With the new Cars Land expansion opening at Disney’s California Adventure, it really made me think that there needs to be more Pixar branded stores at Disney World in Florida. Besides the small open-air shop located outside of Toy Story Mania at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the even smaller shop at the end of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin at the Magic Kingdom — there just aren’t that many Pixar themed shops.
I think it would be amazing to have the Disney Imagineers re-create Carl and Ellie’s house from UP and place it in the Streets of America (Disney’s Hollywood Studios) as a new souvenir shop.
My vision is that Carl and Ellie’s house would look just as it does in the photo above complete with the fence. Thus, keeping guests off the front porch but also allowing guests a great photo keepsake without anyone in the background. The Streets of America part of the park is usually pretty quiet with guests just passing through to key attractions like a meet-and-greet with Lighting McQueen and Mater, Lights, Motors, Action, and of course during the holiday season, the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.
The UP house shop would look great sitting in between two of the larger existing buildings (similar to the scene in UPright before Carl releases the balloons and floats away). Since the buildings are facades (or shells), the Imagineers could build the Pixar shop starting from one of the buildings and flowing into the UP house – just like the shops in Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios where you enter one building and walk all the way through others all while staying in the same shop.
I would decorate the store just like the inside of Carl and Ellie’s house. Complete with Carl and Ellie’s chair in a more vacant part of the store allowing guests another great photo opportunity. It would also be great to have some memorabilia from UP sold within the store, such as the red wooden bird (on the mantle), various artwork, My Adventure Book, “Spirit of Adventure” banks/jars, and of course plush toys. I would also like to see Pixar merchandise being sold within this store from each feature film as well as the shorts and perhaps a few Pixar branded shirts and hats.
These are just some ideas I have with adding more Pixar within the Disney Parks — other ideas include adding A Bug’s Life or perhaps the Scottish theme of Brave into the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground also within Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Thank you to all the great minds at Pixar for giving me such great inspiration.
