Grab your dishpans, fiddles, and harmonicas because there’s some beary exciting news out of Frontierland. When the Country Bear Musical Jamboree opens with a reimagined show this summer at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World, the show stoppin’ bears will have brand new looks, including bright, bold, and brilliant costumes for Bunny, Bubbles, and Beulah!
In a brand-new video, go behind-the-seams with Sara Landesberg, a costumer with Disney Live Entertainment who is helping bring these new fabulous looks to life. Sara works coordinating the different teams that come together to create a complete garment, hat, or any item that ends up being center stage for the jamboree — including every single rhinestone that is hand-placed across the big-frills costumes.
“I help source all the fabrics and components and rhinestones,” Sara explains. “I also work really closely with the patterning team to figure out how we’re actually going to make the garments come together in 3D, and how they’re going to fit the bears, who are all very uniquely shaped and different sizes.”
And dressing the bears is a little bit harder than just picking up the real ol’ country rhythm, considering that Audio-Animatronics figures don’t move the same way that humans do.
“They have lots of repetitive movement, so a lot of times we’ll add gussets or additional pockets of fabric to give them more room to move in those repetitive movements without destroying the costume,” she continues.
The bear trio has found a new look that works for them! So clap your hands and stomp your feet, because Bunny, Bubbles, and Beulah — and the rest of the Country Bears — are getting ready to put on a new show that pays homage to the Opry-style shows of Nashville. While the Country Bear Musical Jamboree will include easter eggs from the beginning to the end including a familiar tune fans may remember, the bears will sing new, reinterpreted Disney tunes in different genres of country music – like bluegrass, pop-country, Americana, rockabilly, and other styles.
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