Country Bear Musical Jamboree is a stage show in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom featuring animatronic bears. The show opened in the summer of 2024 as an updated version of the classic Country Bear Jamboree except this time featuring Disney songs. In this post, we’ll review the attraction including our experiences watching it and how it compares to the original show.

I have a hard and fast rule that I don’t watch theme park ride throughs or shows on YouTube before seeing them. No shade at those that do, it just doesn’t give me the full experience that I want when reviewing something new. But one late night this summer, with a WDW trip still a few weeks away, my curiosity got the best of me. My beloved bears were doing something new that concerned me and before I knew it I was plopped down in front of the TV with the volume a little louder than it should have been at that point in the night. I didn’t like what I saw while watching that video but stick with me.

Despite being a Disney theme parks fan, I don’t find it overly hard to get past any nostalgia-driven opinions in trying to be objective. Going to the theme parks was a part of my childhood but the frequency was every few years, not every few months. Perhaps because of that I have nostalgia for less. Not to toot my own horn here because there are certainly some opinions that I have that might not be all that objective. I won’t get talked out of Illuminations: Reflections of Earth being the best nighttime spectacular ever. They could continue to strip away parts of Disneyland’s Fantasmic to the bare bones and I’d still say that people should go line up on the river to see it. But my biggest blind spot is the Country Bears. This post is far more personal than the typical Wandering in Disney review.

My love for those the bears and the original (or slightly modified) show knows no bounds. It has confounded friends, changed our itineraries and led us to go watch Big Al sing ‘Workin’ on the Railroad’ in Japanese (shoutout to Vacation Jamboree) multiple times in a day. Something about the mix of humor, animatronics and dated country songs hits me perfectly.

In that way, this new version of the show was always going to fail for me. Frankly, I was upset when I found out the Bears would be switching to just singing Disney songs. It felt like a decision that was the worst part of the Iger IP-driven era – like adding a Beauty and the Beast sing-along to Epcot. Changing the original show felt like needless corporate synergy and I wasn’t sure who this change was made for.

The first time we saw the new Country Bear Musical Jamboree was during late night hours at Magic Kingdom. There were around 10 other people in the theater and the response was tepid. I enjoyed it slightly more than watching it at home on YouTube but still came away largely unimpressed. I voiced that same complaint of not knowing who they made the change for to Melissa while walking out. She thought it might play better to families and so we decided it would be good to check it out with a full theater later in the week.

Taking off my Country Bears filtered glasses for a second, thinking that the theater might be full later in the week was new. While the show is a huge success in Tokyo Disneyland still, it hardly ever played to a full crowd in Magic Kingdom. No doubt, it had a cult following and I was a member of that cult. But not everyone wanted to drink that flavor of Kool-Aid. Maybe Liver Lips (RIP) drank it all and there was none left? Before we get into other experiences with the show, that could be an answer to my questioning of the change. Having something new will add energy to the Country Bears and surrounding area.

Our second time seeing the show was a different story than the first. The crowd filed in, mostly filling the old theater and reacted well to most everything. Every time a new song started different groups of people would laugh. I wouldn’t say that the experience made me marvel at Country Bear Musical Jamboree but it did make me take my hate blinders off and realize a few things.

Those realizations included just how good the animatronics looked. Between the costuming and freshening up (along with brand new animatronics in some cases), these ol’ country singers look fantastic. If there’s a quick way to restore my soul (I’m becoming as dramatic as Big Al here) it’s by making animatronics look really good. On top of that, hearing the crowd reactions showed just how well certain parts of the show worked. In total, we went to Country Bear Musical Jamboree three times and each of them drew an amazing reaction to A Whole New World.

That third and final time was the best experience of the new show. Some of that was just getting over not having what I loved. But the crowd was also so into the show. There was loud laughter, cheering and even some heckling, which the classic show was kind of designed for. Not every experience will be like that unfortunately, but it helped me see Country Bear Musical Jamboree for what it actually is and not what I wish it was.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I do like the classic Country Bear Jamboree better than this newer version. There are parts in the latest edition that I don’t think work very well. I love Shaker, but Fixer Upper is probably the low point in the show for me. Part of that might be because I don’t like that song from Frozen very much in the first place, but it just seems to fall flat overall. Try Everything isn’t my favorite part either, although it is helped along by the photo montage of Trixie. I enjoy the spirit of what they were going for during that song, at least.

A few other nitpicks include Buff, Melvin and Max. Love those heads mounted on the wall but they have way too many lines during the show and I don’t find them particularly funny. It’s as if they were meant to be there to entertain the kids but that’s not necessary. It also follows a recent theme park trend of adding too much narration or exposition to things. Finally, Big Al’s presence isn’t what I was hoping for. All of the bears seemed to keep their personality traits except Big Al, who doesn’t finish his song because it’s too sad. Seeing his big body holding that small guitar while singing off key still makes me laugh though.

I have very small composition quibbles in different songs but those don’t matter and don’t really take away from anyone’s enjoyment, or from the spirit, of the show. It may have taken me three live viewings to get on board but there are parts of Country Bear Musical Jamboree that are great! I already mentioned how the bears look and A Whole New World, both of which are highlights. The opening original tune, an original song, is really good! Come Again (a classic Country Bear tune) is played as the outro song.

Whether you’ve seen the show live or not, you’ve probably seen clips of Ernest slaying on the fiddle. That’s a great gag that really brings the house down. The finale works exceptionally, as well, with Henry and Sammy singing You’ve Got A Friend in Me before the whole gang goes out with Bare Necessities. There might be a few duds but it’s a tight 13 minute set that generally works. Even before the show, the queue has added some great jokes and trinkets!

Without a doubt, some of the weirdness is gone. That was inevitable when taking old country songs about momma not whipping lil’ Buford and blood on a saddle and replacing them with Disney songs. In that way, Country Bear Musical Jamboree is far more uniform and might not be the cult classic it was. I’ll miss that! But, at least for now, I can go to Tokyo Disney Resort to enjoy it. The weirdness is gone but the new edition of the show certainly has more of an appeal to broad audiences. I might miss the confused faces and blank stares of WDW travelers who don’t know what they just stumbled into, but I doubt Disney does.

For better or worse, Country Bear Musical Jamboree makes more sense now. It’s still funny, it’s still a little bit strange but it fits in better with the Iger way of doing theme parks that’s been going on for nearly 2 decades. And if that’s what it took for the my favorite bears to not get completely replaced, I’m okay with this outcome.

As we were sitting in the show for that third and final time, it really occurred to me what the change in show meant. We’ve seen rumors of Country Bear Jamboree closing for years and now those are gone. So many more people will get to see Henry and Sammy sing together. They’ll get to enjoy Teddi Berra come down from the ceiling and swing overhead. We can all see Shaker shake those very old hips. I’ll miss the weirdness and Trixie singing about wine and Liver Lips. But as the crowd was cheering and laughing, I still felt the strange sense of pride in other people enjoying something I care about so much. In that moment, it felt clear who this change was for.

What do you think of Country Bear Musical Jamboree? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below! If you are planning a trip to Disney World, then check out our planning guide. Looking for discount Walt Disney World tickets? Check out this site! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. You can do all of that on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!