When Disneyland was first built, Walt Disney said it would always be in a state of becoming; that the park would continue to change, evolve and grow over time. That has certainly been the case for Disneyland, as well as every Disney Park that has been created since. Numerous popular attractions have been rethemed, if not entirely replaced, over the last few decades, but now Walt Disney World is getting ready for arguably its most significant change since it opened. A massive redesign of one of Magic Kingdom’s original lands, Frontierland, is coming.
The decision to transform a major part of Frontierland, specifically the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island, and replace them with new attractions dedicated to Pixar’s Cars has been met with the most significant negative outcry since… the last time a major part of Magic Kingdom was replaced. While I certainly understand the fans who are upset, I’m also quite excited by the potential and what it means for the future.
Losing The Rivers Of America Is Sad, But It’s Not The End Of Magic Kingdom
This week, Walt Disney World received approval on permits filed with the South Florida Water Management District that will allow the resort to move forward on its already announced plans to drain the Rivers of America as part of the update that will include both new Cars attractions in what is now Frontierland, as well as a new Villains Land.
While this approval was inevitable, many fans have taken it as if it were the last nail in the coffin of Magic Kingdom. Many seemed to hope Disney would change their minds about the update, as if all the second-guessing hadn’t already been done before the project was officially announced.
To be sure, this change to Frontierland is massive in scope and scale. The land is going to be virtually unrecognizable when the work is done, nd that’s not entirely a good thing. I’ll miss the Rivers of America too. Not having the only significant body of water in Magic Kingdom anymore is going to mark a real change to the entire vibe of the park.
However, the idea that Magic Kingdom will be so irrevocably changed by the loss of Tom Sawyer Island that it will no longer be worth visiting, as some seem to feel, is some serious hyperbole. Frontierland will change, and maybe Frontierland will cease to exist, but that’s not the end of the world. It’s not the end of anything. It’s the start of something new, and that’s exciting.
Is Nothing Sacred? No, And That’s OK.
For as many ways as Magic Kingdom, and all Disney Parks, have changed since the day they opened, there’s a lot that’s been there from the beginning. Numerous Disney World attractions from opening day are still running more than 50 years later, but there isn’t a statute of limitations on these things. Everything has the potential to be replaced.
We all have those attractions that we can't imagine ever being gone, but this change should be enough to shift the thinking of everybody. I once spoke with Imagineering VP Jeanette Lomboy and asked her if there was anything at Disney Parks too classic to change. She admitted that while there were things she couldn't imagine replacing, she was open to the possibility that down the road it might be worth doing. She said...
I think from that perspective you got to be open-minded. We have to think of long-term view, and Walt always thought long-term. This moment you might say. ‘No, I won't do that,’ but I think we have to have a long-term view of how we think about our guests' experiences, and being able to continue to push the envelope and respond to what guests want. But I promise you our goal is to always make it better right, make it better than it was.
Nostalgia has always been a major element of Disney Parks. Main Street U.S.A. and Frontierland have both been nostalgic for different eras in American history since they opened, and now the lands themselves are nostalgic for the guests that have visited them year after year. They are for me too. I have a hard time imagining a version of Magic Kingdom without the Frontierland I know. I have no idea if I’ll like it, and that makes me nervous, but it also has me excited.
The Future Is Exciting And Unknown, And Walt Disney Understood That
Walt Disney has achieved a nearly deified status among fans and even among employees of The Walt Disney Company. For decades after Walt passed away, the company tried to run itself with a “What Would Walt Do?” mentality. It met with mixed results, in part because what Walt Disney would probably do in most situations was something he had never done before.
Losing attractions that Walt Disney helped develop is a little sad. As a fan of Walt, I get that. But Walt Disney was also a committed futurist who was always looking at whatever the next great thing would be. Maybe Walt himself wouldn’t want to see the Rivers of America replaced, but I do believe that if he had an opportunity today, there would be parts of Walt Disney World he helped create that he wouldn’t mind tearing down to put up something new he thought was exciting.
It’s ok to be bummed out if a thing that you loved at Disneyland or Disney World is getting replaced. It’s ok if you think that the thing that replaced it is lesser than the thing that was there. I’m far from certain that I’ll like what we get when this massive transformation of Frontierland is done.
However, I choose to be excited. I choose to look forward to what is to come rather than what is lost. A radical transformation of Frontierland is the only way to make Frontierland radically new. The potential for just how great this could all be is incredible.
Frontierland will change. These new Cars attractions will be built, and then generations of first-time visitors will experience Magic Kingdom never really knowing what was once there, only enjoying what they have. The day will come when a lot of people will be nostalgic for rides that don’t even exist yet. Then the day will come when those rides get replaced by something new. It's a continuous cycle.
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