We do not have an opening date yet, but Walt Disney World is sharing new concept art for its reimagined Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
The new backstory for the indoor roller coaster ride is that Scooter’s uncle, J.P. Grosse, has obtained the G-Force Records recording studio, handing it over to The Muppets. And they have redecorated, applying a new psychedelic paint job to the attraction's guitar icon.
Inside, as expected, Disney has swapped The Electric Mayhem into the role previously played by Aerosmith. Here is fresh concept art from Disney of the new preshow for the ride.
The set-up is the same as before. It's time for the band to stop jamming and to instead head over to the limos for the ride to their concert across town. Only this time, the Muppet Labs have gotten involved, and Disney has applied some Muppet touches to the LA scenery on the ride.
The Muppets are moving across the park because Disney closed their old home in Muppets Courtyard earlier this year to make way for the park's new Monsters, Inc.-themed Monstropolis land.
The new Muppets version of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will open sometime next year.
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"Disney has applied some Muppet touches to the LA scenery on the ride"
So if sounds to me like nothing more than a light retheme. I'm a bit disappointed tbh. I guess I expected some Muppets imagery or something other than this.
A retheme of this ride should have used a more PG-13 IP. Then the Muppets could have taken over the Art of Animation courtyard. Even better, Monsters Inc should have taken over the Art of Animation courtyard.
I do look forward to this as the coaster needed a makeover and the Muppets can be more fun
The Muppets are so irrelevant these days. Why? Last movie was 11 years ago.
It will be all fun and games until controversy erupts over Sgt. Floyd Pepper showing a supposed sexual sign with his hand during the pre show.
It's ok. They only have four fingers, so no inappropriate hand gestures possible.
This seems uninspiring. I know you can only do so much when it’s already built, but the muppets deserve more than a lazy reskin
It all feels so true to Disney, cheap.
"This seems uninspiring. I know you can only do so much when it’s already built, but the muppets deserve more than a lazy reskin"
And I think that's the biggest disappointment here. All of the descriptions provided and concept drawings seem to indicate just some minor tweaks to an attraction that has been virtually unchanged for over 25 years. The potential of a new animatronic in the preshow is the only major change that is hinted at by this announcement. Other than that, this is just a bit of spit and polish on the coaster with a new soundtrack. For a park that has been getting a ton of new attractions (Galaxy's Edge, Toy Story Land, Villains, and MMRR) and other updates leading to significantly changed experiences (Star Tours, Little Mermaid, and Animation Courtyard), this by comparison is a bit of a red-headed stepchild approach.
This just seems like a really lazy and cheap plan for reskinning the attraction with an IP that I don't think is going to really move the needle. I guess if the plan was to allow the Aerosmith IP sunset and utilize the in-house Muppets IP because it already had a presence in the park, it makes some sense. However, the attraction was originally designed as an e-ticket, and while the Aerosmith IP wasn't really e-ticket level anymore, it was when the coaster opened. No offense to Kermit and the gang (I've ALWAYS LOVED the Muppets since I grew up with the original Muppet Show), but the IP just doesn't have enough popularity to carry a major destination park e-ticket attraction. As NB Creative noted, the last Muppet Movie was 11 years ago, and I get the feeling the most recent show on Disney+ didn't get a lot of views, so this is an IP that is nothing more than a novelty with a prior park attraction that played at half-capacity (at best). Using the Muppets on Rock 'n Rollercoaster makes sense as a short-term "band-aid" solution if Disney thought the Aerosmith IP was becoming cost prohibitive, but the overall plan here does not feel like it's being made for the long-term. Disney will need to figure something else out by doing a more comprehensive retheme of the attraction (using the Muppets or something else) or fully replacing the attraction. Maybe that's the ultimate plan to use the Muppets to get this attraction to the end of its useful service life (to the best of my knowledge the coaster has never been fully retracked), at which point Disney can decide to do a full rebuild of the coaster to better integrate the Muppet theme or tear it down to build something completely different. Rock 'n Rollercoaster always seemed like an afterthought in the original MGM Studios plan (a thrill ride to give guests an actual "ride" to compliment ToT and Star Tours), and you have to think it's probably 5-10 years away from needing to be fully tracked (like BTMRR at MK is getting right now).
I heard Disney is getting with the new wave songs and will make all riders do the Macarena before getting on this new attraction...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I do understand this move - Disney has a large Older following besides children so this makes sense.
I'm not the biggest Muppets person, but when the project was announced I figured if they gave the attraction a makeover on par with the Mission: Breakout project it would probably be received reasonably well. Unfortunately, this feels even smaller in scope than the Incredicoaster project, with some cosmetic changes but the same exact story. I know Disney wanted Aerosmith out, and I suppose this is a way to keep a Muppet presence in the park, but I'm guessing this will have minimal impact on ridership or visitation to the park.
Putting aside the fact that Muppet*Vision and the original Rock 'n' Roller Coaster were my favorite WDW attractions, I understand why the Muppets were chosen for this overlay. This isn't meant to be a "brand new ride" and I don't see WDW hyping it up that way. The Muppets are a "secondary" brand being used to prop up a "secondary" ride. The Muppets can be used for slightly more "adult" humor (especially the original show) and this ride obviously isn't for a kiddie audience. I think fans had assumed a different real-life band would take Aerosmith's place when the time came, but I assume Disney wouldn't want to pay to license anyone's name, image, and likeness for years on end at this point. So, I get it. Having said all of that, it looks like this reskin will look about as good as what we got with Incredicoaster, so I'm not thrilled. If nothing else, I wish WDW had waited to close MV until after the new RnRC opened. For all of the expansion DHS has received, the park still needs more attractions.
Yeah, I don't understand why this was not ready to go the day after Muppet*Vision closed across the park.
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I still don't know how I feel about this. I guess the real wildcard is what songs are selected as part of the on-ride soundtrack. I'm also curious if the concept image of the preshow room is suggesting the addition of animatronics, or if all the characters will be screens. I could totally see Scooter as an animatronic, and would be amazing if the band were presented as animatronics too, though expect those to be projects like was done before.
As far as the ride itself, it sounds like the props along the track will be the same, lame, flat, cardboard-like elements, just with some Muppet elements added. I have very little expectation for this overlay, and worry that this is going to miss the mark. As much as fans think the Muppets are popular, I just don't think they have the gravitas to carry a major attraction.