Earlier today, BlogMickey.com was invited out by Walt Disney World to an early listening party for the two currently revealed songs that guests will hear on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets when it opens this Summer at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In addition to listening to The Electric Mayhem covers of Song 2 and Born To Be Wild, we learned some new details about what guests can expect from the on-ride experience. Here’s the latest!
New Muppets Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Ride Details: Randomized Songs, One Song Per Ride
Beyond hearing the actual songs, one of the questions we had was how similar the ride experience would be to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. Many of the conceits of the attraction are very similar to the Aerosmith version. From the pre-show through to the post-show, we expect that the story beats will be a Muppetfied version of the same story of the Aerosmith version of the attraction.
If you look at the pre-show room and even the description of the “conflict” of the attraction, it’s all feeling very similar: the band has a big concert across town, but will they make it in time?!
The Electric Mayhem are headlining their biggest Hollywood concert ever! Anyone who’s anyone is in attendance to witness Animal, Dr. Teeth, and the rest of this groove-tastic group rock the house down. There’s just one little problem: the band is nowhere to be found!
With your VIP passes, you’ll be welcomed inside the recording studio, where – wouldn’t you know it – you’ll find The Electric Mayhem cranking out the familiar tunes of Can You Picture That? as they rehearse for their big concert. Along with the finest audio engineers (all penguins, of course) we’ll see Scooter doing his best to convince Electric Mayhem to stop jamming and get to their increasingly restless fans. But will it be enough to get the band across town and onstage in time?
While we believe that the roller coaster track layout and ride elements will remain the same, we were able to get confirmation of two changes to the ride experience when compared to the Aerosmith version of the ride.
RANDOMIZED SONGS
The first change for the ride experience when compared to the Aerosmith version of the ride is that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets will have a randomized song for each vehicle. In the Aerosmith version of the ride, fans noticed that each of the ride vehicles had a unique and set soundtrack. That changes when The Muppets take over.
While we have to wait one more day for the full setlist, each limo will be capable of playing any of the songs at any time. This is similar to how Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind works. Personally, I think that this is a great way to increase re-ridability and add a little bit of suspense to the ride.
Speaking of songs, there’s one more change that we learned about when compared to how the Aerosmith version of the ride operated.
ONE SONG PER RIDE
On some of the ride vehicles in the Aerosmith version of the ride, there would actually be a song mashup. One song would play for the first half of the ride, while a second song would play during the second half of the ride. That’s going away when The Muppets take over.
Each ride experience will have a single song. For example, when we listened to Song 2 and Born To Be Wild today, each song was roughly 70 seconds long – the length of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster attraction.
While we’re hoping to get more details on how the songs were selected once the full setlist is out, we have been told that the teams at Walt Disney Imagineering and The Muppets Studio (a specialty unit within Imagineering) collaborated to find the perfect songs for the ride experience.
FIRST LISTEN: EARLY REACTION TO SONG 2 & BORN TO BE WILD
Beyond the ride details, we got a first listen to the two currently announced songs for the attraction. As previously noted, both were about 70 seconds long and clearly custom-made for the ride. Both songs are covers and performed by The Electric Mayhem. If you haven’t listened to The Electric Mayhem before, I feel like the video below of them singing Rock and Roll All Nite from The Muppets Mayhem on Disney+ is a good introduction to what you can expect from the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets attraction. Particularly, the music is faithful to the original version of the song, but with a Muppets spin. For example, they may even work in some humor or quips into the song that stay very true to the Muppets brand, while still sounding very rock and roll.
Of the two tracks that we listened to, my favorite (by far) was Song 2, originally sung by Blur. There is a part of the song where Animal takes over the vocals, and I found myself laughing and smiling, thinking about how great of an on-ride experience that’s going to be. I can’t wait to get the chance to ride the attraction and go from 0 to 57Â mph while screaming “woo-hoo” as we launch into the darkness. I think this track will be a fan favorite, but I can’t wait to see what other songs are on the setlist.
For more on the setlist and the attraction opening date, check back here with us tomorrow morning, Thursday, April 16th, for a full reveal!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!