Walt Disney World has introduced two all-new Vehicles sights in a reimagined space of Magic Kingdom. Regardless of Radiator Springs Racers and its land being massively common at Disneyland, the fan response was comparatively restrained at D23–and this was earlier than we knew what the rides have been changing. (Up to date February 18, 2025.)
To make sure, the response was not damaging–there have been nonetheless loads of cheers and it’s not like company have been booing. However as in comparison with Villains Land at Magic Kingdom, the response was extra muted, particularly contemplating its scale and scope. There are any variety of doable unremarkable causes for this, from the awkward method the information was shared through Tow Mater making the announcement through a video name to the stilted script.
To the latter level, Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro tried to explain Frontierland as being a land about “retaining your eyes on the horizon … believing in your self, carving your personal path, and striving towards success. That goes for miners within the mountains, bears from the nation, a princess from the bayou, or a racecar from the massive metropolis.” This and the accompanying fan response has made us marvel: is the Vehicles franchise thematically-fitting for Frontierland at Magic Kingdom?
February 18, 2025 Replace: Now that Walt Disney World has the inexperienced gentle to exchange Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island with Vehicles Land, we thought it’d be a great time to revisit this subject. Beforehand, many followers have been in denial about this undertaking, or holding out hope that the State of Florida would deny permits because of the environmental affect, and many others.
Now that the final massive roadblock has been eliminated and Walt Disney World has put out development bidding indicated that development will start on March 1, 2025, all hope that the plans can be derailed or altered to retain the waterfront promenade is gone (or ought to be). The undertaking is accelerating as introduced, with out additional delay. There’s nonetheless time to benefit from the serene surroundings of the Rivers of America, nevertheless it doesn’t appear that Walt Disney World will change course at this level.
As such, a lot of those that have been disillusioned concerning the plan to utterly fill within the Rivers of America and demolish Tom Sawyer Island would possibly need to come to phrases with the choice. That features us, for what it’s value, and we nonetheless strongly consider it is a shortsighted mistake that sacrifices an excessive amount of of the distinct character and attraction of Magic Kingdom, and one of many park’s most iconic options.
However, it’s occurring. And although we don’t love the thought, we do suppose there’s an incredible alternative for Imagineers to make lemonade out of lemons and pull off the unimaginable. So if you happen to might use a little bit optimism, this commentary may be simply what you want…
Earlier than we try and reply that titular query, let’s shortly carry you up to the mark on these Magic Kingdom additions. In line with Disney, these Vehicles sights can be set exterior of Radiator Springs, because the franchise heads west into thrilling new frontiers. On this journey, company will be capable of expertise not one however two thrilling new Vehicles-themed sights.
In different phrases, the marquee attraction is not a clone of Radiator Springs from Disney California Journey. It’s a brand new story and setting that goes past what was established within the Vehicles movie franchise. Identical goes for the secondary experience–it’s not Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree or Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters.
One of many two all-new Vehicles sights will invite you on an exciting rally race by the mountains. Tackle wild terrain as you race throughout the panorama climbing mountain trails, dodging geysers and — Mater’s favourite — splashing by mud holes. The second attraction can be geared in the direction of them and can be enjoyable for the entire household.
Work on this new Vehicles Land space of Frontierland will start in early 2025.
Let’s flip to the titular query, which is the thematic appropriateness of Vehicles in Frontierland.
Beginning with the positives, the primary is the pure world that the Vehicles inhabit. The reimagined space seems that it’ll characteristic lovely buttes, dashing rapids, cool canyons, and a wide range of different gorgeous landscapes that really feel impressed by the vistas of Utah, California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and different areas of the American West.
Within the final decade-plus, Imagineering has demonstrated it’s on the high of its sport with rockwork. Vehicles Land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Moana’s Journey of Water, Pandora – World of Avatar, New Fantasyland, and Fantasy Springs all come to thoughts as exemplars. It doesn’t matter what you consider these lands as an entire, the “pure” environments are undeniably superior.
Most of that is attributable to Imagineer Zsolt Hormay. That’s a reputation extra Disney followers ought to know–he ought to be a future Disney Legend. He doesn’t miss, and if he’s helming the rockwork crew behind the Vehicles land at Magic Kingdom, it’ll look nice. Even when it’s completely different from DCA (and it is going to be), it’ll nonetheless look unbelievable. I look ahead to sitting in my rocking chair close to Nation Bear Musical Jamboree and gazing out throughout the snow-capped peaks.
Then there’s the not-so-natural world. It’s tougher to get a learn on this from the idea artwork, nevertheless it seems there’s the structure itself after which an added layer of RSN broadcast stuff. And naturally, there are the speaking automobiles with eyes, which aren’t indigenous to any of the locations within the American West that I’ve visited.
The structure is harking back to basic model of ‘Parkitecture’ or Nationwide Park Service rustic. This design combines pure supplies, comparable to entire logs and rocks, and seems as if it’s constructed by hand. The objective was design to mix into landscapes as a substitute of imposing upon them.
You’ll see exemplars of Parkitecture all through the Western Nationwide Parks, in entrance gateways, customer facilities, in-park motels, and different infrastructure. The idea artwork above jogs my memory of Yosemite Nationwide Park, which isn’t notably stunning since Imagineers have drawn on it (and Sequoia Nationwide Park) up to now for areas of DCA.
Talking of which, what additionally jumps out to me concerning the idea artwork is that it appears like Imagineering is repeating a mistake remodeled 20 years in the past with the opening of Disney’s California Journey. Specifically, I’m speaking about what was then often called the Grizzly Peak Recreation Space.
In line with the land’s unique backstory, it was developed as a mine within the 1800s after an opportunity discovery of gold. The mine was later deserted and the land bought to the federal government within the Nineteen Fifties. As white-water rafting elevated in recognition within the Eighties, a bunch of younger entrepreneurs bought the land to determine the Grizzly River Rafting Firm, which might be an excessive sports activities facility.
Paradoxically sufficient, it was the large DCA overhaul and growth that introduced Vehicles Land to the park that modified this. Though Grizzly Peak was largely good, a placemaking undertaking scrubbed it of the intense sports activities look. That was a modest enchancment, and one which additionally eliminated the very late Nineteen Nineties, X-Video games high quality.
As a alternative, Imagineering added placemaking particulars that made Grizzly Peak look extra like certainly one of California’s lovely Nationwide Parks. What was achieved to Grizzly Peak was glorious, however the extra ‘excessive’ adjustments got here to adjoining Condor Flats, which was reworked into Grizzly Peak Airfield. (I really favored the excessive desert and Age of Aviation theme–simply not the Nineteen Nineties repurposing portion.)
In any case, Grizzly Peak went from being weathered with a layer of already-dated Nineteen Nineties excessive sports activities on high of it to a basic Nineteen Fifties model. Together with Vehicles Land and Buena Vista Road, Grizzly Peak might be the perfect space of present-day Disney California Journey. However in equity, I’m an enormous fan of U.S. Nationwide Parks, and love the calming ambiance of this space. The bypass behind Grizzly River Run is certainly one of my favourite areas in any Disney park.
Again when reviewing Disney California Journey 2.0 again in 2012, I wrote the next a few alternative I’d prefer to see for Redwood Creek Problem Path: “a well-done household darkish experience permitting company to board a 1955 Pontiac Station Wagon and drive by vignettes of locations impressed by California’s Nationwide Parks.”
To be sincere, I don’t even bear in mind writing that. Studying it now, it sounds very particular–however I don’t recall there ever being a rumor of such an attraction. (The long-running rumor/wishful considering is including the Nation Bears to Grizzly River Run.) However that’s not the purpose. Quite, it’s that I’ve wished a basic automobile experience by U.S. Nationwide Park-like settings for some time.
Wanting on the idea artwork launched on the D23 Expo for the headliner Vehicles attraction, it appears like I’ll partially get my want. However on the similar time, that they’re going to make the identical mistake as DCA 1.0, which was undone a decade in the past for a cleaner and extra timeless idea.
It simply makes me marvel–is nobody nonetheless round from when Imagineering did such an incredible job with placemaking on the Grizzly Peak and Condor Flats refresh? Why go down the street of maximum sports activities once more? It didn’t work the primary time and it doesn’t really feel applicable for the ambiance of Frontierland…and even Magic Kingdom as an entire, for that matter.
That is particularly the case on condition that the environments themselves in the primary Vehicles experience appear to be a U.S. Nationwide Park. And in reality, Piston Peak Nationwide Park is one of many settings of the Vehicles cinematic universe, combining Yosemite and Yellowstone Nationwide Parks. It seems in Planes: Fireplace & Rescue slightly than the core movie franchise, however it could nonetheless be an ideal backdrop for the Magic Kingdom land.
An space themed to Piston Peak Nationwide Park might simply cross for what the Western Nationwide Parks regarded like previous to the Mission 66 undertaking! For many who are unfamiliar with it, Mission 66 was a daring post-war proposal to spend $1 billion over 10 years to modernize the U.S. Nationwide Parks following an period of explosive progress in guests after World Struggle II.
It got here throughout an automotive growth in the USA, with quickly rising numbers of automobiles clogging up Nationwide Park roads. Updating car infrastructure was a serious precedence of Mission 66, as many roads have been constructed for horse-drawn autos and infrequently unpaved. Promotional supplies for Mission 66 emphasised the romanticism of household street journey holidays, and the Nationwide Park Service even partnered with oil and automotive corporations to advertise Mission 66.
Individuals now look again fondly on that halcyon period of the Nationwide Parks, seeing basic automobiles in rustic settings and infrequently round wildlife. (It’s really fairly controversial amongst conservationists. Considered one of my ‘favourite’ anecdotes is how the NPS rangers used to place out piles of trash to draw bears so company might watch them eat. Loopy occasions.)
Level being, all of this sounds pitch good for a Vehicles experience that’s just like the idea artwork launched by Disney. It might be set in Piston Peak Nationwide Park and really feel proper at residence amidst each the settlement facet of Frontierland and Huge Thunder. All that would want to alter is a little bit of the Vehicles window-dressing, because the scenic environments are already applicable–proper all the way down to the dust roads.
As an alternative of that includes off-road rally racers, they may use basic automobiles from the Nineteen Fifties. Versus a bunch of banners and modern-looking broadcasting tools from RSN, they may characteristic signage evoking a bygone period of the U.S. Nationwide Parks.
This all wouldn’t be an ideal match for the “thrilling” nature of the attraction (I don’t suppose there’s a lot off-road racing of 1955 Pontiac station wagons), however who cares? It will be an ideal match for Frontierland.
From my perspective, that’s what issues far more. Frontierland is themed to the Previous West. That’s an outlined period with a set time interval, albeit a debatable one over which historians quibble. Regardless, there isn’t any one who claims that rally automobile racers are a part of the Previous West.
On the absolute newest, Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland ends someday across the late 1800s to early 1900s–and the latter dates are solely to accommodate Tiana’s Bayou Journey. Nonetheless a number of many years too early for rally racers.
Even when it weren’t, they only really feel at odds with the ambiance of Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland because it presently exists, which is what I think many followers take situation with. (That is additionally my perspective on Tomorrowland Speedway–that the vibe is off-putting, no matter thematic appropriateness.)
You might additionally argue–efficiently, in my view–that the American frontier is as a lot a spirit as it’s an period. That sense of rugged individualism, manifest future, massive folklore, and western exploration–all of it’s as a lot an ethos as it’s an period.
As America will get older and the 1800s are additional within the rearview mirror, the case might be made that the bygone period of the U.S. Nationwide Parks and the Mission 66 growth are all a part of that spirit. It was a special time in America, however one which embodied the same sentiment because the “go west, younger man” age.
In truth, the America of at this time is additional faraway from that automotive growth and heyday of the western ‘Nice American Highway Journey’ than Walt Disney was from the Previous West when he dreamt up the idea of Frontierland. At the very least so far as the passage of time is anxious, the center of the final century is already older than the Previous West was within the Nineteen Fifties.
At the very least, that’s my perspective. Thematic purists will possible be far much less forgiving, arguing that any automobiles (lowercase or uppercase) don’t belong in a land with “frontier” within the identify. There are additionally those that will argue that speaking automobiles with eyes are wholly inappropriate for this portion of the park.
However for me, the U.S. Nationwide Parks across the Mission 66 growth are a quintessential period of the Western United States and the American spirit that would match nice in Frontierland. Speaking automobiles with eyes don’t trouble me within the least, particularly since that is Magic Kingdom and never World Showcase or Animal Kingdom, that are extra grounded in actuality.
Magic Kingdom’s lands are all the time imbued with a way of fantasy. If we will have singing bears that inform jokes, we will have automobiles with eyes that inform jokes. (With that mentioned, I don’t hope the sightlines are such that we don’t see these car-eyes from Haunted Mansion or Corridor of Presidents.)
Then once more, I’m additionally a realist about it, and likewise know there’s no method on earth Walt Disney World is including extra stuff themed to cowboys and indians. If it’s going to exist into the long run, Frontierland is all the time going to be concerning the frontier spirit of America slightly than that exact period. That’s simply the reality of the matter. It’s all the time going to be a compromise, and basic automobiles (and Vehicles) in a Nineteen Fifties Nationwide Park setting is one which I can utterly get on board with. Excessive sports activities off-road rally racers…not a lot.
Finally, I’m accepting of Vehicles in Frontierland as long as the environments are clearly impressed by the Nationwide Parks of the American West, the layer of Vehicles themed design on high of that marries Parkitecture with basic Nineteen Fifties autos, there’s kinetic vitality through water and different placemaking, and the sightlines work. Thematic purists should scoff at this, however I feel most affordable followers or the common visitor will discover {that a} bygone space of Yosemite or Yellowstone Nationwide Parks passes the Frontierland odor take a look at.
An space and sights themed to Piston Peak Nationwide Park evokes the period and ambiance they’d anticipate to see in a country land themed to the frontier, even when it’s not set within the exact period because it was in 1955 or 1971. Issues change over the course of fifty+ years, and a shifting of that setting is smart. For me, that is nonetheless quintessential Americana–the type that belongs in a Disney theme park–because the U.S. Nationwide Parks are America’s Greatest Concept. They need to be celebrated, even when in fantasy-form, at Walt Disney World.
What’s going to make so much much less sense is that if there are loud and trendy automobiles zooming by the land, which can make it really feel extra just like the Nineteen Nineties. And likewise, not the U.S. Nationwide Parks of the American West, since off-road rally racing will not be one thing you are able to do on these public lands. So to reply the titular query, my private take is that Vehicles can slot in Frontierland–and fairly properly, if achieved proper. The unanswered query from the idea artwork is whether or not they’ll pull the weather of the franchise that match, or those who don’t.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you suppose the Vehicles franchise is able to becoming thematically into Frontierland? Do you suppose the idea artwork as shared up to now really does work with the ambiance and spirit of Frontierland? Wouldn’t it be higher if Imagineers leaned extra into the look of the Nineteen Fifties, dropping the intense sports activities angle and RSN broadcasting stuff? In any other case, what’s your response to Vehicles rides coming to Magic Kingdom? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!