Recently, Disneyland announced the return of Pixar Fest to the resort as part of their 2024 events lineup. This is the first time that the celebration has occurred at the park since 2018, and with it comes the debut of a new daytime parade, “Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!” that will roll through Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California..
Pixar Fest returns to the Disneyland Resort from April 26 through Aug. 4, 2024, bringing guests together for a celebration of friendship and beyond. From colorful décor and themed menu items to commemorative merchandise, the Disneyland Resort theme parks, hotels and Downtown Disney District will have a Pixar twist of friendly fun for a limited time.
The Better Together parade is being touted as “all new” but the second piece of art shows us a clear intro unit, again with the Luxo Jr. Float from the 2018 version of the Pixar Play Parade during that year’s Pixar Fest at Disneyland. Though, it is modified with a number of stickers and embellishments making it “new.” That said, the most recent movie represented in this version of the Pixar Play Parade (seen below) was Inside Out. Since then, numerous other titles have been released, and I can’t help but wonder how those films would, if they did, make their way into this new offering in 2024. So get ready for some rampant speculation!
Coco
Coco has a high-profile parade unit that can be seen in the Magic Happens daytime parade, complete with Miguel, a marigold bridge, his great-grandparents, and Dante, who magically transforms as the float makes its way down the route. If Disney Live Entertainment were to include Coco, would they simply reuse this float as other parade floats are reused in seasonal offerings, or would they come up with a new parade unit altogether? Or, would they, for some reason, leave Coco out altogether? The latter seems unlikely.
Finding Dory
Disney Live Entertainment seems to have an obsession with the puppets that originally debuted in Finding Nemo: The Musical at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Since then, they have appeared in not only the Pixar Play Parade, but also the short-lived but highly-loved Paint the Night Parade at the Disneyland Resort. I would not be surprised if they appeared in the new parade by any means – but can we at least get them ahead of a spectacular new float? In my wildest fantasies, it would be something akin to the Ursula float in Disneyland’s Parade of Dreams, but perhaps with Hank the septopus from Finding Dory instead.
Toy Story 4
I have ZERO doubt that Toy Story and its pantheon of characters will make an appearance in the new parade. However, with the addition of Toy Story 4 since we last saw a Pixar parade at the Disneyland Resort, I’m sure we can expect to see Forky in some way and Bo Peep with her new Toy Story 4 look. Ducky and Bunny are a bit of a longer shot, and if Giggle McDimples made an appearance, I would anticipate it to be more decorative on the float. As this is not a Halloween parade, I also highly doubt we’ll see Gabby Gabby or her loyal following of Bensons. That said, I would love to see Duke Kaboom on his motorcycle on the street level, perhaps ushering in the obviously required Toy Story unit, or following closely behind it. Some designers might say they can’t do that, but I say “Yes We Canada!”
Onward
Tragically overlooked by audiences due to its very short run in theaters thanks to significant world events, will Disney Live Entertainment overlook this title as well? Even if they don’t, I can’t imagine they’ll make a significant parade unit out of it. Fortunately, Onward has a built-in ability for a parade unit without significant investment. Barley, brother of main character Ian, has a vehicle that plays prominently into the film – his own van, Guinevere. This could easily be put into a parade with the brothers waving from the windows with ease, and with minimal effort.
Luca
Similar to the vehicle situation in Onward, the plot of Pixar’s Luca follows two sea monsters in disguise as humans as they spend a summer trying to get their hands on – A Vespa! While the undersea and coastal environments are fantastical and could make for a good parade unit, I anticipate something akin to what we’ve already seen in Mickey’s Soundsational parade if we see any fun from Luca at all. In that parade, we saw Mary Poppins and Bert riding their own Carousel horses. I could easily see something similar in the form of Vespas with Alberto and Luca each on their own.
Turning Red
One thing we do KNOW, is that Turning Red will be prominently featured in the new parade with its own float starring Mei Lin in her Red Panda form and her friends alongside fictitious pop sensation, 4TOWN. What is not pictured in the art but was featured in a recent Disneyland casting call is her father, Jin. Who, we know from a post-credits scene, is a rather big fan of 4TOWN himself. Or, could there be more that we don’t know? Perhaps there is a secondary float in this unit with Mei Lin’s mother, Ming – who can also turn into a giant red panda, and we mean GIANT.
Soul
Also in the realm of Disneyland’s recent casting efforts, they are also looking for performers to bring the role of Joe Gardner off the screen and into the Disneyland Resort. While we don’t specifically know to what venue, event, show, or parade, we do know that they are looking for someone that matches Joe’s real-world description, and is fluent in the language of music with the ability to perform on a piano. That said, I think if we were to see Soul in this parade, it would be a rendition of The Great Before, with the counselors and the soul versions of Joe and 22. Personally I think that casting call is for a different offering somewhere in the resort, BUT if it were for the parade, I’d expect to see Joe performing on the piano live like when we saw Mickey on his drum kit in Mickey’s Soundsational Parade.
Lightyear
Between disappointing box office returns and fan response, I highly doubt we’ll see anything from Lightyear. Not to mention, the concept of the film as unique and great as it was (this was the movie that Andy saw that made him want the Buzz Lightyear toy), fell flat with general audiences who didn’t quite grasp that it wasn’t a Toy Story movie but in the same universe as the Toy Story movies. Plus, we know that a Pixar parade would HAVE to have Toy Story in it, so to see human Buzz Lightyear with his human friends and then toy Buzz Lightyear and his toy friends later in the parade… heads might explode.
Elemental
In the original Pixar Play parade, there was the recurring theme of water. Each float sprayed the crowds as a way of getting the audience to, you know, play! The float based on The Incredibles also mixed in fire, with Jack Jack’s head periodically bursting into flames as the Omnidroid made its way through the park.
So what I’m getting at is that fire and water are no stranger to a Pixar parade at the Disneyland Resort, and could theoretically be seen again.
How they would do it, aside from the obvious choice of Wade and Ember, is where the questions truly lie. Would the float look like Element City? Would Wade and Ember be performers or would they be on the float as effects-laden figures? There’s a lot of potential here, I just hope that we would see more of the practical fire and water effects.
Inside Out 2
When the Pixar Play Parade resurfaced for PixarFest in 2018, they had a new float based on the 2015 hit film, Inside Out. For fans of the parade, it was a bit surprising that the built a new, smaller unit when they had a preshow float that rolled out ahead of the parade at Disney California Adventure when the film debuted.
Coincidentally, Pixar Fest is returning to the Disneyland Resort just in time for the highly-anticipated release of Inside Out 2 on June 14th, 2024. I am absolutely sure we’ll see Inside Out characters in the parade because I’m sure someone in a creative boardroom is drooling over the synergistic possibilities. However, will we see something more like the preshow float, with all the emotions and maybe even the new ones added? Or will we see something more like 2018’s Inside Out float, with only Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong featured on a single, smaller unit? I’m hoping for the former, as to this day, I’m still shocked that it didn't become a regular feature of the parade after the success of the film.
Pixar Fest is a festival of friendship that is highlighted by heartwarming entertainment featuring Pixar stories. Along with this all-new daytime parade, “Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!”, at Disneyland Park, the emotional “Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular” returns with some all-new scenes. During the celebration, guests may encounter new characters such as Ember and Wade from Elemental, Red Panda Mei from Turning Red and more. Additional entertainment and offerings are expected to be announced at a later date.