Country Bear Musical Jamboree Full Show

Picture courtesy of Disney

 

Walt Disney World's new/renovated show in Frontierland, Country Bear Musical Jamboree officially opens on July 17.  This is, of course, not to be confused with the Country Bear Jamboree, which is what this attraction is replacing.  It appears that media were allowed to watch and record the show to put up on their YouTube channels this week, as there are a bunch of videos circulating (we watched this one, though any will do). 

With the names of the shows being so similar, and with the bears themselves sticking around, just how much has changed?  In one way, not much, but in another one, quite a bit.  We'll talk about that here and see how this new show stacks up to the original (or at the least the most recent version of the original; even that had some changes over the years).

This is the second time in recent memory where Disney has allowed videos of their renovated attraction to get out in the public early, following on the heels of the Tiana's Bayou Adventure ride through posted in the weeks leading up to its debut.  There is no "official" video this time, but I think the result is the same - people get a chance to see it before going to the parks.  This is both good and bad, but I think Disney is doing it to get ahead of any kind of bad press that would come with a debut of this type (Tiana's has had some harsh critics online, as I mention in that linked article).  But Tiana's is actually a useful comparison and one we'll come back to later.

 

 

Let's start with the positive - there are actually a fair amount of things this attraction does right.  First, the animatronics look better than I've ever seen them.  I don't know how much work was put into actually making their appearance better, but they seem ... healthy, I guess?  And more colorful.  I know they had new outfits made, and they fit the theme well.  No complaints here.

 

 

I think one of the things this revised attraction does well is to keep the humor and personality of the bears as much as possible.  One of my big concerns was that this would be lost, and you can quibble with certain specifics, but in general, the bears seem like themselves.  I also like a few nods to the original, notably Big Al making an appearance to interrupt the finale, as he has always done.  There's also a cool burning fiddle effect, and there's a reference to "Mineral King" thrown in there, which was the planned site of a Disney ski resort that fell through, and was to be the original home of the Country Bears before they made their way to the parks.

As far as the song choices go, I will give Disney credit for thinking outside the box a bit here and not just recycling the same few "big" songs over and over.  "Fixer Upper" and "Kiss the Girl" in particular were surprising choices.  I'm not sure that there's a real coherent theme to the music, but then again, I'm not sure there was one in the past besides "old country songs."  So I can't knock them for that.

I mentioned Tiana's Bayou Adventure before, as a replacement for the beloved Splash Mountain.  My feeling here is similar in a lot of ways - it's not as good as what it is replacing.  But Disney knows there will be backlash to any change, and they just have to play the waiting game - Disney World's demographics are still largely first time families.  In a few years, no one will even remember the originals, so there won't be as much of a comparison snap judgement and the attractions will be judged simply on whether they are entertaining or not.

The biggest loss here is probably the impetus for the change in the first place - the bears' edges have been smoothed out a bit in this new modern version.  There's less "offensive" material (heavy air quotes there), so this attraction falls more in line with anything that is created in this day and age.  The same was true for Tiana's, but this is a less drastic change with lower stakes.

I contend that this is yet another case of IP becoming the only way Disney can create attractions anymore.  The Country Bears were loved by parks fans because they were wholly original and unique to the parks.  They sang covers of old songs, but they were designed for this show, not just repurposed Disney songs.  There are a lot of attractions where you can hear Disney songs being sung - now this becomes another one, rather than something else. 

That's really the saddest part to me, but that seems to be the direction Disney is headed. I will say that besides leaving the attraction as it was (which wasn't an option, apparently), this is probably the next best option.  The bears remain, the theater is the same and the show is a quirky diversion from the normal Disney attractions.  Whether that is high praise or not is in the eye of the beholder, but I will say that my initial negative reaction to this news has been softened somewhat after seeing it.  Take that for what you will.  

The loss of original attractions (or really, "Parks IP" as they should probably be called) is a slow and sad process for longtime fans.  Tiana's was one example, and I often think of Illuminations (the old Epcot nighttime show) as another.  This change doesn't rise to that level for me, but it's more continuing IP creep that we are sure to see more of in the future.

In a strange way, this new attraction reminded me of what happened with Journey Into Imagination with Figment at Epcot.  There hasn't been IP introduced in that ride (yet?) but that was a case of taking a beloved character and eventually turning the actual attraction into something far lesser.  People who are fans of Figment are probably old time fans who remember the previous, superior attraction.  I tend to think that will be the case here - Country Bears fans will live on, and will tolerate this attraction since it's all we have at this point.

Again, this is not to say that the new version is "bad."  It's actually much better than I had feared.  It's more of the big picture, principle of the thing that gets to me in this case.  But for all the changes, the attraction remains what it always was - a fun diversion that won't be too crowded and gets you out of the heat for a while during a long, busy day.