Ever since the first Toy Story arrived in theaters in 1995, many people (including myself) have been clamoring for Disney to build a real Pizza Planet that is modeled after its namesake from the film. Various Disney theme parks have delivered pizza restaurants with the Pizza Planet name, but these spaces did not come close to recreating their film counterpart, whether it came to the interior or the exterior. There is a chance Disney might be inching forward on this, though.
In order to tie in a restaurant to last year’s Pixar Fest, Disneyland renamed its Red Rockett’s Pizza Port to Alien Pizza Planet in the spring of 2018. Not much was done to the exterior, with a temporary sign placed on top of the existing marquee. The inside saw many Alien-themed posters placed along the walls and Aliens hung from the ceiling. It was a small step in the direction of fulfilling the Pizza Planet promise, but it seemed like there was much, much more that Disneyland could do. Although the west coast Disney resort has not made a formal announcement about it, Alien Pizza Planet is undergoing what appears to be a significant renovation and there is confirmation that the exterior is definitely seeing some work.
To prepare for the droves of guests that will be descending on the resort starting at the end of this month for the opening of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, Disneyland has been busy refurbishing many different areas of its parks. The idea is that there will be so many people visiting that they will need other activities to keep them busy and happy. Galaxy’s Edge will be brand new and Disneyland, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, has been showing its age. Take Sleeping Beauty Castle for instance – it is just about finished with the most extensive refurbishment it has seen in a very long time. The park’s icon needs to look good to keep up the high quality of Galaxy’s Edge. That thinking by the Disney Parks leadership is leading to changes all over the parks.
One of those changes is the aforementioned Alien Pizza Planet. The most visible difference so far is the addition of the Pizza Planet logo to the rocket that stands next to the restaurant. Sam Carter (@cartarsauce on Twitter) shared a picture of the rocket:
Blastin Off soon pic.twitter.com/3DRcWaOMcq
— Sam Carter (@Cartarsauce) May 21, 2019
The Pizza Planet seen in the film, although it has a red and white rocket that stands next to it, does not appear to have its logo on the rocket. Still, this seems like a minor quibble. It is just great to see the true Pizza Planet font used in the real world.
The actual restaurant, which was open during the previous portion of the refurbishment, is closed currently. It looks like there is more work being done on the exterior of the building. I wonder if there is any work being done on the inside of the space. I doubt that an arcade would be added, like in the film, as there is just not enough space to house a restaurant/arcade hybrid. It would be great to see the restaurant have some work done on the inside, though, even if it is only taking small steps toward realizing the Pizza Planet in the film.
It may be quite a while before we see a faithful recreation of Pizza Planet. Perhaps, if Disney tied the restaurant in to one of its Toy Story Lands across the world, it could find a way to theme the restaurant after the one seen in the film. Until then, this Pizza Planet at Disneyland is the closest we have. I hope Disney throws some more magic at it and brings it closer to the restaurant that we fell in love with in Toy Story.
