For the last few days, I've been documenting our recent road trip to Disneyland, Star Wars Celebration 2015 and more. If you missed the other posts and are interested in reading those first, check them out HERE (part one), HERE (part two), and HERE (part three)!
Yesterday I wrote about some Pixar related happenings at the Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, but I left one crucial experience out since I thought it deserved its own post.
Going there to the convention, I knew that Hamm himself in the flesh, yes Pixar's very own "lucky charm" John Ratzenberger (who has voiced a character in every single Pixar film to date), would be there signing autographs. Now, why would Mr. Ratzenburger be at a Star Wars convention? Well if you didn't know, he actually had a brief cameo appearance in The Empire Strikes Back as a Hoth rebel soldier! His character in that film is known as Major Bren Derlin and is the character who says "Your Highness, there's nothing more we can do tonight. The shield doors must be closed." See an image of him HERE.
That worked out so great for me that he would be there, given how much I'm a fan of both the Star Wars franchise and Pixar Studios! When I found out John was going to be signing, I immediately went on eBay and picked out a print featuring Hamm that I could get him to sign and personalize. The print I chose is this great Toy Story 2 limited edition lithograph; which was only available at the Disney Store in December 2005 when you pre-ordered the special edition DVD. Note- the above image is just of the outer slip cover. The actual print that he signed is below.
During the convention, I picked a perfect time to go over and visit with John, since there was really nobody over there at his table. It's funny, since he isn't a very known Star Wars actor, his line was never very big at all. However if this was a Disney·Pixar convention, his line would probably be a couple hours long.
Since there wasn't anyone really waiting behind me, I was able to chat with him for a couple of minutes- which was pretty cool. One thing that we have in common that we were able to talk about is that we're both from Connecticut! He grew up in Bridgeport (just the next town south of me) and now has a house in Milford (which is just one town north of me). When he found out I live in Lordship near the water, he said "oh really! You can see my house from your beach."
When John saw the print I wanted him to sign, he busted out his Hamm voice and quoted Toy Story 2 by saying "May I remind you that some of us are carrying over six dollars in change!" It was pretty funny and definitely a highlight to see and hear him say that live right there in front of me. Overall, it was a nice little experience to meet him and he seems very friendly...I'm so grateful that I had that opportunity!
And here we have the print that he signed- it looks perfect! I will be for sure getting this framed.
 |
| Back of the print |
There we have it. Yet another memorable experience from our Disney themed 2015 road trip! If you've enjoyed hearing about this, be sure to come back tomorrow to hear all about our visit to the Utah Up house! Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment