What Was WonderCon?

WonderCon was an engaging and growing fan event that took place at the Anaheim Convention Center over the last weekend. Three days of people dressed in costumes, finding out the latest about their favorite films, TV shows and comics from the people who make them. Right next to Disneyland with surprisingly little presence of Marvel with many cosplayers dressed as Avengers and jokes on Disney and Marvel's merger, ever see a min-mouse R2D2? Over the week I've shown you some of wonders that happened at the convention. What you wonder about can be caught up here in the WonderCon posts from the site.

It's best to go over what the experience is like so I'll go over the top news and what it's like to be there.

There were some major players at the event. Guillermo Del Toro talked about and showed off footage from his next film Pacific Rim. In the upcoming summer blockbuster huge robots piloted by people will be fighting giant monsters. Del Toro's take on the monster movie genre is a more realistic look at what would happen in a world constantly seiged by giant monsters. Charlie Day from FX's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was at the panel explaining some of the more grim jobs taking place in the film world, one of which is cleaning up giant monster poop. Little nods to such questions after monster fights should make a interesting impact for a field dominated by Japanese studios.

More fan favorite film panels were filled to the brim at the arena section of WonderCon as the cast of "This Is the End", the James Franco and Seth Rogen disaster comedy  also held at panel. Jonah Hill and Danny McBridewith  and other well known comedians play fictional versions of themselves as LA gets destroyed.

Director Fede Alvarez discussed his remake of Evil Dead with original star of the series Bruce "Ash" Campbell fielding questions. Joss Whedon was in attendance, but for nothing Marvel related, another odd choice by Marvel. He was promoting he's movie adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which was on Sunday, the shortest and least enticing day of the con.

Stars and panels like these show how WonderCon is becoming on par with Comic-Con. It even sold-out out both Friday and Saturday, where WonderCon is already sold-out months in advance.
On Saturday, I was covering multiple panels all diverse in nature. The yet to be seen and appreciated ADHD panel which will put more adult cartoons on Fox's Saturday night from creators from Adult Swim. The fan favorite cartoon of Adventure Time with some of the cast and crew that was shy and awkward, but still very much beloved by fans. Capcom's general panel which was mostly a repeat of there PAX East panel. You did have a chance to sing-a-long with the Duck Tales theme with a reminder of a remastered version of the game from WayForward coming out.

Panels might be the best part of the convention, but the show floor is where you'll be the most  The big beautiful exhibit hall featured big booths from major comic publishers, video game publishers and rare to find items you might not want to pay shipping on. Yes, you can meet your favorite director or actor at a panel or screening, but you can meet them at the show floor too. If you have a favorite B or C- list actor go no further than the signing section.
 If you don't want Billy the Blue Power Ranger or Lou Ferrigno's autograph why not play video games?

Capcom, Nintendo, Namco Bandai and WB Games all had demo booths to play their games, some of which are yet unreleased. Capcom easily wins best video game booth for the amount of demo stations available, a 3DS charging station that looked like a town out of a video game and all the free swag it gave out. Poster after to poster of demon girls( Darkstalkers), rich ducks (Duck Tales) and ice beards (Lost Planet 3) were handed out to fans from Capcom. You could also keep a fond memory of WonderCon with the free "Remember Me" photo booth. It's based on a future game where you can go into people's memories and change what they remember.

You didn't have to just go to Capcom's booth for a photo, you could also get a picture with some beautiful booth babes at the Fearnet booth while holding whatever scary item you wanted. Everyone had to stop to take a second look and take a quick snap on their phone of all the great costumes going around the con. That and all the remote control R2D2's from Star Wars going around, there's a so-cal chapter of droid makers who loves to show off at these events.



Droids, aliens, monsters there all at WonderCon. Walking through it is like encountering all your favorite memories in one place if you're a nerd.  Screening of not yet released films or TV shows, getting insight into your favorite media from the people who created it, all at WonderCon.

There's a downright sort secret inside club at the WonderCon Masquerade, which is really the costume contest. Everyone counts down contestants like The Count from Sesame Street. In unison the arena hall would go, "Two a-ha-ha-ha". Then each time a higher number was called the audience's answer would get more complex with a" a-ha-ha-ha" added by a "woo-hoo" and possible a "cha-ching" as the night grew on and people dressed as Lego versions of Darth Vader, Boba Fett and Yoda danced to Gangnam style.

WonderCon is an event that soon might grow as big as it's big brother Comic-Con, it'll just take some time and much more cosplay.