Former Walt Disney Imagineer provides more insight into the changes coming to the Country Bear Jamboree

Sep 09, 2023 in "Country Bear Musical Jamboree"

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New Country Bear Jamboree 2024 poster

Posted: Saturday September 9, 2023 7:04pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Ethan Reed, a former Walt Disney Imagineer, has shared some additional background information on the work that has gone into the just-announced changes coming to Walt Disney World's Country Bear Jamboree at Magic Kingdom.

New Country Bear Jamboree 2024 poster

Ethan says that he originally pitched the idea in 2004 and was the conceptual Creative Director on the project from 2018 through 2020 until it was put on hold due to the pandemic.

Speaking today during the announcement at Destination D23, Disney Imagineer Chris Beatty said that when the new show debuts, the bears will be reinterpreting favorite Disney songs in different genres of country music. Imagineers envision the new experience as a homage to the classic musical revues in Nashville, and they're working with Nashville musicians to get the authentic country sound.

Disney says the Country Bear Jamboree will still have the fun and friendly tone fans enjoy with the same famous characters like the loveable Trixie, Big Al, and others.

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_caleb6 hours ago

Totally agree the FL parks are poorly managed and need work. In my opinion (which won’t be popular here), that’s pretty much always been the case. But institutional/technical knowledge isn’t the reason the parks are in the shape they’re in.

Chester&Hester Enthusiast6 hours ago

There was a time that I would have agreed with you, but their recent track record doesn't exactly instill a lot of confidence.

WondersOfLife7 hours ago

You're speaking about Disney in a general sense, here... Florida is the least properly maintained Disney park out of every location across the globe. Whether that's due to not finding enough of the properly skilled maintenance workers in the local area of kissimmee, or WDW has simply way too much to keep up with is a problem they really need to solve. I'd be willing to bet it is a mixture of the two.

Charlie The Chatbox Ghost8 hours ago

Not sure if this was replied to, but this post came up while I was googling the voice cast of the new show of all things, so I ended up looking for the clip. Here you go! (It's not flattering to the Country Bears, but it is funny that he made that joke the day the newest show opened)

FigmentsBrightIdeas22 hours ago

Fair enough, that makes sense. I hope someday we could see how exactly they updated these AAs so we could see what they did. Not even discussing any malfunctions, I think it’d certainly be fascinating to see how it was all updated & created, yeah? It’s technically a bit of a history making moment, combining hydraulics & servos together. Surely something like that ought to be covered.

_caleb1 day ago

I think it’s silly to suggest Disney somehow forgot how to maintain or repair audio animatronics. Hydraulic fluid leaking at the wrist doesn’t necessarily indicate that the arms are hydraulically animated. Hydraulics and electrics are used for different weights, speeds, paths, and ranges of motion. I don’t believe the claim that WDI accidentally mixed these up in CBJ.

Charlie The Chatbox Ghost2 days ago

Question- were the Country Bears ever considered for Disneyland Paris? I just saw a "Behind the Music" parody about the Country Bears, and there's a line where they mention they played in "Orlando, Anaheim, and Tokyo; but not Paris- they wanted people to walk through our show." I'd think the line was just a joke about them not being in Paris, but the specificity of "they wanted guests to walk through our show" sounds like they're referring to an idea for making the show a walk-through? I can't find any evidence of this online, but the people who made the parody short have connections with Imagineers who worked on DLP and generally know their stuff, so that's why I feel like this tidbit is coming from somewhere. Can anyone verify? (Given how much Paris loves westerns and country music, even today, I'm surprised they never tried bringing the show over to Paris. The park has zero animatronic shows and frankly could use something like that)

Charlie The Chatbox Ghost9 days ago

I feel like her disappearing this much when she never did before is a sign she’s still Henry’s girlfriend, not Wendell’s lmao 😂 (plus isn’t Wendell canonically married with a kid? His vacation slides show them and the queue of the new show establishes that all shows are canon)

EagleScout61010 days ago

According to the app, the show has reopened. Not sure if Teddi is back.

TrainsOfDisney10 days ago

They could also do some sort of projection of her on the curtain. Of course… they really just need to fix her when she has a problem.

tissandtully10 days ago

Oh wow, that's crazy

Charlie The Chatbox Ghost10 days ago

Nope, she just doesn’t show up and her voice is still heard singing. They really should program a B-Mode solo for Wendell if this is gonna be a regular problem.