The opening of Disney’s California Adventure in 2001 was a heavily promoted event, and Disney made a cocky prediction that the park would be so crowded in its first few weeks that they would have to turn patrons away, but it was a lot less popular than they had anticipated.

The park was intentionally different from Disneyland, with attractions that were geared more towards an older demographic beyond kids, even featuring references to such Disney-owned properties as the X-Games and ABC soap operas. This was a huge miscalculation that only confused people, because the Disney brand is too synonymous with family entertainment for the public to wrap their head around such a radical idea, especially when there wasn’t even any nighttime entertainment. Bob Iger later called the park mediocre and, in more CEO-like terms, a “brand withdrawal.” In 2007, Iger attempted to revitalize the park and make it into a more idealized and fantastic version of California as opposed to the cheap spoof of California that many people perceived it as. That same year, perhaps as a subtle way to differentiate it from the disaster it was in the beginning, the park’s name changed from Disney’s California Adventure to Disney California Adventure.

In my last article about California Adventure I said the park was initially divided into four different areas: Sunshine Plaza, Hollywood Pictures Backlot, Paradise Pier and Golden State with A Bug’s Land added as a fifth area a year later. In the years between 2002 and today, all five of these areas were renamed and changed dramatically, and many of its attractions were completely revamped. So in the same order that I explored each area in my last article, I will explore each of them again post-overhaul.

Sunshine Plaza was renamed Buena Vista Street in 2012 and redesigned with more of a classic 1920s L.A. feel, as the city may have appeared to a young Walt Disney back when he arrived there to start a new animation studio and eventually create Mickey Mouse. With this retheme came a replica of the Carthay Circle Theater where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had its world premiere in 1937, a new statue of Walt and Mickey, and several storefronts and dining locations with Disney-fied name like Oswald’s Gas & Oil and Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Café. Even Julius Katz & Sons is a subtle deepcut reference to the Alice shorts of the 1920s.

One of the complaints from the Disney fans who visited Disney’s California Adventure in the park’s early days was the lack of Disney characters, so in the years since, Disney brought a lot more of their intellectual properties front and center, starting in 2002 when A Bug’s Land opened. The unpopular Superstar Limo attraction in Hollywood Pictures Backlot (which was renamed Hollywood Land the same year Sunshine Plaza was renamed Buena Vista Street) was one of the first attractions to get completely overhauled, and they used that as an opportunity to make another Pixar-themed attraction, this time based on Monsters, Inc. In 2006, Superstar Limo was replaced by Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!, which was a much better dark ride where you were driven around Monstropolis amidst the chaos that ensues when a human child is spotted running loose in the city. Although this ride will reportedly soon be closing down to make way for an Avatar-themed attraction.

In 2008, the Sun Wheel at Paradise Pier was redesigned with Mickey’s face and renamed Mickey’s Fun Wheel, and the Toy Story Midway Mania! attraction opened in Paradise Pier in the same year, a couple of months after it made its debut in Florida at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Pixar Place. More Disney-fied revamps came to Paradise Pier when the Games of the Boardwalk were given new Disney makeovers, including Bullseye Stallion Stampede, Goofy About Fishin’, Casey at the Bat and Dumbo Bucket Brigade. Plus the Orange Stinger was replaced by the Silly Symphony Swings in 2010, Mulholland Madness was replaced by Goofy’s Sky School in 2011 and the dark ride attraction The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure also opened in 2011, occupying the same area that originally contained Golden Dream before that attraction closed in 2008.

But a dramatic change came to Paradise Pier in 2018 when the area was divided into two new areas: Pixar Pier and Paradise Gardens Park. Pixar Pier would replace the Games of the Boardwalk with the Games of Pixar Pier, maintaining all the rules and mechanics but giving them new Pixar makeovers, with the only old game they retained being Bullseye Stallion Stampede while Goofy About Fishin’ became La Luna Star Catcher, Casey at the Bat became Heimlich Candy Corn Toss and Dumbo Bucket Brigade became WALL-E Space Race. That same year, Mickey’s Fun Wheel was renamed the Pixar Pal-A-Round, and the roller coaster California Screamin’ was given an Incredibles-themed makeover and renamed the Incredicoaster. A year later in 2019, King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea was replaced by Jessie’s Critter Carousel, and Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind made its debut in the area that originally contained the Maliboomer, which was turned into a walkway area after the Maliboomer was dismantled back in 2010.

As for Golden State, the attractions Grizzly River Run, Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and Soarin’ Around the World are all still open to this day, but the area has been whittled down to make room for expansions from other areas. Condor Flats is now called Grizzly Peak Airfield and Pacific Wharf got overhauled as a Big Hero 6-themed shopping and dining area called San Fransokyo Square in 2023.

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