Walt Disney designed his incredible theme parks as homages to America’s past, heart, and way of life. This has always been especially noticeable when entering Main Street U. S. A, with its exquisite description of an earlier 20th-century little town, and in Frontierland, with its celebration of America’s settlement of the West. The latest management at Disney has just announced that it will completely destroy Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom in Florida.
Tom Sawyer Island will be eliminated and the whole Rivers of America lake will be filled in by Disney. Disney now closed the Frontier Shootin’ Arcade earlier this year to make room for a representative lounge at the Disney Vacation Club. After all of this loss, there will be largely nothing left of Frontierland at Walt Disney World, keep for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad— but that’s a journey, not a property. ( For now, Disneyland’s Frontierland, in California, will survive. )
In place of all this, Disney plans to build two new trips based on” Vehicles”, the 2006 movie that Pixar made for Disney.
The organized destruction of renowned Frontierland is important on a cultural and educational levels as well as entertainment-related. The Magic Kingdom is the most-visited pleasure area in the world, attracting nearly 18 million visitors yearly. That’s more than the combined groups of Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada. No doubt, some children’s views of America have been influenced by what they’ve seen and experienced it, just as Walt intended. How’s what he said about Frontierland:
We get to experience the vibrant play of the history of our nation, as well as the beautiful episode of frontier America in the era of the railroad and the passionate riverboat. The pioneers who blazed the trail across America are credited with their beliefs, courage, and brilliance in Frontierierland.
The only area of the Magic Kingdom where children can roam free and explore on their own, free to use their imaginations ( something Disney claims to value ) is Tom Sawyer Island, which is the only one there. At the castle on that isle, my kids joyfully shot the false firearms out the second-floor panels at imagined attackers. Now that camp, following the Frontier Shootin ‘ Arcade, will be eliminated, thus removing the blight of toy weapons from the Magic Kingdom.
There’s no reason why Disney needs to destroy Frontierland in order to add” Cars” rides. The Magic Kingdom is larger than Disneyland Park, and Walt Disney World has about 50 periods as much area as the Disneyland Resort, which is almost half Manhattan’s length. However, Disneyland was able to put a new Star Wars area without destroying any of its previous ones. This new strategy seems to require choosing to destroy by choice.
Disney’s determination represents not only a reduction of Americana and an rejection of Walt’s style, but also an affront to visual excellence. Frontierland, with its long sturdy walkways abutting placid waters, is perhaps the most visually appealing part of the Disney gardens. It is undoubtedly the most beautiful area of the Magic Kingdom. Yet Disney’s usual defenders seem to have been offended by the decision to eradicate so many wonderful beauty and relaxing atmosphere only to build two fresh rides.
For instance, Disney Tourist Blog‘s Tom Bricker, who provides perhaps the best guidebook to visiting the Disney parks but is afraid to critique Disney’s decisions too harshly or its politics at all, writes of Disney’s decision,” It’s not exactly paving over paradise to put up a parking lot, but it’s kind close”. Bricker is correct in his concerns that the choice to “replace tranquil waters and a lush area that offer ] a lovely escape from the crowds and chaos of Magic Kingdom]with ] almost the opposite of that” is something that” could irreparably damage the feel” of the park.
A frequent Disney critic, known as WDW Pro, says that” Disney is a little bit shocked” by the backlash it has received, writing,” What has caught Disney off-guard is that their’ influencers ‘ that typically are positive about anything they do, are not being positive about this, and they’re getting outright negative responses”.
But at least to some degree, Disney clearly knew that its decision to destroy Frontierland would n’t be popular. The company kept quiet about the news that the construction of these new rides would mean the destruction of Frontierland while announcing the arrival of the new” Cars” attractions at the recent 2024 D23 Expo, a major Disney fan convention. Only after the attendees had left for home and could n’t boo the Disney executives off the stage, that shocking news was made public.
Why would Disney executives do it if they knew removing such an iconic part of the Magic Kingdom would not be popular? It’s possible that the current Disney leadership, who reportedly lacks aesthetic taste, believes the Magic Kingdom could be improved by using less water and more concrete. However, it’s not difficult to tell if there is an ulterior motive.
That motivation appears to be the same one that caused Disney to destroy Splash Mountain, the most-liked ride at the Magic Kingdom, according to Tripadvisor, and replace it with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which Disney now ca n’t even keep in operation. ( It’s experiencing “major reliability woes and extensive daily downtime”, reports Bricker. )
Splash Mountain had to be shut down because its endearing tale, which features Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear, was based on folktales from the slave trade and later appeared in the Disney film” Song of the South.” In contrast, the film” The Princess and the Frog” ( starring Princess Tiana ) was primarily written by white people and based their plot on a European fairy tale. Somehow, in the warped minds of woke censors, that makes it more “equitable”.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure does n’t really belong in Frontierland, which at least appeared to be true, which seems to have caused Disney’s wheels to start pondering what else is wrong with that region. Fortunately, Disney has a group dedicated to just such a purpose. To complement existing employees ‘ leftist efforts to find fault with everything Western or American, the organization called Disney Stories Matter has hired outside racial and sexual activists.
As a result of this group’s “insights”, Disney has slapped advisory warnings on many of its classic movies, such as — amazingly —” Fantasia“, haughtily proclaiming,” This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were and still are false today. Walt, of course, made” Fantasia“, which the American Film Institute rated as the 58th greatest film of all time.
The Disney film disclaimer also states,” Rather than removing this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it, and start a conversation to create a more inclusive future together.” But in the case of Frontierland, they’ve apparently just decided to remove the content.
Tinker Bell is no longer greeted at the Magic Kingdom entrance, according to Disney Stories Matter, which recently criticized her. The fairy’s sin? She is “body conscious” and “jealous of Peter Pan’s attention”. In other words, she’s a male-loving female who wants to look good.
Imagine what Disney Stories Matter must think of Walt Disney’s own description of Frontierland.
Contrast Walt’s description of that land as” a tribute to the faith, courage and ingenuity of the pioneers” with this drivel from current Disney Parks head Josh D’Amaro, who “reimagines” ( to use a Disney word ) Frontierland as something essentially divorced from actual Americans who explored the frontier:
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 race-car from the big city.
WDW Pro reports that Disney may have been reconsidering and possibly keeping the southern halves of Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island because of the company’s claim that a source inside the company informed him.
Those who want to register their opposition to Disney’s decision to destroy Frontierland might want to email Walt Disney World’s Guest Communications: WDW. Guest. [email protected] — as the company certainly wo n’t change direction without a sufficient public outcry. Disney might decide to start valuing what its visitors ( or potential guests ) want at some point, especially given that it just had its lowest week of Magic Kingdom attendance since the Delta strain of Covid was first discovered in the fall of 2021.
This decision by Disney is truly unprecedented. On July 17, 1955, and on October 1, 1971, Frontierland was present on Walt Disney World’s opening day and on the same day at Disneyland. It has Walt’s fingerprints all over it. It is a central element of that great American’s design.
Never has the company gone so far as to depart from Walt’s parks design. Never before has it closed one of Walt’s lands. Indeed, even now, Disney is not admitting to closing Frontierland. To borrow Barack Obama’s famous formulation, they’re just “fundamentally transforming” it, leaving behind almost nothing of Walt’s Frontierland to experience.
This reflects the woke Left’s larger goal. Its operating principle is destruction. Americanists — those who love America, its history, and its way of life — need to recognize the Left’s desire to destroy and meet it with an even stronger desire to preserve.
