- “What a spaceport!”
- ―Buzz Lightyear, upon entering the restaurant
Pizza Planet is a family pizza restaurant frequented by Andy Davis and his toys in the 1995 Disney/Pixar animated film, Toy Story. The establishment is identifiable by its unique design employing a space theme.
Background
The building of Pizza Planet is shaped like a cartoon depiction of a ringed planet, with a close resemblance to the real planet Saturn, but differently colored with the "Pizza Planet" logo on top. To the left of the restaurant is a rocket ship and launching site. In the interior, a lot of arcades and electronic games are seen.
Official Description
- In an early version of the film, the pizza parlor had a miniature golf theme. When Buzz Lightyear entered the picture, the Pixar designers turned it into Pizza Planet, an elaborate space-themed drive-in that Buzz could mistake for a spaceport and his ticket home. It also supplied the name and logo for the Pizza Planet delivery truck, which went on to make cameos in several Pixar films.
Appearances
Toy Story films
- “You are clear to enter. Welcome to Pizza Planet!”
- ―Robots outside the entrance of Pizza Planet whenever guests stop by to enter the building
In the first Toy Story, his is the place where Woody and Buzz Lightyear attempt to find Andy after being left behind at the Dinoco gas station. After Woody spots a Pizza Planet delivery truck pulling into the gas station, he calls Buzz back, and the two hitch a ride in the truck and head to Pizza Planet. After entering the restaurant, Woody finds Andy and calls to Buzz that they will jump into Molly's stroller, but Buzz, still believing to be a real Space Ranger, spots a rocket-shaped claw game, thinking it is a rocket Woody has promised that will take him to his destination (due to the way Woody was describing the stroller in a way Buzz would understand), and climb into the rocket, where he meets the Aliens. Woody has to climb into the claw game to get Buzz out, but Sid Phillips, who has been playing Whack-an-Alien, takes control of the claw and fishes Buzz, as well as Woody who has been holding onto Buzz's leg, out of the rocket (but not before he has fished one alien out). Buzz, Woody, and the alien are then taken to Sid's house to become his new toys, where the latter is given to Sid's dog, Scud, to be chewed up.
Although Pizza Planet does not appear in Toy Story 2, three of the trademark Aliens reappear in Toy Story 2 in the Pizza Planet truck. While assisting Andy's toys use the truck to follow Al to the airport, they almost get thrown out the window before being saved by Mr. Potato Head. In return, they follow him all the way back to Andy's house.
In Toy Story 3, Andy mentions his once-favorite restaurant, Pizza Planet, as the home world of his three Aliens that he hands over to Bonnie. There is also a "Pizza Planet"-branded season schedule (likely for high school baseball/softball) hidden on Andy's wall.
In Toy Story 4, the character of Forky is made from Pizza Planet eating utensils.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
Pizza Planet as it appeared in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
In the episode "At Large on a Small Planet", an ambassador from Gargantia plans on opening a Pizza Planet restaurant on his home planet, and invites Buzz and Booster to appear at the grand opening.
Other appearances
In Onward, Pizza Planet appears in the film under the name "Pizza Realm", to match the suburban fantasy world setting.
Gallery
Trivia
- According to the driver of the truck that Woody and Buzz snuck onto, Pizza Planet is located on Cutting Boulevard.
- Pizza Planet was originally going to be a miniature golf course called Pizza Putt (the name is a reference to Pizza Hut), but was changed to a space-themed restaurant in order for Buzz to be lured into thinking he is going home.
- One of the storyboards for the film showed Sid making fun of a guy walking around in an Alien costume (who didn't make it into the final film) in place of him playing the Whack-a-Alien game, although the line he used for the original scene ("Hey, Bozo! You got a brain in there?!") was kept.
- The robot guards at the entrance are based on the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.
- The Alien Slime dispensers and the Whack-a-Alien game are designed after the creature from the science fiction movie Alien, specifically its Chestburster stage. In the Toy Story: Activity Center, they are shown to talk as they challenge you to a memory game in a taunting manner.
- In the Toy Story: Animated StoryBook, the intercoms announce that certain areas of the establishment were giving sugar-coated candy samples or autograph sessions were being conducted in the main room for "Young Green Warrior Reptiles," a blatant parody of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the TMNT themselves did make an appearance in Walt Disney World back then).
- Similar announcements are made for the completion of a strange order of pizza (i.e. a dill pickle and ice cream pizza for "Mr. Stu Pidd").
- In the SNES/Genesis/Saturn video game of Toy Story, one of the Pizza Planet levels is shown to have ice cream, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and fries.
- A Mega Gulp cup from Pizza Planet can be seen on top of the Bug Bar in A Bug's Life.
- In Toy Story 2: The Video Game, Pizza Planet tokens are a special item that needs to be collected in order to progress.
- Fake painted blood is represented on the Whack-a-Alien arcade game, being the first time featured on a Pixar film. However, real blood is first presented in the film, Up.
- The Pizza Planet Truck has made cameo appearances in every Pixar film to date, except The Incredibles.
- Actual Pizza Planet locations did exist at the Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios park in Florida and Disneyland Paris, until in 2016, when they closed down. The area featuring the location at Hollywood Studios was re-themed into Muppets Courtyard, and the Pizza Planet was replaced by PizzeRizzo.
- A similar restaurant named Redd Rockett's Pizza Port exists in the Tomorrowland section in Disneyland, California. It received a Pizza Planet overlay as part of 2018's Pixar Fest event. In 2019, it was permanently re-themed into Pizza Planet.
- According to Toy Story: The Essential Guide (1999), the Pizza Planet restaurant was built over where an old fancy French restaurant used to be before it was burned down.
- Within Lightyear director Angus MacLane's perception of the greater in-universe Buzz Lightyear media franchise, Pizza Planet was one of the major sponsors of the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command series, which is the reason why the Little Green Men have such a large role in the series.[1]
- Pizza Planet is meant to be a parody and homage to Chuck E. Cheese's.
- A container box from Pizza Planet can be seen in the Tri-County Landfill in Toy Story 3.
- One of the background games, Annihilation, shows Atari's Pong.
- One of the game titles, Whack-A-Alien, contains a grammatical error. It technically should be titled Whack-An-Alien. (The word 'an' shall be used when it precedes a word started with a vowel and/or vowel sound).
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