18 holes inspired by some of your favorite Pixar characters? Sounds like a dream for animation and Mini Golf lovers. Pixar Putt, a course for the whole family currently touring the country, is at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ now through February 16, 2026. For ticket info and more, visit PixarPutt.com. Jay Ward, Pixar’s Creative Director, Franchise, shares what went into bringing this special experience to life. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity. Images Courtesy: Pixar.)

Jackson Murphy: Have been playing Mini Golf for my entire life. So excited about this. First of all, tell me about the origins of Pixar Putt.

Jay Ward: Happy to. We have Disney offices and partners around the world. Our Disney team in Australia — I give them full credit. Australia is one of those markets that’s very strong on Pixar. And they came-up with this idea of a Pixar-themed miniature golf course, with every hole being themed after a film. Pretty simple premise. I think we started in Sydney or Melbourne… right after the pandemic, so people were cooped up, wanting to get out and do family activities that were physical and engaging, rather than digital. It was a huge hit. We opened a second one in Australia. We had two touring at all times. That went well. Then we had a request to do one in Singapore that we did for a little while. And eventually they said, “I think we can scale this up and bring it to the U.S.” If you were at the [most recent] D23 Expo, they set-up a small version of Pixar Putt upstairs, so our guests could see what’s coming to the U.S. And the feedback was amazing. And that was the actual asset they shipped to the U.S. that would become Pixar Putt.

JM: The Westfield Garden State Plaza mall in NJ is a great location for this. Why did you guys decide on this mall?

JW: There’s always a variety of reasons, and to be fully transparent, I don’t always decide where it goes. They’ll look at a couple things. One is parking. Do you get families? Do you have easy access? Is it close to tourist destinations that would give you more foot traffic? We’ve learned a little bit over time about where it succeeds.

JM: 18 holes — deciding on which films to use, the designs… Was there a mapping-out you did of what would work best for Mini Golf?

JW: Yeah. Pixar has quite a repertoire. We have so much great intellectual property. “Toy Story”, “Monsters”, “Cars”, “Ratatouille”, “Up”, “WALL-E”, “Nemo”… those were all there right from the beginning. What we found over time was: some of them lended themselves well to a play pattern and others were, “How do we make this into a miniature golf hole?” If you look at the early shots of Pixar Putt, they felt a little bit more sort of artistically… if you’ve ever seen the end credits of “The Incredibles”, that very flat, cool, mid-century modern look… The early Pixar Putt holes have that kind of vibe. And then over time it morphed and they became more movie moments. The “Up” house that actually flies and drops the ball. We added those things later. Part of miniature golf is the kitch of it. People love the gimmick of where the ball goes and where it comes out, so we added a lot of those things.

JM: The intricacy of the house and the balloons… that attention to detail and bringing those things to life… What are the challenges that go into something either small like that or large for a hole?

JW: We have a couple challenges. One is we’re giving people sticks to beat on these things we’ve created. You and I are mature enough to know we put the ball down and you gently hit the ball. But if you give children a bat-like object, it can be damaging. So we have to think about a few things. They have to be robust and survive the elements, because sometimes they sit outdoors. [The course at the Garden State Plaza is entirely indoors.] We want authenticity, detail, the colors and the feel to be alright, but we also have to think about the playability. Do you wanna play this hole over and over again? And how well will it hold up to the little kid with the club that’s trying to beat on it? So it’s all these things combined. (laughs)

JM: Yeah. And you also have to think about the difficulty levels of these holes, because you have young kids and adults — and some kids who may be playing Mini Golf for the very first time. Did you want to have a variety of challenging and easier holes?

JW: You need multiple playability. If you make them all too easy, it’s one and done. We usually have most of them have multiple paths to victory. There’s an easier path and then a challenging / more rewarding path. That’s something we built-in as well. Somebody like you or me might go, “I wanna knock the tooth out of Benson from Toy Story 4 and then it goes through a different way.”

JM: What have you seen in-person as far as people’s reactions, going, “Oh my gosh. This is my favorite movie come to life, in a way I didn’t expect”?

JW: I’ve seen it at a couple locations now, and it’s really fun to watch which ones people geek out on. I love that you have something that works for both a parent and a child. I love that it has engagement for young and old together.

JM: That’s what the Mini Golf experience is all about. It looks like there is artwork on the walls too representing some of the movies. Was that an important piece you wanted for the experience?

JW: Yeah, we always knew we needed to have branding because we’re bringing a microcosm of Pixar to people. We have a little golf cart with Pizza Planet on it. There’s usually photo-ops. If you’re a Pixar fan, you’ll have a great time. If you’re just a Mini Golf fan, you’ll have a great time too.

JM: So you are the “Cars” guy at Pixar. What is “Cars”-specific for Pixar Putt?

JW: We have a Lightning McQueen hole. It’s a big No. 95, and you hit it and it circles around the 9 and through the 5 and then it lands in the hole. It’s one of the more artistic and stylized ones.

JM: That’s awesome. If you wanted to add-in / change-out holes, could we see something like “Hoppers” in a future installment of Pixar Putt?

JW: Yes you could. In fact, we’ve made a new hole for almost every film, and then we see how well it’s received or if people like it. For “Hoppers”, you can imagine something with Mabel and these cute little furry animals. This world could be a fun Pixar hole. So you might see that in the future. You never know.