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Credit: Joel (coconutwireless), FlickrThe Walt Disney Company’s latest hotel addition just launched, and with the grand opening came a claim that the resort’s expansion will be turbocharged in the coming years.
On January 30, 2024, Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock and Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios Pete Docter were joined by a host of beloved characters to celebrate the opening of Disney’s Pixar Place Hotel. After undergoing a major refurbishment, the former Paradise Pier Hotel in Anaheim, California, officially became the first fully-themed Pixar hotel in the United States.
“At Pixar, our mission is to tell great stories. And nothing is more exciting than when we see those stories come to life in Disney parks, Docter said, per The Walt Disney Company’s press release. Pixar Place Hotel at the Disneyland Resort is the perfect example; it’s like walking into a world of Pixar. It’s truly immersive, and we’re thrilled to have collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering to make such an experience possible for guests.”
Potrock and Docter were joined onstage by characters from Pixar’s wide catalog of films, including Carl and Mr. Fredricksen from Up (2009), Joy and Bing Bong from Inside Out (2015), Miguel from Coco (2017), and Buzz and Woody from the Toy Story franchise. The 15-story high-rise hotel overlooks Disneyland’s second theme park, Disney California Adventure (DCA), and “boasts comfortable and contemporary guest rooms that celebrate the artistry of Pixar Animation Studios, new dining options by Great Maple, a relaxing rooftop pool area and play court, a renovated fitness center, and more,” according to the same release.
The opening of Disney’s Pixar Place Hotel is just the latest in a long string of recent developments at Disneyland Resort–think San Fransokyo at DCA and the closure of Splash Mountain at Disneyland Park–and it certainly won’t be the last. The Disneyland Resort President revealed in the press release that expansion is top of mind.
“We are looking to turbocharge expansion at Disneyland Resort over the coming years, and the transformation of Pixar Place Hotel is a demonstration of how we’re creating high-quality guest experiences infused with our most popular stories,” Potrock said.
This notion of infusing the parks with popular stories–or Intellectual Properties (IP)–is something Potrock has been invested in for a while. Back in February 2022, the Disney Parks executive spoke to the Orange County Register about updates for The Happiest Place On Earth. He said (via Inside the Magic):
“There’s a lot more coming. One of the things that’s so exciting about this company are our intellectual properties — the movies and TV shows that are coming out. We’re working really hard to quickly infuse that IP into the Disneyland resort — sometimes in a matter of weeks — so not everything takes four years to build. We’re very focused on that — so that we’re always fresh and different and there’s always something new to see.”
Related: Fans Likely Horrified, May Boycott Pixar After Recent Announcement
And then, a year after Potrock’s statement, in early 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger said he’d had conversations with Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro about how IP could be brought to the parks to “increase capacity while preserving guest satisfaction.”
It stands to reason, then, that this infusion of IP will continue to be a factor in the turbocharged expansion the Disney leader admits is happening to the brand’s first-ever theme park resort. The confirmation of changes heading to Disneyland in California lines up with Iger’s intention to invest $60 billion into the parks and cruise line space over the next decade.
But what about original attractions? Over time, as The Walt Disney Company acquires more and more brands and studios (Marvel in 2009, Star Wars in 2012, etc.), the less chance there will be for Walt Disney Imagineering to invest in original stories not based on existing franchises.
But does it even matter?
As Iger suggested last year, the growth at Disneyland Paris can be attributed, at least in part, to the investment of Marvel properties into the parks. The refurbished Disney’s Hotel New York — The Art of Marvel opened just shortly before the unveiling of the Mouse House’s second Avengers Campus and, along with the 30th anniversary celebration, propelled attendance at the European resort.
On the other hand, though, when Disneyland Resort revealed it would be retheming Tarzan’s Treehouse to the Adventureland Treehouse, based on Walt Disney’s own original attraction from 1962 (which itself was based on the 1960 movie Swiss Family Robinson), many fans welcomed the injection of something less familiar and more original to the park. According to Disney Parks Blog, the attraction includes “fascinating rooms that the family in this new story created for one another.”
Related: ‘Inside Out 2’ Is Already Successful Despite Major Cast Exit, Everything We Know
So, with Disney’s Pixar Place Hotel now open and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure on the way later this year, fans can expect many of the characters they know and love to continue influencing the executives and Imagineers in the Disney parks.
Would you like to see more popular franchises come to the Disney parks? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!