Something big is missing from Disneyland's new hotel

February 1, 2024, 12:21 PM · The Pixar Place Hotel at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California is unlike any other Disney theme park hotel in the United States. All because it is missing one thing that every other Disney hotel has.

The "Disney" name.

Every other Disney-owned hotel on property at the Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts contains the word "Disney" somewhere in its name. There's the original Disneyland Hotel, plus more than three dozen hotels across the resorts that contain the word "Disney" as a possessive. But the Disneyland Resort chose not to include "Disney's" at the start of the Pixar Place Hotel name.

Consider a corporate sign of respect for the Pixar brand. Inside its rooms and common areas, Pixar Place Hotel - which opened officially this week - is all Pixar. There's no mash-up of Pixar and Disney characters here, as guests will find inside Disney's theme parks. Mickey Mouse is not in the house at Pixar Place. This is the home to Luxo Jr., Bing Bong, and the art of the multi-Oscar-winning animation studio.

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That said, there's no mistaking that you are inside a Disney theme park resort while staying at Pixar Place Hotel. Half the rooms in the hotel overlook the Disney California Adventure theme park. Heck, the hotel's address is on Disneyland Drive. The Downtown Disney shopping and dining district lies just steps away from the hotel, too.

So - to steal a phrase that Disney CEO Bob Iger used about Shanghai Disneyland - Pixar Place is "authentically Disney and distinctly Pixar." Speaking of Shanghai, its Toy Story Hotel is the only other Disney theme park hotel not to include "Disney" in its name. Again, that's another accommodation for a Pixar brand. (For what it's worth, Tokyo Disney calls its Toy Story-themed hotel the "Tokyo Disney Resort Toy Story Hotel," but Tokyo Disney is owned and operated by the Oriental Land Co., under license from The Walt Disney Company, which owns Pixar Animation Studios.)

If you are curious, while Disney now has two theme park hotels worldwide without Disney in their name, the company has just one theme park without Disney in its name - EPCOT, at the Walt Disney World Resort.

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Replies (3)

February 1, 2024 at 12:31 PM

Technically, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser didn't have the Disney name attached either. I think you're right that when Disney is going to lean into purchased IP for their resorts, they have an obligation to not coopt them by affixing the Disney name to them. I would assume if Disney ever did a Marvel resort or an Indiana Jones resort (or another Star Wars resort), those would similarly be presented without the Disney name attached.

February 1, 2024 at 12:54 PM

In Paris, the Marvel hotel has the unwieldy name "Disney Hotel New York - The Art of Marvel," incorporating the property's pre-Marvel name. The switch from Paradise Pier to Pixar Pier within DCA forced the name change for the hotel here, so Disneyland wasn't going to append the Pixar name in this case.

During the press event this week, Imagineers cited the Paris Marvel hotel as a similar project to Pixar Place. In both cases, the design choice was to focus on the art of the studio as a decorative motif rather than creating an in-story, studio-IP theme for the hotels.

February 8, 2024 at 9:15 AM

Thanks for sharing this post.

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