Cars Land
Cars Land is a themed land at Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Opened on June 15, 2012, it recreates Radiator Springs, the small desert town from Pixar's Cars films, across about 12 acres (4.9 hectares) at the south-eastern edge of the park. It was the largest single addition in the park's 2007-2012 expansion and remains one of its most fully realised environments.
The land is entered along a stretch of Route 66, with the town's businesses arranged along its main street and the Cadillac Range mountains and Ornament Valley forming a backdrop that conceals the surrounding city.
History
A car-themed area had been considered for the park under the name Carland before the release of Cars in 2006 gave the idea a specific setting. Development was led by Walt Disney Imagineering in close consultation with Pixar, including the film's director John Lasseter. Construction occupied land that had served as a parking lot and as the park's former Timon parking area, behind the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
Cars Land opened on June 15, 2012, together with Buena Vista Street, completing the five-year, 1.1-billion-dollar redesign of Disney California Adventure. Attendance at the park rose substantially in the following year, and the land was widely credited with changing public perceptions of it.
Design and theme
Radiator Springs is reproduced at close to the scale shown on screen. Neon signage, cracked asphalt, utility poles and hand-painted advertisements extend the setting beyond the attraction entrances, and at dusk the town's neon is switched on in sequence in a regular nightly moment accompanied by music from the film period.
Behind the town, rockwork representing the Cadillac Range rises to about 125 feet (38 metres) at its highest point. Its layered peaks are shaped to suggest the tail fins of Cadillac models from the 1950s and 1960s, a reference explained in the first film. The range also encloses the outdoor portion of the land's principal ride.
Attractions
Radiator Springs Racers occupies roughly half the land. It combines a dark ride through Ornament Valley and the town, where riders encounter characters from the film and receive competing preparations for a race, with a side-by-side outdoor race between two vehicles. Its ride system is related to that of Test Track at EPCOT, adapted for lower speeds, banked turns and parallel racing.
Mater's Junkyard Jamboree is a whip-style ride in which tractor vehicles swing trailers around a junkyard to songs sung by Mater. Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters, opened in March 2016, sends trackless miniature cars through choreographed movements to Italian music. It replaced Luigi's Flying Tires, a hovercraft-style ride modelled on Disneyland's former Flying Saucers, which had operated from 2012 to 2015 and proved difficult for riders to control.
Dining and shops
Flo's V8 Cafe is a large quick-service restaurant styled as a 1960s drive-in and gas station. The Cozy Cone Motel serves snacks from individual cone-shaped stands, and Fillmore's Taste-In offers fruit and drinks. Shops include Ramone's House of Body Art, Sarge's Surplus Hut and the Radiator Springs Curios store. Character appearances by Lightning McQueen and Mater take place near the Cozy Cone Motel.