Disney’s latest project is a huge miss. While the developing attraction has great potential, the company made a huge mistake when planning it.
It’s no secret that Disney Parks worldwide are constantly changing and creating new developments. One year you could be riding your favorite roller coaster, enjoying your favorite meal, and visiting your favorite ride, and the following year, that experience could be gone forever. Replaced, rethemed, or even completely reimagined locations are becoming increasingly common at Disney Park locations around the world.
And while some of these locations are eagerly awaited upgrades and improvements to the Parks, Disney’s latest project inevitably feels like a huge miss.
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Disney is currently developing an all-new restaurant inspired by Pixar’s 2017 movie Coco. The movie talks about perhaps one of, if not the most important tradition in Mexican culture, Día de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead), during which families across the country remember their deceased relatives with different dishes and offerings they enjoyed in life.
The new location has great potential, and from a sneak peek recently shared by Disney Parks, its theming and ambiance will be fantastic. However, I see one not-so-small problem with the upcoming restaurant, why choose Disneyland Paris as its home when Mexican and Latin American cultures have much more representation in America?
Disney’s Coco restaurant, a cultural miss
While Disneyland Paris’ upcoming restaurant, Casa de Coco – Restaurante de Familia, seems like a unique new experience for Guests visiting the Park, it is inevitable to feel like the restaurant will be out of place in Europe, particularly because Los Angeles, Anaheim, and other cities in California are home to large communities of Mexican and Mexican heritage families, making Disneyland Resort an ideal location for the Coco-themed restaurant.
Instead, Disney decided to open its Coco-inspired restaurant at Disneyland Paris, just a train trip away from Spain, which tried to suffocate traditional Mexican culture during the colonization of the Americas. Not very sensitive of them, if you ask me, to celebrate Mexican culture at that scale near the country that tried to extinguish it in the first place.
But beyond history and sensitivity, Disneyland Resort is already home to the perfect location for a dining location — and possibly an entire area — inspired by Coco, which already welcomes Día de los Muertos and other Mexican traditions every year.
Disney California Adventure celebrating Día de los Muertos
Disneyland Resort and, most notably, Disney California Adventure welcome the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos every year with themed decorations, unique entertainment offerings, exclusive characters, mouth-watering seasonal dishes inspired by traditional recipes, and more. With culturally sensitive representations of Día de los Muertos traditions and exciting offerings inspired by Disney and Pixar’s award-winning movie Coco, it’s hard to understand why Disney didn’t think of the Southern California theme park to become the home of Casa de Coco – Restaurante de Familia in the first place.
Additionally, as mentioned above, an entire area of Disney California Adventure gets dressed in cempasúchil, papel picado, and Día de los Muertos delight to welcome Miguel for a celebration inspired by Disney and Pixar’s Coco.
Plaza de la Familia at Disney California Adventure
Paradise Gardens welcomes Día de los Muertos and Pixar’s Coco yearly by becoming Plaza de la Familia and housing limited-time entertainment offerings and a photo-op with Miguel, different cultural and artistic displays, and delightful seasonal flavors at Paradise Garden Grill, the perfect home for a Coco inspired dining experience.
Complete with cempasúchil (Mexican marigold) arrangements, traditional papel picado decorations, “A Musical Celebration of Coco” with regional music and dance, a Memory Wall, and the Mexican Árbol de la Vida, Paradise Gardens Plaza already becomes a celebration of Día de los Muertos and Mexican culture every Halloween season at Disney California Adventure Park, so, why not turn the location into a permanent celebration for Guests to enjoy year-round?
Paradise Gardens Park, the perfect location for a Coco-inspired project
If seeing Paradise Gardens Park covered in orange and yellow cempasúchil wasn’t enough reason to think the area would be the perfect location for Casa de Coco – Restaurante de Familia, the restaurant would be a flawless expansion to Disney California Adventure’s Pixar Pier, as the area and the ideal restaurant to be reimagined — which is already serving Mexican-inspired food — are just steps away from the Pixar-centric area.
As a matter of fact, Paradise Gardens Park is the ideal home for Mexican culture and representation at Disney Parks, as the area also welcomes Mexican and Brazilian traditions during the holidays as Disney ¡Viva Navidad! takes over with seasonal entertainment inspired by Mexican and Brazilian cultures, regional decorations like piñatas and Nochebuena flowers, and even Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in traditional Mexican clothes, as well as The Three Caballeros, Panchito Pistoles, José Carioca, and Donald Duck.
Additionally, between Paradise Garden Grill and Pixar Pier, Guests can find Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta at Paradise Gardens Park, which could also have used a refresh inspired by Pixar’s 2021 movie, Luca. Ironically, the Italian-inspired location also debuted at Disneyland Paris earlier this year.
Why is the project not coming to Disneyland Resort?
There is a lot of analysis behind Disney’s decision-making for every project, whether fans consider them a miss or a hit. And Casa de Coco – Restaurante de Familia surely is not the exception. I see two main reasons this new restaurant is being developed at Disneyland Paris and not at Disneyland Resort.
Disneyland Paris’ commitment to Pixar
Disneyland Paris has fenced civil unrest, massive Cast Member demonstrations, and strikes affecting the Resort to continue the development of Casa de Coco – Restaurante de Familia — which, as of this article’s publishing, still has no official opening date — as part of the Parisian Disney Park’s efforts to “immerse Guests into memorable Pixar stories and to give them the opportunity to explore incredible paths alongside a wide variety of Disney Characters,” per Disneyland Paris News.
Some of these efforts include the opening of a reimagined dining location inspired by Pixar’s Luca (2021) earlier this year, and the debut of an all-new live musical inspired by some of Pixar’s most famous movies, including Monsters Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), Toy Story, Up (2009), and Coco (2017).
Therefore, while Disney California Adventure is a much more cohesive location for these new projects, Disney decided to move forward with this project at its Parisian Disney Resort.
Disneyland Resort’s transformation
Additionally, Disneyland Resort apparently has its hands full with multiple reimagining projects taking place at the Southern California Resort.
Disneyland Park is undertaking massive new projects at New Orleans Square and Critter County to welcome Princess Tiana and some fan-favorite characters from Disney’s Princess and the Frog (2009) with a unique dining location and the complete reimagining of the divisive Disney ride Splash Mountain, turning the Disneyland icon into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, opening next year.
And over at Disney California Adventure, as the Park gears up to enhance Avengers Campus, Pacific Wharf is getting a total makeover, bringing one of the most beloved Disney characters into the Park with the opening of San Fransokyo Square very soon.
Could Casa de Coco – Restaurante de Familia come to Disneyland Resort?
While it is disappointing to see Disney’s upcoming project be a swing and a miss, a dining location inspired by Pixar’s award-winning movie Coco holds great potential for a future project at Disneyland Resort, whether that be a copy of Disneyland Paris’ Casa de Coco – Restaurante de Familia or an all-new concept inspired by the award-winning movie. Guess only time will tell if Miguel will serenade Guests visiting Disney California Adventure — or Disneyland Park — at a new restaurant soon.
Stay tuned to Inside the Magic for the latest news on Disney Parks worldwide.
Did Disney make a mistake by choosing Disneyland Paris as the home for this Coco-inspired restaurant? Would you like to see a similar location open at Disneyland Resort? Share your thoughts with Inside the Magic in the comments below!