Country Bear Meet and Greet Gets a Costume Makeover at Magic Kingdom

Jul 17, 2024 in "Country Bear Musical Jamboree"

Country Bear Musical Jamboree Character meet and greet costumes
Posted: Wednesday July 17, 2024 10:33am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Debuting alongside the new Country Bear Musical Jamboree opening at Magic Kingdom, the meet-and-greet characters have been updated with their new looks from the show.


Here is a look at Big Al, Wendell, and Shaker. We hear from cast members that Romeo is coming soon.





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Blobbles9 days ago

Yknow, with all the closures happening in the Disney park and in general the theme park general this year, I am honestly way happier that the country bears got an update than I was before. With out the update, I don’t know how good I would feel about the CBJ’s Future. While I am sad we lost the original, I am very happy the bears have at least a good amount of time to remain on this earth, if not forever (hopefully). Big Al had a very close call.

Charlie The Chatbox Ghost14 days ago

I actually own this set! The Country Bear chapter is pretty much just his character design sketches and some WIPs of the animatronics, like Blaine Gibson's head sculpts and a photo of them applying some fur onto either Big Al or Buff.

aladdin200714 days ago

I don't know if it will help for what your doing but the table book 2 volume set called Marc Davis Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks has quite a bit of Country Bear material. its pricy but libraries may have it, or a used copy could be found for less.

Charlie The Chatbox Ghost15 days ago

Thanks a ton!

EagleScout61015 days ago

I'll send this to some of my friends who are CBJ fanatics. They'll definitely be able to help out

Charlie The Chatbox Ghost15 days ago

This is the most relevant thread I could think to post this in, since it's not necessarily Imagineering! I'm working on documenting all the design iterations of the Country Bears over the last 50+ years, in preparation for an art project I want to do where I draw the design evolution of the bears. I'm doing a lot of digging looking for the best quality and most accurate photos I can find, but I can't do it alone! If anyone wants to or can help me out, please do! Feel free to request edit permissions, too!

CompedNov 19, 2024

I saw it about 2 weeks ago and was disappointed. Everything felt pretty rushed, and only one or two songs even got close to working for me personally. The group I was with commented that "the costumes look cheap", although I tried to assure them that almost certainly was not the case. A lot of segments felt like an attempt by Disney to perhaps advertise a new country album, more so than fitting concept of the show and country music into the Disney canon. Which is funny because Disney definitely has a history of taking songs from one medium and putting them into another, most notably jazz during the '90s - but always with a little bit more care than whatever happened with the orchestration of most of these songs. Very disappointing. A huge letdown musically, even more so than when I saw the taped performances when it originally opened. Used to be a show I would see probably at least once a month, now I probably won't go back until they redo it or close it permanently.

tancNov 19, 2024

Saw it back on Nov 8th, great show! The updates are phenomenal, while the original is preserved in Tokyo, the new look of everything is spectacular in WDW.

JD80Nov 14, 2024

I saw it for the first time two weeks ago. Loved it.

EagleScout610Nov 14, 2024

Or they could've had the gag of them running around backstage like they did from the skunk in Vacation Hoedown

zipadee999Nov 14, 2024

They could’ve at least played backup for some of the other bears like they did with Ernest in the OG show

Steamboat71Nov 13, 2024

The Five Bear Rugs were done dirty in this new show. Bear-ly any showtime.

Charlie The Chatbox GhostNov 13, 2024

From what I've heard, they tried to keep Sammy as a hat, but couldn't get it to work with Henry's new cowboy hat. Having him behind the amp was a compromise to keep him in the show instead of cutting him altogether.

TrainsOfDisneyNov 13, 2024

Yes…. Although the 2 have been plopped together so much they are practically the same song now! Haha.