February 24, 2011 by Becky Staudt
On Monday, February 14th I had the opportunity to
attend the Disney D23 Cars and Stars event. It was put on in
conjunction with the New York Toy Show. The event was held at Pier
60 of Chelsea Piers.

I entered the building and was quickly checked
in. They gave us Cars and Stars Event lanyards and told us the event
was starting at 10:30am even though the paperwork had said it was
starting at 10am. Not sure if they were starting it late or that
was the original plan and just told everyone to get there by 10am.
I headed into the event and they had hot and cold drinks available
and then we found our seats. Most of the Cast Members working the
event had race car
driver type suits on totally keeping in the theme of
Cars. The event was basically divided into two parts. The first
part involved a presentation and the second part allowed us to walk
around and explore all the Cars toys that are coming.
Before long the event started. Vince Klaseus the
Senior Vice President
of Global Toys hosted the event. They had made a car for him and he
was hosting the Late Model Show.
The Cars franchise has netted over $2 billion in profits
around the world with its combination of great story, great
characters, and lots of action. While most movies have a drop off
in interest Cars defied
that and has become more popular over the years.

They then had Mary Renner Beech come up and talk she
is the Vice President and General Manager of Franchise development
and marketing.
Cars 2 will have its North American release
on June 24th, 2011 and will have one of the largest releases
of related product available on the market. From toys, to books,
bedding, clothing, food and health and beauty products Cars 2 is
being marketed through many ways.

We got to watch the trailer for Cars 2 as well as a
video by
John Lasseter about the movie. He wished he could be there
but needed to help finish the movie and he was super excited about
all of the new
toys as he is a huge toy fan. Cars 2 stemmed from John traveling
around the world and thinking "what would Mater do?" in these
situations.

Cars 2 is a spy movie and they suspect that Mater is
involved in Espionage. The characters travel around the world for
the World Grand Prix. The movie will have many new characters for
Mater and McQueen to meet as they travel around the world.
Lighting McQueen's new rival will be Francesco Bernoulli, a famous
Italian racecar who will be voiced by
John Turturro.
Holley Shiftwell will be voiced by
Emily Mortimer.
Holley is a new spy that is just out of Spy academy and she is
stationed in Tokyo her mission is to pursue Mater. Holley works
under Finn McMissile. Emily was at the event and she hopes that
Holley will be an inspiration for girls who watch the movie. Emily
was presented with a LEGO version of Holley Shiftwell. When they
said
LEGO I was expecting it to be a small car but it was probably
about a foot long.
Finn McMissile is voiced by
Michael Caine who was also in attendance. Finn is Holley's
boss and he is a British spy. Finn is based off of a 1960's
Aston Martin
with some modifications. This is Michael's first experience voicing
an animated character and he decided to be involved in Cars 2
because he wanted to do a movie that his grand kids can watch.
Caine was given an interactive model of his character Finn McMissile
After the presentation we were allowed to go next door where there
was over 100 different types of toys as well as food and drinks for
everyone in attendance.
As soon as we were through the door we were greeted with a life size
remote controlled model of Finn McMissile. Finn will be touring the
country along with a life size remote controlled Mater and
Lightning McQueen sponsored by State Farm.
Some of the may toys that were on display included a wooden car and
race track play set
Remote controlled Geotrak play sets

Hot
Wheels Cars there are about 100 Hot Wheels cars that will be
available for purchase, this display was two sidedCars Alive 1:55 scale
Lightning McQueen- this looks really cool it drives around
and has a moveable mouth an it talks, it is about $60 I was
expecting it to be more given the technology involved to make it
so small.
Remote Controlled Finn McMissile and other
Remote controlled
cars.
Remote controlled Finn McMissile that drives on the
wall and easily transfers to the floor without stopping.
They had great signage all over that depicts the
places Cars 2 visits.
On the way out the door, everyone in attendance was presented with a
limited edition Lightning McQueen made specifically for this event.
Overall it was a great event, it got me super excited for Cars 2 and
I hope that D23 puts on similar events in the future throughout the
country.