D23 Brings Back Tomorrowland Hope, Dreamfinder, and the Yeti

The Disney Dish with Jim Hill

Jim Hill and Len Testa discuss major D23 announcements, including the return of Tomorrowland's original theme with Dreamfinder and a working

Key takeaways

• Disney is reviving classic themes like the original 'From the Earth to the Moon' for Space Mountain in Disneyland Paris.
• The introduction of a scar animatronic in Lion King ride at Disneyland Paris is seen as essential for authenticity.

Main topics

• D23 Expo announcements
• International park updates (Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong)

Notable quotes

If they don't get Jeremy Irons back... make two calls.

I'm surrounded by idiots if they don't have the scar animatronic.

Conclusion

D23 reveals a mix of nostalgia, innovation, and thematic evolution across Disney

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:04) The Speaker 1 (0:05) city moves fast, but your vibe, that's different. Sharper, smoother, more alive. Speaker 2 (0:15) The new Speaker 1 (0:20) Honda City isn't just made to drive, it's made to feel. The new Honda City, all new vibe. Speaker 1 (0:28) Welcome back to another edition Speaker 3 (0:30) of the Disney Dish podcast with Jim Hill. It's me, Len Testa, and this is our show for the week of Schmerzday, August 24th, 2026. On the show today, a D23 news recap. Then in our main segment, Jim gives us the history of Hollywood Studios' Ewok Village, which opened ahead of Star Tours on this day, back in 1989. Let's get started by bringing in the man who sleeps better naked and wishes the flight attendants would understand. It's Mr. Jim Hill. Jim, how's it going? Speaker 4 (0:57) I, again, took the red eye home. I know. That's why I did it. That's Speaker 3 (1:02) why I said it. From Speaker 4 (1:03) Detroit 3. Mind you, I woke up with my lap full of complimentary snacks. Evidently, that's how they were proactive. Speaker 3 (1:12) It's like throwing fish to seals, though. It's like, look, he looks Speaker 4 (1:15) like he could use a treat. There we go. There we go. But glad to be home. It was an interesting week out in L.A., which we will discuss at length on today's show. Speaker 3 (1:27) Can't wait to talk about it. But first, Jim, and speaking of thanks, let's thank everyone who subscribes to the show over at patreon.com slash jimhillmedia, including Jay Feeley, Adam Edelstein, Kyle Knapp. Linda Braley, Brian Fleming, and Donald DeVoe. A lot of familiar faces there. Jim, this is Disney's chief synergy team trying to launch a Magic Kingdom food festival for Piston Peak. Menu items they're researching include Luigi's Licorice Tires, Fried Green Maters, and Luxo's Heat Lamp Special of the Day. True story. Speaker 4 (1:59) Seriously, if they don't do those last two, you know, I mean... Fried green meters Speaker 3 (2:04) is a gimme, right? Right, Speaker 4 (2:06) right. Oh, my God, yes. Don't Speaker 3 (2:09) insult us all by saying you haven't thought of it. Exactly. All right, Jim, on to the news. Folks, the Disney Indie News is sponsored by BeOurGuestVacations.com from our friends at DVCRentalStore.com. All right, Jim, D23 roundup. Let's start with the international parks. Over in Disneyland Paris... we heard Space Mountain is returning to its original From the Earth to the Moon theme. What do you make of that? Speaker 4 (2:32) Anything that makes the Columbia, the giant cannon outside, move like it used to back in, what was it, 95, 96? 95, very good. There we go. I'm completely for it. That's a wonderful idea. Speaker 3 (2:50) Yeah, I thought it was fantastic as well. And I think this... this concept or this, uh, this theme of, uh, going back to before is something we're going to see in, in other D23 announcements. Speaker 2 (3:03) The Speaker 3 (3:04) other two bits of news out of Disneyland Paris. One is, uh, for the Lion King ride in Disney adventure world, we're getting a scar animatronic. Yeah. And Jim, if they do not have this animatronic, say the words, I'm surrounded by idiots. Speaker 3 (3:19) I don't know how that, I'm sure that sounds better in French too. Speaker 4 (3:22) All true, all true. I just, I also hope that, you know, given that, you know, supposedly Harrison Ford is coming back to do the Indiana Jones for, what is it, the myth of the green serpent. If they don't get Jeremy Irons back. Jeremy Irons, exactly. An Speaker 3 (3:44) opportunity. While you're on the phone, while you've got that iPhone out, exactly. Make two calls. Yep. And then, Jim, I forgot this in the D23 announcements. I think I must have blanked out over it, but we're getting a new parade in 2028 based on... Speaker 4 (4:00) The Power of Dreams. Yeah. Once again, the infamous wheel that Mr. Testa believes is backstage in the entertainment department. You know, landed on dreams this time. There we go. I mean, you could do The Power of Magic, The Power of Dreams, The Power of Celebration. The Power of Imagination. Speaker 3 (4:20) The Power of Imagination. Exactly. Just spin the wheel. Okay. Two other bits of news out of the international parks. Shanghai is getting a Spider-Man land. And that looks to be the web slingers ride from DCA. Is that correct? Well, Speaker 4 (4:34) no, they have a Spider-Man coaster. I mean, it will feature certain elements from the, you know, the web slinger thing. But no, this is a coaster. And in fact, I think it was Mr. Shule who was sort of eyeballing. you know, this, and it's like, wow, that's a land. I mean, there's barely enough room there for the coaster. Once they're done, it just, it's kind of interesting how, you know, uh, I think we talked about this on the last show. Cause we saw the same sort of naming. With the third quarter earnings call, how some things are experiences and some things are lands. And it's like, okay, you know, which wheel are they spinning backstage now? Speaker 3 (5:19) Right. So I think if it's one attraction, it's an experience. If it's more than one, it's a land. Is that the rule? Speaker 4 (5:25) I guess. But, you know, the weird part of it is they described Monsters, Inc. land as an experience, which is like. Speaker 3 (5:35) I don't know whether to call Miriam Webster or Rand McNally for this. Who resolves these Speaker 4 (5:40) kinds of questions, Speaker 3 (5:41) Jim? Speaker 4 (5:42) I think it's a knockdown drag out fight. Speaker 3 (5:47) It's like a bicameral decision being made here. All right. And then in Hong Kong, I guess we're getting something like Avengers Campus. Wasn't a lot of detail there on rides, but from the text, it sounded like Avengers Campus. Am I off base there? Speaker 4 (6:02) Well, it's Avengers Campus, but with the idea that the central... uh attraction there is a new take on tower of terror ah Speaker 3 (6:13) got it got it Speaker 4 (6:14) you know and i just wish that i mean the current take on how disney seems to be doing attractions featuring i you know said at the various marvel properties is Speaker 3 (6:25) they Speaker 4 (6:26) they want to cram a handful of you know of you know avengers into each attraction so you know dr strange the black panther you know spider-man Whereas the early, early iteration of this, oh, man, it was set in Osborne Tower. And the idea was that you were taking the elevator up to the laboratory and the Green Goblin shows up, cuts the cable, and as you're plunging down to your death. Spider-Man slings a web and saves you at the last possible moment. And you're literally looking up the shaft at, you know, this poor teenager trying to hold this elevator car full of, you know, the what, 20 some odd people. And I'm sorry, that seems like so much cleaner and more fun a story than the artwork that they showed us, which has this. uh sort of kind of like what they're doing with an infinity force you're you're jumping through portals and experiencing all sorts of marvel themed lands and it's like come on just tell one story yeah so Speaker 3 (7:37) you think that um in the in the tower of terror shaft bouncing up and or down is going to get you into a different portal where you experience something else? Speaker 4 (7:47) This is what they showed us with the concept art. In fact, I want to say in the art, they literally showed Doctor Strange lower down in the shaft, the Black Panther up higher in the shaft, and I think Spidey up to the top. So that's at least three Avengers right there. I Speaker 3 (8:04) mean, those are both really good ideas. But yeah, I like the Spider-Man. The original Spider-Man idea wasn't what was great. But I think I like the other idea as well. So that's really interesting to see what they go with. Okay, fair. All right, Jim, over in Disneyland in California, we got an update on Avengers Campus. So we have Stark Flight Lab, which is that two-person robot arm ride. Jim, do we have any other details about this? Is it robot arm on a track? Speaker 4 (8:30) It is. In fact, that's what's kind of intriguing about it. You load in one area, you then move over. and train in another, and then you return to the offload area. But it means that as you're standing there in line watching this happen, there's constant kinetics going on, and it's just adjacent to... where one enters Avengers Infinity Defense. I mean, it's just off to the right as you walk into that enormous building back there. Speaker 3 (9:04) Is Stark Flight Lab an indoor or an outdoor attraction, or is it mixed? Speaker 4 (9:08) Well, it's undercover. Undercover, thank you. But you can see, as you're out on the main campus, you can see it in the distance, look at what's happening, and think, ooh, I want to get online for that. I just had lunch at Pim's Kitchen. Maybe I'll take a pass. You Speaker 3 (9:27) know what? I need a couple of hours to digest. Exactly. There we go. There we go. Your fellow guests appreciate you. And then as we were walking through DCA with our friend Jim Scholl, one of the things we passed by was a construction for Avengers Infinity Defense. And Jim, even though that was behind blue walls. Yep. My first impression of that Speaker 4 (9:49) was that thing is huge. Oh, and we then got that confirmed once we went into the Horizons Pavilion on the show floor at the D23 Expo and saw, you know, again, right behind where that Quinjet is parked is, you know, this giant show building. And by the way, folks, if you want to get a taste of what this ride is going to be like. In fact, the show just dropped on Disney+. It's Leslie Iwerk's latest documentary for the company, Worldbuilders. And the sequence you want to watch is the one that features Kevin Feige, who, first of all, Len, walks the construction site. So you do, in fact, get a sense of how truly big these buildings are. But they also show quite a bit. of behind-the-scenes footage when they are, you know, at Imagineering testing what this attraction will be like. And you do get a rough idea of a number of the scenes from this attraction, which again, have you jumping through portals to do battle with King Thanos. and seeing many of the worlds you visit. And definitely worth checking out. Well, the whole documentary is worth checking out. Leslie does her usual wonderful job. But yeah, you want a taste of what's going on with Avengers Infinity Defense, go watch World Builders. Speaker 3 (11:22) Fantastic. And I know that Disney said that some of the locations we're going to be visiting in Avengers Infinity Defense is Asgard, Wakanda. And New York City. And I'm wondering, JetBlue connects all of those together? Is that how? Interesting. Speaker 4 (11:40) One little tease. Evidently, when you go to New York, something, you know, again, the theme park version, something horrible. goes horribly wrong and you're shrunk down to ant size. So you literally, your ride vehicle goes by a giant versions of Mjolnir, you know, Thor's hammer. And what is it? Sam Wilson, the current Captain America is kind of looking down at you like, sorry, kid. Speaker 3 (12:13) No, that's going to be great. But Speaker 4 (12:15) check it out. Speaker 3 (12:15) Fantastic. And then over at Disney California Adventure, we got an update on the Coco ride. And the details here are that it happens after the original film, which is sort of like the premise of Tiana's bioadventure. But it references back to Miguel's trip to the land of the dead during the Speaker 4 (12:32) boat ride. Yes. The other thing, again, that based on the artwork we were shown and the fact that, for example, There's a statue of Ernesto that's going to be placed in the public square that sort of sets up. And again, remember, that's Coco's great-grandfather, I want to say. Just folks need to be ready. It definitely looks like the Paradise Garden area of DCA is about to get... well, a reskin, you know, with the notion of it's going to set up the village, you know, where the statue is placed. And then from there, you transition in around to the show building where the Cocoa Road boat ride is actually going to be presented, which is next to and behind the Incredicoaster. So Speaker 3 (13:23) they're going to use the Paradise Gardens area as a transition experience into the theme of Cocoa. That makes sense. We walked this last week. It looks like a great idea. Speaker 4 (13:34) No, no, no. More to the point, given that, what is it, from August to early October, no, excuse me, late October, when they do their musical celebration at DCA of Coco and D.S. Day Motors, this is where they do it every year. So it's just, it's sort of embracing, you know. The opportunity, you know, the park has been taking advantage of for years now. And it's like, let's just give it more of a proper setting. Speaker 3 (14:03) Perfect. I'm looking forward to this. I think the theming is going to be excellent in that part of the park. Two other bits of news coming out of Disneyland. One is that we got a Pandora concept model released. And Jim, the thing that was impressive to me about this model. is the architecture of the landscaping. It looks like you're in sort of a wave that is curling, but instead of water, it's made of rock. Speaker 4 (14:24) Yep, and that, we had a couple of imaginers effectively confirm that when you come off of Hollywood Boulevard today, when you make that first turn into that area where you go to ride Mike and Sully, you know, or Monsters, Inc., Mike and Sully to the rescue. That's the street level view straight on with this thing. Right. The shot, the concept art that everybody's seeing, that's the point you enter to get that view. So this thing is going to. take up a lot of real estate. It's Speaker 3 (15:06) huge, number one. Number two, the area directly behind that, I believe, is the bus turnaround and drop-off point, so that's going away. Speaker 4 (15:12) That's going away. Likewise, the old Hollywood and Dine, which, by the way, for Oogie Boogie Bash, this is where people are going to interact with Judge Doom this time around. So, yeah, going to be interesting to see how Oogie Boogie Bash handles that, you know, further and down the line. And Speaker 3 (15:29) going back to the thing we just talked about, regarding transition experiences. One of the things that you, Jim, and I looked at when we were on Hollywood Boulevard was exactly how they were going to manage that transition from a Hollywood street to Pandora in the relatively small amount of space that they've got. I mean, the walking distance from Hollywood Boulevard to the entrance of Pandora can't be more than 30 or 40 yards. No, no. But on the other hand, if you eat Speaker 4 (15:59) the, what is it called? The Eastern Transportation Hub, I guess that's what they call it. If all of that gets moved to the other side of Harbor where the new transportation hub is being built, you suddenly get a lot of real estate. Speaker 3 (16:18) That's going to be one key thing to look at, how they manage that transition. Absolutely. The last bit out of Disneyland, the last bit of news, and the one that surprised, I think, us the most, Jim, is that Disney announced a Tomorrowland redo, specifically mentioning going back to the hope and optimism of, I believe it was the 1967 redo. I don't know if they explicitly mentioned 1967, but, you know, past. Past versions of Tomorrowland with hope and optimism. Jim, a couple of surprising things about this. One is you and I didn't hear anything about this until we actually were on the ground in California. Speaker 4 (16:54) Yeah. There's a part of this whole Parks presentation of this D23 that... that felt like Josh Chamorro, you know, was sort of, all right, what do they want? What do the fans want? And obviously, you know, we've been clamoring for Disney to do something with Tomorrowland, but that's a thing. This literally seems to be, okay, we're going to do something with Tomorrowland. But it's going to be hopeful and optimistic. Yeah, Speaker 3 (17:24) we got no models, no plans, not a single piece of concept art, no timeline. We didn't even get a presentation slide. And I think I turned to you and I said, what we've got here is an intent to form a team to develop a proposal that will lead to a plan. But the other amazing thing about this is Disney then announced after D23 was over that this Tomorrowland redo, is moving ahead of Pandora. Yeah. Okay, Jim, question the first. What? Speaker 4 (17:55) How? Speaker 3 (17:56) How does that move ahead of Pandora? Speaker 4 (18:00) Okay. What we have heard is that if you look at what's been going on at Florida's version... Of Tomorrowland. I mean, take, for example, the redo of Bice, Lightyear, Space Ranger, Spin that we just got. The Carousel Speaker 3 (18:19) of Speaker 4 (18:19) Progress going down for a redo. Another project that hasn't been announced yet that we can't talk about yet, right? Right. Okay, there we go. This is... the redo of Tomorrowland on an installment plan, you know, not a question of shutting down this side of the park and redo it. And remember, that's what Disney did in 1966 for the redo for 67, the hopeful optimistic thing. That's also what they did in 97 before the new, new Tomorrowland debuted at Disneyland. So this. Look, if I'm a betting man, that's what they're going to do in Anaheim as well. We'll see, you know, over four and five years, one at a time, various different attractions, you know, some of those buildings have been standing empty for a while, go down and get new things in them. And over several years, we get a gleaming, hopeful tomorrow land. Speaker 4 (19:23) But why does this move Speaker 3 (19:25) ahead of Pandora? Here was my thinking. This is what I'm trying to figure out. The moment that Pandora opens, DCA