With Tiana's Bayou Adventure not ready to open until later this year, Disneyland has returned to an event from six years ago to anchor its summer campaign for 2024.
Pixar Fest returns to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on Friday, reprising the 2018 event that celebrated the characters and stories from the pioneering computer animation studio. It's not an exact repeat, however. Pixar has released five new original feature franchises since 2018's Pixar Fest, offering more stories for Disneyland's creative team to incorporate this time around.
To that end, Pixar Fest isn't just an opportunity to drive Pixar fans to Disneyland for summer visits. It's an opportunity for Disneyland to remind millions of its guests why so many of them first fell in love with Pixar. After multiple recent Pixar films debuted straight to streaming on Disney+, the Pixar brand no longer means "sure fire box office blockbuster" for millions of fans, the way it did before the pandemic.
Starting with the cliche about aiming for the heart via the stomach, this edition of Pixar Fest leans far harder into being a food festival than the original. In addition to Pixar-inspired eats and drinks at select Disney restaurants, this year's event will introduce six Pixar-themed food festival marketplaces, starting May 10.
Disney provided invitees to its media preview event this week with a first taste of several of those items.
Starting at the far right, it's the Supper Club Chicken & Potato Waffles with peach cobbler sauce and cinnamon-herb crumble from The Spark inspired by "Soul." Continuing counter-clockwise, we have the Red Panda Bao (a jumbo pork and vegetable stuffed bao with chile-garlic sauce) from 4*Town Fav*4*ites inspired by "Turning Red," a Ratatouille Pizzetta topped with mozzarella, eggplant, squash, zucchini, a drizzle of tomato sauce, and a wedge of French camembert from Gusteau’s To-Go inspired by "Ratatouille," and a spoonful of Joyful Yellow Comforting Mac & Cheese from Hanger Management inspired by "Inside Out." There's also an Angry Red Hot Mac & Cheese from that same stand, but that's not my thing anymore.
Finally, I picked up a sample of the returning Fried Bologna Sandwich inspired by "Up" from Carnation Cafe. It's a slice of fried bologna, served with Monterey Jack, mustard, and mayo on white bread. In the restaurant, it will come with house-made chips, cinnamon apples, and a pickle spear.
Disney offers us three desserts: a Gusteau Macaron (crème brûlée mousse with caramel center), a Kol Nut Whoopie Cookie Pie (red cake cookies baked with cocoa powder and filled with cream cheese frosting) from Elemental Table inspired by "Elemental," and - not from the marketplaces - a sample of Sea Monster Friends Parfait inspired by "Luca" from Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe. That layers graham cracker crumbs, with mascarpone cheesecake, berry blue gelatin, and blue Chantilly topped with a Luca chocolate decoration.
The only item I would choose again is the Ratatouille Pizzetta, which I found delightful. The fact that this had more vegetables than all the other offerings combined likely has something to do with my preference. I am long past the point where "fry it and douse it in hot sauce" held any appeal for me.
As for the desserts, I don't regret eating the macaron, even though the caramel center gilded that lily past the point where I would consider it again. The Whoopie Cookie Pie was tasteless, dyed with an off-putting bright red color, and the parfait was just Jell-O atop some mascarpone. Uh, okay? I'd rather have a second pizzetta. And I did.
The primary home for Pixar Fest at Disneyland will be the Pixar Pals Playtime Party. Instead of programming a big new, Broadway-style musical production in the Fantasyland Theater, Disneyland has turned that space into a "daytime fun zone" with a dance party, character meets, and craft tables.
New characters available to meet here will include Ember and Wade from "Elemental" and Luca and Alberto from "Luca."
Over at Disney California Adventure, the Hollywood Backlot turns into Club Pixar in the evenings. DJs will play for your ears, while dancers will perform for your eyes, inspired by scenes from select Pixar films, on the Backlot stage. There's a Pixar-themed game area in the back, too, along with themed drinks and food and photo ops.
In addition to the character meets at the party and the club, Pixar characters will be available to meet and greet guests in Pixar Pier, Cars Land, and the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. That's where you might find the talking Dug that I got to meet today: Pixar's Dug has something to say during Disneyland's Pixar Fest.
The original Pixar Fest moved the old Pixar Play Parade over to Disneyland from its previous home in Disney California Adventure. This time, Disney chose to stage a new parade over at DCA. Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration! delivers first-time parade appearances for "Turning Red" and "Luca." The Luca unit has a nice touch in that you can see Luca and Alberto in their sea creature forms under the float's "water line." But the characters from Up, Coco, and Toy Story have enjoyed much better moments in other Disney parades.
Full review: Disney California Adventure premieres new Pixar parade
When Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular debuted in 2018, it featured 59 Pixar characters in projections on Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle and Main Street USA. This time, with several new Pixar films to promote, the show has added 17 new Pixar characters - including the five new emotions from "Inside Out 2" - while keeping the original 59. Is that too many? Maybe, especially when they are projected upon Disneyland's rather small castle, making many of the show's characters easy to miss. But the scale of the projections, the sounds of the characters and their songs, and the spectacle of all that pyro will overwhelm most visitors, so will they really notice missing anything?
Full review: Pixar's Together Forever fireworks return to Disneyland
Pixar Fest may be a limited time offering, continuing through August 4, but the Disneyland theme parks offer several Pixar-themed attractions year-round.
At Disneyland, you can find Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland. But you will discover much more from Pixar over at Disney California Adventure. There's Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! and Turtle Talk with Crush in Hollywood, plus Incredicoaster, Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind and Toy Story Midway Mania! on Pixar Pier. Cars Land offers Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree as well as the best Pixar ride at the resort, and the best ride at DCA, Radiator Springs Racers.
Pixar Fest runs from April 26 through August 4 at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. For a variety of discounts on Disneyland Resort theme park tickets, including a SoCal Resident Discount that's good through June 2, please visit our partner's Disneyland theme park tickets page.
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