Disney Unveils New Frontierland Concept Art, Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island Replaced with Cars-themed Land

Aug 12, 2024 in "Cars Land Magic Kingdom"

Frontierland Concept Art Aerial View
Posted: Monday August 12, 2024 9:08am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has taken the wraps off its massive new Magic Kingdom development and revealed new concept art depicting the new Cars-themed area, and confirmed that Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America will be removed.


While confirming that Cars will be built directly in place of Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America, no closing date has yet be announced, but Disney says, "Guests will have plenty of time to experience the charm and nostalgia of Frontierland as it is today."

Speaking about the new area, Disney says, "Soon, you'll be able to explore the uncharted territory of the great outdoors with an expansion in Frontierland themed around Pixar Animation Studios' "Cars." It's time to leave Radiator Springs and head west into exciting new locations. To make way for this completely new frontier, the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island will be transformed into vast and rugged terrains for a rally race with some of the world's most iconic racers."

"We are thrilled to create this original Cars adventure and put our guests in the driver's seat as we—quite literally—explore a new frontier in Frontierland," shared Michael Hundgen, Walt Disney World Portfolio Executive Producer at Walt Disney Imagineering. "Part of pioneering this new story includes tapping into the themes of exploration and adventure that inspire so many of us to keep propelling forward. Anytime we touch Magic Kingdom, we recognize the massive responsibility that exists to get it right and tell stories that connect with our guests."

Disney says the new area will bring you along for the ride with a brand-new thrilling rally race through the mountains, climbing trails, and dodging geysers, in addition to a second attraction geared towards fun for the whole family.

Ahead of work revving into high gear next year, guests will have plenty of time to experience the charm and nostalgia of Frontierland as it is today.

Tom Sawyer Island, inspired by Mark Twain's classic tales, has been a beloved part of Magic Kingdom since its opening in 1973. It offers guests a chance to explore caves, trails, and forts reminiscent of the American frontier. The Liberty Square Riverboat, a nostalgic paddlewheeler that has been operating since 1973, takes guests on a scenic journey around the Rivers of America, offering views of Frontierland, Liberty Square.

Also announced at D23 this past weekend, guests will be able to venture Beyond Big Thunder Mountain into an all-new land dedicated to Disney Villains. Inspired by the wicked characters fans know and loathe, the multi-acre expansion will include two major attractions, plus dining and shopping. Together, these new additions to Magic Kingdom will represent the largest expansion in park history.

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    Andrew C45 minutes ago

    At this point I wish they would have just canned all expansion ideas for MK except villains and invested in that specifically to give us something amazing.

    monothingie47 minutes ago

    The attractions were not underutilized. In fact they moved thousand+ per hour because of their capacity. The problem and reason why they were closed was, and say it slowly with me, they were not able to be monetized with LL and had to go.

    el_super1 hour ago

    LOL. Closing underutilized attractions is the only reasonable solution. That's why they keep doing it.

    Fox&Hound1 hour ago

    I think DHS is the worst culprit for this. Big boxy buildings, small walkways, no real flow between lands. Lack of water. But I do hope that out of all of this, one gain that does impact park goers is the ability to walk between Big Thunder and HM without having to double back. Not saying it makes this decision worth it but that will be a nice addition to MK and how you navigate the space.

    lazyboy97o1 hour ago

    What’s you’re new benchmark attractions per guest per hour that you used to determine this number? How much improvement are you getting in this metric? How does incorporate other deficiencies like dining capacity that remains below what is was in 1993?

    celluloid1 hour ago

    Themed design is themed design. And real estate for quick build revenue over design is a fair comparison here. I mean we can go into the parks if you want. But the argument will remain consistent. MK entry is just the biggest waste of space wise. It would even give more space.to parks and resorts. But most see why we have monorail and Ferry as slower methods.

    AidenRodriguez7311 hour ago

    Are you aware that onsite and in the parks are two insanely different things? Or are you just trying to mispresent what I’m saying out of malice? I genuinely can’t tell

    celluloid1 hour ago

    There are hotels much further that call themselves on-site. Prime real estate and make an articulated bus stop. Deflection from the point. Why do we ride fair but lower capacity methods to get to park from an intentionally far away parking lot?

    AidenRodriguez7311 hour ago

    What? I don’t see how the TTC is actually prime real estate when it’s FAR outside the park gates. talk about apples to oranges! We’re referring to an area inside the park, atleast talk about Main Street or something for a counter argument and not such a baseless nothing burger

    celluloid1 hour ago

    Ahaaa! Now you see real estate is not a througput equal correlation. Monorail and TTC are definitely prime real estate spots. That is the point. To a land theme.to the wilderness, some authentic wilderness and landscaping mixed in with a riverboat for more than just on it to appreciate is grandiose for a land themed to the Frontier Wilderness. TTC is a wasted piece of real estate and method in our modern and even at the time built, not most efficient but that was not it's only goal. AC bus routes would definitely be a more efficient way to get People to and from direct lot. But you lose an experience. Opinions are fine, but the things you have been stating have contradictions.

    AidenRodriguez7311 hour ago

    I didn't say it had to go for its low capacity. I said it should go because it takes up a TON of prime real estate AND is low capacity. not a great comparison as there is a bus that goes from TTC to MK which is the "higher capacity" system anyway but I disagree, a parking tram would not be a good idea because it would be a pretty slow and miserable experience in the heat without the grandoise-ness of the other methods. A peoplemover of some sort though to MK... I think would be decently popular and high capacity but I digress. Anyway, if this land is built similar to drawn, I would argue that it would ALSO be a great experience, grandoise, while giving a beautiful vista AND the capacity.

    celluloid1 hour ago

    That would be fair because your argument to say Tom Sawyer had to go was based on low capacity experience design. You can't really propose the unworthy by intentional design of one without the other side. I think the posts we're pointing out your stance flaws more than crunching numbers. A parking tram route driving guests all the way to MK BDO would be a much higher capacity than monorail and Ferry from TTC. We accept lower capacity for experience. The fatal flaw of your proposal is all should stop doing this and every land and attraction size should correlate to same capacity.

    AidenRodriguez7311 hour ago

    Okay, for this argument to work, you would have to agree that the Cars franchise will pull in 600 more people per hour that weren't already going to be there. That's a very interesting claim, isn't it? Just to be clear, this expansion would have to increase the parks attendance by 8,400 PER DAY just for the cars land to not just break even which wouldn't be a "very, very bad idea" that would not be taken up by this ride. Which is an interesting argument but one I don't think is rooted in fact.

    celluloid1 hour ago

    The fatal flaw of this argument is that real estate must equal throughput evenly in every land.