Things may be looking very different at the Magic Kingdom if a new rumor out of Mickey Views is to be believed. Could Disney be ready to divide Liberty Square and Frontierland into four smaller lands?
The entrance to the Frontierland Station in Magic Kingdom. Photo Credit: Jackdude101, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
There have been many changes to the Magic Kingdom since its inception in the 1970s. However, nothing has been proposed that could alter its foundation so much as the latest rumor from Brayden of Mickey Views, a Disney Parks analyst with a strong history of accuracy.
According to his sources, The Walt Disney Company may be ready to go all-in with the changes to Splash Mountain. Not only would Splash Mountain be transformed into Tiana’s Bayou Mountain (pay no attention that bayous are flat, folks), but much of Frontierland would be made into a Bayou-inspired land as well. This would seemingly even include the Country Bears Jamboree. Meanwhile, past Tiana’s entire new land dedicated to her single movie, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad would now be the gateway to an all-new desert-inspired land that would feature Pixar IP attractions. Radiator Springs would travel over from Disneyland’s California Adventure to the Magic Kingdom of Florida… and an unspecified Woody attraction would also plop on down based on Toy Story.
Proposed area for “Beyond Big Thunder” expansion. Image courtesy Google Earth.
As you might expect, this does not come without some other areas taking a major hit. While Tom Sawyer Island definitely needs a makeover, this expansion would allegedly destroy Tom Sawyer Island and even parts of the river that surrounds it. The Liberty Belle might be permanently docked! Such a huge transformation would certainly alter the aesthetics of perhaps a quarter of the park. Imagine standing in Liberty Square and looking to a far-off Radiator Springs with cartoon race cars driving through an Arizona backdrop!
Yet that’s exactly what Brayden is reporting…
Well, rumor is, the plans are no longer so ‘up in the air.’ Today, Mickey Views is breaking the rumor that a modified version of Radiator Springs Racers from Cars Land at Disney California Adventure is under consideration to be constructed behind the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad inside the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
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And that seems to be something quite possible given that Disney abandoned their original “Beyond Big Thunder” blue sky concepts when they moved Coco and Encanto out of Magic Kingdom possibilities. Those intellectual properties are now on their way to Animal Kingdom instead.
Recently revealed art for a possible Animal Kingdom expansion.
But don’t worry, folks. If this seems like a chaotic rush to expand Magic Kingdom with plans changing rapidly, there’s no way that’s the case. After all, Disney CEO Bob Iger claimed that they’ve been preparing for Epic Universe for a decade!
Given the threat Universal Studios poses to Disney World’s market share, investors had better hope he’s right.
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