In the modern internet age, we see petitions created all the time. It's incredibly easy to create a petition asking any person or organization to do anything you want. Sometimes these petitions pick up major support. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes these petitions can actually cause real change. Frequently they do not. Recently, a petition to retheme Splash Mountain preceded an announcement that the popular attraction is being rethemed, and it turns out there's another party interested in getting another classic Disneyland ride rethemed. Though this one, I think, is going to have a bit less luck.
While looking for something else on Change.org I tripped over this petition from earlier this year, which is hilariously asking Disneyland to retheme the Matterhorn Bobsleds into Cool Runnings: The Movie: The Ride. That's the actual name they want. The petition is clearly written with tongue planted firmly in cheek, poking fun at Disney Parks' recent tendency to retheme attractions not specifically based on Disney IP into attractions that utilize popular Disney and Pixar characters. If Maelstrom needed to become Frozen Ever After, then obviously the bobsled ride at Disneyland needs to call back to Cool Runnings.
The 1993 Disney comedy told a fictionalized version of the true story of the 1988 Jamaican Olympic Bobsled Team. While the movie was only loosely based on a true story, the petition calls the movie a documentary, just in case you thought it might be serious. John Candy starred in the film and the petition asks that his likeness be used to replace the attraction's Yeti.
Unfortunately, if you somehow thought this redesign idea was actually brilliant, there are only eight people who agree with you, as that's how many people have signed the petition in the six months since it was created.
While the idea of changing the Matterhorn into a Cool Runnings attraction is hilarious on its face, at the same time, if the film had been a bigger hit, it's not difficult to imagine that just such a redesign might have happened. And honestly, I could even get behind a temporary reskin the way we see seasonal changes to some other attractions. Disneyland missed a trick not turning the Matterhorn into a Cool Runnings ride for the 90s Nite event the park had in 2019. Maybe next time.
While it's certainly true that a lot of attractions at Disney Parks that were originally not specifically designed to be connected to Disney IP have seen that change, there are still a lot of rides that remain true to what they once were. The Matterhorn Bobsleds went through major refurbishments as recently as 2012 and 2015 that added new effects and changed the ride vehicles entirely, and so it seems unlikely that the Matterhorn is going to get a major retheme, Cool Runnings or otherwise, anytime soon.
Maybe, if anybody ever dusts off the old Matterhorn movie idea, we could see the ride evolve with the film in the same way that Pirates of the Caribbean did.
