Disney Working Hard to Make New Cars Area Big Improvement to Magic Kingdom – New Details & Concept Artwork

Walt Disney World is replacing the Rivers of America in Magic Kingdom. The area will be transformed into a new Cars-themed area and Villains Land in the coming years.

Work begins on the area in full force very soon and ahead of the closures (see link to specific date information below) we sat down with Disney Imagineering to learn more about the plans for the new themed land.

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New Details on Cars Area Expansion in Magic Kingdom

Earlier this week we got a chance to hear from one of the lead Imagineers on the Cars and villains expansions. We saw new concept artwork, video, models, and learned more about the project. Though we are only able to share one of the pieces of concept artwork, I’ll describe the sentiment and information shared in as much detail as possible.

You can read all the details and the specific date that the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer’s Island are closing for construction in our coverage of the logistics of the construction in this new article. The article here will focus on what else we learned about the Cars expansion that is still a part of Frontierland that will be called Piston Peak National Park. This expansion will also pave the way for the first-ever villains-themed area in a Disney theme park.

The new details and the just-released concept artwork for the new land help to give more context on how they are going to fit the new Cars concept into the area. The Imagineering team working on this project has definitely been paying close attention to fan discussion online. Many of the new details that we heard directly related to concerns that we and others raised about the project so far.

The key detail about the project is an emphasis that Frontierland is themed to chasing dreams in the American wilderness and writing your own American Folktales. Frontierland and Liberty Square encompass different attractions with themes ranging from the eastern seaboard stately mansions that inspired the Haunted Mansion to a music hall in the woods for the Country Bear Musical Revue to the mountains of Arizona for Big Thunder Mountain.

The new Piston Peak Cars area will continue this idea with a setting in the fictitious “Piston Peak National Park”. The new area will draw influence from Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks and will feature soaring natural wonders, vast awe inspiring wilderness filled with towering trees, snow capped mountains, roaring rivers, shooting geysers, and will truly look and feel like American wilderness. The new area will be specifically set in the Rocky Mountains. The Imagineer on the project shared that this gives them the ability to pull in all of these different settings into a very diverse national park-themed area.

This new area is also partially inspired by the Disney Toon Studios film “Planes 2: Fire and Rescue” which was inspired by the original Cars franchise. That movie had a stunning setting in a National Park inspired by Yoesmite and fantastic score. I’m very pleased with them leaning into this “parkitecture” style for the new project.

We saw new concept artwork of the new area. The new designs combine Parkitecture and Car-itecture as they called it. So, they combine the wooded log cabin type designs that have heavy log and timber construction with the features of different car parts like tires and other metal parts. For instance a car tire with big logs as the spokes. All of this is based in heavy research by Imagineering in the National Parks.

As part of this, we are also getting a new character that is based on an old character from the Donald Duck and Humphrey the Bear cartoons. Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore is a fussy park ranger from those cartoons who will now be transformed into Ranger J. Autobahn Woodlore. The ranger will appear in car form as an Audio-Animatronic in the queue for the new attraction giving the background on the folktales driving the new story of this new race.

That character is clearly an Imagineer-favorite because he was also added to announce the Grizzly River Run safety spiel in Disney California Adventure.

We also saw a look at new models for the attraction. They showed off how the different rockwork, trees, and geysers will create an incredible setting for the new attraction. Even when they showed how exciting all of the new features would be, they worked to demonstrate how this wouldn’t impact Liberty Square or the Haunted Mansion.

Disney is taking great care with the sightlines of the new land so that you aren’t immediately seeing Lightning McQueen dominate all of Frontierland. These new additions will be seamlessly blended with the other aspects of the land. You will not see or hear zooming cars from the queue of the Haunted Mansion as there will be two lines of trees and the new ride track will be banked away from the Haunted Mansion. The same goes for the entrance from Liberty Square. This area will now be bordered on what was the river side by a new water feature that will bring the same kinetic water element of the river. The Cars aspect of the land will be largely hidden away from the other Frontierland elements to create an insular mini-land.

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The new rock work, water areas, and trees added should enhance all the other attractions in the land. Everything here is deliberate to link the land together. This is a good time to turn to the released map of the new area to see the specific new additions of the area. Note that in the map the dock structure at the end of Liberty Square will remain.

Another note on this “fun map” is that the map shows what the area looks like when it is not race day. That means that they are also going to add in the rally racing designs on top of this as seen in the top concept artwork that was previously released.

The view of this map is from just above the Haunted Mansion. Along the left-hand side is the substantial new water rock work and water feature that will block the parade area from the new Cars attraction. At the bottom of the artwork, you can see a strip of trees and rock work. This will shield the Haunted Mansion queue from the new Cars attraction’s noise and views. The yellow path within the map appears to be the route for the new attraction. Note that bank in the bottom left where it will come near the Haunted Mansion but be shielded.

To the right in the artwork, look at the new geysers and rocks that will match the Big Thunder Mountain style. There is also more greenery up by Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. This all seems like it will create better transition points between the areas within the land.

Speaking of transitions, this is also creating the new pathway that will loop between the Haunted Mansion and the new Cars area and provide access to Big Thunder Mountain and eventually the new villains land that will sit at the back of the current Rivers of America plot of land. The pathway that leads off to the right on the map likely heads there.

For comparison, here’s the current map of Tom Sawyer’s Island which sits at the center of the Rivers of America today.

The Imagineers emphasized their understanding of the great responsibility to guests and to the legacy of the Magic Kingdom. They described a personal connection to the theme park. I was pleased to hear how much of a theme park fan the Imagineer that I heard from today is and it was fantastic to hear all of his references to other theme parks around the world, Disney World history, and his personal hopes for the project.

What Do We Think of New Cars Area Coming to Magic Kingdom?

There has been a lot of discussion about this new project since it was announced last August. On our Mickey Visit team we’ve gone back and forth on our exact feelings. Those feelings range from sad about the loss of history and peacefulness in the park to cautiously optimism about what the Imagineers can deliver here. These new details and more conversations have helped me to feel more cautiously optimistic about how they are changing the area.

Specifically, I have been saying since the beginning that if they lean heavily into the National Park influence then they could create another one of my favorite spaces in any Disney theme park. It could keep the serenity of the Rivers of America while utilizing a major piece of real estate (Tom Sawyer’s Island) that has not had many people visiting for years.

The space could channel all of what makes Grizzly Peak in Disney California Adventure so special. There’s something about the re-assuring style and connection to nature that fits so perfectly within a Disney park. Grizzly Peak and Grizzly Peak Airfield are also some of the calmest at the Disneyland Resort with the combination of the space and background music loop. I could see this new Piston Peak area delivering something similar in Magic Kingdom.

In other theme parks around the world, I also loved Camp Woodchuck at Tokyo Disneyland which has a similar camp and National Park feel to it. In our call, the Imagineer named both of these areas as places that they hope to emulate in this park.

Overall, I am now solidly excited about this new addition and excited to keep learning more. What I keep hearing from the teams at Disney is that they understand the need to make something replacing the Rivers of America great and that they are ready to rise to the challenge.

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