Hall of Presidents

[SeventyOne]

I’d prefer to keep politics out of the “most magical place on Earth.” Also, I’ve never stepped foot inside the attraction so sign me up!!

Even with the current President speaking, the show was never what I would call "political." In fact, my favorite of the modern versions featured a guy I never would've voted for. The problem is anything historical comes with political baggage these days. E.g. I've seen criticism that Andrew Jackson basically gets a fluff piece in the current version,.

That said, while I agree it's time to retire the show, I think we need a clean break. Something absolutely unconnected to politics and politicians. Otherwise I think the optics will be horrible. Also, the Muppets are a dinosaur IP outside Disney fan circles, and musical-comedy A-A shows do not age well ("Veggie veggie, fruit fruit", "It's fun to be free..."). I'd almost rather they go with @GAcoaster's idea of Mr Lincoln East for the time-being, let guests take air-conditioned naps, and go with a complete rethink once money opens up. And yeah, Sleepy Hollow would be my vote.

 

[Brian G.]

Just do "Great Moments with William Henry Harrison" and call it a day.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Even with the current President speaking, the show was never what I would call "political." In fact, my favorite of the modern versions featured a guy I never would've voted for. The problem is anything historical comes with political baggage these days. E.g. I've seen criticism that Andrew Jackson basically gets a fluff piece in the current version,.

That said, while I agree it's time to retire the show, I think we need a clean break. Something absolutely unconnected to politics and politicians. Otherwise I think the optics will be horrible. Also, the Muppets are a dinosaur IP outside Disney fan circles, and musical-comedy A-A shows do not age well ("Veggie veggie, fruit fruit", "It's fun to be free..."). I'd almost rather they go with @GAcoaster's idea of Mr Lincoln East for the time-being, let guests take air-conditioned naps, and go with a complete rethink once money opens up. And yeah, Sleepy Hollow would be my vote.

My idea is to do a mixed media “Muppets Present Tall Tales” would be great. Also would impede the blow if Muppetvision is removed...

 

[fryoj]

Just do "Great Moments with William Henry Harrison" and call it a day.

They'd still find a way to have a $1 billion budget and take 8 years to build it.

 

[Nick]

I mean if there was ever a President who was the most grandpa like who’d probbaly play with the Muppets w/his geandkids, it’d be Joe haha.

Great idea though, I guarantee you most children don’t care about this attraction whatsoever. The politics in our nation is too fragile right now to have a show reminding us of that in a DISNEY theme park. Good idea to get LMM on board, I have no doubts as he’s created 2 award winning shows, if anything it’s about time he shows some influence on the parks.

It’s the worst rated attraction at MK according to Touring Plans. They are normally pretty close to the actual numbers from Disney on this sort of stuff.

Here’s the problem, the show was more like an expanded Great Moments originally but shifted in the 90s to focus on the new president. Now it’s just not feasible to do such a show. Get rid of everything and start new, if we’re going all in on entertainment in MK let Epcot be educational. See how Tomorrowland got rid of its educational and grounded stuff for more sci-fi.

They could just revert to a version similar to the pre-1993 version, but I digress. They literally created this problem themselves.

Shut it down, bring in the Muppets

The Muppets are so underutilized and underappreciated

My hope is that if this happens, maybe MuppetVision will finally kick the can for a new attraction since The Muppets will have an attraction elsewhere.

 

[JawsVictim]

My hope is that if this happens, maybe MuppetVision will finally kick the can for a new attraction since The Muppets will have an attraction elsewhere.

I’d rather have MuppetVision since it’s Jim Henson’s last film.

 

[Nick]

I’d rather have MuppetVision since it’s Jim Henson’s last film.

I get it was his last film and have supported keeping it for awhile, and there are more pressing needs in DHS eight now than MV anyway (Animation Courtyard), but the show will be 30 years old in May with very few updates. WDW should not be a museum. Jim Henson Studios probably already has the original film anyway since the attraction was updated to projection. It's a scarcely attended show and I just can't help but feel like we could have an actual ride there that people actually would want to go on.

That Muppet theme could be taken out of that mini-land practically overnight.

 

[shiekra38]

My hope is that if this happens, maybe MuppetVision will finally kick the can for a new attraction since The Muppets will have an attraction elsewhere.

Hello Galaxy's Edge expansion lol

 

[RevFreako]

It seems there is movement on this front. As I stated in the post above and had been rumored before, Disney was already kinda done with this attraction and the unnecessary circus that comes with it. With an inauguration scheduled for just 5 days from now, The Hall of Presidents will be closing soon anyway, although Disney has yet to give an official date on it's closure or say publicly what their plans are.

Over on WDWMagic, there have been growing rumors over the past 24 hours of Hall of Presidents being transformed into a Muppets attraction when it ultimately sees it's last day in it's current iteration. From VisionarySoul over there, who has been a fairly credible source to my knowledge, posted:



Fueling the fire (and adding potential credibility to an incoming announcement), The Muppets twitter account posted this on Thursday. We could see a Friday news dump here.

I was hoping we'd get a Biden AA, as having Trump be the last President with a speaking role is an embarrassment to the legacy of HOP, but I'm excited about this.

 

[Nick]

I would like to point that now is most certainly the time to do this if you're WDW as it's widely assumed based on comments that he has made himself, that Biden would voluntarily be only a one-term president and not even run again in 2024. That would mean they're replacing one now knowing that they likely would have to replace it again in 2024. The expense just doesn't seem worth the cost or hassle that the attraction causes.

I was hoping we'd get a Biden AA, as having Trump be the last President with a speaking role is an embarrassment to the legacy of HOP, but I'm excited about this.

Watch it.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I would like to point that now is most certainly the time to do this if you're WDW as it's widely assumed based on comments that he has made himself, that Biden would voluntarily be only a one-term president and not even run again in 2024.

That's from a badly sourced Politico article. But lets keep Trump/Biden out of this as much as possible. and focus on the Muppet rumor.

 

[RevFreako]

I would like to point that now is most certainly the time to do this if you're WDW as it's widely assumed based on comments that he has made himself, that Biden would voluntarily be only a one-term president and not even run again in 2024. That would mean they're replacing one now knowing that they likely would have to replace it again in 2024. The expense just doesn't seem worth the cost or hassle that the attraction causes.


Watch it.

I said all I have to say on it. If it wasn't inbounds, let me know, but I think I was well within guidelines.

 

[Nick]

I said all I have to say on it. If it wasn't inbounds, let me know, but I think I was well within guidelines.

While you "said what you needed to say" it was an unnecessary and flippant comment and could've spiraled into something we don't want. Just don't say it if that's what you're going to say.

 

[RevFreako]

While you "said what you needed to say" it was an unnecessary and flippant comment and could've spiraled into something we don't want. Just don't say it if that's what you're going to say.

Taken under advisement.

 

[JungleSkip]

I’d rather have MuppetVision since it’s Jim Henson’s last film.

I'd rather have MuppetVision because it's actually be funny, something Disney has never been able to accomplish with the Muppets

 

[RevFreako]

I'd rather have MuppetVision because it's actually be funny, something Disney has never been able to accomplish with the Muppets

Have to disagree. The first Disney Muppet movie was hilarious, and Muppets Now, while uneven, had some great stuff.

There's an argument to be made that Disney isn't good at anything resembling self-effacing humor, but the Disney era of Muppets is hardly a complete failure.

 

[JungleSkip]

Have to disagree. The first Disney Muppet movie was hilarious, and Muppets Now, while uneven, had some great stuff.

The first Muppets movie was as close as they've gotten, and that came out a decade ago.

Muppets Now is traaaaaaash

 

[RevFreako]

The first Muppets movie was as close as they've gotten, and that came out a decade ago.

Muppets Now is traaaaaaash

Can't agree there. I'd watch full episodes of the cooking segments alone. But this is for HOP.

 

[Nick]

Jason Segel was pretty much the mastermind behind The Muppets (2011) in which he starred in and was the main writer. He also pitched the movie as he’s a big Muppets fan.

I say bring him back for The Muppets in general (he’s got nothing else going on), but more pertinent to the thread at hand, utilize him for any potential Muppet attraction.

 

[belloq87]

I feel a whole bunch of different things about this idea:

1. I love the Muppets, and would be happy to see them get another permanent attraction (even if it should really be in Hollywood Studios next to MuppetVision).

2. I don’t love the idea of taking one of the more adult attractions at WDW and skewing it younger. Hall of Presidents has always been one of my dad’s favorite shows, for example, and I can’t imagine him being excited about it turning into comedy.

3. Provided The American Adventure at Epcot remains mostly untouched, and provided the writing of a hypothetical Muppets Hall of Presidents doesn’t turn the entire attraction into goofing on our history (adding humor’s fine, but I firmly believe the attraction should remain an inspiring thing that imparts some actual information about these people), there are probably far worse overlays that could be imposed in the show.

4. I hope the AA cast would remain (the posts on Magic, if credible, indicate that would be the plan).

5. I'd probably rather see even a mediocre Muppets Hall of Presidents more than I would some undefined new attraction concept; with the latter, I'd fear for the thematic future of Liberty Square, which is possibly my favorite land in the entire park.