News Country Bear Jamboree is getting new songs and acts

[PiratesMansion]

Country music is having a fabulous comeback with fresh and diverse singers who are tapping into the old-school torch songs of the country genres of the days of yore instead of the same boring men singing "I drive a big ole pick-up truck and my bimbo girlfriend loves me for it."

Who are these new and diverse singers? I'm 100% in favor. Unfortunately, the stations near me sure love to go straight to the big ol' pickup truck songs and ignore everything else.

Have no idea if this has been shared yet, but if it hasn’t, it’s some good news!

Is it? To me it reads as "I had a dumb idea almost 20 years ago, and aren't I awesome for suggesting it?", but I'm sure I'm in the minority on that one.

Some of the current songs (including "Mama, Don't Whip Little Buford") existed before the show.

Believe it or not, the only music that was actually written for the show was the closing song "Come Again" (and the companion song "Come on In" that played where the ride exited into the Mile Long Bar). Everything else, including that little piano riff Gomer plays at the top of the show, is from somewhere else and already existed before the show itself. This excellent series of posts looks at each song featured in the show, their origins in the real world and context within the show, and several songs that were considered for inclusion, but ultimately were discarded before the show opened:

http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-music-of-country-bear-jamboree-part.html

So they get terrible visit metrics and revert to the original, like what they did with the disaster that was Tiki Room Under New Management.

That won't happen. Disney is not one to admit mistakes or revert back from terrible decisions.

 

[LittleBuford]

So they get terrible visit metrics and revert to the original, like what they did with the disaster that was Tiki Room Under New Management.

If that happens, I've no doubt they'll just scrap the whole thing, not revert back to the current show.

 

[LittleBuford]

Believe it or not, the only music that was actually written for the show was the closing song "Come Again" (and the companion song "Come on In" that played where the ride exited into the Mile Long Bar). Everything else, including that little piano riff Gomer plays at the top of the show, is from somewhere else and already existed before the show itself. This excellent series of posts looks at each song featured in the show, and several that were proposed:

http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-music-of-country-bear-jamboree-part.html

Thanks, I didn't know this!

 

[flynnibus]

So why didn’t this redo happen 19 years ago?

Yes we forget the low periods already?

 

[PiratesMansion]

Thanks, I didn't know this!

Oh, and of course they had to write the Bear Band Serenade too ("Zeke and Zeb and Ted and Fred and Bear named Tennessee")! I had a feeling I had forgotten one other song. But everything else was from elsewhere.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I'm torn between "why does everything have to be a Disney sing-a-long/why can't people enjoy things they aren't already familiar with anymore?" and "this might be the only way the attraction survives in any form as it isn't all that popular anymore."

I hope they at least keep the intro song.

 

[Stitchon]

If it keeps the bears running, then great. Hopefully they don't mess it up.

 

[scottieRoss]

Right. But those stories didn't get that much airplay over the saturation messaging from DisneyCorp at the time about how this was a pro-environmental movie with strong female character lead against oppressive colonizers.

It's so NOT an issue that they expanded "problematic" Pocahontas into Fantasmic last year. So much for Stories Matter

No, they took it out of Fantasmic!

 

[scottieRoss]

Because everyone agrees suddenly that Genie+ is a great thing?

Doesn't the idea to not treat the attraction as a second class citizen count as a proposal?

At any rate, it's not my job to make people care about CBJ-it's Disney's. And if Disney actually cared to keep around CBJ, they would have made an effort to do so and attract guests to it, other than the nothing they transparently did in reality. That they did nothing shows that they don't care and they were itching to be rid of it to replace it with Disney IP flavor of them month, as they are so inclined at the moment.

And defending it only makes it easier for them to do it to Tiki Room and COP in due time.

That is exactly what Disney is doing now. They are making an effort to attract guests to it. That shows they care.

 

[BrerFoxesBayouAdventure]

View attachment 741789
To be fair it could've been a full gut/replacement.

I REALLY like this art, but if they really wanted to bring the Mickey Mouse Revue back they could've just gutted Phillermagic.

 

[scottieRoss]

And serve alcohol. That also seems to be top of the list with DisneyCorp these days. (and why they keep missing that with the tiki lounge escapes me...)

And they can cook for the restaurant in the stores next door. Or in the alley to Adventureland. neither will ever be a restaurant.

 

[BrerFoxesBayouAdventure]

People have been upset with Pocahontas for decades already. The film was considered a poor choice when it was even announced, as most native americans consider it a white washed fairy tale invented by John Smith to make himself seem even more famous (The "story" wan't added to his memoirs when he came back. It was after she became a celebrity and it was more like "oh yeah, I knew her before she was famous. She loved ME!")

They'd sooner get rid of the Br'ers than remove Pocahontas. And that's exactly what they did. Princesses sell like hotcakes, singing cartoon animals don't.

 

[scottieRoss]

To me it's not assured that changing to more conventional Disney songs will inherently solve the problem. It certainly didn't do wonders for HarmoniUS, as many had seemed to expect. To quote Foxxy of Passport2Dreams, from an article written in 2018 (full thing here):

Disney, for their part, has decided that the problem with Country Bear Jamboree is Country Bear Jamboree, and various efforts have been initiated in the past 15 years to introduce newer country music, or have the bears sing Disney songs, or turn the thing into "American Idol".

But here's the thing, is that you can't make Country Bear Jamboree into the afternoon parade. It's never going to be a massive crowd pleaser, because by its very nature it's very, very weird. Country Bear Jamboree is a cult favorite, except Disney insists on treating it as a box office disappointment. The problem here isn't Country Bear Jamboree, but Disney.

And again, given that there has apparently been a long-term desire to change this show for some time, as seen in this article, by other posters on this site, on Twitter, etc., I don't genuinely believe anyone can say Disney was giving its best-faith effort to convince people that CBJ was something they needed to see in recent memory. You don't work overtime to convince people to see something that you've decided is a problem.

Perhaps I'll be wrong, and Foxxy will be wrong, and people will lap this change up. Certainly, there are many here who are ready to do so, and clearly some people really do just want to be immersed in familiar Disney IP constantly at the expense of the park's history, theming, unique charms, etc. There has been no shortage of people who didn't 'get' Country Bear Jamboree, even when people went to the parks to experience to them as they are rather than to be bombarded by Disney media constantly at a very expensive Legoland knockoff. But to me this is Disney doing the classic thing they've done repeatedly over the last several decades: ignore things that actually need fixing in favor of adding IP where it isn't needed and just diluting the experience further.

You nailed it on the head. The majority of guests want to be surrounded by Disney IP. They travel across the world to find the familiar characters and music they hear on Disney+ and in theaters and on TV. From the Guest Surveys, they want to experience what they are familiar with.

 

[scottieRoss]

Who are these new and diverse singers? I'm 100% in favor. Unfortunately, the stations near me sure love to go straight to the big ol' pickup truck songs and ignore everything else.

Is it? To me it reads as "I had a dumb idea almost 20 years ago, and aren't I awesome for suggesting it?", but I'm sure I'm in the minority on that one.

Believe it or not, the only music that was actually written for the show was the closing song "Come Again" (and the companion song "Come on In" that played where the ride exited into the Mile Long Bar). Everything else, including that little piano riff Gomer plays at the top of the show, is from somewhere else and already existed before the show itself. This excellent series of posts looks at each song featured in the show, their origins in the real world and context within the show, and several songs that were considered for inclusion, but ultimately were discarded before the show opened:

http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-music-of-country-bear-jamboree-part.html

That won't happen. Disney is not one to admit mistakes or revert back from terrible decisions.

Really, Alien Encounter and its multiple incarnations leading to Stitch. Tiki Room, to its new management, and back. California Adventure 2.0 anyone? Disney Studios Park even today? Have you looked at the Hong Kong Castle today versus 10 years ago? They sure do admit mistakes and then move forward from them.

 

[CaptinEO]

But this is premised on the idea that people weren't attracted to the show as is, thus justifying a change. If that's the case, my question becomes: does anyone feel like Disney actually made an honest, good faith effort to attract anyone to the current show at any time in recent memory? If not, I think it's a little disingenuous to say that the audience just wasn't there. Was Disney honestly trying to attract an audience, or just hoping for an excuse to change the show?

Aren't they doing this right now? Reworking the show and modernizing it to attract people. When the show was made these were well known songs. Now it has been 50 years.

I've been to the Country Bears everytime I've gone to Disney World and what little we know of the update is it seems tasteful and not a betrayal to the brand. This isn't like Tiki Room Under New Management.

I'm surprised some people are outraged at this to be honest.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I'm surprised some people are outraged at this to be honest.

I think it's a combination of IP fatigue and a general distrust of what modern Disney can do.

I'd have a similar reaction to changing Muppet-Vision 3-D as I doubt they could top what Henson and his OG team did.

 

[CaptinEO]

I think it's a combination of IP fatigue and a general distrust of what modern Disney can do.

I'd have a similar reaction to changing Muppet-Vision 3-D as I doubt they could top what Henson and his OG team did.

I get the IP Fatigue thing. Then again Walt had the birds in Tiki Room sing "High Ho" as you leave. To me Country Bears singing about Bear necessities is a natural fit and doesn't seem as forced.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I get the IP Fatigue thing. Then again Walt had the birds in Tiki Room sing "High Ho" as you leave. To me Country Bears singing about Bear necessities is a natural fit and doesn't seem as forced.

The Bears currently sing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett", but it's one song that's used to set up a joke.

I don't want mostly Disney music. I'd want as little as possible and have the show stand on its own merits, something modern Disney doesn't seem to believe theme park experiences are capable of.

 

[BrerFoxesBayouAdventure]

I get the IP Fatigue thing. Then again Walt had the birds in Tiki Room sing "High Ho" as you leave. To me Country Bears singing about Bear necessities is a natural fit and doesn't seem as forced.

I'm fine with them singing Bear Necessities, it's the rest of the songs I'm concerned about.

Unrelated, but isn't Henry's VA still around? You think they'd contact him for the retheme or no?

 

[CaptinEO]

The Bears currently sing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett", but it's one song that's used to set up a joke.

I don't want mostly Disney music. I'd want as little as possible and have the show stand on its own merits, something modern Disney doesn't seem to believe theme park experiences are capable of.

I'm fine with them singing Bear Necessities, it's the rest of the songs I'm concerned about.

Unrelated, but isn't Henry's VA still around? You think they'd contact him for the retheme or no?

Is there confirmation it's all Disney songs? Do we know the song list? I maybe missed this part. Or are people speculating?