Country Bear Jamboree closing for lengthy refurbishment in August

[spectrodanny]

They might as well start serving pizza because now it's not much more than a Chuck E. Cheese.

Very true!. although in 1b of their Dallas locations they recently removed the animatronicChuck E. to see if anyone noticed and ( not surprisuingly) no one outside of the fan community has. (mind you the location in ? only had 12 r4obot to begin with which was also designed by Garner Holt)

 

[Magenta Panther]

Alas, perhaps the Country Bears have had their day. It hurt to type that. But honestly, I came to that conclusion when I saw the show last November. What had seemed so amazing when I was a kid seems much reduced now. But at least this new refurb really seems to have improved the AA's movements and appearance. I wish the video of the new abbreviated show had featured the animal heads more. They were always my fave. The video of the old show displays how bad their movement had gotten; the deer barely moves at all! Hopefully the refurb fixed that, since the bears do seem to move much more gracefully. As for the cuts, I do think the show's a little TOO brief. Perhaps a new soundtrack and a new show is what's really needed for CBJ. Maybe TDO will look into that in the future...?

 

[Nati Brimhall]

I'm glad that it finally got a good renovation but why did they have to change some of the bears, like liver lips and the piano bear. The new outfits are amazing and the audio seems nice and clean, I'm just not happy with the bear changes and the cutting of some scenes.

 

[pumpkin7]

Have they re-recorded 'If you can't bite, don't growl' ? It's a different melody and he pronounces 'growl' more like 'growl' whereas before it sounded like he said 'brail'.
Sounds good!

And probably the only bit I like of this edit.

Now I've slept on it, I don't feel so bad, but I'm still going to miss Devilish Mary.

 

[pumpkin7]

Now it's only a ten minute nap?! Glad they cut Big Al and "the blood on the saddle" down, worst part of the show for our family.

They haven't. He still sings his full solo, but the part where all the other bears are trying to drown him out is a verse shorter.

 

[Skyway]

These cuts are not enough to make people who do not like Country Bears to like it, but there are enough cuts to upset the Country Bear fans. Nobody is a winner here.

I think you're leaving out a third (and probably the biggest) group: people who've never seen CBJ before or barely remember specifics about the show from previous visits.

As much as Disney is pressured to honor its history and legacy, it must also create a theme park experience entertaining to modern audiences and worthy of the nearly $100 admission ticket.

As I've said earlier in this thread, there is a lot to like about the original CBJ. But it was painfully slow-paced by 2012 standards (and that's NOT because of short attention spans! It's because other types of entertainment have raised the bar on what audiences expect in terms of pacing.)

Disney (and any other entertainment provider) must consider what an attraction/show would look like if it opened up brand new today. Haunted Mansion and Pirates have easily held up over the years. Hall of Presidents needed a major facelift to keep it fresh and modern. We can all agree that the original CBJ would never be built as-is in 2012.

So Disney had a choice: close CBJ, create a new show from scratch, or try to tighten up and improve the pacing of the original show.

They were probably wise to avoid gambling on an "Under New Management" complete re-do. That left Disney with the option of pulling out their scissors and cutting out the slow-paced parts.

And I think, for the most part, Disney succeeded with that task.

Those of us who have the old show memorized can hear and feel the edits when we play it back in our minds. But I think most people unfamiliar with the original will never notice things have been cut or are missing.

Disney cut out the same unnecessary dialogue that I would have cut out if I was in charge of the rehab. And I don't mind most of the abbreviated songs.

I think a majority of park guests will view this show as a short, pleasant experience, with much fewer people sitting in the theater during those long stretches of dialogue thinking "Gee, this thing is outdated".

(** It looks like the opening with Max, Melvin, and Biff was accidentally cut short on the WDWMagic video -- there is an obvious edit on the video-- so I'm withholding judgement on that until I see the full opening. Other than that, there was really only one odd edit with Henry's laugh just before the Sun Bonnets. It appears they needed a transition between two pieces of music, and they may have made the wrong choice there.)

 

[TWB]

Well, Ill add my 2 cents after watching the video...all natural flow that this show had is gone. Honestly - it sounds like it was edited by a middle-school A/V club. Right from the start, the dialogue is choppy, and makes no sense: it dilutes all 'character' from the mounts. Removing choruses on songs also destroyed the flow. Devilish Mary is the one song that with a full audience you get a clap-along (since during 'come again' everyone is exiting, unlike the old days). . AND - we can't even blame the edits on political correctness (a la Pirates) since they kept the two songs that 'might' even remotely seem controversial today! I really do not get this, or see any reasoning behind it.

To paraphrase one of the missing songs: "Now here's a fractured folk show, butchered by someone with no editing skills..."

Disappointed. CBJ has been one of my favorites, and a classic, since it opened when I was young. I still to this day can hear the sponsor line from the original dialogue in my head when I see the show (although that missing has never detracted from the show itself). Imagineering - was this edit REALLY necessary? It's almost like they are purposely trying to destroy the show and keep audiences away. IDK, maybe that's the real master plan here, head it on it's way towards closing.

I already sent my disappointment to WDW via 'Contact Us' on the website...

 

[TWB]

Ill agree butchered might be a bit terse...but it definitely feels rushed. Even after watching it again. You can really notice the shortening of the 'dead spots' between sentences even, like they took out dead air that comes with natural speech to even get those 10th of a seconds off the clock.
Listen to the sentence "Thanks for bearing with us to the bear end" and with its abrupt ending (not including the next sentence) right into the "What do you say Sammy" line...it just doesn't sound like a natural sentence (incomplete thought) with the tamber it ends on now. Same with the abrupt shortening of the mounts statements in the beginning. It no longer sounds like natural speech flow.
One thing I can not see in the video, but someone else mentioned somewhere...did they do away with Henreys' 'eyebrow gag' and only do the spotlight strobe on the other bear? If so, that destroys the humor in that scene also imo.

 

[skinde]

I like that the movements of all of the characters is more advanced and fluid, and the touch-ups to appearance are nice. However, the nostalgia of such a classic seems wiped away from my mind with certain bears looking entirely different and the absence of such great songs... And it really does feel rushed. I think it's a crime to alter an original like that...

 

[Rasvar]

I'm not softening my opinion. It might as well be Rock-A-Fire Explosion with the show pacing and sensibility. It was a hack job, pure and simple. Chuck E Cheese level [insert word for stuff left by horses].

Anyone who thinks that was a good editing job doesn't know jack about editing. This was some of the most hideous and harsh transitions I have ever seen in ANY park. Wild Adventures does a better job than this. The cuts were way too abrupt for this kind of show. It is not a rock show or a music video. It was such a bad job that unless some idiot from management was demanding those exact cuts in those places (which is possible in WDW current idiotic state), I would never hire the idiots who did this for another creative enterprise in my life. HORRIBLE!

 

[Mickey_777]

Everything looks good and sounds good. This is good

For those of us who haven't seen this show a bazillion times, I don't think it feels at all rushed. In my last 6 visits to WDW/MK, I've seen CBJ maybe 3 times and it's easy to remember how the show definitely had some boring portions. I get how those of you who grew up on the show might not like the changes but for most people, dare I say, It might be shorter and sweeter. Hopefully it'll start eating crowds again. It never had more than 25 people when I would go before.

 

[GLaDOS]

Everything looks good and sounds good. This is good

For those of us who haven't seen this show a bazillion times, I don't think it feels at all rushed. In my last 6 visits to WDW/MK, I've seen CBJ maybe 3 times and it's easy to remember how the show definitely had some boring portions. I get how those of you who grew up on the show might not like the changes but for most people, dare I say, It might be shorter and sweeter. Hopefully it'll start eating crowds again. It never had more than 25 people when I would go before.

Bears always made it's attendance goals.

For everyone saying this was done because people found it boring or too long, you're unfortunately wrong.

 

[TropicalFig8]

Eh,I'm fine with it.

I saw all the cuts coming,so I didn't have much expectations.

 

[elchippo]

Again, cuts suck.....but I almost agree with cutting the "he's a regular Lee-ber-ay-chee" line, since Liberace has been dead since around 1987.

 

[Tinkerbell 8]

CBJ isn't one of my favorite attractions, but we make sure to do it atleast once on every trip, and I'm pretty annoyed with the changes. I think that they did a great job fixing the AA's movement, but like others have said, some of the bears look completely different now. I also really don't like the cutting of the dialogue between the bears, it feels rushed and they cut out some key parts that make the whole show flow. I don't see why they had to cut 4 minutes off the show. I'm actually not looking forward to seeing this next week now.

 

[Rasvar]

Again, cuts suck.....but I almost agree with cutting the "he's a regular Lee-ber-ay-chee" line, since Liberace has been dead since around 1987.

I'll agree there were dated references that needed to go. I'm not totally against edits. I just thought that the way it was done completely changed the character of the show to the point that there is nothing to make it seem like a worthwhile show that someone can't see at a pizza place. No humor at all. No relaxed folksy feeling at all. It feels like someone threw up a bunch of robotic bears and called it a show. The edit job was such a hack job that they should just call it "Bears Jamboree" because these could be city zoo bears for all we know now. It really would have been a thousand times smarter to just make a new show than to push this thing on anyone. At least the Tiki Room edits made some sense and it still has some flow, all be it a bit rushed. This has no flow and makes about as much sense a 1990's music video.

 

[FrankLapidus]

I don't like that some songs have been cut but we've known that was happening for a while so I can't say I'm angry about it. It's nice to see the bears looking in such good condition although Liver Lips' hair does look weird.

 

[Mickey_777]

Bears always made it's attendance goals.

I go during slower times of year which would explain why the theatre has been mostly empty during my visits. But it's nice to know somebody out there is studying those attendance figures. I wouldn't.

For everyone saying this was done because people found it boring or too long, you're unfortunately wrong.

I personally used to find portions of the show boring and I personally believe there might be a good chunk a MK visitors that will enjoy this latest version of CBJ because it is in fact shorter now. I never insinuated this show was cut for this reason or to please people who share my opinion.

...

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

Perhaps a new soundtrack and a new show is what's really needed for CBJ. Maybe TDO will look into that in the future...?

I would think that programing a new show, (perhaps without a costume change), would be a no-brainer.

Yes, CBJ is decades old, but obvious folks still love the show, at least based on the hand clapping I've seen in years past. I mean, this show from the 1970's is still entertaining, why in the world couldn't they just program 4 or 5 different shows and have the computer randomly selected which show plays on a given day? Without a costume change, it would just be what show the computer decides to run. Heck, they could even randomly move around the bits of dialogue that were removed from the original show.

I am sick and tired of waiting for new technology to be applied to CBJ so that multiple shows can be shown. Sure they'd have to pay somebody to write and program the bears, and for voice actors, but they could run a combination of shows for decades to come. Look how much mileage they got out of a single show!

I know that people complain about the supposedly high cost of changing out the show to do a Christmas show . . . even though Disney spends months getting Osbourne ready and manning huge warehouses with all of the trees that are moved around the resort. This is more manpower, and yet not quite as visible as a new piece of entertainment which could be advertised to bring guests into the park.

Splash Mountain falling apart, CBJ show shortened and the neat dialogue bits removed, plus a so-so Big Thunder refurb. Obviously, the manager/exec in charge of Frontierland is trying to cut the budget as much as possible to make this area of the park look more profitable.

I hope they fire him/her, or whoever is responsible for this garbage.

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

I don't know....I can see what people mean when they say guests may get mad if something's closed when they are visiting for a small amount of time, but is there really a day , or couple days when a ride or attraction or show is NOT closed at WDW? I would think that is doubtful? I am not positive though...

Things go down for refurbs all the time. They skip a refurb, and the next one is longer, as I think is the case with Splash Mountain.

If a diehard CBJ fan, (if there are diehards as opposed to just guests who will spend 20-30 minutes to wait and see the show), misses seeing the show due to a refurb/overlay, are the really going to be emotionally crushed so that their vacation is ruined? Mostly likely they'd plan a trip at another time when the refurb/overlay is done, OR they'd know about the refurb/overlay work in advance.

If CBJ is *so* popular that they are afraid to do refurbs, why not move it somewhere else and add two theaters? One for the currently running show, and the other for refurbs/Christmas overlay. They could always keep at least one show going. Are they afraid that the Christmas Show would be too popular? In that not enough guests would get to see it?