News Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[MisterPenguin]

I haven’t seen the current show - so if you are asking something about the current show I’m not following?

You don't need to see the current show to answer the questions.

If CBJ sang "You Got a Friend in Me" and someone said, that's not 1930s! Would you say, "Yes, it is set in the 1930s because they're singing it in 1930s style!"

 

[mickEblu]

They’re not vacation destinations with nearly as much interest or demand. I think they’re fine to remain as time capsules for folks interested in that

 

[Ghost93]

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If Disneyland got rid of Rivers of America in favor of a more modern IP, it would easily surpass the Magic Kingdom's attendance!

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

You don't need to see the current show to answer the questions.

If CBJ sang "You Got a Friend in Me" and someone said, that's not 1930s! Would you say, "Yes, it is set in the 1930s because they're singing it in 1930s style!"

The style does set the time - at least in Disney parks logic. Banjo Brothers & Bob used to sing Friend like me in Frontierland and it fit right in. Also the piano players at the Golden Horseshoe at Disneyland would do Friend Like me as well. Seemed like a natural fit.

 

[celluloid]

These were actual songs from the 50's and 60's that were somewhat well-known at the time. Not songs written to pretend they're from the 30's.

Yeah, real country novelty songs, that took place without many jarring time references. The point is the same. The year the songs were produced does not ding the point the same way racing automobiles driving through a rally in an area themed to The American Frontier.

It was very common in the 1950s for novelty songs to do this.
"In 1814 we took a little trip..."
"Please Mr. CUSTAR, I don't want to die"
Many songs made in then1950s were novelties and homage to the rustic American Frontier styling.
Country Bear Jamboree was themed to just that.

 

[Architectural Guinea Pig]

However, Cars is not at all interchangeable with the other attractions in Frontierland in the way that you're describing because it's quite simply not visually coherent with the other elements of the area. Everything else is designed to be viewed together, but Cars is not.

"But of course, this rule only applies to Frontierland! Everything else in Magic Kingdom is essentially beautiful and cohesive and designed to be viewed together... Cars will be the END of it all! The magic will be lost!"

Honestly, the fact that the only gaudy element of the part is the cars themselves is crazy good, especially cars with more off-road adventure vibes. "Fans" are complaining about a beautiful new mountain structure, tons of explorable area, trees, rockwork, detail, waterfalls, and springs. Magic Kingdom has way too much unattractive and downright ugly places, but of course they all fit into their respective time zones and fit into their lands with a loosely strung explanation so it doesn't matter.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

The California parks -- Disney and otherwise — aren’t really incented or expected to innovate.

You should probably tell that to Disney and Universal…. They have been innovating and investing like crazy haha.

Everything else in Magic Kingdom is essentially beautiful and cohesive and designed to be viewed together...

Nobody thinks magic carpets should have been plopped in the middle of Adventureland and the speedway is another major issue with the MK park that should have been updated when they built tron as part of the original plan.

I’m not sure what you have against Philharmagic though haha

 

[mickEblu]

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"But of course, this rule only applies to Frontierland! Everything else in Magic Kingdom is essentially beautiful and cohesive and designed to be viewed together... Cars will be the END of it all! The magic will be lost!"

Honestly, the fact that the only gaudy element of the part is the cars themselves is crazy good, especially cars with more off-road adventure vibes. "Fans" are complaining about a beautiful new mountain structure, tons of explorable area, trees, rockwork, detail, waterfalls, and springs. Magic Kingdom has way too much unattractive and downright ugly places, but of course they all fit into their respective time zones and fit into their lands with a loosely strung explanation so it doesn't matter.

So you choose a few examples of things at MK people complain the most about to make your point?

 

[celluloid]

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"But of course, this rule only applies to Frontierland! Everything else in Magic Kingdom is essentially beautiful and cohesive and designed to be viewed together... Cars will be the END of it all! The magic will be lost!"

Honestly, the fact that the only gaudy element of the part is the cars themselves is crazy good, especially cars with more off-road adventure vibes. "Fans" are complaining about a beautiful new mountain structure, tons of explorable area, trees, rockwork, detail, waterfalls, and springs. Magic Kingdom has way too much unattractive and downright ugly places, but of course they all fit into their respective time zones and fit into their lands with a loosely strung explanation so it doesn't matter.

None of those things you posted replaced something that was iconic or great, except for the nice views gone of Adventureland and the start of the toonifiation of each land...that has excellerated. As mentioned, most would love these things to be updated or gone as well.
You can not like some of those aspects as well.l as not wanting things to further decline.
A well liked film can habe some weak parts, bht you are happy the entire film is amazing as a whole.
There are odd continuity errors in JP that make it ugly, and the book has plotholes, bht dangit it's so good 99 percent of the time.
I would not want an entire good chapter ripped out for a beautiful 19 pages about the lysine contigency crap, no matter how nicely the paragraphs are worded.

 

[celluloid]

You don't need to see the current show to answer the questions.

If CBJ sang "You Got a Friend in Me" and someone said, that's not 1930s! Would you say, "Yes, it is set in the 1930s because they're singing it in 1930s style!"

People did it for years with the Ballad of Davy Crockett as it fit a tribute to the Frontier Americana. Having a show with only Disney Cartoon IP is an oversaturated mess and another problem altogether.
The entire show is now songs from Disney animated features instead of Davy Crockett being a one off chuckle.

There were not four daily ops theme park attractions playing Davy Crockett.

 

[James Alucobond]

"But of course, this rule only applies to Frontierland! Everything else in Magic Kingdom is essentially beautiful and cohesive and designed to be viewed together... Cars will be the END of it all! The magic will be lost!"

Honestly, the fact that the only gaudy element of the part is the cars themselves is crazy good, especially cars with more off-road adventure vibes. "Fans" are complaining about a beautiful new mountain structure, tons of explorable area, trees, rockwork, detail, waterfalls, and springs. Magic Kingdom has way too much unattractive and downright ugly places, but of course they all fit into their respective time zones and fit into their lands with a loosely strung explanation so it doesn't matter.

I didn't even say magic would be lost or complain that they are doing it. If you read my post, I'm simply explaining why they're essentially building a massive wall around the attraction. It is to avoid a similarly poor transition.

 

[Advisable Joseph]

You don't need to see the current show to answer the questions.

If CBJ sang "You Got a Friend in Me" and someone said, that's not 1930s! Would you say, "Yes, it is set in the 1930s because they're singing it in 1930s style!"

I'm not sure I'm following.

There is country rock with electric guitars, and even more noticible, contemporary pop country (the song people think hadn't been countrified -- pop country is controversial).

The show is set in 2024. The only thing that is "frontier," besides maybe being western, is the critters, I guess. (Set in what humans would call the wild?)

 

[CoasterCowboy67]

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You wanna add up all the Orlando parks vs So Cal? That was my point. It’s not even close

 

[DisneyHead123]

tons of explorable area,

Is that going to be a thing? It looked to me like the nature themed area would be part of the ride, not something you could walk around on.

 

[CoasterCowboy67]

I didn't even say magic would be lost or complain that they are doing it. If you read my post, I'm simply explaining why they're essentially building a massive wall around the attraction. It is to avoid a similarly poor transition.

I agree with your read of the art on the Liberty Square and CBJ sides, but I don’t think it’s going to be enclosed on the Tiana and BTR side. I think it’ll be open

But as was said, the “open” environment appears to be beautiful rock work, trees, and scenery. With just the off road vehicles appearing to stand out. I think we’ll be able to see them

 

[chriswacy]

You don't need to see the current show to answer the questions.

If CBJ sang "You Got a Friend in Me" and someone said, that's not 1930s! Would you say, "Yes, it is set in the 1930s because they're singing it in 1930s style!"

The story of the show is that the Bears wrote the original songs but were ultimately ripped off as Bears cannot apply for copyright on their creations. It adds to the sad undertone of the whole thing.

 

[Incomudro]

Literally all of the Cars facilities face inward away from the rest of Liberty Square and Frontierland, and even if you suppose there are some minor sightlines from Thunder Mountain where the artwork becomes geographically unclear, that still leaves 90% of the views obstructed from outside. The only entrance is from the north. No existing pathways connect to it. It is very intentional that it is mostly hidden and disconnected from classic Frontierland. If they thought it would seamlessly integrate with the rest of the land visually, it would face outward without wasting valuable space on a treeline buffer, and the area would have more access points for better crowd flow. No one's forcing them to do Cars, but there is an IP mandate and a dearth of active IP that fits well within the existing Frontierland framework.

I'm with you on that I don't believe we will be able to view and hear "cartoon cars" whizzing around from Frontierland or the Haunted Mansion.
My concern is the loss of the waterway, and what Disney is actually going to give us in its place.

 

[zipadee999]

These were actual songs from the 50's and 60's that were somewhat well-known at the time. Not songs written to pretend they're from the 30's.

The show itself is stylized as a country radio revue variety show. Shows like this were extremely popular in the 1930s such as the Grand Ole Opry. These shows often featured a variety of different performers all pitching in for different songs while being led by a host who was also musically inclined.

However, the music of the original show is from the 50s and 60s with the exception of the Five Bear Rugs, who take inspiration from 1930s hillbilly artists such as Uncle Dave Macon (Really obscure but the way he looks and sounds reminds me of Zeke).

True country music as we know it didn’t come around until the 1920s. Before that it was an early mix of folk and blues. Even then, the GOOD country music that the average listener would even recognize as country didn’t come around until the late 40s and early 50s.

I’d say that the show itself is very obviously stylized as a 1930s country variety revue, but the songs themselves were moved ahead a few decades to achieve the true ‘country’ sound which hadn’t yet come around when these shows were popular

 

[el_super]

I had thought about that one - the Matterhorn, monorail, subs, autopia, fantasyland / Tomorrowland jumble only works because of Bob Gurr and the overall genius planning of how attractions can interact with each other. But of course Matterhorn replaced nothing.

This is... moving the goal posts. Now the idea is that thematic consistency is important, unless something better came along or it's not replacing something else? Basically just sets up a scenario where a) anything you don't like doesn't fit the "rules" and b) only old stuff that isn't replacing something else can ever be the "true" experience.

Abraham Lincoln shouldn’t be on Main Street USA?

Well if you're going by the rules... either he died in 1865 (too early for Main Street) or he's an audio-animatronic representation from the 1960s (too late for Main Street). As far as I am aware, Disney has never portrayed it as anything other than a modern animatronic experience. There is no pretense here that guests have traveled back in time to see the REAL Lincoln or ... maybe that the real Lincoln traveled forward in time to warn us about communism.

In a sense, the "backstory" for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln is literally that a wizard did it.

And If you can believe that Mr Lincoln is thematically appropriate on Main Street, why can't you believe that Cars fit in the Frontier? Afterall there are literally cars named Frontier ... right?

This is still a very odd transition theme wise - and one of the reasons I think California and Florida are tied - the setup and theming is so much better in Florida. But again… this didn’t take anything away did it? Actually not sure on the history of that section of the park.

There was a plantation house restaurant that sat about where the entrance to Pirates is today, that sort of evoked a southern feel for the area. But the train station which was right behind it, was originally the Frontierland depot, and all of the area around the river, including what would become the Indian Village/Bear/Critter/Bayou Country was once all considered Frontierland.

That so much of the land was carved out for other experiences shows the declining strength of the Frontier theme going all the way back to the 1960s.

 

[danlb_2000]

Is there an example of a good ride that failed because it was put in the wrong area?

I doubt the placement of a ride impacts it's popularity, but bad placement can erode the thematic coherence of the parks which has a less tangible, but still real, impact on the guests.