Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Talk of the Bay

Pixar is everwhere at Disney parks

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published August 21, 2006

Now that Walt Disney Co. owns all of Pixar Animations Studios Inc., the parks are giving a lot more face time to the computer animation pioneer's characters.

Finding Nemo - The Musical, with an original score by Robert Lopez of Avenue Q fame and a collection of Lion King-worthy stage puppets, debuts this fall at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The long-dormant 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at Disneyland in California is being re-opened with a Nemo theme, too. But the drained remnants of its abandoned sibling ride in Florida will remain hidden under a kids play area in Magic Kingdom.

The Living Seas pavilion at EPCOT is being refreshed and renamed the Seas with Nemo & Friends this fall. Inside, the popular Turtle Talk with Crush show will live on, but a new ride will transport patrons in "clam-mobiles" through what had been a lengthy walking tour around the huge aquarium. The ride features a new story line for Nemo the clown fish, this time told in animation projected on a backdrop of an aquarium filled with live sea creatures.

In early 2007, a new attraction opens in Magic Kingdom that is a takeoff on the joke-filled Laugh Floor Comedy Club from Monsters Inc.

Pixar characters, dating back to Buzz Lightyear, played a role in the parks. But this latest burst plus the addition of meet-and-greet characters from The Incredibles and daily parade props from Cars underscores just how much Disney hopes to extend the life of its Pixar franchises.

[Last modified August 21, 2006, 06:18:09]