9. The Lamp 
 

Image: Disney

Location: Pixar Pier at Disney California Adventure
Video: Light the night

There's perhaps no Disney Park on Earth with a story as layered, complex, and controversial as that of Disney California Adventure, the (in)famous second gate at the Disneyland Resort. We told the wild tale of the park in its own special series – Disney California Adventure: Part I and Part II, but that latter entry is of particular interest for most Disney Parks fans... After all, that second half chronicles the life of the park after Disney invested over $1 billion to remove the odd modern influences and general lack of Disneyland-style timelessless that had plagued the park since its 2001 opening... oh, and the surprising decision by Disney just five years after that grand rebirth to essentially undo the core of that re-do in favor of turning the park into a "studio"-style catch-all for Marvel and Pixar properties.

Such is the case with Pixar Pier (studied in-depth in that Part II entry), an "evolution" of the park's former Paradise Pier. Pixar Pier is an odd case study, as it very effortlessly obliterated any immersion or world-building that its former identity had thanks to its four "neighborhoods" of clashing IPs and mismatched architectural styles dedicated to The Incredibles, Toy Story, "Other," and Inside Out, respectively. What's worse, Pixar Pier resorts to slapping Pixar characters and their lofty, emotional, award-winning films on hot dog stands, carousels, and simple carnival rides – a move more expected of Six Flags than Disney.

Image: Disney

But the weirdest part of Pixar Pier is that it also doubled down on the enchanting, eccentric, historic seaside boardwalk architecture that Paradise Pier started to get after the park's 2012 rebirth... So the land is filled with beautiful and frustrating contradictions, with its most successful features being in spite of the Pixar brand and not because of it. Such is the case with its dreamy, elegant, storybook Victorian entry of flickering Edison bulbs, historic domes, jewel-tone turrets, and an ornate, flashing, hand-carved turn-of-the-century archway entrance... with an articulating modern desk lamp on top...

The presense of Pixar's iconic lamp (part of Pixar's title card on the big screen, but originally made famous in – and sometimes unofficially named after – their Luxo Jr. short film) is almost a barker in its own right, albeit a silent one. The old Paradise Pier transported guests to a Victorian boardwalk at the turn of the century. If Pixar Pier has a story, it would have to be that the modern Walt Disney Company owns a seaside amusement park and has decided to overlay its high-earning Pixar film intellectual properties on the rides there. Unsophisticated as it may be, that at least makes the Lamp's presence make sense. And luckily, it's cute enough to watch.

10. The Dragon
 

Image: Disney

Location: Fantasyland at Disneyland Paris
Video: The dragon awakens

Though the 1992 opening of Disneyland Paris (and its subsequent financial failure) are often cited as the pivot point that led to closed, cancelled, and cop-out attractions for the decades after, there's also no denying that Disneyland Paris may be the most beautiful, detailed, and storied of Disney's castle parks. Fans often cite its castle – Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant – as key evidence, somehow combining the charm, intimacy, and beauty of Disneyland's miniscule original with the grandeur of Magic Kingdom's... a formula that extends to the rest of the park, too. 

But most spectacular is what lurks beneath the castle. A standalone, walk-through attraction at the Parisian park, La Tanière du Dragon (the Dragon's Dungeon) allows guests to enter the dimly-lit, ethereal caverns beneath the castle for an encounter with an 89-foot-long sleeping dragon.

Image: Disney

Every once-in-a-while, the chained dragon awakens, spies onlooking guests, and defiantly grips its claws, lifts its head, growls, and breathes smoke before remembering that it's chained. Frustrated, the dragon simply growls, narrows its eyes, and goes back to sleep.

The face-to-maw experience is somewhat transcendental for Disney Parks fans, acting as evidence of what a difference such "simple" asides can make in the spirit of casting "the park as the E-Ticket." For that reason, the encounter with the sleeping dragon has become a sort of must-see, bucket list moment for Disney Parks fans who make the trek to Paris for just such surprising differences between it and its stateside sisters.

More to explore...

Image: TDR Explorer

Though there's no denying that Disney and Universal have shied away from attractions filled with dozens of Audio-Animatronics in favor of screens and spectacle, appearances by this famed figures continue, and sometimes seeing them outside of rides and attractions makes face-to-face encounters even more unbelievable. From hidden, tucked away moments to enormous encounters, stumbling across these animatronics can be surprising, spectacular, and special...

The figures we've listed here are just the start of places where you can find animatronics outside of rides and queues... Which other figures have you stumbled across in your journeys to parks across the globe?