mattpeto
Well-Known Member
I think there's more to that story but still going back 3 decades.
I don't remember seeing graffiti and cigaretta butts in the caves.
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DHS Disney Confirms Muppets Take Over Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
jah4955
Well-Known Member
Can you please help me out @FigmentsBrightIdeas ? (This person knows the story as thoroughly as they know the attraction).
I noticed the neglect firsthand but being a teen didn't stop to wonder "why?"
and it was less than 27 years ago
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jah4955
Well-Known Member
Brickey made a trip to WDW right after the announcement, upset over its immanent closure, but understood a bit better (was still sad) once he noticed in his related video how severely neglected it was compared to its California counterpart.
Plus I saw photos of chunks of the attraction in severe neglect around the same time.
jah4955
Well-Known Member
it was kinda dark in those caves/mines (which many liked for various reasons
jah4955
Well-Known Member
But to be fair...MV3D was not neglected in its final months
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
You’re denying claims that are more recent. It is an instance that is well known.
mattpeto
Well-Known Member
I'm generally not a fan of conspiracy stories and intentional neglect sounds like one.
mattpeto
Well-Known Member
- TSI had some work done in 2021: https://blogmickey.com/2021/01/repainted-refurbished-harpers-mill-unveiled-at-magic-kingdom/
- MV3D adding new projector effects in 2023: https://blogmickey.com/2023/10/video-photos-muppetvision-3d-adds-new-projection-effect-at-hollywood-studios/
jah4955
Well-Known Member
I forgot when/where/how this last came up (probably the "Cars" thread everyone keeps getting redirected to)....where "maintenance" was not communicating with Imagineering/top management, etc.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
Is think it was the TLC that caused the popularity in the country bears; they made a change to (plussed) an existing attraction and folks want to see the changes. Maybe advertising in the brochure also helped to boost popularity. These are examples of attention applied to an existing attraction instead of neglect.
If they did not change the attraction I suspect attendance would have been low as before the TLC.
I think the TLC and advertising saved the bears.
Perhaps the spreadsheet team labels an area as “underutilized” then they must decide to apply TLC and/or maintenance and advertising to that area, and if they decide not to, the lack of TLC and/or maintenance causes even less folks to visit the attraction, fulfilling the “underutilized” label.
But then again, Disney may simply want to take the Six Flags approach and build attractions to sell LLs
jah4955
Well-Known Member
Agreed. The last I was there was 50th Anniversary. Like my last several times at Country Bears, the theater seemed full-ish but that was because everyone spread out (most comfortably) and were full of genuine fans of the attraction and its nostalgia such as myself. Everyone laughing and clapping as if they were real.
I remember around that time there was a rumor of a Woody's Roundup Redo....but Disney announced to the affect of "Don't worry folks. It will remain thru the 50th Anniversary."
Which told me they were planning to close right after.
It may not be the same as the abbreviated original, but I'm very happy Disney changed their minds at least here.
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Brer Panther
Well-Known Member
And the new Country Bears show turned out quite well!
Rivergirl05
New Member
That's a bummer, I was kind of hoping for memorial Day weekend
FigmentsBrightIdeas
Well-Known Member
Yeah, if you read David Koenig’s book “Realityland”, they mentioned how a queue rope change sabotaged attendance numbers to give them evidence it was losing popularity and thus could/should be changed the way it was, also looking at home video footage from 95-98, you’ll see how signage & marketing changed aswell as monorail spiels to make Honey, I Shrunk the Audience the main/must see attraction and not Journey Into Imagination anymore like it always was before. I’ve posted/shared evidence of this in the main Figment thread if you’re curious. Wild. But yeah, funny how they never had to make some drastic changes in guest flow & marketing during the Captain EO days and yet specifically during Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’s days they did. Ridiculous the tactics Disney makes to sabotage things from time to time. Mickey Mouse Works & House of Mouse have a similar story when it comes to marketing. On merch at the time, they seemingly intentionally made sure the show was mentioned in the most missable way possible. On the ‘back’ of the tags/boxes on merch rather than the opposite. Then they totally changed gears when Mickey Mouse Clubhouse made its debut in ‘06.I think there's more to that story but still going back 3 decades.
Can you please help me out @FigmentsBrightIdeas ? (This person knows the story as thoroughly as they know the attraction).
I noticed the neglect firsthand but being a teen didn't stop to wonder "why?"
and it was less than 27 years ago
Sadly this kind of thing happens more often than you think.
FigmentsBrightIdeas
Well-Known Member
Another great example is the release of the traditionally animated Winnie the Pooh (2011) feature. Intentionally released that at the same time as the new Harry Potter movie at the time, then they used the “not meeting ticket sale expectations”, being as successful as a property as it was, to then decimate/downsize the traditional animation unit at the Animation Studio.
And that’s not the first time Winnie the Pooh related media has been sabotaged at Disney. The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh tv show by Disney Television Animation had hardly been marketed or merchandised properly during the time it was around either. There was only maybe ‘one’ instance of specifically tied in merch in regards to plush by Sears for a short time but that was it. Whether in merch or just in general, By the time the 90s came around, they started titling the releases simply as “Winnie the Pooh”, under things like Winnie the Pooh Learning, Playtime, Growing Up, etc. as opposed to simply The New Adventures, for whatever bizarre reason. Despite the content not changing. Causing “The New Adventures” to seemingly be easily forgotten/overlooked through time or to be easily confused with the original featurettes & “The Many Adventures” feature from ‘77. Dumb.
Granted, nowadays the social media teams do a better job at marketing the shows now under the correct title, but yeah.. doesn’t change the fact it could’ve and should’ve been more successful & remembered, had it been titled/marketed properly.
And that’s not the first time Winnie the Pooh related media has been sabotaged at Disney. The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh tv show by Disney Television Animation had hardly been marketed or merchandised properly during the time it was around either. There was only maybe ‘one’ instance of specifically tied in merch in regards to plush by Sears for a short time but that was it. Whether in merch or just in general, By the time the 90s came around, they started titling the releases simply as “Winnie the Pooh”, under things like Winnie the Pooh Learning, Playtime, Growing Up, etc. as opposed to simply The New Adventures, for whatever bizarre reason. Despite the content not changing. Causing “The New Adventures” to seemingly be easily forgotten/overlooked through time or to be easily confused with the original featurettes & “The Many Adventures” feature from ‘77. Dumb.
Granted, nowadays the social media teams do a better job at marketing the shows now under the correct title, but yeah.. doesn’t change the fact it could’ve and should’ve been more successful & remembered, had it been titled/marketed properly.
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FigmentsBrightIdeas
Well-Known Member
Speaking of attraction sabotage, similar thing happened with the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland aswell. Maybe not intentionally but by some poor choices in title/signage changes and then in other ways, seemingly deliberate. If you were really paying attention, Bear Country/Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland always had a bit of an issue when it came to marketing and folks knowing it was there. Due to it being in a back/secluded area. Granted, Splash Mountain opening in ‘89 with the Critter Country rebranding helped draw more attendance. But changing the name from Country Bear Jamboree to the “Country Bear Playhouse” in ‘86 (which I think in hindsight was stupid, as by ‘87 Knott’s had a Knott’s Bear•y Tales Playhouse at the time also that was a walk through attraction) was a bad idea. WDW’s never had this issue/weird name change. They should’ve called it ‘The Country Bear Theatre’ all around to make it more clear it was a sit-down show. Besides that, funny thing is, on the Disneyland signage itself, they seemingly couldn’t decide whether or not to call it a Playhouse or Theatre. They changed these signs multiple times through this period it seems, as evidenced below. On the smaller signs, while the larger text called it the Country Bear Playhouse, it said that they “regretted that this ‘theatre’ cannot accommodate strollers). Also the show sign inside the lobby called it… kid you not, ‘The Country Bear Theatre’, which again, funny when you consider everywhere else they called it a “Playhouse”. Besides that, when it was proven at Walt Disney World that the Vacation Jamboree/Vacation Hoedown show wasn’t as popular as the original, they reverted that one back to the original Country Bear Jamboree come ‘93 or so. This never happened at Disneyland however, so all these little changes drove down attendance levels I believe. The real death knell though came when they changed the old Crocodile Mercantile shop to a ‘Pooh Corner’ shop in ‘96 and started selling Winnie the Pooh merch there, alongside Country Bear merch (cause, you know, that’s the place you expect to purchase Country Bear merch, right?) and then they put a Pooh & Friends meet n greet there, the queue ropes expanding near where the “Country Bear Playhouse” was. Guess then what happened.
Same exact thing that happened with Journey Into Imagination & Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. That then gave them the intel that Pooh was “more popular” than the Country Bears and thus it had to be removed/changed.
Why they didn’t put any of the Pooh related offerings in Fantasyland instead is a mystery… but yeah. Admittedly, the Country Bear Jamboree/Theatre shouldn’t have been removed from Disneyland either. The Pooh ride really isn’t all that great of a replacement, and I say that as a huge fan of the character and on that note, it hardly gets much attendance.
Same exact thing that happened with Journey Into Imagination & Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. That then gave them the intel that Pooh was “more popular” than the Country Bears and thus it had to be removed/changed.
Why they didn’t put any of the Pooh related offerings in Fantasyland instead is a mystery… but yeah. Admittedly, the Country Bear Jamboree/Theatre shouldn’t have been removed from Disneyland either. The Pooh ride really isn’t all that great of a replacement, and I say that as a huge fan of the character and on that note, it hardly gets much attendance.
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FigmentsBrightIdeas
Well-Known Member
And just incase you thought “wait, that photo is from Tokyo Disneyland. That’s what they call it over there.” Nope, that was at Disneyland. Literally they couldn’t figure out what to call this attraction, if it’s a Theatre, if it’s a Playhouse, if it was the Country Bear Vacation Hoedown, if it was the Country Bear Vacation Jamboree, at the time. Pretty “funny” stuff.:
Cmdr_Crimson
Well-Known Member
Yeah and the movie came out 9 months after the attraction closed at DL..That is very bad move..
FigmentsBrightIdeas
Well-Known Member
And besides that, it also didn’t help matters that they released the Country Bears movie too late, and, to make matters worse, hired a director that honest to God, wasn’t passionate or a fan of the attraction to direct it, and the end result showed sadly. And it’ll never fail to make me laugh, that in the credits of that movie… they thank Marc Davis for creating the original attraction, despite all of that. *facepalm* lol! So, so baffling. Why they didn’t make a traditionally animated feature and/or series that kept everything true to form (I mean, Pooh had traditionally animated features still being released at that time), rather than changing them to a country rock group and changing the bears themselves, and released it at a time it would’ve actually helped save the Country Bears at Disneyland, I’m not sure. But yeah.. weird, weird stuff.
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Cmdr_Crimson
Well-Known Member
Hey, he did direct a ton of Pinky and the Brain Episodes tho...