The Jungle Book Cruise

This coming May the world famous Jungle Cruise will be finally re-opening to Disneyland guests after a long rehab closure. It is well known that the closure was partially due to the installation of a more automated docking and loading system of guests, however many have speculated to possible additions and changes to the 1955 original ride.Well there are actually huge changes in store for guests...

That is right! Due to the huge success Disney's live action  The Jungle Book, Imagineers have quickly gone to re-imagine the entire ride and story to fit into that of Mogli, the man cub. In maybe the most controversial change of all, Imagineers have replaced the fun joke-filled dialog of the skippers to audio recordings narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley as Bagheera. Once aboard you will hear the familiar voice begin to tell you a story, "Many strange legends are told of these jungles. But none so strange as the story of a small boy named Mowgli..."

Here an Imagineer finishes the final touches of Baloo's claws.

Imagineers replace nearly every scene with something from the 2016 movie. Around the first turn you will come up to what used to be the Bengal tiger in the ruins which are now King Louie's ruins with a few additional monkeys added. The animitronic sitting under the archway is one of the biggest We've seen at a Disney park. Louie calls out to the boat, "Give me the secret to your red flower." The boat passes him and enters the elephant bathing pool.  The pool has also remained mostly untouched, with the only addition being the baby elephant has been added spraying water over his head onto Mowgli who is riding on his back. Next you enter what is the only scene that has not been changed, (except for the narration) the gorilla camp. Now being a gang of gorillas being sent by King Louie in search of the man's red flower. When approaching the African section of the ride, you will see that the animals are all now gathered hearing Shere Khan speech about wanting the man cub returned. The men being chased up the pole by a rhino has been completely replaced with a scene of Mogli and Bagheera talking about running from Sheer Khan. Some of the hippos have been removed from the hippo pool area to make room for one of the most impressive animitronics, Baloo floating down the river with Mogli playing drums on his belly. This portion of the ride has the bear necessities playing on board as well as in the scene. The new flow of this scene has allowed for Disney to finally retire the controversial gun shot. Next guests flow by the villagers dancing which has been slightly modified to be the man village, with the men dancing around a large silk flame (similar to Pirates) fire. Bagheera warns us once again of the dangers of man's red fire. The ducking hunters with the spears have been removed with nothing to replace them as you reach the back side of water. Here there is a clever tie in with Bagheera mentioning this wonder of the world. Fans of the ride may also be thankful that the Piranhas are still part of the show, and are mentioned as being part of the dangers of the jungle including the terrifying giant snake, Kaa. Imagineers just modified the large snake which was already part of the original show with only adding in the sound bite form the movie, "Trust in me..." And finally, we come up on a safe Mowgli (replacing trader Sam) waving goodbye to you next to the baby elephant. An instrumental version of "The Bare Necessities" plays over the speakers as you dock.

This is the first scene riders experience on the re-imagined ride. The sheer size of this animitronic paired with the articulation in his face, set the bar appropriately high of the rest of the ride.

The Golden Horseshoe becomes Tiana's Place

New Orleans Square also benefits from the Adventureland/Frontierland expansion. Ne Orlean's takes over Riverbell Terrace (with no changes) and The Golden Horseshoe. This was not an easy change. Guests and employees alike, relentlessly tried to keep The Golden Horseshoe as-is. But in the end the decision was made to rename and re theme the restaurant. Due to the popularity of Disneylands Madi Gras celebrations along side Princess and the Frog meet and greets, The Golden Horseshoe has become Tiana's Place. On the surface there is not much change, new color scheme on the inside, a new menu, and new entertainment. The Stage Door cafe was closed, and Tiana's adopted their menu along side some of the other menus from New Orlean's Square. In another controversial move, The Mint Julep bar was also moved inside of Tiana's. This expands New Orleans' foot print to span across the River's of America from the Haunted Mansion to Tiana's. The signs out front boast, everyday is Mardi Gras at Tiana's. Those opposed to over character saturation in the park we'll be happy to know, besides the name, no characters of Princess and the Frog are represented here in the restaurant. In typical Disney fashion though, there are some hidden mickeys (or hidden frogs) inside. The characters do make an appearance in a Mardi Gras stage show celebration twice a day. There is also a meet and greet location set up in the old Stage Door Cafe location. Other entertainment includes Can Can dancers and a New Orleans Jazz Band.

The Mardi Gras Stage Show Celebration

Up Splash Mountain

The most ambitious project in Adventureland is the re-themeing of Splash Mountain into "Up Splash Mountain". Orignally titled "Goin' Up Splash Mountain", John Lasseter had the name changed to better represent the Pixar property worried the name may get lost when placed after "Goin' ". Imagineers were very careful to keep as much of the original ride as possible. They kept most of the scenerary from the ride and just re-skinned the animitronics to resemble characters from the movie. Most of the characters were changed to look like the dogs from the movie. The begining of the ride which was just berrain land with a few props scattered through out stays similar. Now the props are items which have fallen out of Russel's backpack along his way. There is also animal tracts through out and a couple of critters can be spotted. Through out this part, there are radio walkie-talkies laying around with Russel speaking to you (Wildernous Explorers) through the other side with Carl butting in occasionally. Russel is asking for your help to find them, since they are lost in the jungle. The ride premise is you jump into a Wilderness Explorer canoe and run through the jungle's river to go to help Carl, Russel, and Dug escape from Charles Muntz' gang of Dogs. Along the way they discover Kevin and help Kevin to reach her babies. All the Dog's on the ride have 5 minute's of dialog full of hilarious sayings and punch lines. The biggest change from the orignal ride is the finale scene with the steam boat has been removed and completely set to a new scene. The finale has Carl, Russel, Dug, Kevin, Kevin's Babies, along side the house with only a few balloons left. Here, Russel announces he couldn't have done it with out his fellow Wildernous Exlorer freinds (you) and they all together do "Adventure is out there, caw-caw, rawr!"

At the entrance of the ride, Dug greats guests with his salutations. "Squirrel!"

The outside of the ride remains similar to before. The briar patch has been removed and replaced with Fallen trees. The tree at the top of Splash mountain has also been removed so that the mountain can better resemble Paradise Falls. At the very top of the mountain a force prespective house attached to balloons fly's above only attached by a hose. The orignal house was actually a giant balloon attached to an air supply to always remain inflated, but weather forced Imaginers to redesign the house and balloons into a foam core resin house and balloons held up by a steal beam painted sky blue to blend it better.

Frontierland and Adventureland Expansion

In it's biggest move since the installiation of Mickey's Toon Town, Disneyland has planned a giant expanision of Adventureland and Frontierland. The current Frontierland will be moving to an entire new area of the park, while Adventureland will be taken over the space previously occupied by Frontierland. The Frontierland Expansion will result in all new buildings, shows, and 2 new rides. The Adventureland expanison will be re-themeing old Frontierland buildings. Frontierland will also gain ownership of Spalsh Mountain and The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh. This will also mark the official end of Critter Country. We will go more in depth to changes and addition in upcoming posts. The biggest part of this project was the re-directing of the Rivers of America. Seen below you can see where Imagineers split Mark Twain Island, cutting the Rivers Of America round trip by almost 30%.

Muppet Studios at Disneyland Park (Wrap Up)

So I have been highlighting different areas of the new Muppet Studios for you, but I feel it's time to wrap up my summary.

HISTORY
There has always been talk about expanding the Muppets presents in the parks. Muppet Vision 3D, Muppet Mobile Labs, and the 2009 volunteer promo featuring the muppets. An entire land similar to this new on in Disneyland was even designed at one time during a Disney-Muppet merger but fell through. When phase 2 of the DCA expansion was developed, imagineers re-designed the back stage area int he Hollywood Picture Lot at DCA to become Muppets Studio (to go along with the hollywood theme) and replacing the Monsters Inc ride with "The Great Muppet Movie Ride". However as the themeing of DCA headed towards 20s/30s, muppets just didn't seem to fit any longer. That's when it was decided to take over Toontown. Plus the idea of re-using much of the existing structers and themeing cut down on an already low budget.

LAY OF THE LAND
The east side of the land was left nearly as it was before. With an exception of gutting out and re-building the inside of all the buildings bordering the east of the land. This made way for the E-Ticket ride "The Muppets Movie Ride Studio Tour". The norhtern most part of the land was kept as-is as well with the exception of the inside of city hall and the addition of a show building behind it to house "The City Hall Of Presidents". Next to city hall was 3 foof locations which have all been combined into one, "Swedish Chef Cafe". Once again an audio-animitronic from DCA's Muppet Vision of the Swedish Chef was transplanted here at the Cafe. Throughout the day you can hear the Chef arguing, singing, and exploding things behind the kitchen doors. And every so often the Chef will make an appearance through the service window to his kitchen. Mickey and Minnie's houses were cleared to make way The Muppet Theatre. This attraction was orignally going to house a new Muppet Vision film. But instead houses a whole new film/stage show of the orignal Muppet Show. The show will consist of audio-animitroncs, 360 3D projections

The Hall of Presidents!

Well... The City Hall of Presidents... Presented by Sam Eagle!

That's right the Muppets are bringing the Hall Of Presidents to Disneyland! Replacing the Toon Town City Hall, Sam Eagle has patriotically decorated the entire place to pay tribute to the leaders of America with the "help" of Rizzo. They do their best to put on the best presentation for you which includes a semi-put-together video projection directed by Rizzo with a finally of a President "Audio Animitronic" which is puppeterred by Rizzo and Sam Eagle, with Sam providing the Presidents voice giving the great moments with Mr Lincoln speech as best he can.

The City Hall Of Presidents, is a fun quick stop in Muppets Studios. Food and drink are allowed so it is also a nice place to stop and eat like the Tiki Room. The show runs about 15 minutes every half hour.

A show building had to be built backstage in order to house the theatre for this attraction. When you talk through the literal "Hall of Presidents" with president's photos to get to the theatre you are actually crossing backstage. What started off as a cheap easy project to use up lost space with a simple overlay ended up being an expensive one. Imagineers went back and updated their original simple plans after the additional construction was approved.

The Muppet Movie Ride Studio Tour

Originally designed for the MGM studios in Walt Disney World, The Great Muppet Movie ride, would take you along a behind the scenes look a how movies are made by the muppets. In ways this ride is a parody of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World. It has been refreshed and revised for today's audience, and now is presented as a backstage tram tour going through muppet recreations of famous movie scenes. The tour is conducted by Kermit through LCD on board screens.

Ms. Piggy as the Wicked Witch of the West

A short portion of the ride will actually go out of the show building and into Disneyland's actual backstage area. The area that will be seen from the tram will still be decorated to the Muppets theme and will feature a special "Backlot Tour" moment.

The Muppet Movie Ride Studio Tour took over the building for Roger Rabbits Car Toon Spin, The Gag Factory, and connecting shops. The outside facade will stay basically the same except for all Roger Rabbit references being removed. This ride will not have an elaborate entrance like The Great Movie Ride in Florida, it will instead have a DIY style board, paper and tape entrance theme.