I read somewhere that Disney does not allow guests 14 years or older to dress up in costumes at their parks. This is done for 2 main reasons. The first reason is for the safety for children visiting the park. The second is to protect their own reputation. This actually makes sense if you think about it. If you’re a pedophile it would be really easy for you to grab a kid if you’re walking around Disneyland in a Peter Pan costume. As for the reputation part, the last thing Disney wants is a bunch of chicks walking around the park as slutty Disney princesses, or a guy dressed as Mickey or Goofy being an asshole to other guests and people complaining to park staff thinking that they’re an employee. When I see people at D23 cosplay I kind of look at these people and I wonder if they are the people if they could, they would go to Disneyland in full costumes.

When looking for cosplayers at an event aside from looking for people with high-quality and detailed costumes I also like to look for people who cosplay as lesser-known characters. I do this not just to demonstrate how extensive my pop culture knowledge is but also because I think it’s fun to give some exposure to some of the more obscure properties that are out there.

With Disney’s media library going back 100 years and encompassing thousands of properties including both Marvel and Star Wars’ there are plenty of choices of both well-known and lesser-known characters for people to choose from resulting in an interesting mix of cosplayer at D23.

One thing I want to get out of the way is that I saw quite a number of Mary Poppins cosplayers at D23. It’s not unusual to see multiples of the same characters at a convention. I mean I’ll go to one convention and see a dozen Mandalorians, 20 Batmans, etc… However what makes Mary Poppins scratch my head is that the books were published between 1934 to 1988. The original movie with Julie Andres and Dick Van Dyke came out in 1964, and the sequel with Emily Blunt came out in 2018, so what caused the resurgence of Mary Poppins in 2022?

Here’s a Mary with Dick Van Dyke’s character, Bert, the cockney chimney sweep.

Here’s Mary and Bert dressed as they were for the “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” musical number.

And here’s a Mary with a Prince Charming which I was tempted to throw out because I thought the pairing made it very inaccurate but I was like ‘screw it.”

Belle from Beauty and the Beast wearing the yellow and red dress from the direct-to-video sequel Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.

Gadget from Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

Here’s what I’m assuming is supposed to be Mr. Toad when he escapes from prison in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

A Mandalorian.

Kevin, the giant bird from Up.

Ariel from Little Mermaid wearing the white dress from when she was trying to get Prince Eric to fall in love with her.

Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet.

Winnie Sanderson from Hocus Pocus.

Mando, Boba Fett, and Fennec Shand from all those Star Wars shows on Disney+.

I’m not sure what this girl was. I’m assuming she’s supposed to be a dog but Disney has so many dog characters. Based on her color-scheme my best guess is that she’s Peg from Lady and the Tramp or maybe another dog from there? I’m not going to lie, Lady and the Tramp is one of the few Disney movies I never got around to watching.

Raya from Raya and the Last Dragon.

A few pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Carl Fredericksen from Up.

Cruella de Vil as she looked in the 2021 movie Cruella.

A Filipino twist on Moon Knight. I’ll admit, the barong actually makes this costume look pretty good.

Peter Pan and Wendy.

Ariel and Prince Eric as they looked in the first half of the movie when Prince Eric saved Ariel from the water.

A Princess Aurora along with I’m assuming is supposed to be one of her fairy godmothers from Sleeping Beauty.

And this final one, Tiana from Princess and the Frog, technically she wasn’t a cosplayer, she was an actual Disney employee who was on site in character. Looking back she was the only character I remember seeing on site, which I was a bit surprised they didn’t have more costumed characters on site. However I think the reason why they had her on site was to promote the renovations they were doing to rebrand Splash Mountain as a Princess and the Frog themed ride.

That’s it for cosplayers of D23 2022. I know it’s late, but honestly better late than never. Don’t forget to come back for more because I have been sitting on a whole lot of content I need to get out there.