News Paradise Pier Becoming Pixar Pier

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
I don't know why these things need to be presented by an executive at all. It would be better to hire a charismatic, entertaining and articulate presenter to do the talking. It might be too hard to find such a person in California though.
It seems to be because Steve Jobs did it, so now every executive thinks they have to do so as well. Of course, there is probably more pressure to appear engaged when a teenage ride op has more prior industry experience than you and your boss and your predecessor combined.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Careful though, you don't want too much charisma. The crowd will all start swooning and the emergency services will need to be called.
Just imagine a room full of Constances when Bob Iger gets on stage.

images
 

Ismael Flores

Well-Known Member
So a pixarpier with little mermaid darkride and mickeys funwheele #whatajoke

I don't think they are talking about of all of Paradise Pier. My guess is that they will split the land name and call the overal place Paradise park and just the Pier be called Pixar Pier. Everything from silly symphony to mermaid will remain non Pixar themed
 

dweezil78

Well-Known Member
Well...this has the potential to be a pretty awful idea. Hard to imagine what exactly gets changed here other than the midway games -- which, if they are axed, I am totally ok with in exchange for some new entertainment and a candy shop. No attachment to the lame carousel either, if that becomes a bunch of Pixar peeps so be it.

If they replaced the iconic Mickey's Fun Wheel with a Pixar character it'd be pretty baffling, especially with how it's used for the World of Color intro... but they've pulled some pretty dumb moves lately.

To the post above me, would make sense that this only covers everything from the pier entrance to about where the Maliboomer used to be and have this just be a sub-section of the larger area. That would spare the swing, Goofy, and Little Mermaid and really make all of this pretty minimal... so at that point, why even bother?
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Well...this has the potential to be a pretty awful idea. Hard to imagine what exactly gets changed here other than the midway games -- which, if they are axed, I am totally ok with in exchange for some new entertainment and a candy shop. No attachment to the lame carousel either, if that becomes a bunch of Pixar peeps so be it.

If they replaced the iconic Mickey's Fun Wheel with a Pixar character it'd be pretty baffling, especially with how it's used for the World of Color intro... but they've pulled some pretty dumb moves lately.

To the post above me, would make sense that this only covers everything from the pier entrance to about where the Maliboomer used to be and have this just be a sub-section of the larger area. That would spare the swing, Goofy, and Little Mermaid and really make all of this pretty minimal... so at that point, why even bother?


I also hate the idea of Mickeys Fun Wheel (as well as Screamin) being changed to Pixar but I don't think they would replace Mickeys face with any one Pixar character because IMO their is not one Pixar character that Is worthy of of having their 10 story face plastered up there. I'm guessing they would remove Mickeys face and add multiple smaller characters in its place and On the gondolas. Unfortunately, I do think that this would be an overlay for the entire land and that they just move Mermaid to the Pacific Wharf on the park map. Everything else is probably fair game
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Ha! Sorry friends. I got too caught up in the WDW whirlwind to really even process what did (or really did not) get announced for DLR.

Until now, I thought the announcement was like a Season of the Force type thing just for their Pixar Fest (aka SWL is opening 2019 and we need something to market fest). So register me as confused that I clearly didn't understand the announcement at all... or really what this even means.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Funny how some people have been pining for a Pixar Land in DHS and then it lands unwanted in DCA.

I've always argued against a Pixar Land as not a coherent theme. It would be like randomly rearranging all the attractions at the MK... the only theme then would be "stuff Disney made."

And "stuff Pixar made" ain't a theme, either.

Bright side: The pier will be getting rid of a weak theme and getting some investment for better attractions, regardless of how well they fit in the larger scheme of things.
 

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
One of the reasons why Disneyland has such a die hard fanbase, is it's ability to provide similar experiences through generations. Someone could theoretically have ridden the Matterhorn, Pirates, Haunted Mansion with their kids, who then got to ride it with their kids, etc. creating an emotional bond to the attractions and experiences.

By changing everything so frequently at DCA- Soaring of CA to Soarin over World, revamping Paradise Pier into Pixar, changing the Tower- they are preventing anyone who rode anything at the park in the last 16 years to relive past experiences with loved ones.

By 1959- Walt added the Matterhorn, Monorail, and Subs to the park, all attractions that are still standing, and (for the most part- excluding nemo), those experiences have been plussed over the years, but always remain faithful to the original.

This is 16 years into DCA, not 4, and none of the attractions, with the possible exception of Grizzly River Run, are being given the opportunity to become timeless. Things are constantly rethemed, and new lands or changes to existing lands are constantly announced. A big part of the problem is the poor quality of DCA 1.0, but I'd be very surprised if California Screamin captures the same following as the Matterhorn, if Mission Breakout garners the same life and longevity as any of the Classic Disneyland attractions, or if people still even care about Soarin over the World once VR becomes mainstream.

It really seems like TDA has no idea how to handle DCA, and the park likely won't look anything like it does now 50 years from now.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Pixar Pier is the perfect reflection of Disney’s ongoing philosophical shift away from themed entertainment and towards the branded amusement of Six Flags. Paradise Pier was poorly executed and then poorly reimagined, but there was some level of effort to deal with a long standing demand from Eisner. This is a complete abandonment of storytelling for character faces on rides. There is no unifying thread beyond a production subsidiary and it doesn’t even have the related aesthetic of Pixar Place.

While I'm just as confused about Pixar Pier as everyone else, I don't quite think it's that bad. And I actually think it's a better idea than Pixar Place, which appears to be going away in DHS anyway.

For those who haven't been to DHS, Pixar Place is a small recreation of the Pixar Studios up in Emeryville, and it contains the Midway Mania ride, simply called Toy Story Mania there because it's not on a midway.

The real Pixar Studios in Emeryville is a pleasant looking but rather non-descript upscale business park. Bricks and leafy trees type of hipster place, behind locked gates and surface parking lots with plenty of plug ins for the executive's fleet of Teslas. And a Starbucks in the lobby. Pleasant looking, but nothing special or unique.
Pixar1-1.jpg


The street in DHS that leads you to Midway Mania evokes those bricks and entryway.
capture-d_c3a9cran-2012-01-06-c3a0-00-06-49.png


Again, it's pleasant looking. But the architecture is rather mundane, unless you are a huge fan of bricks. How many of those tourists even get the visual references to the Emeryville campus 3,000 miles away?

Which brings us to Pixar Pier, which is really Phase Three of the re-Imagineering and plussing up of the rather tragic 2001 version of Paradise Pier. Phase One of the remake was the addition of Midway Mania in 2008, which brought dramatically upgraded architecture and themeing to Paul Pressler's cheap stucco wonderland. Phase Two of the remake was the 2010-2011 upgraded resurfacing of existing facilities; Games of the Boardwalk, Paradise Gardens, Goofy's Sky School, and the opening of Little Mermaid in '11. The one area that was barely touched was the Sideshow Shirts and Fun Wheel portion of the boardwalk.

Although back when they announced the DCA Remake in 2007 there were plans to upgrade that stretch of the boardwalk as well, and make it look like this...
2a3abfeb2f4c1ae4a5a17a6d68577e9d.jpg


The one piece of artwork they released today for Pixar Pier, is of that exact area that got cut from the original 2007 budget before it was built. Not quite as grand as the '07 proposal, but still a thematic improvement over what is there today hanging off the original 2001 stucco bones.
npifi498978951.jpg


Like @Curious Constance, I'm going to wait for more info and artwork to be released on this one. I'm still confused what it is and what it does. And why. But I think thematically and for the vast majority of the paying audience, a visual environment like Pixar Pier above is a much more engaging theme park environment than a recreation of a brick office park.
 
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TP2000

Well-Known Member
It seems to be because Steve Jobs did it, so now every executive thinks they have to do so as well. Of course, there is probably more pressure to appear engaged when a teenage ride op has more prior industry experience than you and your boss and your predecessor combined.

It's maddening, really. And today's Parks Presentation was painful to sit through, even though there were nuggets of great info and some actual surprises. Bobby Chapek is no Steve Jobs, and Lasseter seemed like he had been over at the Hilton lobby bar just before the show. o_O

I like the idea of just turning D23 announcements over to professional singers and dancers and performers. In the 1950's, 60's and 70's there were things called Industrial Musicals which were splashy performances put on for employees to educate them about the latest company info and future plans. They had songs and orchestras and batallions of dancing girls as the latest products and plans were rolled out onto the stage. Seriously, it was a thing. The Industrial Musical died out around 1980, although for once the movie Xanadu is not to blame.
ford.png


Disney needs to have The Good Bob and a few top execs say a few words to kick things off, and then just hand it over to the professionals for the next 60 minutes and let them roll out the big news and future plans. Disney could single-handedly bring back the Industrial Musical if they wanted to. D23 Expo is a perfect venue for it.
 

616.1314

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
I really don't get it...
If they want a PIXAR-themed area in DCA
then why do they have to move the PIXAR Parade to DL and add a PIXAR-themed nighttime spectacular there
why not just put every PIXAR-related stuff to DCA

Anyway... I'm against the idea of building the PIXAR Pier
PIXAR FUN WHEEL is just horrible
Come on Disney, you changed the Sun Wheel to Mickey's Fun Wheel
because DCA 1.0 was not "Disney" enough and lacked an icon
Now Mickey's Fun Wheel has become the icon... and you are demolishing the mouse face
is this... removing a Park's icon is super deleterious to the Park's image : (
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member

drizgirl

Well-Known Member
Well...this has the potential to be a pretty awful idea. Hard to imagine what exactly gets changed here other than the midway games -- which, if they are axed, I am totally ok with in exchange for some new entertainment and a candy shop. No attachment to the lame carousel either, if that becomes a bunch of Pixar peeps so be it.

If they replaced the iconic Mickey's Fun Wheel with a Pixar character it'd be pretty baffling, especially with how it's used for the World of Color intro... but they've pulled some pretty dumb moves lately.

To the post above me, would make sense that this only covers everything from the pier entrance to about where the Maliboomer used to be and have this just be a sub-section of the larger area. That would spare the swing, Goofy, and Little Mermaid and really make all of this pretty minimal... so at that point, why even bother?
All it takes for a "land" lately seems to be 2 rides, a restaurant and some shops. I think it qualifies. :rolleyes:
 

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
I don't know how else to say this, but after watching that video it's quite apparent that John Lasseter had been drinking just before he went onstage. Seriously. :hungover:

Yes!
He was totally toasted!

I thought I was the only one who saw that, but the way he was chortling during some moments made me raise an eyebrow.
I've heard about his apparent over enthusiasm for le drink over the years, but wow....right before a company presentation in front of a audience like this..?
A little unprofessional.

Being a little sloshed and doing a power point presentation at Pixar might be the norm these days, but that just doesn't fly here.
Glad to see I'm not the only one thinking this.

Just wow.
Makes the whole reveal of this project all the more unappealing and questionable.
:cyclops:

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