MK Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[Mr. Sullivan]

came back, and now we see him for the "creative" he truly is: someone more concerned with making money than making magic. And for some reason, he really, really loves Pixar's Cars.

Iger's legacy was never going to be as a creative. He is not a creative. He has never tried to present himself as one either. He has very openly preferred to present himself as the man captaining the ship that ultimately leaves a lot of those finer creative details to the folks he pays to do that. And that really has mostly been exactly what he's done.

That is not to say he doesn't say anything about what attractions get built, or what movies get made. He does. That's his job. But once he has made a decision about "okay we're going to build an attraction based on this IP" or "we're going to make this sequel", he doesn't then insert himself into Imagineering and sit there and design show scenes and all that.

He is not Walt or Michael Eisner. He does not sit there with the Imagineers and hold their hand as they move through a project. He doesn't seem to be very interested in that.

Now, that is in and of itself an issue and I think perhaps the biggest issue with Bob Iger. But it is also a very well known aspect of him as a leader. Too well known for him to ever be known as a creative. Honestly, if you called him a creative to his face I think even he would say that's not really what he does.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Looking at this picture, all I can think of is the movie ‘2001 : A Space Odyssey’.
The Monolith….

Step through that strange gateway, and step into another dimension.

-

Or knock and ask if anyone wants to build a snowman

 

[JoeCamel]

Possibly controversial take: If they wanted to shoehorn Cars into something, Test Track was right there.

Mary thought Larry was too much of a hick for her brand.......

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

An Eisner or Wells is the best case scenario. There will never be another Walt. Todays business world wouldn't allow it.

There will never be another Walt, no, but I also don't think that it's accurate to say that he was a lone figure who just did whatever he wanted unchecked all the time. Walt was a part of a Eisner/Wells style relationship with Roy.

Walt gets all the credit, but Disneyland, and indeed the company as a whole, would've never become what it did if it was Walt alone. Walt was a genius in many ways, but he was also a fool in other ways. He had brilliant ideas, and he had really terrible ones. Thankfully for him, there was always someone there to keep him from doing too many dumb things, and helping him to do his brilliant things in a way that didn't completely destroy him.

To that extent, I agree with you that a duo would be the best case, because that's been when the company has been at it's best. Never has the company completely thrived under totally centralized leadership. There was not completely centralized leadership when Walt was alive. Everyone points to him as the says all ends all, but Roy was right there keeping him balanced and I think deserves just as much of the credit for the Disney we know today.

 

[HMF]

Where this starts to become an issue is when pockets of the Disney fan community start to get angry when Disney doesn't preserve or cater to their nostalgia versus someone else's, or don't cater to nostalgia at all and move forward with something totally new.

Disney is heavily based on nostalgia.

 

[BagOfGroceries]

Well, Kim Irvine just retired.

In my opinion, there’s a good few reasons why they won’t.
1. Fantasmic.
2. They re-did the whole damn thing in 2016-2017.
3. Fantasmic.
4. Any new attractions would result in dead end cause of Star Wars and the Railroad elevation.
5. Fantasmic.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

Possibly controversial take: If they wanted to shoehorn Cars into something, Test Track was right there.

Probably an even more controversial take but I'd rather them go full scorched earth and raze the entirety of Frontierland than put some more lead into EPCOT's already cold body. Test Track is one of those few things left that they haven't yet screwed up in that park.

 

[phillip9698]

The Hudson River Valley mansion didn’t overlook Missouri, it used to overlook the Hudson River and sometimes a steamship, a mode of transportation invented at a Hudson River Valley mansion and used extensively on the Hudson River. The entire structure is very open and oriented to take advantage of that vista.

And I’m not sure how they’re going to hide the heights of Piston Peak from the walkways of the land, let alone from the heights of Splash or Thunder.

Curious why are people so hung up that this Cars attraction needs to be invisible when riding other attractions. You could always see numerous Future World and Fantasyland attractions from Splash.

It feels as though every aspect of this attraction is being held to a standard that the others aren’t.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Probably an even more controversial take but I'd rather them go full scorched earth and raze the entirety of Frontierland than put some more lead into EPCOT's already cold body. Test Track is one of those few things left that they haven't yet screwed up in that park.

Old EPCOT is dead and gone. Test Track is and always has been a big nothing. We’re not talking about bringing back World of Motion here.

 

[Figments Friend]

Or knock and ask if anyone wants to build a snowman

Or…
Maybe Boo’s Room is on the other side…?



-

 

[ChrisFL]

Curious why are people so hung up that this Cars attraction needs to be invisible when riding other attractions. You could always see numerous Future World and Fantasyland attractions from Splash.

It feels as though every aspect of this attraction is being held to a standard that the others aren’t.

I think mostly because it doesn't fit the general time period of the rest of Frontierland

 

[CoastalElite64]

Wonderful video capturing the last moments.

 

[BrianLo]

Unfortunately, the well-done exterior will be full of very basic cars-base visual puns that don’t mesh with any other elements in the area.

I am hopeful for the subtlety that the Cadillac range achieves.

That land, while featuring beautiful scenery, feels narrow and often unpleasantly hemmed in, with a very uninteresting centerpiece ride based on a vehicle traveling through an unvaried external landscape with few AAs.

I think that is true, but likely the fault of the Grand Californian more than anything. Mixed with the clear redwood forest it’s trying to achieve. For better or worse this is still hemmed with broader Frontierland. Maybe the retail frontage feels squared in by the water features (if they end up deserving to be called water features).

 

[FettFan]

By the way…. I was kinda surprised we didn’t see any “celebrities” like Baxter, Bob Gurr, etc. yesterday.

I’m not. If there’s no inherent PR value (“Tony Baxter is going to consult on Tiana!”), TBIC doesn’t want any of the old guard around at all.

 

[FettFan]

Curious why are people so hung up that this Cars attraction needs to be invisible when riding other attractions. You could always see numerous Future World and Fantasyland attractions from Splash.

It feels as though every aspect of this attraction is being held to a standard that the others aren’t.

Because I don’t want to see or hear any incarnation of Larry the Cable Guy yelling about “getter done” while I’m queuing at the Mansion.

 

[OrlandoRising]

Disney is heavily based on nostalgia.

But it can’t be based entirely on nostalgia. This board doesn’t seem to understand that.

Old EPCOT is dead and gone. Test Track is and always has been a big nothing. We’re not talking about bringing back World of Motion here.

“Old Epcot” also started getting injections of Disney IP and characters as soon as Eisner and Wells took over, so the purist arguments have been wrong about that place for 40 years.

Calling Test Track a “big nothing” is absurd considering the enduring popularity of its first version (2.0, not so much.)

All these purist arguments are tiresome. If you’ve got to invoke platitudes about Walt and Roy to make your case about new Disney attractions, we should all just roll our eyes and ignore you.

 

[phillip9698]

It’s interesting to consider the properties which, simply from the basest business perspective, deserved an attraction before cars. Coco, Stitch, Moana, Lion King, Inside Out, and Incredibles all spring to mind. I genuinely think Disney is badly misreading the reasons behind RSR’s popularity.

This is hogwash.

Every Target and Walmart in this country has a toy section that includes Cars merchandise, and has since the original movie released. They also have a bedding section that includes Cars sheets, blankets, pillows, and plushies among things in other departments.

They aren’t stocking that stuff as a favor to Disney.

Cars is a property, that from a business perspective has proven to stand the test of time.

 

[Casper Gutman]

This is hogwash.

Every Target and Walmart in this country has a toy section that includes Cars merchandise, and has since the original movie released. They also have a bedding section that includes Cars sheets, blankets, pillows, and plushies.

They aren’t stocking that stuff as a favor to Disney.

Cars is a property, that from a business perspective has proven to stand the test of time.

So Disneys really eager to release Cars 4, right?

 

[coffeefan]

I expect the exterior to be attractive, because the exterior is more or less all there is to the attraction and Disney can do rockwork. Unfortunately, the well-done exterior will be full of very basic cars-base visual puns that don’t mesh with any other elements in the area. And why is a Hudson River Valley mansion now overlooking a Pacific Northwest national park?

People have been mentioning Grizzly Peak as a point of comparison, and that seems very apt but foreboding. That land, while featuring beautiful scenery, feels narrow and often unpleasantly hemmed in, with a very uninteresting centerpiece ride based on a vehicle traveling through an unvaried external landscape with few AAs. I really like DCA but Grizzly Peaks struck me as the least interesting land each time I visited, an area to walk through to get to other places. Whatever one can say about the Pixar overlay, the openness of the Pier area came as a palpable relief after passing through Peaks.

I am hopeful for the subtlety that the Cadillac range achieves.



I think that is true, but likely the fault of the Grand Californian more than anything. Mixed with the clear redwood forest it’s trying to achieve. For better or worse this is still hemmed with broader Frontierland. Maybe the retail frontage feels squared in by the water features (if they end up deserving to be called water features).

I've always felt the same about Grizzly Peak at DCA, but a lot of that has to do with DCA being an hour away from mountains and forests. That's why I favored DCA going with a cinematic retheme, but I digress... Florida has a different geography though, so if done right, it could offer a unique visual element to Magic Kingdom.

 

[MisterPenguin]

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