Disney Is Replacing A Legendary Theme Park Attraction — But There's One Way To Preserve It Forever

This past August, Disney made plenty of waves at its bi-annual D23 Expo in Anaheim, California. The company announced a ton of plans to add new attractions and lands to the many theme-park resorts it oversees, especially the Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts in the continental United States. Walt Disney, as some fans like to remind people, always said that Disneyland was not a museum, so change should not only be expected, but it should also be demanded to ensure the parks never remain stagnant. But some attractions seem like they are so immediately perfect, so instantly charming, and so beloved, that to touch them is to risk inflaming the negative passion of fans around the world. 

And yet, one of the D23 announcements led to speculation and such passion. When Disney announced the ridiculously long-overdue prospect of a roller-coaster themed to the 2001 Pixar film "Monsters, Inc." at Disney's Hollywood Studios, it was met with positivity; that film's wild climax in a veritable sea of bedroom-closet doors seemed tailor-made for an E-ticket-style attraction. Aside from being very late, the piece that some fans noted was that Disney never specified where this new ride was going to be placed, leading folks to wonder if it might mean the end of the Muppets Courtyard and thus the end of Muppet*Vision 3D, an all-ages attraction featuring Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the Muppets gang. Now, the speculation can end, and the news isn't that good.

If anything, it's just surprising that it took Disney three-plus months to confirm the speculation: the "Monsters, Inc." coaster is indeed going to be replacing Muppets Courtyard and Muppet*Vision 3D is going away for good. If there is anything positive to be taken from this story — which feels like it was published on the Friday before a major holiday weekend for a reason — it's a couple things. First, while the new roller-coaster ride is still coming, it's not kicking Muppet*Vision 3D out immediately. If you're planning a trip to Walt Disney World in the next few months, you can still enjoy Muppet*Vision 3D to your heart's content. (And again, you should. It is perhaps the most underrated attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and a recent visit from this writer can confirm that its many effects still hold up and look as slick as they must have back in the early 1990s when the show premiered.) Second, in a genuinely surprising move, Disney used this news story to confirm that the Muppets aren't going away as much as they're moving over to Sunset Boulevard and taking over the current Rock 'n' Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith. (That, too, is still a couple years away from being a reality.)

But the most important and potentially telling aspect of the story for those of us who adore not only the Muppets but also Muppet*Vision 3D comes near the end: "As we move forward with these changes, we are having creative conversations and exploring ways to preserve the film and other parts of the experience for fans to enjoy in the future." This could mean anything or it could mean nothing (especially since that direct quote doesn't actually specify that "the film" means Muppet*Vision 3D). But the fact that Disney is even acknowledging that it may try to figure something out is a sign that they know enough people want the 1990 attraction to live on in some form. 

And here's the good news: there's a very easy solution. If Disney CEO Bob Iger (who no doubt is reading this, as he does any article about theme-park ideas) wants to figure out how to preserve Muppet*Vision 3D, the answer is simple: bring it to Disney+.

We can spend all day talking about the difference between what Disney+ actually is and what it should be. Some of us might say that Disney+ should be a service that helps preserve the history of the company that was all started by a mouse, showcasing plenty of older short films, episodes of the "Wonderful World of Disney" TV series, and DVD-style commentary tracks for older and newer films. (This writer has literally argued as much about Disney+ on this website.) That said, one of the biggest and most vexing gaps on the streaming service is its relative lack of theme-park content. Every so often, the platform will put up a live-stream of a nighttime event at Epcot or release episodes of the docuseries "Behind the Attraction," which is an unnecessarily fast-paced and flashy show meant to give you a peek into various big-name rides like the Jungle Cruise or the Haunted Mansion. But in general, the amount of content focused on the theme parks on Disney+ is light, and with little to no good reason as to why. This is not a case where Disney can't argue it can't stream something due to ownership; who else would be overseeing a show about the Disney theme parks?

And in this specific case, ownership should presumably not be an issue, seeing as Disney not only features the Muppets in its theme parks, but has also released a number of Muppet movies, owns "The Muppet Show" (and streams it on Disney+), and also ... let me check my notes, oh yes ... it owns the Muppets. It is undoubtedly a net positive that the inevitability of Muppet*Vision 3D being taken out of the theme parks is now coupled with the Muppets being represented with a different attraction, and one that's come as a moderately welcome surprise on the day of the announcement. But Disney doesn't need to act like the Muppets can't stay around in other forms. It's true, of course, that Muppet*Vision 3D could still be a theme-park mainstay. At Epcot, for example, the Imagination Pavilion is coupled with a 3D movie theater that used to play the Michael Jackson-starring "Captain EO" as well as the "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" show in the mid-1990s. Nowadays, it's used to play Pixar short films that you can literally stream at home instead. The most obvious solution might be to move the Muppet*Vision 3D show there (presuming that Sunset Boulevard over at Disney's Hollywood Studios doesn't have space for a big theater). And over in Anaheim, Muppet*Vision 3D used to be a mainstay in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot before being replaced by Mickey's PhilharMagic, a perfectly charming blend of hand-drawn and computer animation with Mickey and Donald Duck and a host of Disney animated characters.

But theme parks, as wonderful as they can be, are not for everyone. And it's not because Disney isn't trying to appeal to everyone, it's because these places are becoming too expensive for many people to experience. The continued price increases, coupled with the recent headache-inducing announcement about a new version of the old Fastpass that could cost you up to $450 per day per person per park, only serve to make the Disney theme parks feel catered to the super-rich. Disney+, for its many faults, is not nearly so expensive. And again, there's still plenty of space available on the site (especially now that it's just celebrated its fifth birthday) to focus as much on the various subsidiaries the conglomerate owns as on the theme parks that help build Disney's massive profits. And more importantly, bringing Muppet*Vision 3D to Disney+ would be the kind of feel-good news story that the company needs, given that so many people who have never had a chance to experience the show in person could finally see what the hubbub is all about.

Now, there are inevitably downsides to this approach. Muppet*Vision 3D, as the title would suggest, is best experienced when you're donning a set of purple 3D glasses, allowing you to get a kick out of Fozzie Bear firing some gag directly at your face, watch Sweetums hit a paddleball towards you, or even appreciate the charmingly annoyed Waldo, the spirit of 3D. The fad of 3D TVs is long since past, so if Muppet*Vision 3D was sent to Disney+, or if it was released via Blu-ray, you'd get a slightly different version of the show. And part of the challenge of preserving this wonderful experience is that there are a few actual Muppets who show up in person, such as the aforementioned Sweetums, the chipper little Bean Bunny, and, naturally, Statler and Waldorf. Add to that some four-dimensional gags like bubbles blowing and the depiction of parts of the theater being blown to smithereens via a cannon, and you do miss out on bits and pieces of the charm of this attraction.

But at the end of the day, there are really two general options available to Disney if it really does want to preserve this show instead of just making it vanish into the ether: either keep it as a theme-park attraction and move it to a different location, or release it to the masses. One of the suggestions in that /Film article linked above did come true after November 2020: Disney finally put "The Muppet Show" on Disney+, and although some episodes are slightly shorter due to music-clearance rights, it's there and it's a charming reminder of the best of the Muppets. And in that same vein, Muppet*Vision 3D should live on in the same way. If there's anything truly disappointing about the recent announcement and the move for the Muppets over to an upside-down roller-coaster, it's that whatever that updated ride will be, it won't feel quite like the original-recipe version of the Muppets. Muppet*Vision 3D, on the other hand, features Jim Henson performing as Kermit and others, Frank Oz voicing Fozzie and Miss Piggy, and the late Richard Hunt in one of his last appearances with the Muppets. It's the original crew doing what they do best.

So now, Disney needs to improve upon a streaming service that could be so much better if only it tried. Sending Muppet*Vision 3D to Disney+ would not mean that everyone in the world (or at least every subscriber in the Western world) could get to experience Muppet*Vision 3D in person, the way it's truly meant to be enjoyed. But it would allow so many people beyond standard theme-park visitors to understand what the passionate fans of Muppet*Vision 3D have known for decades: that this is a hidden gem of the Disney theme parks, blending creativity, good humor, biting wit, and the right kind of vibes into a package that has been a stalwart of Disney's Hollywood Studios for so long that when it leaves, the park and the entire Walt Disney World resort will be worse off. 

Keep Muppet*Vision 3D alive, Bob. Do the right thing.