Disney California Adventure: Branding

While the addition of two new lands since I was last at Disneyland is a pretty big deal (and part of Disney's brand expansion), there was another change that had been going on for some time, and continuing.

This used to be the Sun Wheel, then Mickey's Fun Wheel, with a big Mickey Mouse face added on the side.

Now the individual cars on the Pixar Pal Around have characters from various Pixar movies on them, that match the benches down below. You can observe them as you get a really hot dog from Inside Out's Anger, or grab one of the famous Disney turkey legs from a Poultry Palace, a franchise familiar to Andy of Toy Story.

The candy store is now themed for Bing Bong, and King Triton's carousel was given over the Cowgirl Jessie.

Just like the Avengers Campus Shawarma Palace comes from an inside joke in the movie, you can get your frozen treats from the Adorable (not Abominable) Snowman.

It is part of a rebranding that went from celebrating California to Disney, which in many ways makes more sense.

This was done without a lot of changes to external architecture, and there are certainly things there that don't have obvious Disney tie-ins, like the Pacific Wharf (though there was that one scene in Superdad)
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There is a lot of Pixar off of the pier, with Cars Land and Monsters Inc Mike & Sully to the Rescue in Hollywood Land.

It could also seem like California Adventure is for Pixar and the Magic Kingdom is for all of the non-Pixar Disney films, except for Ariel's Undersea Adventure and a focus on Oswald on Buena Vista Street. (Also, the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail that used to be just California landmarks and then focused on Russell's scouting in Up now has a sign for Raya and the Last Dragon.)

Plus there is Mickey's PhilharMagic.

What used to be posters for movies in Hollywood Land has been replaced with references to many Disney characters performing music, and you can see a 4-D performance driven by Donald Duck and the hat from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" portion of Fantasia.

I enjoyed it a lot, but it did replace Muppet Vision, another acquired Disney brand that is close to my heart.

With a new series, maybe they will show up somewhere else.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/destinations/disney-california-adventure/