The Major Problem facing Walt Disney World
More big changes coming from Walt Disney World. News broke Monday that Magic Kingdom’s Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America will be transformed into a new area based on Pixar’s Cars films. This can easily be summed up in a single word:
BLEH.
This is a horrible idea, but not for the easy to see reasons. Sure, Cars is a ripoff of Doc Hollywood, plays down to its audience, has no single quality film in the franchise, and features few memorable characters, but it does have its fans. It probably does deserve at least its own ride—I mean Dinosaur got one—but the location in Frontierland is all wrong. And that’s not the biggest problem facing the attraction, the park, or the Walt Disney Corporation itself.
I feel like I need to express that I fully endorse continuing change at the parks. In order for Walt Disney World to remain revelant to generations of audiences, it must continue to evolve. This is common sense. As much as I loved Splash Mountain (it was my favorite attraction in the entire park system), its ties to Song of the South made reimagining it the right thing to do. And centering the new attraction on The Princess and the Frog was the perfect choice, even if the new ride has been plagued with shutdowns.1 Incorporating the Pirates of the Caribbean films into Pirates of the Caribbean was also a no brainer.
I have no problem revamping Tom Sawyer’s Island. Frankly, it’s an underused space with little nostalgic appeal. This isn’t exactly the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.2 So its probably time to put something in its place.
Just not Cars.
I hate to go all historian here, but as a guy writing a book on Southeastern borderlands, Cars feels all wrong. The theming doesn’t fit. Sure, the series is set in the present-day American West, but it’s difficult to imagine walking out from Country Bear Jamboree, grabbing a turkey leg, and swinging by Mater’s God Awful Stereotypes of the South.3 Cars belongs elsewhere, perhaps in revamping the tired Aerosmith ride in Hollywood Studios or as part of a Pixar-themed park.
Side note: Seriously, it’s been 26 years since we got a new park. Disney seems committed to expanding current parks and then pulling back from said expansions (ahem, EPCOT). Why? The fans are thirsting for a new park. Give them something. Instead, Disney made two expansions to Hollywood Studios recently, with Toy Story- and Star Wars-themed additions. Both are too small. Neither really nailed it. The smart move would’ve been either a Pixar-themed park (Cars would thrive here) or a Star Wars themed park that would’ve printed money.
There’s another thing that makes Cars all wrong for Frontierland and looking at it really underscores Disney’s real concern. Close your eyes. Imagine Frontierland. What do you see? Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Country Bear Jamboree. Perhaps Splash Mountain. Definitely the Haunted Mansion. What do they have in common? No intellectual property (IP) associations. Yes, there’s the Song of the South thing, but Disney had effectively squashed those associations by prohibiting the film’s distribution whatsoever. No one really remembers that movie. The Haunted Mansion has a movie, yes, but it is based on the ride and really never made a cultural mark anyway.
If you think about the real strengths of Walt Disney World, many attractions—Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, River Cruise, Expedition Everest, the Enchanted Tiki Room, hell, even Carousel of Progress—are not based on IP. Disney allowed its famed imagineers to tell stories through the park. That gave those attractions—and the park itself—a certain timeless feeling. That might age, but it doesn’t get old.
Instead, Disney seems hellbound to tie everything to a film. And in the case of Star Wars, it ties things to the wrong films. The point here is that I don’t think Disney trusts its audience.
Instead of giving us a Cars-themed space where it doesn’t belong, Disney could have reimagined the frontier itself.4 They could have told new stories, talked about the Yukon, the Pacific Northwest, the Caribbean. Played off of origin stories like Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, or John Henry. Perhaps worked with Indigenous communities to create a place that tells us the frontier didn’t need to be discovered in the first place—it was already home. I just feel like this is a missed opportunity to capture the magic that was Disney and trusting the audience to know that good stories don’t have to be rooted on the screen.
But a Cars-centered area in the middle of Magic Kingdom? I’ll pass.
We have a pod coming on this film soon. Stay tuned.
Kate Sheppard will cut you if you mess with this.
Coming 2025!
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