News Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[radiorae]

If they are going to do this...wouldn't something more thematically appropriate like a stagecoach being pulled by bullseye through a toy story woody themed Old West make more sense? You could have stinky Pete being the great villain he is and trying to interrupt the tour thru the Old West. Instead cars in frontier land....makes 0 sense no matter how much the parks blog tries to spin it.

Toy Story thematically makes more sense, but we already have a Toy Story land in DHS AND a Toy Story ride in MK, so it would likely be overkill. Plus I’m guessing if you ask a young kid if they’d rather ride a stagecoach or a race car, race car is going to have the overwhelming majority.

 

[RobbinsDad]

My main gripe with all of this is the Cars IP.

In my opinion, everything in Magic Kingdom should be whimsical (fun, not too serious), and removed from the modern real world. So I don’t think Star Wars or Marvel fit, as they are too serious, real-world, and/or political.

Cars is fairly whimsical, but it’s essentially set in a version of the modern real world. I really love the first Cars film, and the land in California looks great, it would just be better to have it in Hollywood Studios.

If it were a more suitable property, I’d be much more in favour. For example, it could be a Pocahontas themed river rapids.

Tbh I always thought if TSI/ROA was replaced it would be with a rapids ride.

 

[vagabondarts]

If they are going to do this...wouldn't something more thematically appropriate like a stagecoach being pulled by bullseye through a toy story woody themed Old West make more sense? You could have stinky Pete being the great villain he is and trying to interrupt the tour thru the Old West. Instead cars in frontier land....makes 0 sense no matter how much the parks blog tries to spin it.

People keep saying this but the fact is frontierland is going away for generic rustic theming. They just can’t say that part out loud yet.

 

[Mike S]

I find Universal is becoming more like Disney and Disney more like Universal.

It's Disney's loss IMO.

In a way you could say Dark Universe is an original park creation.

Universal obtaining the Nintendo ip for rides is truly the secret sauce. My kids don’t really care about much of universal stuff aside from maybe dr.suess and minions and a few other things…but Nintendo they love Mario, and princess peach and donkey Kong.

They don’t care about Harry Potter but man do they love Mario.

It’s really something that can rival many of Disney famous ips and appeals to both little children and adults and why I’m excited to visit universal again.

Pokémon alone will be absolutely massive for them.

 

[TsWade2]

Am I supposed to care what he thinks?

Not really. He has no control anyway.

 

[RobbinsDad]

People keep saying this but the fact is frontierland is going away for generic rustic theming. They just can’t say that part out loud yet.

I’m not sure how rustic theming, particularly landscapes similar to those found in the actual American frontier means Frontierland is going away.

 

[haveyoumetmark]

The Cars movie franchise has generated $21.5 billion in merch and ticket sales.

Unless I'm reading that wrong, Cars is the highest-grossing Disney franchise without an actual ride in Walt Disney World.

This NYT article from 2023 says Pocahontas has earned about $707 million in ticket sales. Let's go Snoop-Dogg-with-the-Olympic-Torch wacky[1] and say Pocahontas earned 10x that in merch sales. Humor me. So Pocahontas has earned $8B.

So consumers are willing to part with 2.5 times as much money for Cars as for Pocahontas. And it's probably 7x TBH.

Cars has multiple theatrical sequels. They could easily make more. Pocahontas has had none. It has no clear future.

I'm not saying Cars is the perfect franchise. I'm not saying I agree with IP in the parks. But c'mon given what we know about how the company makes decisions about the parks, this is as clear-cut as it gets.

[1] In all sincerity, I have never been more proud to be an American than that moment.

I appreciate your posts and POV. Usually very informative, sensible and data-driven in a way that might actually cut through the hysterics, bad takes, delusions and mob mentality.

 

[Captain Neo]

Toy Story thematically makes more sense, but we already have a Toy Story land in DHS AND a Toy Story ride in MK, so it would likely be overkill. Plus I’m guessing if you ask a young kid if they’d rather ride a stagecoach or a race car, race car is going to have the overwhelming majority.

No it doesnt. What do 90s Toys have to do with the Frontier or the wild wilderness??

 

[DarkMetroid567]

It’s interesting that you frame the “moral superiority” of people who aren’t happy with the loss of RoA/TSI as being upset purely because of politics/Walts beliefs or hatred against Imagineers. Most people in this thread and on Twitter have been expressing that they’re majorly upset with the loss of the atmosphere- the “park” part of “theme park”. We don’t hate Imagineers, they are told what to do by corporate, they don’t have a say in what stays or goes. I’ve already talked about why dozens of times. The people screaming “Woke Disney hates America” are a small minority of fans who are just screaming to fuel the culture war. They don’t represent the fandom as a whole, like how the Save Splash crowd don’t represent everyone who liked Splash.

I think I was fair in characterizing that not everyone is using these arguments — but a lot of people clearly are, and it’s the reason that emotions are running highly in the first place. If the opinions were just “I’m happy/sad to see this go” this thread would not be 140+ pages deep.

Also you call the parks “slop” at the end there- so you’re agreeing this Cars situation is not great?

Yes and no. It would not have been my first choice either, but I’m eager to see if they can pull it off. My standards of enjoyment for theme parks are quite low and I’m willing to go to some pretty bad ones. To say I have full confidence in Disney is a lie considering the way EPCOT turned out, but I’m still pretty excited to see the change and the impact it has on the worst Frontierland and RoA in the Disney parks, even if it turns out as slop.

I just get irritated by the holier-than-thou attitudes.

 

[Dizknee_Phreek]

Tbh I always thought that if they filled this area it would be with a river rapids ride.

See, now that I think would work better. And it could kind of tie in with the flooded town on BTM. Although I don't know if they'd want 2 water rides beside each other.

 

[PizzaPlanet]

Anyone else concerned this ride won’t have a significant dark ride portion? It’s such a key part of what makes RSR work, but the art makes it looks like this is almost entirely outdoors.

 

[radiorae]

No it doesnt. What do 90s Toys have to do with the Frontier or the wild wilderness??

“90s toys” don’t. The scenario he set up, focusing on Bullseye and Woody, who is literally a cowboy with a frontier themed Wild West show, does.

To be clear, I am in no way saying we need another Toy Story land, in fact, my post argued against it.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

In a way you could say Dark Universe is an original park creation.

I think this is fair, but it would also make Fantasy Springs an example of an “original creation” which I likely wouldn’t agree with.

Although I imagine it doesn’t really come from a place of generosity. Universal really loves building the 1:1 recreations of scenes and landscapes from their IPs — if there was a notable enough place in the Universal monster catalogue, they probably would have done it.

 

[Sneaky]

Josh Damaro liked this post on his Instagram.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Josh Damaro liked this post on his Instagram.

I think that's more of a "there there, it's gonna be okay" pat on the back, kinda like.

 

[Captain Neo]

“90s toys” don’t. The scenario he set up, focusing on Bullseye and Woody, who is literally a cowboy with a frontier themed Wild West show, does.

To be clear, I am in no way saying we need another Toy Story land, in fact, my post argued against it.

right im just saying bullseye and Woody are toys based on a toyline in a film that takes place in the mid 1990s.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

Anyone else concerned this ride won’t have a significant dark ride portion? It’s such a key part of what makes RSR work, but the art makes it looks like this is almost entirely outdoors.

Worried about this too. I don’t think it’s the prevailing reason as to why RSR works but I sure would miss it. Maybe the ride system really is more interesting than “slot car go fast”. We’ll see…

 

[The Chatbox Ghost]

I think I was fair in characterizing that not everyone is using these arguments — but a lot of people clearly are, and it’s the reason that emotions are running highly in the first place. If the opinions were just “I’m happy/sad to see this go” this thread would not be 140+ pages deep.


Yes and no. It would not have been my first choice either, but I’m eager to see if they can pull it off. My standards of enjoyment for theme parks are quite low and I’m willing to go to some pretty bad ones. To say I have full confidence in Disney is a lie considering the way EPCOT turned out, but I’m still pretty excited to see the change and the impact it has on the worst Frontierland and RoA in the Disney parks, even if it turns out as slop.

I just get irritated by the holier-than-thou attitudes.

Fair points. I’m with you in hoping they can make something good out of it. Not to be a broken record, but all I need out of this is something that captures the same aesthetic and feeling the view of the river currently has. Have it been more New England-y on the LS side and transition to more Klondike-y for Frontierland. If they redo the facades of Country Bear Street to be more Grizzly Peaks/Klondike inspired it would pull it together. Just leave Grizzly Hall the same!

 

[RoysCabin]

As a dedicated fan, I find almost all of my time visiting the parks is dedicated to classic attractions. Mansion, Peoplemover, Carousel of Progress, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, etc in MK; Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, Figment in Epcot, etc.Rarely am I stampeding to the latest IP attraction.

I had a pretty big hit of that when I went back for the first time in a few years this past February, chaperoning a school trip: we walked down Main Street, started at Adventureland, and promptly hit up the Tiki Room, Pirates, walked around to Haunted Mansion, got to Space Mountain and the PeopleMover...and man, when we were hitting the classics it felt really good. Heck, had the same feeling going down Hollywood and Sunset at Studios, and, of course, World Showcase, which remains my favorite area overall.

Doesn't mean all the new stuff stunk or anything; TRON was pretty sweet! But there's a timelessness to a lot of the classics that can be very tough to replicate, for sure.

On the question of Disney and Universal acting more like one another or whatever, my big takeaway has been that Universal's been smarter about which properties it licenses and utilizes to build themed IP lands around. I've said it many times before, but Potter, much as I don't care for it as a franchise, works for theme parks since it has "literary DNA" with built in references to things that impact all five senses for guests to interact with. Nintendo works because of the very immersive/interactive nature of video games. The Monsters will likely work in large part due to the established mood and atmosphere of the classic movies being something that can translate into a vibe that works for real life moving around...and, importantly, by having the separate Islands of Adventure and now the separate "Universes" they're not creating IP logjams where it feels like stuff is being forced into areas where they don't belong, trampling all over thematic cohesion, etc. Might actually explain why the original Universal park in Orlando feels the weakest: you can feel the IP hodgepodge there, it just feels all so disconnected and weird, since it had been designed with specific areas in mind but it's just pretty much ignored by now, for the most part.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

On the question of Disney and Universal acting more like one another or whatever, my big takeaway has been that Universal's been smarter about which properties it licenses and utilizes to build themed IP lands around. I've said it many times before, but Potter, much as I don't care for it as a franchise, works for theme parks since it has "literary DNA" with built in references to things that impact all five senses for guests to interact with. Nintendo works because of the very immersive/interactive nature of video games. The Monsters will likely work in large part due to the established mood and atmosphere of the classic movies being something that can translate into a vibe that works for real life moving around...and, importantly, by having the separate Islands of Adventure and now the separate "Universes" they're not creating IP logjams where it feels like stuff is being forced into areas where they don't belong, trampling all over thematic cohesion, etc. Might actually explain why the original Universal park in Orlando feels the weakest: you can feel the IP hodgepodge there, it just feels all so disconnected and weird, since it had been designed with specific areas in mind but it's just pretty much ignored by now, for the most part.

I’m really hoping the portals at Epic work better mentally in separating, because I really don’t think it works too well at IoA. The transitions from Comic Book to Kong/Jurassic Park, or Seuss to Lost Continent, have always felt super jarring. And it’s irritating hearing the Jurassic Park theme play in Forbidden Journey’s queue.