Imagineering Theory: The Pixar Problem, Part 1

Remember a while back when I griped about how much Pixar stuff gets crammed into the Disneyland Resort at the expense of Disney's own animated features? I'd like to think I'm more than a complainer. So I decided to take a closer look at the issue, and hopefully devise some hypothetical solutions to what I can only refer to as the Pixar Problem.

I'll start by doing a rundown similar to the recent one examining the Disney Animated Canon, wherein I look at Pixar's cinematic output to date and try to find the “right” place for each franchise within the parks...and then look at how each one has actually been used.

Toy Story

Walt Disney died nearly thirty years before Pixar's theatrical debut, but I think he really would have enjoyed Pixar's signature franchise. Toy Story contains an immense amount of heart, and the premise of living toys resonates with Disney projects such as Pinocchio and Winnie The Pooh. Like said films, I think Toy Story actually fits the best in Fantasyland...although it's such a notably modern look at toys that it might be a very awkward fit.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

Quite a lot...and none of it in Fantasyland (unless you count the garish character figures in “it's a small world”). There's Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters in Tomorrowland (on the grounds that Buzz is a science-fiction toy) and Toy Story Midway Mania in Paradise Pier (on the grounds that...um...little help?). Woody and Jessie used to have their own show in the Golden Horseshoe (on the grounds that they are Western toys). Hopefully you can see what the issue is—rather than taking the characters as they are, Disney either mines the fiction-within-a-fiction in order to have animated characters for lands that don't really need them, or else welds the characters to concepts that they really have nothing to do with. It's disheartening, because the Toy Story trilogy is really excellent and deserves better than this.

“a bug's life”

This has turned out to be one of Pixar's weaker entries, although we didn't realize it at the time. It's a hard story to pin down, thematically—a dark take on Aesop's “The Grasshopper and the Ants” mixed with The Magnificent Seven and its various spiritual descendants. If it had been up to me to pick a place for it, I suppose I might have said...Adventureland? But I'm not wedded to the notion at all.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

They gave it its own land. The bugs were first part of Bountiful Valley Farms, an exhibitional area in California Adventure devoted to California's agriculture. But It's Tough To Be A Bug! was the only thing anyone cared about even a little (Seriously, who goes to a theme park to learn about tractors?), so the area was given over entirely to the characters and expanded with a kiddie carnival area set in a giant clover forest. It's a very imaginatively designed area, and proof that Imagineering can still give us top-notch placemaking even when hobbled by marketing demands.

Monsters, Inc./Monsters University

This is another one that's very hard to pin down. The monster in the closet/under the bed is a childhood dread, so...Fantasyland? But then the movie is from the monsters' perspective, and they're modern, urban people. Mike and Sulley are just blue-collar joes who happen to be a walking eyeball and a shaggy behemoth, respectively, and their life in both movies is one many viewers find extremely relatable.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

They built a dark ride in Hollywood Land. It was better than leaving the old Superstar Limo building empty, but...come on, guys. What does the premise of Monsters, Inc. have to do with the film industry?

I should note that in Orlando, the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor is located in Tomorrowland, with a thin justification that the closet door portals are a form of advanced technology. Um, sure? Science-fiction has a tradition of people discovering gateways to parallel universes...but the world on the other side isn't usually so banal.

Finding Nemo/Finding Dory

Now, this is one I think could have a natural “home” in the Resort, and it’s Paradise Pier. Not only do you have the obvious ocean connection, but most of Dory takes place at an aquarium in northern California, an Expy of the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

They plastered it all over the Submarine Voyage, which wasn’t an inherently terrible idea…but apparently they couldn’t think of anything to do with the idea besides rehash the movie. They also stuck a digital puppetry show featuring Crush the sea turtle in…Hollywood Land.

The Incredibles

There’s some neat techy stuff in this movie which could possibly work for Tomorrowland, though it would be—again—an awkward match. The Avengers stuff doesn’t really work for me in Tomorrowland despite the scientific and/or technological origin of some of the superpowers. This is honestly one of those franchises that doesn’t have a suitable place to live in the parks. But it’s one of Pixar’s best, and I feel like it deserves something.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

Nada. The obligatory temporary character meet-up, a unit in the Pixar Play Parade, and that's all we have to remember this awesome movie by in the Disneyland Resort.

Cars

This is another one that might have worked for Tomorrowland, possibly as an overhaul of the Autopia. I'm sure that very item crossed a number of meeting agendas while they were waiting for Chevron's sponsorship to expire. Beyond that...what are the cars but sapient machines? That says futurism to me. Whether it's worthwhile futurism is another issue...

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

They gave it its own land. (Déja vu!) Not gonna lie—Cars Land in California Adventure is breathtakingly well-done, probably the single best recreation of a film setting in any theme park on the planet. I mean, look at this:

That shot is from the movie. But now look at this:

Dayum.

The question from me, and many other Disney park aficionados, is: Why Cars? If the Imagineers have this sort of magic in them, why waste it on the most lowbrow concept ever to come out of Pixar?

Because Cars toys make a jillion dollars a year, that's why.

Ratatouille

This movie—which may actually be my favorite of the Pixar stable—is too self-contained to be readily adaptable, but...well, the obvious use would be as the theme for a restaurant, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, the film wears its Parisian setting too proudly to fit anywhere in the Disneyland Resort.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

Nothing in Anaheim. It has an interesting dark ride in one of the Paris parks, and I can't really argue with that placement for the aforementioned reason.

WALL*E

Here at last, we have a Pixar film with undeniable resonance for an existing Disneyland theme. This is a Tomorrowland movie, no question—it literally takes place in the future, and it tackles some of our society's anxieties about the future, from environmental devastation to consumerist brainwashing. There are aspects of it that are bleak, but ultimately the message is hopeful: We can overcome our faults and repair the damage we do to the world and ourselves. This could be the basis of a new identity for Tomorrowland, now that blinkered optimism and faith in existing institutions isn't going to cut it.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

Nothing. What did you expect?

Up

This is a movie about processing grief—not exactly comfortable material for a theme park. However, it is also undeniably a pulp-style adventure movie, if slightly tongue-in-cheek about it. Goodness knows where they'd find the space for it, but it could have worked in Adventureland.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

They installed a Wilderness Explorer thingie in California Adventure's Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. I'm not even sure it's still there, but either way, what a weird decision. The Wilderness Explorers were such a minor facet of the movie.

Brave

This is another movie that has a very clear place to belong—it's a fairy tale with a very definite European setting, hence Fantasyland.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

For once, they actually put the Pixar thing where it goes. Merida had her own meet-and-greet spot on the Small World Promenade for a couple years, and then when Fantasy Faire opened she became an official Disney Princess and you can find her there. Which is...less than ideal, considering the themes of this movie.

Inside Out

This is another top-notch Pixar product, but as with Up, the subject matter (emotional psychology) is not easy to adapt for theme parks in a way that keeps it both fun and on-point. However, the movie does take place in San Francisco, and oh look, there's a mock San Francisco street in California Adventure that's just begging to have something done with it.

Incidentally, I've heard fans on the Florida side wish for this movie to be the basis of a new attraction in the old Cranium Command theater in Epcot, thus allowing the re-opening of Wonders of Life, and I must say...yeah, that would be awesome. I got to go to Epcot once, clear back in 1989, and I loved Cranium Command.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

It's a monumentally good movie. What makes you think they'd do anything with it?

...My cynicism is showing, isn't it?

The Good Dinosaur

This is the first Pixar movie I have seen that I actually didn't like. (For the record, I have not seen Cars 2. Nor do I intend to.) I didn't hate it either, but I walked out of the the cineplex going “Well...that...happened.” It's a weird movie, and not really in a good way. One of the weird things about it...is that it's a Western.

No, really. It's a dang Western, of the “boy's wilderness adventure” subgenre. So of all the bizarre things I could say on this blog, one of the most bizarre must be that I think the spec-fic film where the dinosaurs never went extinct and developed intelligence and tool use...would best go in Frontierland.

Okay, but what have they actually done with it?

Nothing.

So here we are. Pixar as a whole is monumentally successful by any measure, but Disney's upper management has no idea how to capitalize on it without throwing a big monkey wrench into the artistic integrity of the theme parks. Many fans think the best solution to this problem is to have an entire Pixar land or Pixar park, but...well, wait a week to see my take on the issue!