Cinderella's castle was nowhere to be seen in the official intro for Toy Story 5's theatrical release in China, and instead, fans were given a different princess castle. Many Disney fans are extremely familiar with the iconic intro the company uses for all of its films, where the camera follows a star coming down out of the sky and toward Cinderella's castle (which looks identical to the version of Cinderella's castle that is at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World) before fireworks blast off and showcase the Disney logo. This has been the standard logo and intro played in front of nearly every Disney movie for years now, but Toy Story 5 made a big change to it.
Pixar's Toy Story 5 was recently released in theaters around the world, and while the movie itself is essentially identical in every country, Disney has made a change to the film's intro in China, specifically when it comes to showing the Walt Disney Pictures logo before the movie even starts.
Specifically, instead of seeing fireworks in the sky above Cinderella's castle and the Disney logo popping up at the bottom of the screen, for China's Toy Story 5 release, a star flies over a river or creek, and then up a waterfall. At the top of the waterfall, the camera showcases the back of a different princess castle.
The camera begins to pan around to the front of the castle as colorful fireworks are exploding in the sky above. When the front of the castle comes into full view, and the camera backs up to show it sitting behind a body of water, the star then flies over the top of the castle, and the castle turns gold. The Disney logo shows up at the bottom of the frame, and the number 10 also appears behind the castle.
Notably, the castle included in China's version of Toy Story 5 is the castle that is the icon and centerpiece of Shanghai Disneyland. That castle (which is the tallest in any of Disney's theme parks) is not modeled after one princess' castle, but instead an homage to many of the princesses. Formally, it is known as The Enchanted Storybook Castle.
The reason Disney changed its intro for China's version of Toy Story 5 is due to it being a big anniversary year for Shanghai Disneyland. The park officially opened in June 2016, so Toy Story 5's release comes exactly 10 years to the month after the park's opening. The big anniversary explains why the intro was changed, and also why the castle turned gold in the intro, and a giant "10" was added as well.
As mentioned, this is quite a major change from Disney's standard Cinderella castle logo, which has been used since 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. There have been some minor changes to the intro since then, but that was the year Disney started using a fully-animated intro that looked as though it was actually filmed in live-action.
Before 2006, Disney's intro was simply a light-blue 2D castle sitting on a royal blue background with the words "Walt Disney Pictures" at the bottom of the frame. It was rather simple, but Disney made that big change in 2006, and the intro has remained largely the same since then.
While Disney made a special intro for the Chinese release of Toy Story 5, this is not something new or uncommon for the House of Mouse. In fact, Disney has rolled out specialized intros for many different films throughout the years to fit the movie's vibe or pay homage to an important character.
Other Examples of Disney Changing Its Intro For Specific Films
As mentioned, Toy Story 5 isn't the first time Disney has created a special intro for one of its movies. In the past, there have been dozens of examples of movies having different versions of the Walt Disney Pictures intro.
For example, with the release of Tron: Legacy in 2010, Disney created a futuristic version of the intro, making it look like it was set in Tron City. Disney still used the Cinderella Castle in that intro, but did replace the water that is normally in front of the castle with the Grid from the Tron movies.
Another example of Disney changing its intro came in 2014's live-action Maleficent film. Instead of the Cinderella Castle popping up and the Disney logo appearing at the bottom, fans were instead given a look at King Stefan's Castle, which is also referred to as Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Obviously, this change was made because Maleficent centered around Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), so the change was simply made due to the nature of the film.
Disney also made a special intro for Cinderella, a movie that came out one year after Maleficent. Fans may be a bit confused as to why Disney would do this, seeing as how the standard intro already has Cinderella's Castle in it. Disney still kept the castle, but made the lighting better in the intro and replaced the surrounding ground with vibrant green grass and flowers. The company also added a bluebird flying in front of the castle, since they play an important role in the movie.
2015 was also the year that the financial disaster known as Tomorrowland was released. That movie has become somewhat forgotten about, even though it has a pretty large cult following, but at the time, Disney viewed it as a pretty major release, which is evident by its large budget.
Disney created a special intro for the movie, opting to replace Cinderella's castle with Tomorrowland itself. Notably, easily recognized structures like Space Mountain (which is in Tomorrowland at Disney World and Disneyland) can be seen in the logo.
Like Maleficent and Cinderella, Disney also made an altered intro for 2017's Beauty and the Beast. Continuing the trend those other two films started, this live-action remake featured a Disney intro that featured Beast's Castle instead of Cinderella's Castle.
In most cases, a different Disney intro was created for live-action films. However, in certain cases, the intro has been changed for animated titles as well (like Toy Story 5). For example, when Incredibles 2 was released, Disney traded out its standard intro for an animated one that was entirely red, black, and yellow. It still featured Cinderella's Castle and looked pretty much identical to the standard intro, but the colors were changed, and it was made in the Incredibles 2 animation style.
Another iteration of the Disney intro came with 2019's The Lion King. That was a live-action remake of the original film, and to honor the original vision and prove that it was truly a complete remake of the story, Disney made what appeared to be a live-action version of the original Disney logo/intro, instead of the new one.
Different openings to Disney films where the intro has been changed can be seen below:
