News Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom

[doctornick]

I was under the impression this is the cheaper option. As building past the railroad would require zoning land that has not been touched or inspected in years & shutting down/potentially rerouting the railroad again.

@PREMiERdrum indicated that there were cheaper options on the table. They chose this because they wanted to remove RoA and TSI not because it is easiest/cheapest

 

[basas]

I was under the impression this is the cheaper option. As building past the railroad would require zoning land that has not been touched or inspected in years & shutting down/potentially rerouting the railroad again.

I think it’s the ‘more expensive’ or ‘least bad’ of the options they seriously considered…or so we’ve been told…which is terrifying. Seriously makes me wonder what other ideas were being thrown around in the brainstorming session…

 

[ednamodedarling]

I am still under the belief that Moana & Coco will make their way to MK. Choosing to believe this. lol. That space to the west of the big thunder to prime real estate especially now with the river being filled. There is no reason to keep the dry dock back there for the river boat.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I was under the impression this is the cheaper option. As building past the railroad would require zoning land that has not been touched or inspected in years & shutting down/potentially rerouting the railroad again.

I don’t think that is correct - Im honestly pretty sure that this and monsters weren’t ready to be announced but the clock was ticking and after poor investor calls they had to go all out.

Supposedly - there was land being prepared for “beyond big thunder” - obviously what Josh presented was Coco and Encanto beyond big thunder leading into villains.

Im crazy curious where this concept actually came from and why it was chosen. Yes I’m against it - but I’d love to know how it ended up getting this far down the line. Encanto, Moana, and Coco are all much more relevant franchises. Coco performed better than any of the 3 cars movies.

 

[doctornick]

Not that it's going to make people feel any better, but this was one of the costlier options pitched, and makes a broad attempt to fit the area better than most others.

Now that word is out and the dust is settling, a little more information is slipping through.

Once their original BBTM plans were scrapped, Coco's massive showbuilding precluded it from being relocated. Cars won, the ROA's fate was sealed.

Villains - despite being a disparate collection of ideas even to this date - was by far the favorite to win over the singular BBTM expansion plot. The art as shown is suggestive of theme and style but not related to a practical model. Yet.

I figured I’ll quote this for emphasis. Of note - they decided against Coco because they did not want to put the new land actually beyond BTM. They decided they wanted to destroy RoA and TSI and then settled on Cars because it could effectively be used in that location - even though the location was the more costly choice.

The cherry on top is that the higher cost also led to Moana not being approved for MK at this time. So not only do we lose existing attractions for an “expansion” but we also didn’t even get an actual new thing in a currently unused area.

 

[MaximumEd]

There is no reason to keep the dry dock back there for the river boat.

Which means it’ll probably sit there and rot for 20 years like Wonders of Life and several more things I could mention.

 

[SpectroMagician]

Wait they are going to put Cars right next to Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion? That's it I officially hate the Disney company now.

 

[spaceghost]

I lament this change from an aesthetics standpoint - I have print on my wall of a photo I took of the steamboat and TSI that I adore - however, the reality is that from a capacity standpoint, that space has been severely limited and underused for an extended period of time. I know that change is hard, the but the bottom line is that MK needs more rides, to provide more capacity, to take the burden off the other attractions. This is a move that will add significant operational capacity to the MK, which will improve the experience for most guests. I will hold out hope that what goes in for Cars attractions maintain some level of theme and cohesion in that area of the park.

 

[Coaster Lover]

I can't help but think how odd the Haunted Mansion facade will look/be with these snowy mountains just to the left along with cars with faces speeding by (and the accompanying noise)... makes me wonder if they would consider realignment the entrance of Haunted Mansion, demoing the current facade, and building a new facade on the west/north west face of the elevator section of the show building and making the Haunted Mansion entrance more closely align with Villians Land (with a new queue also more directly in the Villians Land section)... could possibly do that without touching the ride at all (just the facade)... or is the Haunted Mansion facade too much of a "sacred cow" to touch?

 

[Dear Prudence]

No.

yes they can. Look at the dialogue surrounding The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to see how they’ll deploy it.

Though with Huckleberry Finn's novel, there is no uniform consensus. BIG RIVER is getting a movie musical adaptation, the novel JAMES has been met with acclaim, and even African American literary scholars widely disagree. It's not my place to comment on that as a Non Black person, but I think it's worth noting that it's just not that simple or easy. It's where nuance and empathy is so important.

The only thing people remember about Tom Sawyer is the white washed fence and them running away to an island to be pirates. Without doxxing myself, I say this as someone who spent a childhood with other children mocking me asking if my biological father was "Injun Joe." (Aren't kids GREAT?! ROFL).

I think dialogue is great. I think nuance and empathy are great.

I also know that none of this is being done for my benefit. It's not done with guests like me in mind. It's done to sell Cars merch.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I wonder if this how people felt back when Mine Train through Natures Wonderland closed? I wonder if people in 20-30 years will walk through this section of the park, talking about what once was, pointing out the hints of remains, sharing the history.

I always find it fun walking around Disneyland and seeing bits of the history of the park, long gone.

 

[basas]

I lament this change from an aesthetics standpoint - I have print on my wall of a photo I took of the steamboat and TSI that I adore - however, the reality is that from a capacity standpoint, that space has been severely limited and underused for an extended period of time. I know that change is hard, the but the bottom line is that MK needs more rides, to provide more capacity, to take the burden off the other attractions. This is a move that will add significant operational capacity to the MK, which will improve the experience for most guests. I will hold out hope that what goes in for Cars attractions maintain some level of theme and cohesion in that area of the park.

Pretty hard to do that when they’re destroying the theme and cohesion in that area of the park.

 

[doctornick]

Wait they are going to put Cars right next to Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion? That's it I officially hate the Disney company now.

Yes. And they will leave the Liberty Belle dock even though there won’t be a river there.

 

[eddie104]

People showed up out of the woodworks to defend something the MOMENT Disney said its going away. I've heard people wanting to retheme Tom Sawyer and the rivers for ages. I can't wait to hear this exact same thing about Speedway whenever it inevitably closes. "It added so much kinetics" "It was a Walt attraction"

Ultimately that’s another issue I’ve had being on this site and that’s it’s full of hypocrites.

People are always wish casting myself included for certain things to happen good or bad.

I could probably find a very old thread with posters liking a comment cheering on the demolition of this area.

Now it’s finally happening all of sudden..get out the pitch forks for what ???

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Once their original BBTM plans were scrapped, Coco's massive showbuilding precluded it from being relocated. Cars won, the ROA's fate was sealed.

Villains - despite being a disparate collection of ideas even to this date - was by far the favorite to win over the singular BBTM expansion plot. The art as shown is suggestive of theme and style but not related to a practical model. Yet.

can someone connect the dots here - why was coco scrapped from beyond big thunder and why does that equal cars?

 

[WaltWiz1901]

I don't think I have much to say about this colossally misguided ignorance of the "blessing of size" that I'm certain hasn't been said somewhere within the past 100+ pages of this thread, so, to quote another franchise centered around talking vehicles...

"Disgraceful! Disgusting! Despicable!"

 

[SpectroMagician]

People on this site are just very, very against change.

I can sympathize with those who mourned the loss of Splash Mountain as that was a top 5 attraction and as iconic as Pirates of the Carribbean, the Haunted Mansion and it's a Small World. But I have a hard time believing there are that many die-hard Tom Sawyer Island fans. Hardly anyone goes on Tom Sawyer's Island and I doubt the average person would even know what the Rivers of America is when discussing theme parks. The Cars retheme announcement is something that will really only bother hyper-online parks fans.

Personally I like Tom Sawyer (the novel and its adaptaions) much more than I like Cars, but from a business standpoint this retheme is a no brainer. You are freeing up 10-12 acres that park guests rarely utilize and giving the crowds multiple major e-tickets in their place (cause removing the island also enhances access to the villain land).

I have zero issues with removing Tom Sawyer island, but filling in the Rivers of America is dumb. Putting a IP cased Cars land right next to Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion is ever dumber. We will lose the beautiful sightlines of the castle from Splash and around the river, all for an IP of ok movies that do not fit into the theme at all.

 

[Tha Realest]

Though with Huckleberry Finn's novel, there is no uniform consensus. BIG RIVER is getting a movie musical adaptation, the novel JAMES has been met with acclaim, and even African American literary scholars widely disagree. It's not my place to comment on that as a Non Black person, but I think it's worth noting that it's just not that simple or easy. It's where nuance and empathy is so important.

While it’s generally impossible to reach a consensus on anything, especially anything as subjective as art, those two Twain novels are the closest you’ll get to masterpieces in American (o any) fiction, ever. Even those who come to the work with different perspectives can appreciate the importance and significance of those works.

I think dialogue is great. I think nuance and empathy are great.

Yes. But there is no “dialogue” here. Already it’s being asserted that TSI and the very existence of “Liberty Square” and the Hall of Presidents are fatally “problematic” and divisive.

I also know that none of this is being done for my benefit. It's not done with guests like me in mind. It's done to sell Cars merch.

Agree 1,000%. They will absolutely sell more Cars merch than anything for a public domain property.

 

[doctornick]

can someone connect the dots here - why was coco scrapped from beyond big thunder and why does that equal cars?

Coco was going to be a large/tall show building for a Soarin’/FoP type ride. That type of building needed to be on the edge of the park to properly hide it. Putting it in the current RoA area would have it stick out and be bad show.

Cars was chosen because they thus felt it would look better and gave the backstage elements better hidden in that location. Basically they picked the location first then chose the IP.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Coco was going to be a large/tall show building for a Soarin’/FoP type ride. That type of building needed to be on the edge of the park to properly hide it. Putting it in the current RoA area would have it stick out and be bad show.

Cars was chosen because they thus felt it would look better and gave the backstage elements better hidden in that location. Basically they picked the location first then chose the IP.

But why was that site scrapped?