Oh how time flies. Can you believe that it was way back in 2006 when Disney purchased Pixar? Do you remember the price tag? It was a cool $7.4 billion.
Of course, Walt Disney had a distribution deal with Pixar from the very start to handle Toy Story, but after the acquisition it seems that Disney synergy moved into high gear.
You might be surprised how many Pixar characters are now around the Walt Disney World Resort. I’ve tried to put together as comprehensive a list as possible, and I omitted passing references to characters (like how many Pixar characters make a brief appearance in the Magic Kingdom Cinderella Castle projection show, Celebrate The Magic).
Let’s take a look at where you can find Pixar characters, park by park:
Magic Kingdom
Tomorrowland
- (1) Attraction: Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (Toy Story)
- (2) Meet and greet: Buzz Lightyear (Toy Story)
- (3) Show: Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor (Monsters Inc.)
Frontierland
- (4) Meet and greet: Woody and Jessie (Toy Story)
Fantasyland
- (5) Meet and greet: Merida (Brave)
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Pixar Place
- (6) Attraction: Toy Story Mania (Toy Story)
- (7) Meet and greet: Buzz and Woody (Toy Story)
Streets of America
- (8) Restaurant: Pizza Planet (Toy Story)
- (9) Meet and greet: Monsters Inc. (Monsters Inc.)
- (10) Meet and greet: Cars (Cars)
- (11) Show: Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show (Cars)
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Discovery Island
- (12) Show: It’s Tough To Be A Bug (It’s Tough To Be A Bug)
- (13) Meet and greet: Russell and Dug (Up)
- (14) Game: Wilderness Explorers (Up)
Dinoland USA
- (15) Show: Finding Nemo: The Musical (Finding Nemo)
Epcot
Future World
- (16) Pavilion: The Seas With Nemo and Friends (AKA The Seas), including Turtle Talk With Crush (Finding Nemo)
By Movie
Breaking down these in-park placements by Pixar movie it looks like this:
- Toy Story – Six placements
- Monsters Inc. – Two placements
- Finding Nemo – Two placements
- Up – Two placements
- It’s Tough To Be A Bug – Two placements
- Brave – One placement
Since Disney and Pixar have created three different Toy Story movies, and since that was the first movie that really launched Pixar as a global sensation, I guess it’s not too surprising that there are so many more Toy Story placements around the parks.
Do you like seeing Pixar characters around Disney World?