A new(ish) themed land has recently debuted at Disney California Adventure, replacing the opening day Pacific Wharf section of the park and theming it to the Walt Disney Animation Studios film, Big Hero 6.
The vibrant new district, celebrating the heroes of the film, is home to new shops and several dining options (mostly carried over from Pacific Wharf) and the chance to meet Baymax in a special area. The 2015 film from Walt Disney Animation Studios based on the Marvel comic of the same name, is set in a fictional metropolis called San Fransokyo (an alternate reality of San Francisco and Tokyo), where a young robotics prodigy named Hiro Hamada and his robot Baymax uncover a criminal plot and pull together a team of inexperienced crime-fighters to solve the mystery surrounding a crime in the city.
As such, San Fransokyo Square has the influence of both Japan and San Francisco. A new detail that has emerged well after the land’s opening day is a new sign that pays homage to a real life sign found in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.
The new sign keeps the look and feel of the San Francisco original, but fuses in the Japanese with an octopus sushi chef in lieu of the landmark crab. It’s this octopus that has fans excited because many believe it to be a very clear reference to a film from a different studio, Pixar Animation Studios’ 2001 hit, Monsters, Inc.
But I’m here to tell you – It’s not.
In the 2001 Pixar Animation Studios film, Monsters, Inc. there is a famous scene driving the plot of the movie where a human child has escaped into the monster-filled world of Monstropolis. As part of the chase, monster James P. Sullivan (Sulley) ends up at one of the more popular restaurants in Monstropolis, where his buddy Mike Wazowski is on a date. That restaurant? Harryhausen’s.
This popular sushi offering in Monstropolis is reportedly very hard to get a reservation at in the world of the movie, but fans of cinema will be quick to notice that the name of the restaurant is a tribute to real world filmmaker Ray Harryhausen, a famous stop-motion animator. Notable examples of Harryhausen's work include films like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The Valley of Gwangi (1969), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), and Clash of the Titans (1981).
It’s within the restaurant that our Octopus Sushi Chef resides. And the tribute to Ray Harryhausen doesn’t end with the name of the restaurant. Back in 1955, a film called It Came From Beneath the Sea was released that chronicled the tale of a monstrous giant octopus that rampages along the west coast of North America after becoming too radioactive from nuclear testing in the South Pacific for it to be able to hunt its natural prey.
Aforementioned animator Ray Harryhausen was brought aboard after the production team saw his work on The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. After special effects were budgeted, Harryhausen was budgeted with only enough money for animating six of the octopus' eight tentacles; two were eliminated on the final shooting miniature. Harryhausen jokingly named his giant octopus "the sixtopus".
Back in Monstropolis, the sushi chef at Harryhausen’s also has six tentacles, making our chef an obvious reference to those in the know to Harryhausen’s own “sixtopus.” One of which is bandaged, a fun detail since he is a chef.
It is no accident that this creature has six tentacles, and it is carried over in other appearances, including those in a dark ride in the very same park as the aforementioned new sign – Disney California Adventure’s Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley To The Rescue. The attraction takes guests into Harryhausen’s where we see our six-tentacled octopus once again serving up sushi, complete with bandaged tentacle.
So while we’re on the topic of the park, let’s look closer at the new San Fransokyo Square Sign. Not only is there a full set of eight tentacles on the sign, none of them are bandaged either. Why would a group of artists (Imagineers) whose claim to fame is immersive environments built on absolute attention to detail not only overlook something as simple as a bandage, but also overlook the insane amounts of detail put into a great reference to filmmaking and animation history if they were, in fact, trying to reference the creature from Monsters, Inc.?
With that, I say that this is NOT the sixtopus Sushi Chef from Pixar Animation Studios’ Monsters, Inc. in a land themed to Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Big Hero 6. Feel free to look up more awesome (and common) Japanese art featuring Octopi as Sushi Chefs by clicking here.