On July 18th, 2024, the Country Bear Musical Jamboree was widely reported to have suffered a major Audio-Animatronic malfunction. This incident occurred on the second day of operation for the newly-updated show at Magic Kingdom Park inside Walt Disney World. However, the incident is not at all what it appears to be. There is widespread misinformation being spread about this untimely event. Thanks to sources of Mickey Views at the Magic Kingdom, we have insight to provide on what really happened.
Incident Video
Video originally posted on TikTok by @marvelousmousetravels.
An Audio-Animatronic in the new Country Bear Musical Jamboree was seen smoking in a recent show. pic.twitter.com/wk1vC2NLxr
— Disney Glimpses (@disneyglimpses) July 18, 2024
Your eyes are not deceiving you! Ernest’s fiddle is smoking, and he’s frozen! This has led some to conclude the animatronic caught fire. Nonsense!
Anyone who has seen the latest Country Bears act knows this smoke effect is part of the new show. Ernest plays the fiddle so fast, the fiddle catches fire and smokes! This effect is achieved using two clever effects implemented by Walt Disney Imagineering. One is fiber optics embedded in the fiddle creating the appearance of sparks, flame, and a red-hot instrument. Embedded inside the fiddle is a hose which routes smoke from a nearby smoke machine.
However, in this case, the animatronic is frozen and the theater is amidst an evacuation. What’s happening?
The Real Story
Sources of Mickey Views have provided us details on an alleged park-level incident which occurred the afternoon of July 18th, leading to the viral clip. That afternoon, the Magic Kingdom Park suffered an electrical-related hardware glitch which resulted in the simultaneous halt and evacuation of the Country Bear Musical Jamboree, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, and Pirates of the Caribbean. This can be verified in the downtime graph for each affected attraction on ThrillData.
This area-wide infrastructure problem fortuitously occurred mid-show on Country Bears right as Ernest started going to town on the fiddle! As a result of the electrical issue, the animatronic froze, and the entirety of the already-generated smoke from the smoke machine was released.
As a matter of fact, Ernest, nor any of the Country Bears broke or operated in a way other than what Walt Disney Imagineering intended. Downtime data corroborates that the malfunction occurred at the park level and adversely affected the Country Bear Musical Jamboree, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Following a reset of the affected attractions, operations resumed to normal at all three within a few hours.
Questions on the Reliability of Disney’s Latest Attractions
Despite this incident not being an indication of an issue with the Country Bears itself, fans are not crazy for originally assuming there was a hardware issue with this new show based on the previously-shown footage.
This assumption by Park critics that the new attraction is not “up to snuff” is informed by the continual downtime and attraction-specific technical problems occuring daily at the also-new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction nearby.
Splash Mountain’s replacement has suffered continual technical problems with animatronics not actuating properly, freezing entirely, as well as frequent ride evacuations.
During previews alone, YouTube user “The Splash Mountain Channel” was able to compile over 6 minutes of animatronic malfunctions at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Conversely, throughout the previews and opening of the Country Bear Musical Jamboree, only one attraction-specific malfunction has occurred thus far. This malfunction had to do with “Teddi Barra” failing to properly descend from the ceiling during one showing. Mickey Views anticipates reliability at the Country Bear Musical Jamboree will far exceed the other recently-opened Walt Disney World offering. This is due to the fact that the issues at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure are attraction-specific.
According to sources of Mickey Views, Walt Disney World’s Park Operations are currently amidst developing plans to address the continued downtime and extensive show errors at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Per the source, one Park Operations executive was allegedly quoted as calling the new attraction a “disaster operationally.”
