Cars Land Coming to Disney’s Magic Kingdom

Disney has announced that a “Cars” Land is coming to Disney’s Magic Kingdom with 2 exciting “Cars”-themed attractions. This is part of the biggest expansion project the park has ever seen and it will be done in multiple phases.

In this post, we are going to discuss everything that was announced about the all-new land themed to Pixar’s Cars in the Magic Kingdom and just what exactly will be included in this expansion.

Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro made the announcement at the “Horizons: Disney Experiences Showcase” during the D23 Expo at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

With the help of Tow Mater via video call, announced that a new area inspired by the Pixar Animation Studios film “Cars” will be coming to a reimagined section of Frontierland at Magic Kingdom.

“The American West has always been about keeping your eyes on the horizon … believing in yourself, carving your own path, and striving toward success. That goes for miners in the mountains, bears from the country, a princess from the bayou … or a racecar from the big city,” Josh told the crowd.

Don’t get too comfortable in Radiator Springs because it’s time to leave the pit stop and head west into exciting new frontiers. On this adventure, guests will be able to experience not one but two exciting new “Cars”-themed attractions.

“We are thrilled to create this original Cars adventure and put our guests in the driver’s seat as we—quite literally—explore a new frontier in Frontierland,” shared Michael Hundgen, Walt Disney World Portfolio Executive Producer at Walt Disney Imagineering.

“Part of pioneering this new story includes tapping into the themes of exploration and adventure that inspire so many of us to keep propelling forward. Anytime we touch Magic Kingdom, we recognize the massive responsibility that exists to get it right and tell stories that connect with our guests.”

We knew a big expansion was on the table for the Magic Kingdom, but the fact that one of the two lands will be themed to “Cars” honestly took us by surprise. The last time Disney talked about the project they mentioned “Coco”, “Encanto”, or even a Villains Land (which is also confirmed) as possibilities, so I think everyone was a bit shocked to see “Cars” make it.

To be clear, this is NOT a clone of Radiator Springs in Disney California Adventure. This land will be completely different, much more rugged and untamed than its West Coast counterpart. It’s also going to be smaller than Radiator Springs so that probably means fewer dining and shopping options.

Attractions

So what is going to be included in this land? Right now we know that 2 brand-new attractions are going to be featured here.

The first attraction (and the much more interesting one to most guests) will be an “off-road” version of Radiator Springs Racers. The second is a more family-friendly ride, geared toward small children.

“Cars” Off Road Rally Ride – Radiator Springs Racers is one of my favorite Disney attractions of all-time, so to here there is a brand-new version coming to Walt Disney World is music to my ears. First of all, I love the fact that it is a new attraction and not just a clone of the same attraction from DCA.

Here is Disney’s description of the ride: “One attraction will invite you on a thrilling rally race through the mountains. Take on wild terrain as you race across the landscape climbing mountain trails, dodging geysers and — Mater’s favorite — splashing through mudholes.”

Looking at the concept art, this looks like it has the potential to be just as amazing as Radiator Springs Racers is, and potentially better. Just look at all the wild turns and underground tunnels to ride through. On top of that, the rumored ride system it will use sounds incredible!

If you notice in the art, you don’t see the same slot-car ride system used in Radiator Springs Racers or Test Track. There are no visible tracks or guide slots in the concept art which has many wondering if it will use a trackless all-terrain ride system. We’ve seen many trackless rides from Disney at this point, but ones that are indoors and that run on a flat surface, nothing off-road like this would be.

How could Disney pull this off? Ironically, the company Dynamic Attractions is developing a ride system called the “Automatic Guided All-Terrain Vehicle.”

Here is the description of their technology from their website:

“Since the beginning of theme parks, guests around the world have dreamed of a ride that is no longer bound by tracks or rails, that can go over any terrain, follow any path, and take you anywhere the story demands. Easy to theme, the All-Terrain Dark Ride style can fit any storyline: indoors, outdoors, or both. A variety of seating options and capacities are available.”

“Easy to theme, the All-Terrain Dark Ride style can fit any storyline: indoors, outdoors, or both. A variety of seating options and capacities are available.”

Here is a look at their vehicles in action:

Why would Disney possibly use this ride system and not the one from Radiator Springs Racers? Well besides this ride system being incredibly awesome looking, that old ride system is already being used on Test Track over in EPCOT. So it would make sense for Disney to want to make this ride as different as possible to not overlap similar rides at Walt Disney World.

Also, this is not coming out of left field. Disney has already collaborated with Dynamic Attractions on past attractions such as Radiator Springs Racers, Test Track, Avatar Flight of Passage, Soarin’, just to name a few, so we already know that Disney could work with them again.

At this time, we’ll just have to wait and see which one Disney chooses.

Second “Family-friendly” Attraction – We don’t have much to say about this one, only that it makes sense for Disney to want to include a ride geared for smaller riders as well. After all, this is the Magic Kingdom.

Depending on how big this is, I could see this allowing Disney to replace the Tomorrowland Speedway at some point down the line and use that space as part of the eventual Tomorrowland overhaul.

What is Cars Land Replacing?

While all this looks great, getting Cars Land at the Magic Kingdom does not come without a heavy cost. Disney has announced that this new land will be built on the current location of Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America. In fact, both of these iconic Magic Kingdom locations will cease to exist once construction is complete.

This was rumored after the original announcement, and confirmed by Disney:

“It’s time to leave Radiator Springs and head west into exciting new locations. To make way for this completely new frontier, the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island will be transformed into vast and rugged terrains for a rally race with some of the world’s most iconic racers.”

As you can imagine, the decision to eliminate two classic opening day attractions has come under great scrutiny from the Disney fan base and has soured many on the otherwise promising expansion. Many (including myself) feel kind of deceived since we were led to believe that the Magic Kingdom expansion would take place “Beyond Thunder Mountain” as was announced at the previous D23 Expo.

From what we can tell on the permits, neither the Cars Land nor Villains Land will really be “behind” Thunder Mountain, but more like in front of it and off to the side.

Adding this news on top of MuppetVision 3D potentially being replaced by the Monsters Inc. Land in Hollywood Studios has taken the wind of of the sails of many fans from the D23 Expo announcements, even though most of the projects in a box sound really incredible.

Before the announcement, I thought there was a good chance that at least “part” of Tom Sawyer Island would have to go away, like in Disneyland for the Galaxy’s Edge expansion, I just was hoping that they would at least leave us something to remind us of the original layout and natural features.

While I definitely will miss Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America for the nostalgic factor, I can’t pretend like I visit them every time I go to Magic Kingdom. And I usually don’t see a huge mass of guests flooding the lines to take the rafts over to the island either.

I completely understand from Disney’s perspective that they are sitting on very valuable real estate that most people don’t even visit and it could be better utilized with some new and highly engaging attractions instead.

Since the TSI and Rivers of America were both very calm and peaceful areas of the park, the biggest concern from fans is that the Magic Kingdom will be even more chaotic, with guests constantly on the move and with no spots to just observe nature and chill. I’m not sure that is really 100% true.

Supposedly, there are many challenges to the river and drainage system currently in place and to retain any of it would have been impossible, as well as the fact that the islands cannot be built upon with the river still in place. All of this, on top of the dead ends in the back of the park created a logistical nighttime for management, and the end result was that it would be better to build over the whole thing and start new.

Taking a better look at the concept art for the land, there are some places in the new land that really give me Grizzly Peak vibes from DCA. According to some insiders, there are new ponds, streams and waterfalls that are all being created for Cars Land, so there will definitely still be water included for guests to see and interact with.

On the positive side, the crowd flow in the Magic Kingdom will greatly improve after this expansion is complete. This was a priority from management’s side and now there won’t be those long dead ends in the park and it will be much easier to travel from Fantasyland to Frontierland.

In the end, though I hate to see the classics go, I get it. Things need to change. If I survived losing The Great Movie Ride, I’ll certainly survive this too. But the pressure is now on Disney Imagineering to deliver. If we are going to lose Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America, what is replacing it better be ecceptional.

I don’t want to see them give a half-hearted effort on Cars Land like the way they did with Toy Story Land in HS. This better be awesome. If it is, I can guarantee that after a couple of years, you won’t hear anyone complaining anymore about what was replaced. But they need to knock it out of the park.

That wraps up our look at the new Cars Land coming to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. We’ll be finding out more info in the coming months so stay tuned for more!

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Your Thoughts

I want to know what you think about the proposed Cars land…

• Are you happy to see a land themed to Cars coming to the Magic Kingdom?
• How do you feel about it replacing Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America?

Let us know in the comments section below!

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