Adding to her established collection of Disney princess-inspired wedding dresses for Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings, designer Kirstie Kelly will soon be adding new dresses inspired by Tiana from The Princess and the Frog and an all-new Snow White dress inspired by the Disney Diamond Edition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

In the photo to the left, Kelly (pictured) publicly debuts her sketch for the Tiana-inspired dress  to visitors at Disney’s D23 Expo which took place last month.

The new Snow White dress will be unveiled on the runway later this year, but Brides.com has an exclusive first look at the new dress which you can see here.

As part of his presentation Sunday at the D23 Expo, Walt Disney Animation and Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter spent a great deal of time talking about the upcoming Winnie-the-Pooh movie from Walt Disney Animation that was announced a few months ago.

Lasseter began by fighting off the notion that Pooh was just for kids and that he and co-directors Steve Anderson and Don Hall recently reviewed the original Walt Disney Pooh films, Winnie-the-Pooh and the Hunny Tree and Winnie-the-Pooh and the Blustery Day and how they found them just as charming and funny today as they did back then and it was there they found inspiration for the new film.

Reading through the original A.A. Milne books for ideas, Lasseter recalls opting instead to select five stories and adapt them for the screen directly. However, instead of simply jumping from one story to the next, he says they found a common thread between the stories and could mingle them together into one cohesive story.

Although he didn’t go into specifics as to which stories had been selected, Lasseter shared several drawings from Disney Legend Burny Mattinson who not only is working on the new Pooh movie but had worked on the originals as well. The drawings shown reflect A.A. Milne’s Eeyore Loses a Tail in which, well, Eeyore loses his tail and the gang must seek out the tail, or at least a suitable replacement. A yoyo, balloon and even a cuckoo clock (‘Thanks, Pooh, now I’ll know the time’) all serve as replacements for Eeyore’s missing tail.

Lasseter showed a featurette in which the filmmakers and Mattinson reminisced about the original Pooh films and all of the fine details that have been glossed over throughout the years, most notably the way that the movies presented a book coming to life with the characters literally playing off of the text and the way the white of the page would bleed through the watercolor paintings.

Lasseter revealed that the new film will go back to this original style of watercolor and that there will be additional characters as well in the form of socially-inept friends of Rabbit, no doubt setting the scene for some comic relief.

Still flying from winning their Creative Arts Emmy the day before, the cast of Disney Channel’s Wizard of Waverly Place held a panel on Sunday in which thousands of fans were treated also to a brief runway fashion show showing off a clothing line inspired by the show, the premiere of the third season (which airs October 9) and a performance by Disney recording artist Honor Society. Hosted by Radio Disney’s Ernie D, the only cast member unable to appear was David DeLuise who had broken his clavicle at the awards ceremony.

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Just prior to the D23 Auction, a ceremony was held in which the winner of the official Donald Duck portrait was announced. The contest was held in honor of Donald’s 75th Anniversary and took advantage of recently-discovered unawarded Duckster awards within the Walt Disney Archives. The award, originally commissioned by Walt Disney, has been awarded less than two dozen times and has not been given out in at least two decades.

Mickey and Donald joined the stage as the winning portrait was unveiled, announcing Jennifer Sleeper as the winner.

Congratulations to Jennifer and all of the other well-deserved finalists.

The D23 Expo Auction event kicked off with  ‘Rhythm and Hue’ artist David Garibaldi taking the stage (and often taking to the air). Using a combination of music, movement, paint and inspiration, Garibaldi (who once toured with the Blue Man Group) creates portraits of cultural and historical icons in just 5-7 minutes each right before the audiences’ eyes in a super dynamic performance.

Between paintings (three in all), David would address the crowd and offer words of inspiration and dream chasing, citing his own years as a misguided youth as a street graffiti artist.

Each of David’s three paintings that night were also introduced as surprise lots during the auction. His rendition of Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey, a landscape-oriented portrait (rare for Garibaldi), was not only performed for the first time ever during the event, but also provided one of the auction’s more intense moments with a heated bidding war to help close the night.

Below is a photo gallery of David’s performance of his second two paintings of the night along with some photos from backstage where Garibaldi signed and even dedicated his pieces — at least when he wasn’t being bombarded by his legions of fans.

As always, click on any thumbnail to see a larger version or click on the PicLens link to start the slideshow and be sure to check out Garibaldi Arts.

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It was news when it was announced that Dick Cook would be a keynote speaker at the D23 Expo on behalf of the Walt Disney Studios. It was big news when it was announced that he would be joined on stage by actor Nicolas Cage. It was headlines when D23 announced at the eleventh hour that directors Robert Zemeckis and Tim Burton would also take the stage. But what literally thousands of rabid Disney fans bore witness to this morning defies any category of news. Filled with exclusives and celebrities upon celebrities, even those who had an inkling there was more than Disney was letting on couldn’t have imagined what the Walt Disney Studio managed to pull off in front of the capacity crowd.

Getting settled in your seat, it  was impossible not to notice the orchestra setup at stage right – you knew then you were in for something a little extra. The lights dim and the orchestra fills the Arena with epic theme music as clips from Disney films begin to play. Then you start to hear singing voices as a 10 person choir chimes in when there are lyrics to be sung. Theme song after theme song, movie after movie, from Snow White to the Proposal and everything in-between. It has to be at least, oh, I don’t know… 23 minutes long. An absolute masterpiece crafted by Barnette Richie with music and songs sync’d perfectly every frame of the way, remarkably demonstrated by an extended clip of a musical number from Enchanted mid-way.

Then Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook took the stage. He talked of his love for the company ever since he started as a steam train and monoral operator at the Disneyland Resort some 40 years ago. He spoke of quality being the underlying factor in movies produced by the studio. He talked about the animation studios and upcoming projects such as Cars 2 and Rapunzel which will be covered in depth when John Lasseter takes the same stage on Sunday. He talked about how for the first time in history the Walt Disney Studios will open its gate to the public and invite them to see a limited pre-release engagement of The Princess and the Frog in the studio’s newly renovated state-of-the-art theater as well as the special engagement in New York City’s famous Ziegfeld Theatre.

He acknowledged the work of Miramax before turning to the Touchstone Pictures label and its newest upcoming release The Last Song, written by Nicholas Sparks for and starring Miley Cyrus. And he mentioned the upcoming sequel Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride.

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Every day at the D23 Expo, from approximately 12 pm – 2 pm, attendees are treated to a look at upcoming Vinylmation releases. For Thursday – Saturday, this opportunity includes Vinylmation product developer Donald Ferro. Donald took some time out to show me some of the figures that have never been on display up until now, which you can see below. We also talked about new Vinylmation products such as the 3″ colored blank for those who prefer to begin with a non-white base canvas. Pictured below, the blanks will initially come in red, black, yellow, pink and purple colors with the potential to retire and/or introduce new colors along the way.

We also talked a bit about the highly anticipated Muppet Series #1 due out next year. The entire set was on display, this time with some changes since the last time a partial set had been on display. One major change in design was for Beaker whose normally narrow head was initially fattened to fit the Mickey mold, but has now taken on a more accurate representation. There will be no 9″ for this set (although a 9″ Rizzo will be part of the Park Series 4, also pictured below) and there will be a chaser. Donald would only confirm that the chaser is not the dubbed ‘Tourist Kermit,’ but would not deny or confirm other educated guesses I provided which merely elicted a ‘that’s interesting’-type reaction.

In related Vinylmation news, Disney Fine Artist Noah was chosen to create a 5′ Vinylmation masterpiece themed as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice that will be auctioned off at the D23 Expo Auction Saturday night. Earlier today, Noah offered a presentation at the Disney Dream Stage where he engaged the audience in a Q&A session and then invited them to crowd around him as he airbrushed some of the finishing touches on the piece. Below are some photos of Noah at work as well as the Vinylmation itself. Be advised that the photos don’t do the piece justice. Noah also created the official 9″ D23 Expo vinylmation.

Enjoy footage from the exciting events and announcements from the Walt Disney Studios presentation featuring WDS Chairman Dick Cook. Dick welcomes numerous celebrities to the stage for the event including directors Robert Zemeckis, Jerry Bruckheimer and Tim Burton, actors John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Ella Bleu Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp, the Muppets, a performance by Miley Cyrus and more. Plus see what the fans have to say! Footage courtesy of Disney

Below is some footage provided to us by Disney from both the Bob Iger address and the induction of both Betty White and Robin Williams into the Disney’s Legends program. Enjoy!

Prior to the ABCs of Disney event, the stars (minus Tom Bergeron and Courteney Cox) appeared on a small red carpet for photos and media interviews, mostly by outlets like Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight. I actually stumbled onto this event by accident when determining what the queue would be like for the event and was initially told I had the wrong type of pass to be allowed into the area, but the cast members had a change of heart and let me in and even called for a media host to be assigned to me so I wouldn’t have any further issues.

That said, please enjoy these photos (some good, some not so good) I was able to take of the stars as they worked their way to the arena.