Duffy & Friends 20th Anniversary D23 Spotlight Series Recap
If you’re not familiar with Duffy & Friends, they are a group of adorable characters, mostly popular in the Asia Disney parks, who showcase the magic of friendship! They’re quite adorable and even have a series of stop motion shorts on the Disney Parks YouTube page! (It was also announced a few years ago that there would be a Duffy & Friends shorts series coming to Disney+, though that project seems to have not come to fruition.)
While I didn’t know too much about the origin of Duffy & Friends, I loved them as soon as a visited Tokyo DisneySea, and the first and only pair of ears I bought from the Tokyo Disney parks were a pair of Duffy ears! Now, every time I visit the Tokyo Disney parks, and the couple of times I’ve visited Aulani, I look forward to seeing what adorable Duffy & Friends merchandise is out!
It also just so happens that this year is the 20th anniversary of Duffy & Friends! And to celebrate, D23, which is Disney’s official fan club, set up a Spotlight Series event just for them! This event was so sweet, and I loved that we got a chance to dive deeper into the backgrounds of each friend and how they came to be. It really gave me a much deeper appreciation and love for these characters!
Duffy’s origins
Mickey and Duffy the Disney Bear art. Image from Disney
This adorable crew’s origins start with Duffy. Duffy was a bear that Minnie made for Mickey in order to bring him comfort on his voyages across the sea. Over the past 20 years, more friends were added to this little gang - ShellieMay, StellaLou, ‘Olu Mel, Gelatoni, CookieAnn, and LinaBell!
Each of the friends actually bring their own special personalities, quirks, and dreams into the mix! And after hearing one of the Duffy & Friends creators, Charlie Watanabe, talk about each of them with so much passion and heart, I could really see how each character was designed so thoughtfully. Each of their special skills and dreams, and their ability to work together, are necessary for them to get through sticky situations together!
One of the things I learned from this presentation and panel was that Duffy and Friends’ stories are actually solely focused on the beauty of friendship and that that’s where all the magic lies, and they don’t rely on anything fantastical. What a sweet sentiment!
Event Schedule
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 8:30AM | Arrived at Disney’s Glendale Creative Campus |
| 9:30AM | Checked in for the event |
| 10:00AM | Duffy & Friends panel |
| 11:15AM | Group photo & photo ops |
| 11:30AM | Shopping at Mickey's of Glendale |
| 12:30PM | Walt Disney Imagineering walkthrough |
| 1:00PM | Event end |
Arriving and checking in
We arrived at Disney’s Glendale Creative Campus around 30 minutes before the official check-in time began at 9:00AM. Parking on the campus is available for free, so there was no issue with that at all.
There was a small line that had already formed, but it was less than 10 people long. More people started to arrive shortly after we did, so I think arriving around 30 minutes ahead of time is quite reasonable.
Check-in was stated to start at 9:00AM, but it didn’t start until around 9:30AM. This wasn’t a huge deal since the presentation didn’t start until 10:00AM, so there was plenty of time to check-in and it went by very smoothly.
After checking in, we were given our itinerary for the day along with a small bag of cheddar puffs, a bottle of water, and a pack of Duffy & Friends postcards!
All attendants were split into groups with different itineraries, identified by colored wristbands. This kept the crowds manageable at each event, which I thought was a great idea so nothing felt too crowded. I thought everything was pretty well-managed and went by smoothly!
It was also so cool to see everyone dressed up as their favorite Duffy & Friends character and carrying around their adorable plushies!
The panel
This was such a sweet panel! So incredible and heartwarming!
When we entered the Grand Central Air Terminal where the panel was being held, we were greeted by cast members who gave us a random Duffy and Friends button! We got ShellieMay and ‘Olu Mel!
I nabbed a front row seat so we could get a clear view of the panel and thank goodness we did, because at the end of the presentation Duffy and LinaBell made a surprise visit!! They were SO cute and it was my first time seeing the mascots in person!
The panel speakers at this event were Charlie Watanabe, Laura West, Xiao Qing Chen, Eva Lee, and Trevor Rush.
They talked all about the history of Duffy & Friends and the motivation behind all of their stories, their popularity in the Asia Disney parks, and some insights into what the future may hold for them! It was really cool to see some of the concept art that was drawn by Xiao Qing Chen, to hear about their costuming and park appearance plans from Trevor Rush, and the kinds of things coming to the Disney Adventure cruise ship that’ll showcase lots of Duffy & Friends love!
The panel really made me love Duffy & Friends even more!
After the panel, they had some cute photo ops outside of the building where guests could take photos, and they even set up a little photo op for plushies too which was so cute!
Campus visit & Mickey’s of Glendale
The campus area wasn’t too large, but it was cute to see all the little Disney easter eggs that were around the campus.
We found this R2D2 and BB8 silhouette on one of the buildings and I thought that was a really fun touch!
They also had a Heimlich and Francis coaster cart from the old Bug’s Land rides at Disney’s California Adventure. I used love the Bug’s Land area and these rides, especially Heimlich’s, so this was fun and nostalgic! Of course, I had to get a photo with Heimlich again for old time’s sake!
To shop at Mickey’s of Glendale, we had to queue up since they were metering the number of guests in the shop. This was helpful since the store is quite small, so this made it easier to shop once you were inside.
For the event, they had a small corner that had Duffy & Friends merchandise like towels, plushies, puzzles, and other trinkets. This was, of course, the most popular part of the shop, so there was a separate line inside the store just to get to the Duffy & Friends merchandise.
The rest of the store had other Disney Imagineering and Disney merchandise like apparel, stationery, toys, and the like.
I didn’t end up getting any of the Duffy & Friends merchandise since they weren’t super enticing to me (and I’ll be going to DisneySea for the 20th anniversary this year!! so I’ll be getting Duffy & Friends items there 🤭).
Imagineering walkthrough
The last event of the day was the Imagineering walkthrough, where we got to see some of the Walt Disney Imagineering creations up close!
The showcase area has around 3 separate rooms that have small-scale dioramas, costumes, camera technologies, even the holotiles and the Spider-man robot that launches through the air at DCA!
The walkthrough started with a short video presentation introducing Walt Disney Imagineering and their mission, and it’s one of those videos that give you the chills because it’s so sweet and inspirational! They then let us inside the showcase area where we got to see all the cool stuff! No photos or videos were allowed here.
I got to play with a small setup of the holotiles using a joystick controller and it was actually super cool! I also got a close-up view of the Spider-man robot and it’s so cool to see all the different pieces that go into it!
We got to see a real multi-plane camera up close, and see all these other cool technologies Walt Disney Imagineering developed for different park experiences. They also had a small section where you could play with the water simulation technology used for the Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana experience at EPCOT!
This was really cool, and I can’t even imagine what other fun and innovative stuff they’re developing now!
Wrapping up
After we finished up the Imagineering walkthrough, we were basically done for the day! There wasn’t an official conclusion to the event (at least none that I knew of), so after we were done, we just headed out from the event!
Recap
Could be betters
Even though this was a really fun event, I do think some aspects of it could have been improved.
For one, I feel like Duffy & Friends already have so little merchandise in the United States. I had really been hoping that there would be some WDI-exclusive or at least WDI-related Duffy & Friends merchandise that would be available for purchase at the Mickey’s of Glendale shop. It would just be a really cool way to commemorate this unique event, but all of the Duffy & Friends items were things that you could technically get elsewhere.
I also thought (and really really hoped) that there would be some encounter or meet and greet with Duffy & LinaBell, especially after seeing them show up at the panel. Since this was a limited event, the crowd was managed and made smaller by the separated itineraries, so a meet and greet could maybe have been possible, and I think that would have just another very thoughtful part of the event, especially since we were celebrating their 20th anniversary and the mascots were already there. I’m glad I could see them at all, but that would have made it just that much more special.
Highlights
One of my top highlights was definitely seeing Duffy and LinaBell, and basically the whole panel. It was really cool to hear from all the Duffy & Friends experts share their love for these characters. And to see Duffy and LinaBell (who is my favorite) at the end was just the cherry on top!
I also loved the Imagineering walkthrough. I never thought I’d see these inventions so up close and personal, let alone actually play with holotiles! This was really cool!
Overall, this was a really fun event! This was actually the first event I purchased tickets for as a D23 Gold member, so this was lots of fun and definitely makes me want to check out more of them!
Tickets for this event were around $36 after fees, which I thought was very affordable for the fun experience!
The crowd wasn’t very large, which I thought was nice because it made the event feel quite intimate, and you know that the people attending are also very passionate about the topic. And it was just fun to be there with fellow Duffy & Friends-loving fans!
I hope Disney has taken notice of the love for Duffy & Friends here in the United States and finds more opportunities for them to join the characters we currently have here. It would be so cool to see them here as well as abroad! We do already have ShellieMay and Duffy in the Disneyland 70th Anniversary Cavalcade, so I hope that bodes well for more appearances in the future!
