It’s a story that has escaped the confines of just the Disney fandom. As the story goes, a bear caught on fire during a performance of the Country Bear Musical Jamboree at Magic Kingdom, and there’s a video to prove it. A video posted online appears to show smoke emitting from one of the Audio-Animatronic bears on stage as the house lights come on and guests are evacuated from the attraction. At first glance, it looks like the bear has caught on fire. Of course, that’s not true, but it does make for great social media fodder. What began as a misinformed social media post has now been picked up by TMZ.
So, what really happened? In what can only be described as one of the most unfortunate show stops in Country Bear Jamboree history, the show was stopped at the exact moment that a smoking fiddle gag was taking place. With the Audio-Animatronic bear frozen, the smoke effect continued to pour out of the fiddle as if the show was continuing on.
In the new Country Bear Musical Jamboree, one of my favorite gags is that a bear named Ernest is playing so vigorously that his fiddle starts to smoke. This is a 100% intentional gag and it’s even set up in the lobby of the attraction where a “burnt” fiddle is on display – a foreshadowing of what guests will see in the show when Ernest absolutely shreds a version of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Here’s a closer look at the fiddle gag during the show, which includes smoke, and even appears to show the strings on the fiddle turning red. Further evidence that this is intentional is a fun bit of dialog during the performance where mounted heads talk about Ernest blowing through the fiddle budget before being surprised that there is even a fiddle budget in the first place.
The Country Bear Musical Jamboree is new enough that the majority of guests would be forgiven for not knowing that the smoking fiddle was a gag, but with the attraction reopening shortly after, it’s clear that the Country Bear Musical Jamboree didn’t catch on fire. In fact, the reason for the downtime appears to be a more widespread infrastructure issue, with the nearby Enchanted Tiki Room and Pirates of the Caribbean attractions also experiencing downtime midday yesterday as well.
This story actually reminds us of a story from Disney Legend Marty Sklar about the opening of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction out in Disneyland. As recounted by Sklar, the first time that the City of Anaheim fire department saw the ride, they said that they didn’t want Disney to open the attraction because the fire effect in the burning town scene was too realistic, and it would be difficult to tell the difference between the effect and a real fire.
For a look at how the smoking fiddle works during the show, check out our review of the attraction and a full multi-angle video of the Country Bear Musical Jamboree below!
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