Thematic celebrations like Pixar Fest are becoming more commonplace for places like Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure. The enhanced experiences are a nice change of pace for those who want something more than just the usual holiday season celebrations. So between April 26 and August 2, 2024, both parks honor Disney’s sister animation studio through parades, nighttime spectaculars, food, merchandise, and character meet-and-greets.
Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure hasn’t had a Pixar Fest since 2018. Since then, the studio has released seven more films to add to their iconic slate. As such, it was a perfect time to celebrate the sister animation studio that has captured our hearts, made us laugh, and had us shed more than a few tears.
Though Pixar Fest is available for guests to enjoy for a limited time, the logistics of putting it together proved to be a lengthy and a challenging process. Luckily, Tasha Sounart, theme park creative director and Pixar animator, was up to the challenge. Her team may have been small, but they were mighty and collaborated with Disney Imagineering to bring Pixar to life in the park. The goal was to make sure to keep the Pixar characters as cute and funny as possible while also honoring the stories that made the films so endearing.
Starting outside of the parks, Downtown Disney District what’s to come if guests are going to visit one or both parks. There are a few garden decor pieces throughout the park commemorating films like Turning Red, Coco, and Monsters Inc. There is a photo op where guests can take a picture with Cars characters reimagined as Buzz and Woody. Think of it as Toy Car Story.
Closer to The World of Disney Store, two doors recognizing Pixar Fest 2024 are filled with characters from your favorite Pixar films like The Parr family and Frozone from The Incredibles, Wade and Ember from Elemental, and Eve and Wall-E from Wall-E. There’s also Dory, Nemo, and Squirt from Finding Nemo, and the aliens from the Toy Story franchise. Up‘s Russell and Dug also have a spot on the gate.
But the piesta de resistance of it all is the giant stage that has the iconic Luxo ball as well as other Pixar characters that you saw in the decorations at Downtown Disney District. It’s a nice way to bring the celebrations to those who don’t plan on going to either park.
Over at Disney California Adventure, guests can enjoy one of the festival’s parades. Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration! Parade is exactly what it sounds like. Disney was kind enough to reserve a spot for journalists. Unfortunately, we were seated against the sun, making it a little bit hard to see who was on the float. It should be noted that this was a special showing of the parade and the show times will actually be different than where the afternoon sun will be located for the showing that I experienced.
Robin Trowbridge, creative show director for Disney Live Entertainment, wanted to go into the parade “with the message that friendship matters. That friendship is a great thing. And that when we have friends, we are better together.” It’s a recurring theme in almost all of the Pixar films. As such, Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration! Parade commemorates that message by having some of the best Pixar friends lauding that in a fun way. Though the parade is short, it still manages to squeeze in the most characters Pixar characters represented in any one parade Disney has ever had.
For the first time, Mei Lee shows up in her red panda form. She is joined by her friends Abby, Priya, Miriam, and her father, Jin, who is wearing the cardboard red panda suit. 4*town also makes an appearance. As the float passes, they all celebrate the event’s theme of friendship to the boy band’s hit song “Nobody Like You.”
The Luca float is probably one of the more technologically impressive of the parade. In order to focus on the character’s transformation, the float has Luca and and Alberto appear as humans from the waist above water, and anything beneath it you’ll see their sea monster legs and tails.
The Soul float recognizes the spark in Joe Garner’s life doesn’t come from him chasing his dream to become a great jazz musician but in his efforts to give back to the grade school students that inspire him to share the joys of making music.
Carl, Russell, Dug, and Kevin make a quick flyby through the Parade too.
So the three brand new floats celebrate those characters and films and then closes with a finale that brings some of Pixar’s most iconic characters together on one float. As Woody leads with his Tonka Truck-like float, Buzz, and Jessie from the Toy Story franchise are not too far behind. Both are along side Mike and Sulley from Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. Guests can even see Miguel and Dante from Coco.
Tracy Halas, a creative director of Disney live entertainment, is behind the more interactive portions of Pixar Fest. One includes the Pixar Pals Playtime Party located at the Fantasyland Theater in Fantasyland. The theater has been transformed into an immersive space where guests of all ages can interact and take pictures with their favorite Pixar characters in from of different photo ops. They can meet Ian and Barley from Onward, Ember Lumen and Wade Ripple from Elemental, Russell and Dug from Up, and more. Kids also have the opportunity to dance along side other Pixar characters from Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Inside Out.
Over at DCA, the Hollywood Backlot has been transformed into Club Pixar. The new activation can be enjoyed by all during the afternoons and evenings and is filled with photo ops and the chance to learn some new dances. The stage at the Hollywood Backlot will also be home to an interpretive dance show where dancers come out and tell the stories that we all know and love through dance.
A portion of the Hollywood Backlot has also been transformed into a drive-in theater where Pixar shorts will be screening throughout the day. Guests can sit back and relax on chairs that look like the backends of automobiles. There will also be games based on those shorts to the right and left of the theater.
Principal media designer for Disney live entertainment at the Disneyland Resort KC Wilkerson spoke about Pixar Fest’s returning nighttime spectacular Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular, and how the newly added animation sequences enchance the experience. time, the fireworks show adds some new scenes to the projections that will appear alongside the buildings of Main Street as well as the face of Small World. “Those projectors provide us with greater detail, greater clarity and much richer colors,” Wilkerson said. “The opportunity to render Pixar colors effectively on all of these incredible projection surfaces was a tremendous challenge.”
Wilkerson and Pixar wanted to lean into Turning Red because Mei’s friendship with Miriam, Abby, and Priya exemplifies Pixar Fest’s friendship theme. So not only are the characters in the parade, but Turning Red shows up in two moments in the show. “We wanted Mei from Turning Red to be able to run down Main Street and facade and projection, and to be able to transform from her panda to self into her Mei self,” Wilkerson said. “And we thought, well, how the heck are we going to do that? Well, as it turns out, we have Pixar.”
Pixar jumped at the opportunity on making the scene happen. “They ended up doing all of the custom character animation for that show,” Wilkerson said. “So you’re seeing the hand of Pixar artists in the show, which I think is just incredible.”
Additionally, the teams were able to do some original animation at Pixar that would help improve that firework show. And to watch how it all blends together with the new music was really amazing to watch. So even if you can’t watch Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular in front of the castle, you’ll still feel like you are a part of the show if you are seeing it at Main St.
Of course, projections and music are only a small part of the nighttime spectacular. Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular utilizes wire effects to make characters fall with style or homemade dirigibles soar through the sky above Sleeping Beauty castle. Returning favorites from Coco and Monsters, Inc. also have a presence in the show.
Originally, the plan was to only add new characters to Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular. But the more the creative team looked into it, they more they thought it would be a disservice to the festival and its themes. “Together Forever is a story. And it’s about meeting new friends. It’s about taking those friends and setting out on adventures. And it’s about overcoming adversity together. And that is what allows us to form everlasting bonds,” Wilkerson said. “We wanted to choose moments from the newer films that really reflected the overall story that we were trying to tell.”
Wilkerson added Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular would also feature a few changes to reflect the shows themes about friendship. “We get to enjoy an instrumental version of ‘Nobody like You’ from Turning Red, and we’ve taken that opportunity to bring back a number of the characters in the projection as they wave and interact with guests at the end of the show,” he said. Guests exiting the park or heading towards a different area will notice some familiar faces like Barbie talking to them. One of the projections sees Mei trying to attempt a cartwheel only to tumble and unleash her inner panda while she bursts into tears.
Guests can celebrate Pixar Fest at Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure from April 26 and August 2, 2024.