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Licensing Expo Spotlights Coming Toon Attractions

June 13, 2012 by Ramin Zahed divider image

We had the chance to visit the colorful Licensing Expo in Las Vegas this week, where thousands of our favorite animated and vfx-driven brands were basking in the limelight (June 12-14). As always, fans were able to take a look at what many of the big studios and smaller indies have in the works as well as rub elbows with celebrities. On the first day of the show, we caught glimpses of supermodel/celebrity designer Kathy Ireland (who was delivering the event’s keynote) as well as boy band One Direction (who paid a visit to the Hasbro booth to plug their new toy/game line, in the morning) and Larry the Cable Guy (supporting the Git-R-Done foundation).

There were plenty of spectacular displays at the Disney, Warner Bros., Marvel, DreamWorks, Fox, Sony, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Hasbro booths, but it was also great to see the quiet charms of the characters on display at the smaller orgs like The Jim Henson Company, Sesame Street, and Atlantyca. And a special tip of the hat to the folks at Seaworld who had live penguins entertaining the masses at their booth, a tribute to the glories of the natural world amidst the big, noisy artificiality of Mandalay Bay and Vegas. Here are some of the other sights of the first day!

Nobody provides better photo opps than Darth Vader and his friends from the
Star Wars galaxy.

Scholastic showcased its popular pooch Clifford the Big Red Dog, which is celebrating
a landmark anniversary and is getting the big-screen treatment via Universal and
Illumination Entertainment.

The Henson Company was promoting the recently announced feature based on the popular Frog and Toad books, as well as its current Pajanimals series.

Henson is also handling the popular (and kind of odd) Psyclops brand at the Expo.

Fraggle Rock continues to attract legions of fans for Henson. The long-anticipated
movie version recently got two new writers—Jim Byrkit and Alex Manugian (Rango).

Ravio rocked the house with its mad collection of Angry Birds toys and collectibles.

European preschool sensation Miffy hoped to find some new friends on the show floor.

DreamWorks offered a sneak peek at its 2013 prehistoric feature The Croods.

Adventure Time and Regular Show ruled the Cartoon Network booth in grand style.

Beverly Hills-based The Toon Studio offers warped, zombie versions of
Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and Pinocchio!

This friendly penguin was one of the many attractions at the Seaworld booth. The poor thing will probably have nightmares about his day in Vegas for the rest of his life.