We’d be remiss if we didn’t fully look at the major questions that Frozen Ever After raises in the minds and hearts of Disney Parks fans…

1. Do characters belong in World Showcase? Or in Epcot at all?

Image: Disney

Remember, EPCOT Center was originally founded with a very different mission statement and a purposeful exclusion of Disney characters. It was a brave and remarkable shift in a world where “Disney Parks” were fantasy realms of characters and cartoons. Michael Eisner’s decision to incorporate Disney’s characters in the 1990s was not a malicious one, and replacing the dated “Symbiosis” in the park’s Land pavilion with “Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable” would’ve been inarguable… a better way to connect with and communicate with young people. Before long, Disney characters were meeting-and-greeting in World Showcase in the country closest to their (sometimes imaginary) home – for example, Aladdin and Jasmine in Morocco, Belle in France, and Anna and Elsa in Norway.

Perhaps the train jumped the rails when Finding Nemo and friends took over The Seas pavilion, making it an odd-man-out among the park’s Future World. If Nemo belongs there, why not Inside Out in Imagination; wall-e in Mission: SPACE; indeed, Guardians of the Galaxy in Energy?

Image: Disney

But with Frozen Ever After, the floodgates spilled open. Now, even the once-untouchable World Showcase could become a showcase of Disney features. Does the already-announced inclusion of Ratatouille: Kitchen Calamity doom France? Of course not. But does it change it? Absolutely. Perhaps for the better! Expect Coco to follow in Mexico, with numerous intellectual properties reportedly battling it out for the UK pavilion.

Ultimately, Disney fans will probably always question if characters belong in World Showcase, or in Epcot at all for that matter. We expect the debate to rage on, and we recognize there’s not necessarily a right answer…

Image: Disney

In any case, it makes us wonder… why did fans not respond with such hatred when Ratatouille was announced for France as when Frozen was earmarked for Norway? Maybe that brings us to our next big question…

2. Does Frozen deserve a ride?

This is an odd question being faced by Disney Parks fans in the light of many announcements today. It’s pretty well evidenced that, seeing the success of Universal’s Wizarding World, Disney is ready to commit to plussing its parks, particularly by building worlds dedicated to high-earning franchises. The trouble comes when fans begin to question if Disney’s lost its long-game point of view. It’s a fair question…

Image: Disney / Pixar

After all, they’ve watched as Disney announced a land no one asked for – Pandora: The World of AVATAR – that succeeded in spite of the intellectual property and not because of it; they’ve seen Disney’s leadership make the brow-furrowing decision to trash the $1.2 billion spent making Disney California Adventure about California in favor of grounding the Lost Legend: Soarin’ Over California; turning the lost Hollywood Tower Hotel and its iconic Twilight Zone Tower of Terror into a Marvel superhero “space warehouse fortress power plant” lording over the park’s Hollywoodland; and transforming the recently-romanticized Paradise Pier into the jumbled, awkward, cheap-o Pixar Pier instead.

Image: Universal

Where once Disney could do no wrong, even ardent fans now have to wonder if Disney’s making fly-by-night decisions to capitalize on flavor-of-the-week intellectual properties rather than thinking long-term... it's about stuffing big intellectual properties into the parks even if it means rides lifetimes will be measured in seasons, not decades. (See Universal once again... no one at Universal expects Fast & Furious: Supercharged or Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon to still be around in fifteen years. They're not meant to be. They're for here, now.)

Image: Frozen

And given the explosion of products around Frozen, it’s fair to wonder aloud if they’ve acted too quickly before seeing if the film is a real classic.

But if you’re looking for our opinion? Yes, Frozen deserves a ride. In the (can you believe it?) almost five years since its release, Frozen can be looked at with new eyes, and it is exceptional. Beyond the record-shattering box office, beyond the earworm soundtrack, beyond the toy lines and costumes and CDs, Frozen is a wonderful film, even if there are inevitable, oppositional folks who detest it simply because so many others like it.

Frozen deserved a ride. Period. This is no fly-by-night, flavor-of-the-week property. It’s a beloved, timeless film that has earned the right to be present in Disney Parks. Which brings us to our last question…

3. Does Frozen deserve a better ride than Frozen Ever After?

Image: Disney

Let’s be clear: Frozen is set in a fictional kingdom that is modeled very intentionally after Scandinavia in style and substance. And yes, setting aside the debate on whether or not characters belong in World Showcase, you can squint and say that it fits acceptably into the Norway pavilion – it is, after all, a film based on a Norse legend written by a Scandinavian. The ride includes trolls, princesses, castles, fjords, fishing villages which means that – for those keeping track – it includes all the elements Norwegian investors asked for from Maelstrom except Vikings and an oil rig.

And understand: Frozen Ever After is astounding. The ride is a wonder, and is sure to delight. But if we’re being very honest, we predicted from the start that even an exceedingly well-done overlay of Maelstrom (which Frozen Ever After is) is simply not be the ride that Frozen has earned. The infrastructure of the low-capacity, four minute dark ride was entirely reused (right down to the same Viking boats, played off as a nod to nostalgia but really a transparent budget-saver), and that's not necessarily a good thing.

Image: Disney

Even though the animatronics, sets, songs, and story are phenomenal (and they are), they couldn't have been better than if the ride was given its own 10-minute epic dark ride from scratch in Fantasyland. That's the ride that Frozen really calls for. And logistically, any ride – however exceptional – draped on the skeleton of Maelstrom's layout wouldn't offer enough to justify the low capacity and long waits for what may well be the most in-demand ride to come to Walt Disney World in decades.

In a fictional fifth Walt Disney World park, we can easily imagine Arendelle being its own entire land anchored by one or more awe-inspiring E-tickets with cutting edge technology and the brilliant showmanship Disney’s known for. Don’t get us wrong: Frozen Ever After is benevolent, fun, and beautiful at worst, and a seriously impressive dark ride at best! But is it what Frozen deserves? Hmm.

Image: Disney

Perhaps we’ll come closer to that ideal when Hong Kong Disneyland opens an entire Frozen sub-section to its Fantasyland in the coming years… although, for all we know, Disney could simply be cloning Frozen Ever After as the headlining attraction there… Which wouldn’t be the worst thing ever either.

...Ever After

It can be hard to separate a Disney Parks attraction from its history and what came before. Sometimes, it takes a while for fans to see with objectivity. In this case, it’s easy to see that – with the odds stacked against them – Disney managed to turn a low-capacity, jumbled EPCOT Center original into a sincere headliner. That is pretty cool.

Like it or not, characters are on the way to World Showcase (and Future World, too). Life is about to change forever for Epcot fans. The good news is that, if Frozen Ever After is any indication, there’s plenty of good to come out of this massive shift in vision.

Though the story of this Modern Marvel is just beginning, we’ve got an entire library of Theme Park Tourists’ In-Depth Collections for you to explore. Make the jump there to choose your next tale and set course for another Modern Marvel.

Then, share your thoughts in the comments below. Does Frozen Ever After belong in our Modern Marvels series alongside other storied, beloved fan favorites? Or was this ride built at the wrong time and place, cursed forever to bring a frown to the face of Disney World fans? Tell us what you and your family and friends think of the ride that changed World Showcase forever.