Sorry to build suspense like that, but I wanted to send a warning before things came out. But the breaking news- Disney had a special zoom call with a group of media personnel (including my boss) where they gave them an exclusive presentation on the future of the Cars expansion in Frontierland. It included information that not even new hires at WDI have been told at this point, apparently.
So, a summary of what Disney told the media that was just announced publicly as of 11:00am this morning (we also have a video talking about all of this):
- The Rivers of America, Liberty Belle, and Tom Sawyer's Island last day of operation will be July 6th, 2025 (33 days from today, June 3rd)
- Construction walls will not go up for a few weeks and will not impede bridges or walkways as long as is possible
- The boardwalks along the river will remain open as long as possible
- The parade route will not be affected; viewing will not be affected for as long as possible
- The railroad will not close at any point of the Cars expansion, but will eventually enter shuttle mode (going backwards)
- Some seats will be rotated so guests can choose to face forwards instead of riding backwards
- No mention on if it'll close for Villains or not, but we assume Villains will be on the back half of the RoA, within the railroad berm
- WDI is having conversations with Walt Disney World on how to save the Liberty Belle or parts of it. No mention of if it will remain in the park or be moved elsewhere. They avoided answering definitively
- WDI's "main goals and guidelines" of this Cars project:
- New Frontierland Attractions
- This being the main attraction and the kiddie attraction
- New adventure in the world of Cars
- They wanted to avoid doing another Radiator Springs attraction
- Family thrill attraction
- Family fun attraction
- Disney avoided talking about it outside of this one mention, it's not even included on the "fun map" provided that shows the main attraction
- Excitement and Humor of the World of Cars
- They specifically mentioned Mater, so get ready for lots of him.
- They also mentioned humor from "seeing the human world through a car's lens", so there's likely going to be lots of visual gags and puns, like the "Front-Tire Land" bit at D23
- Frontierland's new theme is "chasing your dream in the American wilderness and writing your own folktale." Yes, it's that whole sentence, and yes, it's way more complicated than it needs to be, but this is modern Disney.
- Some examples from Disney:
- The Country Bears are "trying to make it big in the human world and trying to become big stars."
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad- "people travelled west in search of gold and creating their own legends"
- Tiana's Bayou Adventure - she went into "the American wilderness achieve her dreams and to create her own folktale"
- Cars- characters are "off the beaten path trying to achieve glory and the fastest lap in the west"
- "The fastest lap in the west" is a phrase that will be used heavily in the new attraction
- Disney mentioned while Disneyland and Disneyland Paris's Frontierlands are singular western towns, Magic Kingdom's Frontierland is more nuanced and varied, and meant to represent regions of America
- The official locations of the occupants of the Rivers of America are:
- Haunted Mansion: Upstate New York and the Hudson River Valley
- Liberty Square: Colonial America
- The Diamond Horseshoe: The Midwest, specifically St. Louis
- Tom Sawyer's Island: Missouri
- The Country Bear Jamboree: The North Woods
- Pecos Bill: The Southwest States
- Tiana's Bayou Adventure: New Orleans
- Big Thunder Mountain: The West & Arizona
- Cars: The Rocky Mountains
- "The storytelling is not the setting" Disney says, comparing Cars in Frontierland to Avatar in Animal Kingdom, implying that they're going to make it work in the same way
- Imagineering looked for a setting missing from MK's riverfront, going with the Rocky Mountains as it's a lush setting that will be unique but also fit in with Liberty Square
- The main inspirations are National Parks and "Disney animated wilderness" since "this is Magic Kingdom"
- Architecture will look like real National Parks but also classic Mickey cartoons? There will be cartoon elements
- Took inspiration from Tokyo's Camp Woodchuck, the Imagineers behind that are on this project
- Also took inspiration from Nature's Wonderland and Grizzly Peak
- Imagineers went to Rocky Mountain National Park to study "parkitecture" to blend it with "carchitecture"
- Buildings will look like real buildings, but with details like wider doors for cars to drive through and lower windows for cars to look out of
- The ride takes place in Piston Peak National Park, but there will be no direct references to the Planes films
- There will be a new geyser area of Frontierland with rainbow pools and geysers to transition from Big Thunder to Cars
- Similar to the area by the exit of BTM now, but you'll be able to walk through it
- As you progress into the Cars world, the geysers will slowly and subtly transform to look more like things like tire treads
- There will be lots of water, Imagineering heard everyone loud and clear.
- There's essentially a river around the attraction (judging by the art, it's a crescent moon shape starting by the Mansion going all the way around to BTM)
- There will be several new bodies of water (waterfalls, ponds, geysers, etc.)
- Images provided are not to scale. as it's a kid's Fun Map a la Disneyland's, but just for this area
- You can now walk from Big Thunder to Haunted Mansion (as speculated)
- This was done in preparation for Villain's Land, which will be behind Cars and BTM
- WDI spent several minutes talking about how sightlines are very important to this project and Frontierland as a whole
- The piston shaped peaks are going to be completely hidden from the hub and Liberty Square.
- WDI shared a virtual walkthrough of the back path by Haunted Mansion
- You could see beautiful rockwork with waterfalls on the path
- WDI compared Tokyo DisneySea's Mount Prometheus to this project- they put lush green hills on the side of Prometheus seen from Cape Cod since there aren't volcanoes in Massachusetts
- The Liberty Square side of Cars will look completely different from the other side
- There's a big waterfall feature
- Views of Cars will be obscured from Big Thunder Mountain as well
- WDI will mitigate sounds of the race cars from Liberty Square and the Country Bear area- you will hear the cars towards the entrance of the Cars section to draw guests in, but not "anywhere you aren't supposed to hear race cars."
- There will be a geyser that will erupt throughout the day and be visible from outside the area (the water, not the rockwork)
- The preshow will have a new character in AA form- Ranger J. Autobon Woodlore, based on Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore from the Humphrey the Bear cartoons (and while not mentioned, he's also the ranger for Disneyland's former land Bear Country). He will tell the history and lore of Piston Peak and why guests are there for a race
- Former Imagineers pitched plans to Disney that laid the Cars attraction in a way that kept the river and riverboat, but the riverboat will not be kept in Magic Kingdom despite there being some form of a river where the current river is (the river will likely not be wide enough to safely fit the riverboat)
- Based on what Disney showed the media, they went out of their way to address the sightlines, sound, and storytelling concerns people have, and why they think Cars will work and in the best interest of most guests. It also sounds like they actually took fan feedback into consideration and changed plans accordingly (they added more water to the project, for example, keeping some form of a river in Frontierland)
I am heartbroken that the Liberty Belle will not remain in any form, as even though TSI isn't popular, the Riverboat is iconic and something that should stay. Fingers crossed it gets preserved somewhere, as it's very historic. Overall, personally, I'm still sad we're losing the rivers, but this meeting has really sold me more on the idea simply for the fact that they're going to preserve a good amount of the riverfront if the art is anything to go off of- of course, take this with a grain of salt, as the artwork is cartoony and makes the Cars area look much larger than it actually will be (compare the scale of the other Frontierland buildings to the lodge). If Disney really can pull this off, and there really is a river around the attraction that keeps Cars entirely visually and audibly contained within its area, then I think I can live with this. There is a lot riding on this project, and Disney knows this. You can tell they were really trying to calm any fears and concerns people could have, other than the "this shouldn't be here at all" concern.
