Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore would must board a plane in London and fly to New Orleans in the event that they desired to get from their Hundred Acre Wood to the brand new Bayou Country where they now live at Disneyland.
Critter County will officially turn into Bayou Country when the reimagined land debuts alongside the relaunch of Tiana's Bayou Adventure on November 15.
The recent Bayou Country themed area can be home to the previous Splash Mountain ride, now positioned within the Louisiana Bayou, a number of shops renamed after the characters from The Princess and the Frog, and the Hungry Bear Restaurant which now pays tribute to the Country Bears – all of which fit thematically right into a swamp area next to Disneyland’s New Orleans Square.
But the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ghost train and the Pooh Corner candy store round the corner, which reopened in late August, actually don't belong in Bayou Country – at the very least not from a thematic viewpoint.
Thematically, Pooh slot in alongside the Country Bears, Br'er Rabbit, and Disney's other animals in Critter Country. But England's Hundred Acre Wood, just outside London, is a transatlantic flight away from the Louisiana Bayou.
“We're still not sure how Winnie the Pooh's many adventures fit into the bayou theme, but it says a lot about how Disneyland has given up on Pooh,” said MouseChat“It would not surprise us at all if the Pooh ride and the Pooh shop were to get a new theme at some point.”
What could Walt Disney Imagineering replace the Pooh ride at Disneyland with?
Critter Country gave Imagineering quite a lot of options, but redesigning Bayou Country severely limits the probabilities.
Many longtime Disneyland visitors would love to see the Country Bear Jamboree return to the spot where the Pooh ride once stood. Florida's Magic Kingdom relaunched the attraction in July because the Country Bear Musical Jamboree — which could actually work within the Bayou Country area.
Pooh fans have long been calling for a Disneyland version of Pooh's Honey Hunt at Tokyo Disneyland, but with the redesign of Bayou Country, that now seems even less likely.
“We can only hope that Disney finally does something about this lackluster attraction and replaces it with something that fits the new theme of the land,” it says in MouseChat.
Disney and Pixar don't have many movies of their catalogs set in bayous or swamps. The two biggest movies set in Louisiana – The Princess and the Frog and several other The Haunted Mansion movies – have already got rides at Disneyland.
DisneylandForward has teased 10 possible countries for the recently approved theme park expansion plan. Some are already within the works – just like the Avatar 'Way of Water' Land And Coconut boat ride. Many others wouldn’t work in a Louisiana setting, equivalent to the suggested lands of Frozen, Black Panther and Tangled.
But during DisneylandForward, a possible project was teased that might fit into Bayou Country: Zootopia.
Disney's 2016 animated film “Zootopia” is about in a fictional mammal metropolis and its surrounding districts. Bunnyburrow is home to pumas, jaguars, sheep, foxes, ferrets and Judy Hopps – considered one of the film's stars. The rainforest district is lush, wooded, humid and wet – similar to a Louisiana bayou.
The recent Zootopia Land Shanghai Disneyland has the trackless Hot Pursuit ghost train. Imagineering could easily reboot the mission and concentrate on Bunnyburrow and the Rainforest District for a Bayou Country ride.
Disneyland might also eventually demolish the Ghost Train and Pooh's Candy Shop to attach Bayou Country across Disneyland Drive to the long run Westside theme park expansion area north of the Disneyland Hotel.
The DisneylandForward plan envisages a Theme bridge connects the Bayou/Critter Country dead end road with the Stitch car parking zone just south of the Pixar Pals parking garage.
One thing is pretty certain: Winnie the Pooh won’t be leaving Bayou Country any time soon.
The D23 fan event in Anaheim presented various recent projects in planning for the subsequent five years – mainly specializing in Disney California Adventure and removed from Disneyland's version of the Hundred Acre Wood.
Originally published:
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