With the Walt Disney Company's 100th anniversary celebration officially coming to a close upon 2024’s arrival, Disneyland Resort in Anaheim has unveiled its plans for a new year full of events and activities. While some require additional tickets, like the fan-favorite Disney After Dark events, others will be included with normal park admission. Returning for the first time since 2018 is Pixar Fest, which will be held by both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. The park has now unveiled the decor for the festivities, and fans have thoughts.
Beginning April 26th and running through August 4th, Pixar Fest aims to bring beloved animated stories to life at both parks. The festivities include the return of the firework show Together Forever, which hopefully will include scenes from newer Pixar movies. There will also be a brand-new parade over at Disney California Adventure. Fans were mostly thrilled about the announcement, until recently when the concept art was unveiled for a new sculpture being added to Walt’s original park to commemorate the celebration:
NEW: Disneyland Resort released new concept art of a sculpture featuring Pixar pals that will be located on Main Street, U.S.A., in Disneyland Park when Pixar Fest begins on April 26. pic.twitter.com/5iZL155mSPJanuary 2, 2024
The new sculpture will greet guests on Main Street, U.S.A as they travel towards Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. It features a strained glass arch with several character art piece poppets from Pixar movies like Turning Red, Up and Toy Story. All of this is encased in a gorgeous blue, red, and yellow floral display.
While the location is often used for sculptures and displays to commemorate various events, many Disney parks fans are not thrilled with this new addition. X, formerly known as Twitter, was flooded with responses when the news broke. Many criticized the design, like user @mikohazuki, who wrote:
It looks like WDI was given 30 minutes & a budget of $50 to come up with… whatever that is. 😬
Fans seemed to be in agreement, with some going as far as tweeting pictures of Forky from Toy Story 4 to allude to how "trash" the design is. Meanwhile, others chose to point out that it looks like it belongs in Six Flags as opposed to a Disney theme park.
As a Disney fan myself, I don’t think the statue is as visually offending as some people are making it out to be, but I do agree with one critique: it doesn’t belong in Disneyland. I think X user @jviddy said it best when they tweeted:
I quite like the design but I’m not sure the location is right. The view across the square and down toward the castle is iconic and a bit (sic) part of entering the park.
I couldn’t agree more. Not only does it obscure the iconic view but, based on the image the company shared, it looks like the design elements are only on one side of the display. If this is the case, what are guests going to see as they exit the park? Not only that, but one also has to consider that the to take pictures with the statue will be terrible if there’s only one side to choose from.
While opinions about the design are mixed, the consensus does seem to be that it doesn’t belong in Disneyland. Amid the sea of replies to the original tweet, many fans were quick to suggest it move across the esplanade to Disney California Adventure, where there's an entire land dedicated to Pixar. As X user @Degreez400 wrote:
This so obviously should be a Disney California Adventure only experience. Fits that park perfectly. It doesn't fit in Disneyland at all anywhere.
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In theory, I agree, however, that the Pixar Fest is a resort-wide celebration, so it does make sense that Imagineers would want to include some festive decor at the original park. Especially since the nighttime entertainment will take place there.
Given that this is only a concept rendering, there is a possibility that the higher ups at Disney Parks hear fans complaints and rework the design into something more universally liked. We’ll just have to wait and see.
If you’re interested in seeing the sculpture in person this summer, head on over to the official Disneyland Resort website for tickets and reservation information. In the meantime, gear up for the Pixar Fest celebration by streaming your favorite movies with an active Disney+ subscription. And don’t forget to check out Soul, Turning Red and Luca when they hit theaters for the first time beginning this month.
