have separate articles on True Lies, The Ark and TWD, which can be found on the FoCC Blog.

Offline sessionka

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #112 on: March 27, 2023, 03:09:50 PM »
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Here is my (general) review of WonderCon 2023.

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I have separate articles on True Lies, The Ark and TWD, which can be found on the FoCC Blog.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  article pretty much summed it up for me.  While I understand it's still not up to Pre-Covid levels, I did see an increase in attendance from last year (My first WonderCon).

I'm going to add that the Masquerade had significantly more in attendance.  I worked the Masquerade as a volunteer last year, and then the room was only about a third full.  Everyone was pretty much in the middle section with just a sprinkling of people on the outer sections.  This year, people were every where.

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Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #113 on: March 27, 2023, 03:15:28 PM »
That's good to know about the Masquerade. I was surprised to hear that the Funko panel was not full, since they were giving away free Pops. The only panel I heard of that had people turned away was Animaniacs, and a couple of small author panels (in the small rooms).

Offline hikanteki

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #114 on: April 12, 2023, 08:49:12 AM »
This year's WonderCon felt off. Perhaps it's because it missed two years rather than one like most other conventions did, but whatever the case, something...well, many things...were not right.

I'll just get straight to the main issue. Friday night, I always look forward to the DC Animated Premiere & Panel as my endcap. Usually it starts at 7, which is perfect as it's after all the main programming and there may be just enough time to grab food and enjoy dinner during the movie. But this year it was at 6. Even though it was only an hour difference, it made things awkward. I had another panel I wanted to see then (Clone High) so I figured no matter, I'd watch that, then stop by the Arena afterwards for the panel, then just catch the replay on Sunday.

But after Clone High, I tried to enter the Arena and they wouldn't let me in. At each entrance, they kept on punting me to another entrance. (the entrance inside the exhibit hall, the entrance inside the center but outside the hall, the entrance direct to the Arena, etc.) Finally, each one said they were not longer letting people in, but could not give me a clear answer of whether it was full or whether or not they just decided to stop letting people in.

I've not known the Arena to get full, and CCI generally does not close off doors unless they are full, so this raised a red flag for me. I hung around the direct Arena entrance until 7:30 then snuck in when people started leaving after the premiere/before the panel. I normally don't do things like that, but the only reason I snuck in is because I shouldn't have had to. And once I got in, I saw that the arena was 80-90% empty. Maybe about 5-10% of people left after the premiere so it still would have only been 25% full at most.

There is no reason to deny entry to a 20-25% full panel in the Arena...period. I don't know if this was due to a new CCI policy that was communicated to us nowhere, a miscommunication between them and Anaheim Convention Center staff, or a power trip from Anaheim CC staff, but this kind of set the mood for the whole weekend. And had I not been able to sneak in, this snafu probably would have ruined my entire con.

Then another similar incident happened after the Funko panel. Brian and Mike said they would be signing the giveaway Pops afterwards. I found them in the South Hall, with only a few people around. After a few minutes ACC staff came and said they couldn't sign here. So then we went outside. I was at the front of the line then ACC staff followed us outside and said they wouldn't allow it. Outside. Again...there was probably a miscommunication somewhere but based on this plus the previous incident, it sounds like the most likely scenario was that ACC staff was on a power trip.

Those put a sour taste in my mouth that the rest of the con couldn't quite make up for. But before I get into the other things that felt off, I'll go onto the one bright spot and that was the panels. They were better than last year. True Lies was excellent, Clone High was very good, Animaniacs was great (I've seen the voice cast at previous conventions, but this time they had the director/creator and composers, which was a nice complement to the panels I've seen before), Knights of the Zodiac wasn't bad. The Funko panel itself was a bit lackluster, though the giveaway was cool (however, I felt a tinge of guilt getting free, specially made stuff from them considering they just sent 30M worth of inventory to the landfill.) Justice League x RWBY was very fun, though Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham was a bit stale.

With that said...there were also a number of other smaller things that felt off about it. The exhibit hall was a flea market. It had been trending this way for awhile...but this year especially. Bluefin/Tamashii was there, but didn't have Studio Ghibli. Funko was inaccessible as it had a long line all the way til closing time (usually, they let people in in the afternoon.) I found more interesting things at ECCC's exhibit hall this year (despite not really having any major booths besides Bluefin either.)

There was also nothing to really anchor the con. It always felt like the action was happening somewhere else. I heard mixed things about attendance but it sure felt lower to me this year than last year, except for maybe Saturday. The clerk at my hotel said the same thing. Aside from the DC rerun, there were no panels on Sunday that I had even the least bit of interest in. And I'll throw in another complaint about the hotels - the selection was extremely limited (5), and 4 of them were like $220+ which is too much for Anaheim. I went with the one that was $159 (Hotel Lulu, from the Best Western Premier Collection) but that one felt off too. It's a renovated Red Lion, and they did a great job renovating nearly every part of it...except the guest rooms, which are the important part. :-\ The lobby was nice, staff was excellent, the free drink upon check in was very nice, the restaurant looked welcoming, the hallways were fun...but the room, while big, had an old musty smell, an old-style dusty AC unit, and was not in great condition.

Things were off last year too, but those were in ways that were expected. This year, there were a lot more structural issues (organization, communication, hotels) that were just plain never an issue with WonderCon before. It wasn't a complete disappointment, as I did get to see some cool panels. But for the first time ever, I left WonderCon dissatisfied. 
« Last Edit: April 14, 2023, 03:27:50 AM by hikanteki »
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Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #115 on: April 12, 2023, 08:53:36 AM »
The issue with the movie might have been that the movie was playing. I have often found at CCI cons that they don't want to let you in when the room is dark.

Offline hikanteki

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #116 on: April 12, 2023, 09:51:26 AM »
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The issue with the movie might have been that the movie was playing. I have often found at CCI cons that they don't want to let you in when the room is dark.

I haven't ever run into that before at SDCC or WonderCon.
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Offline Old Man Grey

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #117 on: April 12, 2023, 05:18:16 PM »
I was at the Batman showing. The Arena wasn't even half full. And it wasn't dark. That was one of my complaints, that they didn't turn down the lights enough.

Offline semigeekgirl

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Re: WonderCon 2023: March 24-26, Anaheim
« Reply #118 on: April 12, 2023, 05:21:08 PM »
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I haven't ever run into that before at SDCC or WonderCon.

Agree. At Comic-Con they let people into Ballroom 20 all the time when the animated movies are showing. It's really annoying.