There are days at Disneyland that guests plan for months. They book hotels, map out rope drop strategies, research dining reservations, and arrive at the gates with a detailed itinerary designed to extract maximum magic from every available hour. And then there are days that simply happen to people. Days where the park delivers something that no amount of planning could have produced.
Tuesday at Disneyland Resort was the second kind of day.
Tom Hanks and Conan O'Brien showed up at Disneyland completely unannounced on June 10, 2026, nine days before Toy Story 5 opens in theaters, and the guests who happened to be in the right place at the right time got a story they are going to be telling for the rest of their lives.
The Disney California Adventure Visit
Hanks and O'Brien began their day at Disney California Adventure, heading to Pixar Pier to spend time with Woody, Jessie, and Buzz Lightyear. The characters were dressed in new accessories connected to the Toy Story 5 release, giving the encounter a direct tie to the film arriving in theaters on June 19. Hanks has been the voice of Woody since the original Toy Story in 1995, a thirty-year relationship with a character that has become one of the most recognizable in animation history. O'Brien is joining the franchise for the first time as Smarty Pants, a brand new character making his debut in the fifth installment.
Tom Hanks and Conan O'Brien dropped by Disneyland Resort this morning ahead of the #ToyStory5 release on June 19! Posing at Pixar Pier with Woody, Jessie, and Buzz. Can't wait to hear Tom as our favorite cowboy again! pic.twitter.com/X6K4rbo1eq
— Tom Hanks (@tomhanksource) June 11, 2026
After Pixar Pier, the pair made their way to Disneyland park, where they surprised invited guests at an advanced screening of Toy Story 5 at the Theater at Disneyland. Guests who had arrived expecting a standard day at one of the most visited theme parks on earth found themselves watching an unreleased Pixar film in the same room as the man who has voiced its central character for three decades. That is not a thing that happens to most people on a Tuesday.
The Week This Franchise Is Having
The Disneyland visit sits in the middle of a Toy Story 5 press tour that has been generating the kind of cultural momentum that most films spend entire marketing budgets trying to manufacture and still never quite achieve.
The night before, Taylor Swift stood at a piano at center stage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood after the film's world premiere and performed her original song for Toy Story 5 before being joined by Randy Newman for a live duet of “You've Got a Friend in Me” that produced one of the most talked about Disney premiere moments in recent memory. The footage has been everywhere since it happened and has added a layer of cultural weight to the Toy Story 5 rollout that goes well beyond standard Pixar release territory.
The press tour continues this Friday, June 12, when ABC airs “Toy Story 30 Years and Beyond: A Special Edition of 20/20″ from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. EDT. The one-hour special covers four decades of Pixar through the lens of the Toy Story franchise, featuring Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Tony Hale, and other original cast members alongside Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter and director Andrew Stanton. Taylor Swift also appears in an exclusive interview discussing her connection to the film and the original song she wrote for it. The special streams on Disney+ and Hulu the following day.
🚨| Taylor Swift will be part of the “Toy Story: 30 Years and Beyond” 20/20 special
— TSE (@TSwiftEdits_13_) June 10, 2026
— It will air this Friday on ABC, but you wan stream in later on Disney+ & Hulupic.twitter.com/EYlsnRr3uk
Toy Story at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Right Now
For guests heading to Disneyland Resort in the days surrounding the June 19 opening, the park is currently deep in Toy Story celebration territory. Toy Story Midway Mania, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, and Jessie's Critter Carousel give fans of every age a direct line to the characters and world of the films. Alien Pizza Planet covers the dining side of the experience, and the limited-time Paint the Night parade at Disneyland park features Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the rest of the Toy Story crew in a nighttime format that feels almost perfectly timed to the film's arrival.
Hanks and O'Brien chose to spend a day in that world on Tuesday. The guests who were there got to share it with them.
Toy Story 5 opens June 19.
