Disneyland Resort Update: Pixar Fest

Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, CA

Cheers, friends! This update was meant to go up a week ago, but you know what I always say when things are behind schedule... real life happens. AmIrite?!

Anyway, last Friday was the kickoff of Pixar Fest, the promotional theme for the Disneyland Resort this summer season concocted by the same people who believe everything in the parks now needs to be tied to Disney franchises.  It runs through Labor Day weekend and is actually a pretty extensive event, with a bevvy of specialty foods, merchandise, and entertainment, plus the permanent transformation of the back half of California Adventure's Paradise Pier into Pixar Pier.

The full extents of the Resort's "Pixarification" won't be fully seen until June 23rd, when Pixar Pier opens and the Incredibles float debuts in Paint the Night at DCA, but we can take a look at what guests can already check out right now.  So here goes a pretty comprehensive photo update of Pixar Fest at the Disneyland Resort.  Hopefully, that makes up for the delay in putting it up!

Downtown Disney Decorations

The planters at Downtown Disney from Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen to Naples Ristorante have been transformed into abstract tinsel bulb characters from some of the popular Pixar franchises--namely Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.  The set-up is pretty darn kitschy, but kind of cute in a unique way.  Check them out through the end of summer, before the place transforms into pumpkin-mania for Halloween Time.

Banners are up all over the Disneyland Resort to promote Pixar Fest.

In Downtown Disney, they’re accompanied by these tinsel-y Pixar figures.

I found them a little kitsch-y and hokey, but anyone who likes this sort of aesthetic should find the displays adorable.

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In addition to Finding Nemo, there’s The Incredibles.

“Where is my super suit??”

And of course, there’s the Toy Story set.

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Park Ambiance

Both parks have been flooded with red, yellow, and blue banners and bunting, which gives the area a carnival feel.  I'm not the biggest fan of it, but I do get that the color scheme is straight from the Pixar ball.  I just wish the decorations could have looked a little more detailed rather than go with the [too] simple scheme.  

There have been other adjustments to enhance the park atmosphere for Pixar Fest, though, and those have been more positive (in my opinion).  The old Muppetvision Theater in Hollywood Land is now showing a Pixar short films festival, with three Pixar shorts (the that play before their feature films) presented in a row.  Cars Land also has new Buzz and Woody cars at the entrance and redone car posters across from Sarge's Surplus Shop.  And the Disneyland monorails have received new wraps showcasing Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.  They look pretty slick.

Disney California Adventure has new signage for Pixar Fest.

New maps too!

Entertainment schedule over at DCA.

Red, yellow, (white) and blue bunting is everywhere in Buena Vista Street.

See?

Up and down California Adventure’s entrance land.

Over in Hollywood Land, banners are advertising the Pixar Shorts Film Festival

Here’s the lineup.

Check it all out the old Muppetvision Theater.

In some incredible synergy, DCA constructed Monsters Inc. just for Pixar Fest… 12 years ago!

‘Member when this was a fountain for like 3 months, though? And then no longer a fountain? I ‘member.

Nothing going on here for Pixar Fest, though.

One can only imagine that this will finally get some regular use once “Marvel Land” takes over the area.

This is all that’s left of the artwork up for exhibit and sale during the Food & Wine Festival.

Lets move over to Cars Land.

There are some new but familiar vehicles over at by the “Welcome to Cars Land” sign.

Across the way to Disneyland Park…

More primary colors.

It’s everywhere.

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The monorail has gotten a new skin for Pixar Fest too.

There’s one for The Incredibles too, and I do like how both look.

In another stroke of masterfully ingenious synergy, Disney creative also crafted this Buzz Lighyear ride for Pixar Fest—13 years ago. So brilliant!

Here’s the DCA entrance by night.

And the other sign at Disneyland.

Merchandise

Disney has definitely caught onto the fact that Annual Passholders will buy limited edition souvenirs and goods that come only with the local seasonal promotions and disappear forever once the festivities end.  And to that end, Pixar Fest has been an explosion of specially-created merchandise for the summer overlay.  T-Shirts, bags, cups, pins, and more can be found all around the parks.  For the first time in years, Disneyland and California Adventure even have new bags into which guests' freshly-purchased merch goes, and I actually really like how fun and colorful the bags are.

Out by Pixar Pier, the biggest representation of Pixar commercial content comes in the new Knick's Knacks store, across from the current Cove Bar and future Lamplight Lounge.  Inside, guests can find just about anything Pixar-related they can think of.  It's almost overwhelming, to be honest!

Out and about the midways, there are also plenty of collectibles to find.  A Sully popcorn bucket and Mike Wazowski souvenir sipper are among some of the goodies.  There are also mugs and special straws.  Really, a whole bunch of cute wares from Disney created for this event.  It's definitely an open play at cashing in, but if people are willing to buy, why wouldn't Disney implement this strategy?

There’s plenty of collectibles as part of Pixar Fest. Here’s a selection that can be found at the Buena Vista Street Five & Dime.

You got your T-shirts…

Glowing Little Green Men souvenir sippers…

A pretty cute Monsters Inc. bag…

A few other knick knacks too…

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Speaking knick knacks, here’s a look inside the new Knick’s Knacks store at soon-to-be Pixar Pier.

The store has been done up to offer all sorts of Pixar paraphernalia.

There are more T-shirts.

Caps too.

Artwork for purchase too.

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An artist corner offers chats with Disney illustrators and a chance to watch them sketch new artwork.

There’s plenty of Annual Passholder merchandise too.

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Didn’t see anything you liked yet? Here’s more merchandise.

The movies and franchises covered parallel the films featured in the Pixar Fest entertainment: Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Wall*E, The Incredibles, Up, Inside Out, Coco, and Finding Nemo.

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The place was pretty packed on opening weekend.

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Outside the stores, there are souvenir items at various food stands too, like this pretty fantastic Sulley popcorn bucket.

And this Pixar hot mug. And many others too.

Specialty Foods

Also patterned after the seasonal festival model (ala Food and Wine and Festival of Holidays), special culinary dishes have been prepared for restaurants and dining services throughout both parks.  In this case, they are full size dishes, so the food booths through Pacific Wharf and future Paradise Park are not present (they'd get in the way of parades anyway).  But there is an unbelievable amount of food that is limited time only for the summer, and a lot of it looks pretty incredible.  

In addition, Redd Rockett's Pizza Port has been transformed into Alien Pizza Planet, from Toy Story fame, with the same scope of overlay that went into the Village Haus / Red Rose Taverne last year in advance of the Beauty and the Beast live action movie.  This isn't an Imagineering project, but rather something from Team Disney Anaheim, so don't necessarily expect immaculate theming.  But I do think that the Pizza Planet overlay seems a little less invested than last year's Red Rose Taverne redo.  We'll see whether Pizza Planet sticks around past Pixar Fest or returns to Pizza Port come autumn.

What follows below is just a small amount of what I sampled or spotted the first weekend.  And fortunately, our friends over at Disney Food Blog have been going crazy trying out all the Pixar Fest foods.  And if that isn't enough, Heather has been posting individual reviews on her Instagram in advance of what will ultimately go up onto the blog.

Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port has gotten a Toy Story makeover over at Tomorrowland.

It doesn’t have the elegance of last year’s Village Haus transformation into Red Rose Taverne. I get what they’re going for here, but it still looks like an almost literal half done and half effort wrapping job.

That didn’t stop the place from being very popular on opening Friday, though.

Of course, don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s what inside that counts.

And what’s inside is… okay. Certainly, one can’t expect anything overly extravagant.

The budget for these sorts of jobs is not the same as what’s given to full fledged Walt Disney Imagineering projects (like new rides and ride re-designs).

The aliens have taken over and fly all around the inside.

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The rest of the interiors features plenty of posters with food-themed LGM planets from the Toy Story universe.

Get it? Bacon?

Backwards Tomato, and such.

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So ultimately, the transformation is… just fine. It’s nothing amazing, but not bad either.

A few special items have been added to the Alien Pizza Planet menu, such as this Edamame Noodle Salad.

There’s also a Cheeseburger Pizza.

One of the more viral snacks making its way around social media are the Alien Macaroons, which have a neutral purple icing filling and a key lime center.

There’s specialty food elsewhere too, such as this exceptionally tasty Pepper Jack Chili Mac topped with Hearty Meat Chili. It might be the best thing I’ve ever had from the Golden Horseshoe.

Also, not pictured, are Loaded Potato Skins with Hearty Meat Chili. Also pretty tasty!

Award Weiners has its own selection of Pixar-inspired foods too.

These Funnel Cake Fries would kill Dan, but for the non-diabetics, are a sweet treat.

As expected, the Paradise Garden Grill has a new seasonal menu—this one featuring Mexican food inspired by Coco.

As a note, Rancho del Zocalo at Disneyland has some Coco-inspired dishes too.

The Return of Blue Sky Cellar

One of the most excited attractions for Pixar Fest is the reopening of Blue Sky Cellar to feature the artwork and designs behind the transformation of Paradise Pier into Pixar Pier.  Sketches, models, and a short documentary are all inside the old Golden Vine Winery building across from the Radiator Springs main entrance of Cars Land.  There's a lot to take in, and even if you're not the biggest fan of Pixar Pier (recent readers know I'm not), Blue Sky Cellar does do a great job in presenting the thought and work that went into making this project a reality.

It would be great to keep Blue Sky Cellar open year-round and feature new projects from even other parks outside of California.  It's always cool to get an inside glimpse at Imagineering, and these exhibitions would serve to drum up excitement and word of mouth about other parks, which in turn would generate interest and could persuade people to book trips to the more international Disney destinations.  Especially in this world of social media, it would prove to be a wise decision in viral marketing.  But past track record hasn't seemed to recognize this, so we'll see how long Blue Sky Cellar remains open after Pixar Pier debuts (on June 23).

Spring is in the air, and Blue Sky Cellar has been reborn!

As part of Pixar Fest, the Imagineering sneak peak mini-museum has an exhibit featuring behind the scenes on the design of Pixar Pier.

A load of concept art and inspirational photographs line the walls.

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Color palettes used and such…

And some facade drawings for reference to see what goes at WDI when documenting production.

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Pieces like this colored site plan showcase what the Imagineers work through during their design projects.

Notes tell how various theming elements contribute to the overall story being told.

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Here’s a couple of renderings of the future Lamplight Lounge.

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Some studies of the remodeled Incredicoaster station.

The entrance plaza around the Incredicoaster.

I’m glad they went with the actual iteration, as the other alternates look a too cartoonish.

Within the loading station.

And certain scenes on the Incredicoaster. The track and layout remain the same, but the experience will definitely be different (like Guardians vs Tower of Terror).

There is also artwork for other parts of Pixar Pier.

The food stalls and games stands and storefronts.

In my opinion, stands like this don’t really reflect the continuation of the elegant, Victorian seaside amusement parks that WDI claims it’s going for, but it is what it is.

This is way more kitsch-y than sleek.

And don’t get me started over Poultry Palace. it’s like someone was bemoaning the impending demise of the oversized prop theming of Flik’s Fun Fair and decided to transplant the aesthetic over to Pixar Pier instead.

I wouldn’t have been that frustrated with a seemingly corporate-forced transition of a perfectly fine original theme into an IP-based land, but the designs aren’t even consistent with the stated intent of keeping this backside of Paradise Pier cohesive to the old-fashioned Victorian aesthetic.

That’s not to say that certain details won’t be great. I do enjoy the La Luna stand.

Bing Bong’s Confectionary makes a ton of sense.

But I do wish the architectural theme could have been carried out more consistently throughout Pixar Pier, rather than be broken up into four clashing “neighborhoods” that claim to be parallel but don’t quite make it.

There’s more artwork on the entry wall.

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Plus artwork for the upcoming Incredibles float for Paint the Night.

It looks pretty astounding.

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The back shelf has also been given a bit of “Pixar-ization” too.

To the left side of the room is a new roller coaster model that is part eye candy and part demonstration of how roller coaster block sections work.

Guests can “operate” the model coaster, trigger e-stops, and get a sense of how everything works together.

It’s a beautiful and functional model.

A simplification of California Screamin’/The Incredicoaster.

There goes the train.

Definitely worth checking out.

There is also an overall Pixar Pier site model.

These are used to study perspectives and view lines and get a sense of how the real land will turn out.

Disney has been churning these sorts of things out for years, and they’re always beautiful works of art.

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The Fun Wheel, half painted, just like right now.

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The back boardwalk games area, which is getting its facades redone.

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Here’s an “aerial” of the Incredicoaster station.

Pretty slick!

And, as usual, there is a short film documentary interviewing the designers about their inspirations and motivations for the project.

It’s a great film, and whatever your thoughts on the actual Pixar Pier project, you can’t deny that the Imagineers are pouring a lot of energy and thought into it.

Just before exiting, guests can glimpse a tiny bit of what’s coming further down the pipeline for California Adventure…

And if you can't make it to the parks anytime soon but want to watch the video that plays in Blue Sky Cellar, here's a recording of it that I made last week!

Pixar Pals

Over in the Boardwalk dining area of Paradise Pier / soon-to-be Paradise Park, guests can find something called Pixar Pals, which is an amalgamation of photo ops, meet-and-greets, and an Annual Passholder Corner.  This is definitely geared toward guests who enjoy the Disney park character photo experience, and while it's nothing extravagant, it's still a cute thing to have.

Pixar Pals is the name of the activity area that’s taken over the Boardwalk Restaurants part of Paradise Pier.

There’s also a smaller activity area located near the entrance to Flik’s Fun Fair, on the It’s Tough to Be a Bug side.

Immediately to the right, where the food festival beer gardens are typically located, is a photo op area with Pixar movie posters and a Coco set.

It is pretty gorgeous, to be honest.

Take a picture with Héctor.

Or perhaps Miguel and Dante.

If that’s too crowded, try a movie poster.

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In the gazebo, there’s also a meet-and-greet.

Guests can take their picture with different Pixar characters depending on the day and time.

Annual Passholders have an AP Corner too, of course.

But lines can be long to get in.

There’s a photo op.

A collectibles booth to get an AP-exclusive vinyl decal.

A trunk to write wish messages.

The vinyl decals will change every two weeks.

Entertainment

Finally, and we'll go more into this on our next update, the parks have some new entertainment--or some revised entertainment--as part of Pixar Fest.  The old Pixar Spray (Play) Parade has moved from California Adventure to Disneyland and gained a new Inside Out float and a new Up float (though the latter has suffered from technical problems several times just in its first week+ of operation.  As a trade, California Adventure now has Paint the Night--minus a Frozen float that most people will probably be happy to miss.  In its place will be a new PTN float dedicated to The Incredibles, but it is currently unfinished and is not scheduled to debut until June.

California Adventure also has a really cute live music experience at the Paradise Garden Grill Bandstand in the form of the Pixarmonic Orchestra, an energetic band that mixes in great musicianship with some zany but practically-done sound effects.  Their enthusiasm is really great, and they seem to already have gathered a following.

Finally, there's a brand new fireworks show, Together Forever, which celebrates the friendships and bonds forged in the Pixar films.  Or at least it's supposed to.  I'll elaborate more in previously referenced sequel Pixar Fest update (which will be devoted into these four entertainment options in depth), but I found the show to be lacking in heart and emotional resonance, instead feeling like a very blatant clip show with no order or synergetic theme that tied the segments together.  Though the fireworks show is visually stunning, it falls a bit flat when placed against the standards of Disneyland's recent great fireworks.

The Pixar Play Parade has a Inside Out float (pictured) and a new Up float (not pictured and sometimes broken… already…).

The Pixarmonic Orchestra jams at the Paradise Garden Bandstand.

Paint the Night is back but at California Adventure.

Together Forever is the new fireworks show at Disneyland Park.

But it can be pretty crowded getting out after the pyro…

And that wraps up quite a spread.  There is so much to take in at Pixar Fest, and though I don't think the highest of the permanent Pixar Pier transformation at California Adventure, and I actually do like Pixar Fest as a seasonal promotion as a whole.  It's clear that the Resort has gone all out to promote this and provide special items that guests can enjoy.  It's also very clear that this is catering more to the Annual Passholder crowd, a group that has grown so large that it increasingly demands new features and rapid turnover of themes and novelty to justify coming back to the parks. 

Based on the first two weeks of operation, though, the strategy seems to have worked.  The crowds at Disneyland have surged even after spring break has passed, and I'm sure this will only continue to be the norm throughout the summer.  

You have until Monday, September 3rd, to experience Pixar Fest.  And then, like the house in Up, it will float away, presumably never to come again.  At least that's the enticement!