Pixar Putt Return to Texas page

125 N. Flores St

San Antonio, TX 78205

Cost: $31 + taxes & fees

Par: 49

Difficulty: 10

Creativity: 9

Atmosphere: 2

Pixar Putt is a pop up miniature golf course that got its start in Australia and has been moving around to various cities. By the time we had played it, it had already been in NYC as well as Houston. As expected from the name, the course design revolves around each hole representing a different Pixar animated movie. While not owned by Pixar/Disney everything has been licensed (and the cost surely makes you feel like you are at Disney). Having played the Disney courses, one might have an expectation of the quality of play at this course and you’d unfortunately be very let down. This course is very creative in how it represents all of the movies but unfortunately it does so at the cost of gameplay and nearly every hole has significant flaws in its playability.

Where we played it was set up in a fairly decent sized city park so there was plenty of space to be had. However, the flow of the course (moving from holes 1 through 18) wasn’t designed too well and there was very little shade to stave off the Texas sun and heat. The holes themselves are built up on little platforms and one of the things this does it make it nearly inaccessible for most folks with disabilities. Even if you were to play some sections of the holes from off the hole, there are many places the ball would be that you just couldn’t get to in a wheelchair.

The design of the individual holes showcases a theme from each movie quite well but it was clear the thought was put much more into it being visually striking (and good for social media) and not into how the ball actually moved through the holes. There were a lot of angles that didn’t play well, shots from the tee where it was near impossible to get it into the obstacle and at times the obstacle also didn’t even fully track the ball as it should. Holes like the Finding Nemo hole on the “dock” looked good but putting across a series of planks with spaces between them didn’t just make it random, but made it frustrating. It also results in a poor pace of play as there aren’t many holes where you would putt through naturally and just move on. We’ve seen plenty of artist designed courses that can be visually striking and playable, but this doesn’t hit the mark.

Overall we find it hard to recommend playing this course, especially for the price. If you don’t mind breaking the bank a little and are a big Pixar fan then it might be worth it to check out how they did some of the movies in a minigolf way but even if this were $20 it would be pushing the boundaries of being “worth it”. One saving grace, for us at least, was that there was also a pop-up bar in the parking lot which helped to ease some of the disappointment!

Reviewed by Pat, Mandy & Duffer

Reviewed in 2022

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Course Pictures (Click to enlarge)

See more pictures in our Flickr album.

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