Can the Cars Franchise Fit Frontierland?

Walt Disney World has announced two all-new Cars attractions in a reimagined area of Magic Kingdom. Despite Radiator Springs Racers and its land being hugely popular at Disneyland, the fan response was relatively restrained at D23–and this was before we knew what the rides were replacing. (Updated February 18, 2025.)

To be sure, the response was not negative–there were still plenty of cheers and it’s not like guests were booing. But as compared to Villains Land at Magic Kingdom, the reaction was more muted, especially considering its scale and scope. There are any number of possible unremarkable reasons for this, from the awkward way the news was shared via Tow Mater making the announcement via a video call to the stilted script.

To the latter point, Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro attempted to describe Frontierland as being a land 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.” This and the accompanying fan reaction has made us wonder: is the Cars franchise thematically-fitting for Frontierland at Magic Kingdom?

February 18, 2025 Update: Now that Walt Disney World has the green light to replace Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island with Cars Land, we thought it’d be a good time to revisit this topic. Previously, many fans were in denial about this project, or holding out hope that the State of Florida would deny permits due to the environmental impact, etc.

Now that the last big roadblock has been removed and Walt Disney World has put out construction bidding indicated that construction will begin on March 1, 2025, all hope that the plans will be derailed or altered to retain the waterfront promenade is gone (or should be). The project is accelerating as announced, without further delay. There’s still time to enjoy the serene scenery of the Rivers of America, but it does not seem that Walt Disney World will change course at this point.

As such, many of those who were disappointed about the plan to completely fill in the Rivers of America and demolish Tom Sawyer Island might want to come to terms with the decision. That includes us, for what it’s worth, and we still strongly believe this is a shortsighted mistake that sacrifices too much of the distinct character and charm of Magic Kingdom, and one of the park’s most iconic features.

Nevertheless, it’s happening. And even though we don’t love the idea, we do think there’s a great opportunity for Imagineers to make lemonade out of lemons and pull off the impossible. So if you could use a little optimism, this commentary might be just what you need…

Before we attempt to answer that titular question, let’s quickly bring you up to speed on these Magic Kingdom additions. According to Disney, these Cars attractions will be set outside of Radiator Springs, as the franchise heads west into exciting new frontiers. On this adventure, guests will be able to experience not one but two exciting new Cars-themed attractions.

In other words, the marquee attraction is not a clone of Radiator Springs from Disney California Adventure. It’s a new story and setting that goes beyond what was established in the Cars film franchise. Same goes for the secondary ride–it’s not Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree or Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters.

One of the two all-new Cars attractions 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 mud holes. The second attraction will be geared towards them and will be fun for the whole family.

Work on this new Cars Land area of Frontierland will begin in early 2025.

Let’s turn to the titular question, which is the thematic appropriateness of Cars in Frontierland.

Starting with the positives, the first is the natural world that the Cars inhabit. The reimagined area appears that it’ll feature beautiful buttes, rushing rapids, cool canyons, and a variety of other stunning landscapes that feel inspired by the vistas of Utah, California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and other areas of the American West.

In the last decade-plus, Imagineering has demonstrated it’s at the top of its game with rockwork. Cars Land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Moana’s Journey of Water, Pandora – World of Avatar, New Fantasyland, and Fantasy Springs all come to mind as exemplars. No matter what you think of these lands as a whole, the “natural” environments are undeniably awesome.

Most of this is attributable to Imagineer Zsolt Hormay. That’s a name more Disney fans should know–he should be a future Disney Legend. He does not miss, and if he’s helming the rockwork team behind the Cars land at Magic Kingdom, it’ll look great. Even if it’s different from DCA (and it will be), it’ll still look fantastic. I look forward to sitting in my rocking chair near Country Bear Musical Jamboree and gazing out across the snow-capped peaks.

Then there’s the not-so-natural world. It’s more difficult to get a read on this from the concept art, but it appears there’s the architecture itself and then an added layer of RSN broadcast stuff. And of course, there are the talking cars with eyes, which are not indigenous to any of the places in the American West that I’ve visited.

The architecture is reminiscent of classic style of ‘Parkitecture’ or National Park Service rustic. This design combines natural materials, such as whole logs and rocks, and appears as if it’s built by hand. The goal was design to blend into landscapes instead of imposing upon them.

You’ll see exemplars of Parkitecture throughout the Western National Parks, in entrance gateways, visitor centers, in-park hotels, and other infrastructure. The concept art above reminds me of Yosemite National Park, which isn’t particularly surprising since Imagineers have drawn on it (and Sequoia National Park) in the past for areas of DCA.

Speaking of which, what also jumps out to me about the concept art is that it looks like Imagineering is repeating a mistake made over 20 years ago with the opening of Disney’s California Adventure. In particular, I’m talking about what was then known as the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area.

According to the land’s original backstory, it was developed as a mine in the 1800s after a chance discovery of gold. The mine was later abandoned and the land sold to the government in the 1950s. As white-water rafting increased in popularity in the 1980s, a group of young entrepreneurs purchased the land to establish the Grizzly River Rafting Company, which would be an extreme sports facility.

Ironically enough, it was the massive DCA overhaul and expansion that brought Cars Land to the park that changed this. Although Grizzly Peak was largely good, a placemaking project scrubbed it of the extreme sports look. That was a modest improvement, and one that also removed the very late 1990s, X-Games quality.

As a replacement, Imagineering added placemaking details that made Grizzly Peak look more like one of California’s beautiful National Parks. What was done to Grizzly Peak was excellent, but the more ‘extreme’ changes came to adjacent Condor Flats, which was transformed into Grizzly Peak Airfield. (I actually liked the high desert and Age of Aviation theme–just not the 1990s repurposing portion.)

In any case, Grizzly Peak went from being weathered with a layer of already-dated 1990s extreme sports on top of it to a classic 1950s style. Along with Cars Land and Buena Vista Street, Grizzly Peak is probably the best area of present-day Disney California Adventure. But in fairness, I’m a huge fan of U.S. National Parks, and love the calming atmosphere of this area. The bypass behind Grizzly River Run is one of my favorite areas in any Disney park.

Back when reviewing Disney California Adventure 2.0 back in 2012, I wrote the following about a replacement I’d like to see for Redwood Creek Challenge Trail: “a well-done family dark ride allowing guests to board a 1955 Pontiac Station Wagon and drive through vignettes of places inspired by California’s National Parks.”

To be honest, I don’t even remember writing that. Reading it now, it sounds very specific–but I don’t recall there ever being a rumor of such an attraction. (The long-running rumor/wishful thinking is adding the Country Bears to Grizzly River Run.) But that’s not the point. Rather, it’s that I’ve wanted a classic car ride through U.S. National Park-like settings for a while.

Looking at the concept art released at the D23 Expo for the headliner Cars attraction, it looks like I’ll partially get my wish. But at the same time, that they’re going to make the same mistake as DCA 1.0, which was undone a decade ago for a cleaner and more timeless concept.

It just makes me wonder–is no one still around from when Imagineering did such a great job with placemaking on the Grizzly Peak and Condor Flats refresh? Why go down the road of extreme sports again? It didn’t work the first time and it doesn’t feel appropriate for the ambiance of Frontierland…or even Magic Kingdom as a whole, for that matter.

This is especially the case given that the environments themselves in the main Cars ride look like a U.S. National Park. And in fact, Piston Peak National Park is one of the settings of the Cars cinematic universe, combining Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks. It appears in Planes: Fire & Rescue rather than the core film franchise, but it would still be a perfect backdrop for the Magic Kingdom land.

An area themed to Piston Peak National Park could easily pass for what the Western National Parks looked like prior to the Mission 66 project! For those who are unfamiliar with it, Mission 66 was a bold post-war proposal to spend $1 billion over 10 years to modernize the U.S. National Parks following an era of explosive growth in visitors after World War II.

It came during an automotive boom in the United States, with rapidly increasing numbers of cars clogging up National Park roads. Updating vehicle infrastructure was a major priority of Mission 66, as many roads were built for horse-drawn vehicles and often unpaved. Promotional materials for Mission 66 emphasized the romanticism of family road trip vacations, and the National Park Service even partnered with oil and automotive companies to promote Mission 66.

Americans now look back fondly on that halcyon era of the National Parks, seeing classic cars in rustic settings and often around wildlife. (It’s actually quite controversial among conservationists. One of my ‘favorite’ anecdotes is how the NPS rangers used to put out piles of trash to attract bears so guests could watch them eat. Crazy times.)

Point being, all of this sounds pitch perfect for a Cars ride that’s similar to the concept art released by Disney. It could be set in Piston Peak National Park and feel right at home amidst both the settlement side of Frontierland and Big Thunder. All that would need to change is a bit of the Cars window-dressing, as the scenic environments are already appropriate–right down to the dirt roads.

Instead of featuring off-road rally racers, they could use classic cars from the 1950s. As opposed to a bunch of banners and modern-looking broadcasting equipment from RSN, they could feature signage evoking a bygone era of the U.S. National Parks.

This all wouldn’t be a perfect fit for the “thrilling” nature of the attraction (I don’t think there’s much off-road racing of 1955 Pontiac station wagons), but who cares? It would be a perfect fit for Frontierland.

From my perspective, that’s what matters much more. Frontierland is themed to the Old West. That’s a defined era with a set time period, albeit a debatable one over which historians quibble. Regardless, there is no one who claims that rally car racers are part of the Old West.

At the absolute latest, Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland ends sometime around the late 1800s to early 1900s–and the latter dates are only to accommodate Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Still several decades too early for rally racers.

Even if it weren’t, they just feel at odds with the atmosphere of Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland as it currently exists, which is what I suspect many fans take issue with. (This is also my perspective on Tomorrowland Speedway–that the vibe is off-putting, regardless of thematic appropriateness.)

You could also argue–successfully, in my opinion–that the American frontier is as much a spirit as it is an era. That sense of rugged individualism, manifest destiny, big folklore, and western exploration–all of it is as much an ethos as it is an era.

As America gets older and the 1800s are further in the rearview mirror, the case could be made that the bygone era of the U.S. National Parks and the Mission 66 boom are all part of that spirit. It was a different time in America, but one that embodied a similar sentiment as the “go west, young man” age.

In fact, the America of today is further removed from that automotive boom and heyday of the western ‘Great American Road Trip’ than Walt Disney was from the Old West when he dreamt up the concept of Frontierland. At least as far as the passage of time is concerned, the middle of the last century is already older than the Old West was in the 1950s.

At least, that’s my perspective. Thematic purists will likely be far less forgiving, arguing that any cars (lowercase or uppercase) do not belong in a land with “frontier” in the name. There are also those who will argue that talking cars with eyes are wholly inappropriate for this portion of the park.

But for me, the U.S. National Parks around the Mission 66 boom are a quintessential era of the Western United States and the American spirit that could fit fine in Frontierland. Talking cars with eyes don’t bother me in the least, especially since this is Magic Kingdom and not World Showcase or Animal Kingdom, which are more grounded in reality.

Magic Kingdom’s lands are always imbued with a sense of fantasy. If we can have singing bears that tell jokes, we can have cars with eyes that tell jokes. (With that said, I don’t hope the sightlines are such that we don’t see these car-eyes from Haunted Mansion or Hall of Presidents.)

Then again, I’m also a realist about it, and also know there’s no way on earth Walt Disney World is adding more stuff themed to cowboys and indians. If it’s going to exist into the future, Frontierland is always going to be about the frontier spirit of America rather than that particular era. That’s just the truth of the matter. It’s always going to be a compromise, and classic cars (and Cars) in a 1950s National Park setting is one that I can completely get on board with. Extreme sports off-road rally racers…not so much.

Ultimately, I’m accepting of Cars in Frontierland so long as the environments are clearly inspired by the National Parks of the American West, the layer of Cars themed design on top of that marries Parkitecture with classic 1950s vehicles, there’s kinetic energy via water and other placemaking, and the sightlines work. Thematic purists may still scoff at this, but I think most reasonable fans or the average guest will find that a bygone area of Yosemite or Yellowstone National Parks passes the Frontierland smell test.

An area and attractions themed to Piston Peak National Park evokes the era and atmosphere they’d expect to see in a rustic land themed to the frontier, even if it’s no longer set in the precise era as it was in 1955 or 1971. Things change over the course of 50+ years, and a shifting of that setting makes sense. For me, this is still quintessential Americana–the kind that belongs in a Disney theme park–as the U.S. National Parks are America’s Best Idea. They deserve to be celebrated, even if in fantasy-form, at Walt Disney World.

What will make a lot less sense is if there are loud and modern cars zooming through the land, which will make it feel more like the 1990s. And also, not the U.S. National Parks of the American West, since off-road rally racing is not something you can do on those public lands. So to answer the titular question, my personal take is that Cars can fit in Frontierland–and quite well, if done right. The unanswered question from the concept art is whether they’ll pull the elements of the franchise that fit, or those that don’t.

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YOUR THOUGHTS

Do you think the Cars franchise is capable of fitting thematically into Frontierland? Do you think the concept art as shared so far actually does work with the ambiance and spirit of Frontierland? Would it be better if Imagineers leaned more into the look of the 1950s, dropping the extreme sports angle and RSN broadcasting stuff? Otherwise, what’s your reaction to Cars rides coming to Magic Kingdom? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!