MK Country Bear Jamboree is getting new songs and acts

[ToTBellHop]

Now that this is done, we need to turn to CoP. We can’t have James looking at Little Egypt doing the hoochie-koochie. Perhaps he can be looking at a picture of Woody and Jessie?

 

[Brer Panther]

I watched a couple videos, and I'm honestly surprised that this turned out so good.

This was made by Iger's Disney's Imagineering? The same guys who gave us Tiana's Bayou Adventure, the Ratatouille ride, and Runaway Railway? I'm shocked. They kept in everything that made the Country Bear Jamboree so great... aside from the songs. I still think having the bears sing Disney songs is a dumb idea, and I sincerely doubt it's gonna result in longer wait times, but most of the songs sounded pretty good. I'm amazed they resisted the urge to throw in any Encanto or Princess and the Frog songs. This could've been a lot worse - I was half-expecting one of the bears to sing "Let It Go" and a load of unfunny "meta" humor.

I'd say the parts that worked the least for me were "Try Everything" (the pop style of the song sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the others) and "Fixer Upper" (if only for the part where Buff, Max and Melvin were rattling off lyrics - that was pretty cringe-worthy). I'm glad that Max, Buff and Melvin have a lot of lines, and giving them the "no eating, drinking, or flash photography" spiel was a nice touch. Are you sure they didn't get Peter Reneday back? It sure SOUNDED like Peter as Henry and Max...

What the heck was Buff saying after Trixie's song? I couldn't make it out over the applause.

The imagineers did their homework, and this is a very ‘on brand’ country bears experience which feels like a continuation of the original rather than an ‘Under New Management’ situation. You can tell lots of love and care was put into the show. This is the first ‘reimagining’ in a long time that equals and even improves upon what was there before. Overall very very happy and relieved to see what they did here!

That's basically my thoughts too.

This is why I'll never understand all the people who just constantly blame Bob Iger. Like do you really think Bob Iger truly cares about the price of cupcakes when he has much bigger things to deal with? I don't think Bob Iger is constantly looking at the development and giving notes on the Country Bear musical jamboree. If you truly hate most of the parks and new offerings then the people you should be blaming are Josh D'Amaro and Jeff Vahle. I'm not even saying I like Bob Iger just that the blame is misdirected.

To quote A Bug's Life: "First rule of leadership - everything is your fault."

This new show is a symptom of just how shallow and limited Disney’s understanding of IP is.

I won't argue with that.

Does anybody know exactly what was done to the animatronics? The new skins and furs are pretty obvious, but I’m wondering what was done mechanically? I’ve heard that they made the transition from hydraulic to electric, and was just wondering how much of the 1971 hardware was left inside of them or if these are essentially new animatronics?

If they are in fact new or mostly new, maybe some duplicates could have been created for whatever DL might have brewing over in Grizzly Peak

Weren't some parts from the scrapped Splash Mountain animatronics used to fix up the originals?

 

[J.E.Smith]

I think while there's stuff from the original show that I miss, I do appreciate some of the callbacks to old CBJ lore. Henry saying that Ernest used to play at Mineral King for example. I do like that the banter between Buff Max and Melvin before Terrence's number at least set up Fixer-Upper.

Also I liked Henry's intro to Bunny, Bubbles, and Beulah by him saying "Or is that Beulah, Bunny, and Bubbles?" like he couldn't tell the three apart. That could have been a nod to the fact that Bunny has always been the bear in the middle, not Bubbles.

 

[Streetway]

So, what’s the general consensus on this. Does wdwmagic actually like something for a change?

 

[jaxonp]

Do the animatronics click still?

 

[Drew the Disney Dude]

I guess now is a good time to mention that the portraits in the lobby are staying, and that the frames were painted gold.

I was the only person excited to see the gold frames today, but they look great! The lobby is full of story and details now.

 

[nickf456]

So I never saw the original show growing up in my few trips to Disney World in my youth. I first saw the show in 2022 and watched it several times on my college program last year in 2023, so I don't have the immense nostalgia for the original show as some have. That being said, I do love the original show for mainly its shock value humor, I loved taking people just to see it just to see their reactions of the show. So I do have a fondness for the OG show. Like many, I was very skeptical about the move to all IP based music, but had hope that they'd at least be faithful to the OG show.

Overall I do feel like this is a very good and respectful modern version of the show. The part that stood out to me most was Ernest's violin catching smoke. Not only is this on par with the humor in the original show, it feels like a gag that the first generation of Imagineers would come up with, which is something I'd never thought I'd see. The new animatronics look great, and I'm hoping if this show doesn't go the way Disney is hoping, they can easily rework the animatronics into a new show with all original (or at least non mainstream Disney IP) music. My only gripe is the arrangement of Try Everything really does not fit. I feel they tried their best trying to create a deep country version of the song but it just comes off as too pop-y. The show starts off a little rough, but picks up pretty fast from there.

I still do feel like this is a good overall follow up to what we had and I'm looking forward to checking it out the next time I'm at MK!

 

[Prince-1]

This was just as good if not better than the original. Good job Disney.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Saw a couple of videos on YouTube of this new show.

Well, it does look like the bears have been spiffed up - repainted, and in at least one case, refurred: Gomer, the piano player, now sports a black coat instead of his previous red one - and that's a good thing. All of the AA's movements look great - smooth and expressive.

As for the show...song choices were okay. I guess. The bear trio's original song "All The Guys Who Turn Me On, Turn Me Down" was a MUCH better choice than "Try Everything" because it was FUNNY. Too bad we lost that. And of course we lost Big Al's "Blood on the Saddle" - can't have a song about blood in Igerland these days, the kids today are delicate little flowers, it might upset them . Worst of all - "Davy Crockett" was excised. I mean, why? It's a Disney song - in fact, it was the only Disney song in the original show! Why get rid of that? Makes no sense.

But overall, it's a cute show. Not very country though. Ah well...

 

[Andrew C]

It’s not an excuse, it‘s the driving force for the change. My opinion is that the typical park guest, including myself, will find the new show more engaging, more memorable, and more entertaining than the show it replaced while maintaining the same charm as the original.

None of that suggests they didn’t go above and beyond. This update is one of the best executed updates WDI has pulled off in their history. The old show was boring, didn’t engage audiences, and it was stale. Hence, guests didn’t show much interest in going to see it.

Jesus Christ. No wonder they get away with piling up the garbage.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Do Bob and Josh really care if people complain on Internet forums if they still visit the parks anyway?

Bob and Josh are counting on people not caring what they do but still going.

 

[HauntedPirate]

There's the negativity I was talking about!

There it is! Was waiting on our first negative reaction.

I gave an honest opinion, and yes, it's critical. If you want sunshine and unicorns around everything Disney does, there are other sites for that.

 

[Andrew C]

Bob and Josh are counting on people not caring what they do but still going.

Counting on people getting turned on by another version of “you’ve got a friend in me.”

 

[HauntedPirate]

The smoking fiddle was the best part. The opening song was ok. The rest was meh, at best.

Oh wait, I guess that's being negative.

 

[zipadee999]

The smoking fiddle was the best part. The opening song was ok. The rest was meh, at best.

Oh wait, I guess that's being negative.

It’s not as good as the original show which used smarter humor and real country music, but I’d take it over the butchered 2012 version and it’s probably the best ‘reimagining’ we’ve had in a while, so I’m still feeling generally positive about it. I can watch the POV find it enjoyable while still comparing it to the original, which is not something I can do with something like TBA.

The original country bear jamboree was lightning in a bottle. It was the perfect unique mix of many things that created an iconic experience. No overlay will come close to that. However, this is likely the best of the many overlays the show has received over the years, and is very much on par with vacation hoedown. Like vacation hoedown, it won’t be the genius, expertly crafted experience of the original, but it will be a fun, fresh take that’s certainly worth our time and appreciation in its own way!

 

[Streetway]

It’s not as good as the original show which used smarter humor and real country music, but I’d take it over the butchered 2012 version and it’s probably the best ‘reimagining’ we’ve had in a while, so I’m still feeling generally positive about it. I can watch the POV find it enjoyable while still comparing it to the original, which is not something I can do with something like TBA.

The original country bear jamboree was lightning in a bottle. It was the perfect unique mix of many things that created an iconic experience. No overlay will come close to that. However, this is likely the best of the many overlays the show has received over the years, and is very much on par with vacation hoedown. Like vacation hoedown, it won’t be the genius, expertly crafted experience of the original, but it will be a fun, fresh take that’s certainly worth our time and appreciation in its own way!

You perfectly highlighted my feelings. “Lighting in a bottle” is a good term to describe CBJ ‘71.

 

[zipadee999]

You perfectly highlighted my feelings. “Lighting in a bottle” is a good term to describe CBJ ‘71.

I’d use that term for most of the classics like HM and POTC too! There are just some attractions that are just special in ways that we can’t really explain. They’re almost greater than the sum of their parts

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Bob and Josh are counting on people not caring what they do but still going.

I'm not sure either will lose too much sleep about people who keep paying to go while cursing both of them in their mind throughout the day.

 

[Streetway]

I’d use that term for most of the classics like HM and POTC too! There are just some attractions that are just special in ways that we can’t really explain. They’re almost greater than the sum of their parts

Yeah, just some elusive magic that is sorta unable to be captured!

 

[easyrowrdw]

The smoking fiddle was the best part. The opening song was ok. The rest was meh, at best.

Oh wait, I guess that's being negative.

Yeah, the smoking fiddle was good. But to nit-pick, I think it would've been better if had taken longer to smoke. It started quickly and just kind of kept doing the same thing. I think you gotta either build up to it or have the smoke get woefully out of hand.