Tiana deserved her own amazing ride that went through her story and had her great dresses. This refurb just felt like a slap in the face for both Tiana and Spalsh Mountain fans.
Me as a Splash Mountain fan seeing my childhood ride being refurbished and not even liked by Tiana fans which was the whole idea kills me on the inside…
If they decided to retheme it just because they thought it was time to update the ride, sure. I wouldn't mind that so much. But the whole reason they did it was to pander to the social justice warriors. They made it political.
I’ve been saying for years how Disney is missing the opportunity to make a “Tianas Palace” restaurant. Her life goal was to open a restaurant so it makes so much sense.
The ride still doesn’t make sense. You have the Bayou in the middle of a desert. You have the ride next to big thunder Mountain, which is themed to the desert. You tell me that it makes sense because it really doesn’t make sense
It's so stupid that disney considers villans.... problematic. Of course they are problematic, they are villans. A concept that Walt Disney himself defined.
It's not villains they find problematic, it's him being the "Voodoo Daddy". They didn't want Voodoo in the ride, and changed Mama Odie to the "Bayou Fairy Godmother" in the press releases to reflect that change.
It would be a far better story if Dr. Facilier somehow hijacked their adventure, and the turning small part was him turning all the guests into frogs to, with the lifted section to the drop of his song going, "Are you ready? Are you rea-dy? Transformation central! Reformation central! Transmogrification central! Can you feel it? You're changin', You're changin', You're changin', all right! I hope you're satisfied. But if you ain't, don't blame me! You can blame my friends on the other side!" and drop during "side"!
That would've made for a really fun still then suddenly moving animatronic! Have Dr. Facilier just standing there, seemingly not noticing anything around then, all of a sudden, he moves, we get his "Are You Ready?" song and the "transformation" happens to the guests 🐸 Even the party could be interwoven with that story. Just have a special song spell & happy music being needed to defeat Dr F & for that to happen the guests have to help Tiana find the different band members in the bayou. Having the party being used to defeat Dr F in addition to being a celebration in & of itself would IMHO also add an extra element of fun 🎶
AAHHH! this is such a great idea, and I was able to imagine it so clearly with your description... like I felt more excited for this imaginary part of the ride than for the actual ride 😭It definitely would add some much-needed thrill to the attraction
Imagine the ride as the original movie. Where Tiana in her blue dress, kisses the frog and then we turn into frogs in the bayou while Dr faciller chases us with his demons! Imagine “are you ready” as you’re going up the hill and dr facillier poofs smoke and his eyes are showing in the dark as you splash down!!!! And then the ending is Tiana and naveens wedding, then a peppers ghost effect of the frogs turning into their human forms. Tiana in her beautiful green dress!!! With mama odie!!!
This is what we all wanted. The Mouse wanted to stay away from voodoo and anything remotely controversial or potentially insensitive (which I do understand). I commend the imagineers for coming up with a unique story for the attraction, though I feel like it would be better suited to a picture book or animated short
Dang, you nailed that. Honestly, that ride description feels like a prime Imagineer pitch from another time that we now hear about in awe, decades later, on Disney documentary shows like Behind the Attraction and The Imagineering Story. THAT description would've made for a hit ride that embodies the feeling of the movie story and its characters. Disney bots or interns scanning the web: can we please get the ride redone with these specs? And hire this person. Thank you.
They hinged the climax of the attraction on the final drop and never considered having any conflict with villains. This was a HUGE error on their part. Every classic Disney attraction has the usual concept of "hey here's the story that's going on but wait, something goes wrong" and that's what made them great. This just seems so bland especially when the villain from this movie is great! I can forgive some things, but not this.
I think this is _the_ make or break issue as to whether or not you think this is a good revamp or not. All the defenders seem to sidestep this issue or say it's not that important if the ride is still fun, while I'm in the camp that it's _the_ most important thing they dropped the ball on and that no amount of fancy animatronics can save a bad story.
My biggest issue with the ride is the story telling is awful. Splash mountain had a beginning, middle and end to the rides story yet I fail to see that on this new ride.
id be more distracted with my own thoughts while riding this if anything, im js hoping the one in cali wont be any more empty than in florida cus theres sm dead space and failed potential
Now that you mention it, it is kinda odd how much Disney emphasized the "employee-owned" stuff in TBA, especially since, as far as I remember, that wasn't even a thing in the original movie. Like Tiana was a waitress trying to create her own restaurant, but it's always treated as her just wanting to fulfill a lifelong dream and not her trying to do something socially conscious for her community. She isn't even presented as financially struggling, she works multiple jobs to afford starting her own business, not because she would be unable to support herself otherwise.
Because someone at Disney thought that would somehow make the ride better in the eyes of certain crowds…despite such crowds typically despising big corporations like Disney.
It's so scummy. One moment, Disney is advertising how it is "EMPLOYEE OWNED" and then going out of their way to condemn the writers'/actors' strikes on national TV. It just reeks of corporate greed and mistreating their own workes
Because she is based on Leah Chase, a real person and restauranteur here in New Orleans. Her business was family owned, and if I walk the few blocks to her restaurant today, her family still work there, are proud of her legacy and continue the tradition. Tiana didn’t have siblings, and her mamma wasn’t the cook in the family. So if you can’t do “family owned,” employee owned is a very close interpretation especially in Louisiana.
Bro.....Why doesn't Naveen and Charlotte have more 'ride time'? All of it is just Tiana and Louis despite Naveen being with her the whole time and being her main co-star AS WELL AS THE FREAKING PRINCE OF THE MOVIE! Did the people who made this ride even know who and what people liked from the film because it feels like it's missing so much and as a result, it just crashes and burns. It's just Tiana in khaki pants and oddly out of place animals. C'mon, now.
naveen and charlotte could've even fit into the plot of the ride! they could've also been out helping tiana and louis and thus making the scenes a little livelier, there's so much dead air in the actual ride where nothing happens and it's such a bummer because the movie itself was so energetic
I just hate the name Tiana’s Foods. They really couldn’t think of anything better? Maybe it’s in the movie idk i never seen it lol. It just sounds so unappealing.
Nope! In the movie her restaurant is called Tiana’s place/palace, so they could have worked around that or named it after her father since her father is her inspiration
The logo is even worse than the name. The logotype or "Tiana's Bayou General" store is ornate and very late 19th century to early 20th century in stylization.... but the "Tiana's Foods" logo is very mid-century (1960s even!) in style. It's baffling! It's a design any lay-person could do on their computer with absolutely no graphic design talent. Such a shame to have that on the water tower, imagine if it was more similar to to the Tiana's Bayou General look, it would mesh so much better with Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and Big Thunder and Frontierland at Magic Kingdom. It was just a straight up graphic design blunder.
They could have set the ride before the film so he could of been in it they was a rumor that the whole voodoo theme was dropped because white folks would complain and can't have any thing with a edge or Karen from Atlanta will ask to see the manager
Yes, when you see her on the first big lift standing with frosted glass doors behind her, it was a perfect opportunity to use rear-projection silhouettes of her "employees" and Naveen moving around the kitchen busily getting ready for the big party and maybe there could have been band members with trombones etc. blowing awful sounds while other characters cover their ears, making it clear WHY we need to go find members for the band. Anyway, to have those frosted glass doors and no visual gag with animated silhouettes to help the story-telling is kind of an insane missed opportunity.
Honestly, Disney has become way too focused on sanitizing everything nowadays. They need to bring back some of the darker elements they used to have in their parks, kids can handle it. And besides, at least half of their customer-base is adults now anyway
totally!! this can be said for their rides and their movies. i miss the deeper and darker stories, i think it was good to have kids digest that, yunno? it strengthened their media literacy and empathy and just made for better storytelling. i greatly dislike the cocomelon-ification direction they’ve been rolling with
But it's the adults bitching about things, not kids. Look at all the women who shit on Ariel and say how inappropriate the songs were. Ariel is my princess. I literally grew up with The Little Mermaid and she is the only Disney princess I see myself in. Love has always been the most important thing to me, but did I ever get it in my head that "Kiss the Girl" is somehow inappropriate and encourages sexual harassment? Hell no. Literally no one thought that until some moronic "feminists" who try to paint women as victims any chance they can get told themselves it was sexist and had to brainwash others to think that as well in order to feed their ego.
This ride is a joke all around imo. They got rid of Splash mountain because of it's vague connections to slavery. But they built the new ride in a Salt mine, another location that relied heavily on slave labor.... Even if you ignore all politics with this ride, it really doesn't add much to the experience for the amount of money dumped into it. It would of been way better to make a new ride for Tiana, tear down some stupid shop or something instead of removing an existing ride. I am tired of Disney not growing their park capacity, instead always removing rides to replace them.
This attraction felt too neutered, like because the cast was black they couldn't let them have too much personality or depth because that could bring controversy. Like imagineers were trying to appease Twitter instead of putting love and care into a new attraction for a beloved character who is beloved because she's strong, independent, hard-working, and smart. It's just "Let's find the critters for my party!"
You criticize yourself for only riding it once, but that's how MOST people will also experience the ride. I think this was a very well thought-out critique of the new theme
My biggest complaint is that as is, the story doesn't feel fitting for a thrill ride, and feels like it's pandering to an audience too young to be allowed to ride (ironic considering "Everyone is welcome" is a recurring theme, but the ride is a thrill ride that is inherently not inclusive of everyone). This would have worked better as a standalone ride that was purpose built to tell this story, with a tamer ride system with no height requirement that better fits the "everyone is welcome" theme they were going for.
A lot of people say that the main drop should have Dr Facilier but I think he should be at the drop where you shrink. Like he wants to ruin the party and so turns the guests into frogs. And then the big drop can be Mama Odie saving the guests and turning them back into humans. To fit the timeline maybe Dr Facilier doesn't appear in person but is just his shadow and his voice. He is the Shadow Man after all.
They messed it up. It was easy. Just follow the movie. They didn’t have to make anything new. How they didn’t see that ‘Aree You Readyyy” wouldn’t have been perfect as you go up the hill… that just seemed painfully obvious. They just didn’t need a new story. At all.
It seems like there are a few things they could do to greatly improve this attraction. First, many people are not understanding that Mama Odie has shrunk you down. To clarify that, instead of just having that big pink bottle as the first thing you see, have a bottle showing a reflection of YOUR LOG floating by but instead of people, show frogs sitting on the log. It would convey in a cool-effect way that YOU are now the size of a frog. Second, totally agree on your "flat tone" comment. I think the Disney company is having an internal struggle -- an identity crisis, in essence -- about whether they can still tell *stories* and have tension and drama, because making people uncomfortable -- in any way -- is not in vogue right now. To improve this attraction, they need to revise the story a bit (it's incredibly weak) and add a tonal change -- a dark or overwhelmed moment before the big lift -- and at least have a spooky shadow of Dr. Facilier. Instead of getting rid of this character, Disney needs to redefine him...he's *now* just a charlatan, a scoundrel, he is a huckster bragging about his "bayou magic" (don't say "voodoo") but really he's just an illusionist, everything is slight-of-hand and misdirection. It's very easy to just re-define the *fantastic* character and keep essentially every cool aspect of him and make him not religiously offensive.
i agree with that last point, but the problem with that is that it’s almost exactly what they did with splash mountain - keeping the general essence of the characters the same while trying to strip away the problematic aspects. obviously that didn’t work out with disney, so as much as i’d like to see them try to redefine facilier, i kind of understand why they wouldn’t. that’s no excuse for the plot and the big drop being a massive disappointment, just an observation
@@occultpyromancer I totally understand your point, and why there would be doubt. But I guess my larger point is that the Disney company -- and really all entertainment companies -- spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars trying to get audiences to form an attachment to their characters though media, merchandise, etc. And when audiences DO "fall in love" with a character, it's a big win. But it's also an implied *deal* that audiences strike with the entertainment company -- a deal of trust. The fan will be "a fan" and be loyal and spend money, and the entertainment company will manage the character in a way that fulfills the desires and expectations of the fans. That's the relationship. It works for both fans and the business. But when a company just unilaterally decides: "yeah, fans,. we know we got you all in love with this character and you spent money on this character...but we're going to DISAPPEAR that character 'cause, you know, there's some challenges. We're pulling the plug." It's infuriating for fans and it breaks the trust. Fans should *not* trust Disney, essentially, they will DISAPPEAR any character or movie or whatever they want, at any time. Someone could say "Well, it's their character and they can do what they want" but my answer is "Sure, they can, and I will start ignoring their content and characters and turn to other forms of media and other company's content." My point is that Disney should understand the broken trust around Facilier -- it's a big deal to just say a character *that* popular is "not okay" anymore. They should make a modicum of effort to adjust the character so he can work...forever. The win is huge, he's a great character aesthetically and personality-wise and I don't think he has to literally be a "voodoo" practitioner for him, as a very appealing character, to work. If they gathered a handful of Disney Animation writers in a room for a whole day, brought in some sandwiches and gave them a white board...if they couldn't walk out of that room at 5:00pm with a redefined Facilier they should lose their jobs.
@@DrStarlanderI see no reason why he can’t just be an “evil sorcerer” either. We’ve had tons of Disney bad guys with loosely defined magic and he doesn’t have to be any different. Modify the design of his friends on the other side to be a little less voodoo and he can fit in just as well as mama Odie in the loosely defined magic person space. I thought they could maybe just have it be his shadow and his evil spirits after the boat, since he’s been dragged to the other side. This would be an easy addition since the shadow can be projected, letting them add tension to the story without building a whole new animatronic.
@@Theravingranter I believe that there are two ways in which Disney became uncomfortable with Facilier. First, the voodoo is an actual religion so to characterize it in a disrespectful way was felt to not be acceptable by modern standards. For me, that's easy, he can be a generic evil or "bayou" magic or a huckster-charlatan and don't use voodoo-specific tropes. The second is that he is a black male and a villain, and that was felt to be stereotypical in the way that for decades Hollywood would portray black males as criminals, "shady" threatening characters, etc. That's a true issue with Hollywood history. BUT, the counter argument is that the villains are among the most important Disney characters so to NOT have a black male villain is a different form of exclusion. Plus, he exists already...of all the Disney villains, can we not please have at least one black male villain -- that we already have and love? Is it really "more sensitive" and enlightened for Disney to just make him disappear? In fact...they could make a movie similar to the book and Broadway musical Wicked, which told the story of the witches of The Wizard of Oz from *their perspective*, all about Facilier's life....what happened as a kid, how he became a huckster or discovered bayou magic. Tell HIS cool story so we understand him and love him even more as a character!
I’d be less bitter about Splash being gone if they didn’t go out of their way to remove the Br’er characters from everything. No more walk-around costumes or merch. They aren’t allowed to be drawn at Art of Disney anymore. They weren’t included in Once Upon a Studio. Even in Tokyo where Splash still exists, they seem to be restricted on what they can use (they can seemingly only get away with using the mountain itself on products but not the characters). It’s weird because the 30th anniversary celebration they did for the ride in 2019 seemed to be the most love the characters had gotten from Disney in awhile, with new plushes, Funkos, etc. Really wish Disney had utilized them more outside the ride so that they wouldn’t just be tied to SotS anymore. What can you do though I guess…
@SykoMuffin They will return eventually, but not anytime soon while under the current lunatics. In 2041, the film will become public domain, so art and media can be created and sold by anyone without fear of Disney sending c&ds.
@@SirBuzzLMAO wait though- you haters are the first to say it’s the exact same ride with a “new coat of paint” so; you’re willing to travel around the planet to get on the exact same ride? LMAO. Let’s be real here- ya don’t like Princess and the Frog (the black princess). You’re not gonna fly to Tokyo and enter a culture you probably have no respect for just to get on your racist log ride. LMAOOOO. You’re not. You people are so silly. 🤡
The whole reason they got rid of splash mountain was to basically attempt to erase all evidence of song of the south and distance themselves from it. Its not on disney plus, they stopped selling merch, the songs dont play at the park anymore, and they’ll just generally never acknowledge it. The characters dont show up anywhere anymore because Disney wants to pretend the movie they came from never existed.
@@SlushysSecret No, the ENTIRE story was changed. I made an entire comment explaining everything on here from what Baxter had told me so you'll find everything there
@@thrillingadventures4164 I’ll be taking this with a grain of salt considering if this was brought up during 2020 and the retheme being officially announced showing the clear absence of Facilier at the drop with mama odie still occupying the drop, the so they had 6 months thinking this through despite this retheme being put into consideration and some form of development as early as 2018, so they would’ve had Baxter come in during that time to help with the retheme, I also believe that the crew behind the redesign never considered Facilier for the retheme EVER, so the story probably was relatively similar to that of what we got such as Tiana in her original outfit, much broader mountain design, inclusion of prince naveen, and much more aspects that were incredibly downgraded in the end
They took an interesting looking Splash Mountain, and now it looks like an indistinct green mound. Also, a problem starts with the premise of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, what mountains are in the bayou ? No log flumes, no waterfalls, do they log in the Louisiana bayou ? I’ve never been there, but in all the photos I’ve seen it’s flat.
People dont really "log" in the bayou, but those who live on the bayou use airboats and pirogues typically. I've never gone to the bayou myself as its still far enough from NOLA, which makes sense as its still a city lol. But there are still swamp tours offered that will drive tourists out so they can see them.
That's the whole reason why they made the mountain a salt mine (even though that's never brought up in the ride). People were pointing out that there were no mountains in the bayou, so they made it a salt mine to "justify" it.
Some things I want to point out 1. This ride, and any other addition that is announced for Disneyland and WDW at the same time is 99.99% originally conceptualized, and designed with Disneyland in mind. For example the transitions in Hollywood studios to galaxy’s edge are greatly inferior to the transitions found at Disneyland. Or how the bayou theme fits better in Disneyland because it’s actually right next to New Orleans square. If you still don’t believe me, they have to design all the additions with the limited space of Disneyland in mind. 2. As to why Disney continued to keep the critters, Critter country is staying in Disneyland. In the future it will be a very important part of Disneyland Forward as you will soon have to walk through critter country to enter the new expansions. It serves as a very good transitional piece in the future of Disneyland and I believe Disney wanted to make sure the ride still fit in critter country so they didn’t have to rethink the already good transitional land to Disneyland forward.
The fact that you think this wasn't a budget cut is insane to me lol. It was clearly a rushed, thrown together story. Half of the animatronics are already broken I rode it twice the other day, the first time the first 2 Louises were broken, the 2nd time like all of the animatronics were static and broken. The story is absolute garbage, there's no climax, no point to the drops and no tension for them, a bunch of dead space, and for me it's just a total disaster. Each time I ride it, I get more and more disappointed with decisions they made. The ride is awful. Splash was sooo much better.
It feels like they didn't actually have any finalized plans when they announced it, announcing it solely to capitalize on the events of that summer before any specific details of the project were known. Feels like corporate pushed it through to have a nice vanity project to make themselves look good, not accounting for the long term optics of a half-baked overhaul that clearly needed more care and development than it was given.
@@A_A610 I mean it's obvious the ride was incomplete when they were forced to begin previews and training. Like the ride was unfinished and Disney approved it to open and forced the imagineers to leave things unfinished.
@@tgguitarguy With further followup, seems they were pretty far into development of a previous version that would have been more of a proper movie retelling with Facilier being a key part of the ride experience (they even brought Tony Baxter back on board to consult, since he was one of the creative leads behind the original Splash), before corporate stepped in and shot the proposal down because voodoo and villainous black people were seen as poor optics with a retheme that was intended to not be racially insensitive in the slightest. This forced them to have to start over from square one because they no longer had a story (or a proper creative consultant, since Tony Baxter walked away from the project in response to his input being completely disregarded), and they clearly never recovered from this change. Seems like a hybrid of the issues with Imagination (retheming a well-crafted classic with corporate schlock that completely disregards any of the nuance of the original) and Superstar Limo (decent concept on paper heavily sanitized as so not to appear insensitive to contemporary events, but too sanitized to actually work as intended). Hoping Disney sobers up and tweaks the ride more in line with their original concept, since it's clearly what most guests were wanting and expecting out of the project before they continued shooting themselves in the foot.
@@A_A610 I mean Tony Baxter walked away I think from the getgo just because Splash was his creation that became one of the most iconic theme park attractions in the world, and Disney said nah screw you and your masterpiece, we want money and we believe making everything so vanilla and bland as possible = nobody offended which then = more money. lol
@@tgguitarguy He was on board for at least the first story draft (a move he probably made to help maintain some level of quality assurance, given how poorly they had previously handled Imagination). Regardless of how long Baxter stayed involved, it was very much a story of corporate being utterly incompetent and out of touch.
Very good review! It's apparent that this attraction was a product of group think. It's a lot of different ideas that came together into one decent idea. The budget is great but the story is lame. If you gave the project of "turn Splash Mountain into a Princess and the Frog ride" to the average fan, they would suggest something with stakes that resemble the movie. If they didn't want to include Facilier, they could've at least included a "you're a frog so you can't make it to the party" dilemma. You're right, the story seems very one sided. I feel like they spent too much time on developing Tiana's employee-owned co-op business instead of a real story with more characters from the film.
i feel like if this is the direction they wanted to go with tiana’s, they should have kept the splash mountain name and general theme, replacing the song of the south characters and music with something else, and built tiana’s as an all-new mid thrill level water ride somewhere else in the park. i am imagining this version of tiana’s working really well as a much gentler version of the jurassic park flume ride at universal. the ride would be a crowd pleaser, and magic kingdom badly needs both a new water ride and a high capacity ride
The story really doesn't make any sense like at all Why would we need to shrink down to frog size just to find more musical critters? Why would literally any of these characters be ok with Mama Oddie casually shrinking us to frog size, ESPECIALLY Tiana??? Why couldn't they have just had the ride go through the beats of the original story in the movie? They've done that with literally every other IP ride, so why not this one? Like, could you imagine if we got to see Tiana's beautiful blue & green dresses IRL?? See snapshots of her's & Naveen's wild adveture??? All of the cool special effects with Dr Faciller's magic???? All that potential out the window... 😭
I arrived at Magic Kingdom the morning of the debut. Weeks prior, I knew I had no chance of riding this because of all the hype. With the virtual queue, I was in line at 8:30am-ish. Oddly, the queue was empty and no one was allowed to enter without a virtual queue on the Genie app. I felt bad for the many that should have been let in. My friends did not get a virtual queue and were told to wait for 1pm to try again. I sat alone at the front of the log. The logs in front and behind me were empty. I was puzzled. There should have been a large queue of people in line for the grand opening. Each log should have been full of people. I saw only bloggers set up along the bridge above the final drop talking about it while i searched for the entrance. The outdoor queue was empty as I was looking for the end of it. I'm used to Disneyland having the entrance for SM over by HM when the queue is at max. I had no idea I became a frog until watching this video a month later. Lol
Hey there! Came across this video and wanted to clear some things up! I hung out with Tony Baxter at Disneyland in December of 2023 and spent an evening riding rides, walking around, and just chilling with him and eventually, our conversations came to Tiana's. As soon as I brought it up, he immediately had a semi-sour face on himself and he gave me the scoop. Turns out, when he was first brought onto the project back in 2020, he gladly took it because he knew that if Splash Mountain was going to be rethemed, it had to at least be done correctly. The first concept of the attraction revolved around a complete re-telling of the first Princess and the Frog film, complete with Dr. Facilier and all. The entire concept got really far into development fairly quickly and within a year, they were almost ready to start construction BUT then a giant change came, Disney Leadership decided that they wanted a completely original storyline that did not have anything to do with Facilier because of the controversy that could be stirred up when it comes to voodoo and having a black man as a villain (I am not kidding, those are the literal reasons.) With that, all the work was wiped completely and Baxter left the project entirely, infuriated by Disney's choices. This is why the attraction on both coasts has taken an insane amount of time to actually construct from the time it was first announced to now. They really didn't have an idea of what they were doing when they first announced it and even when they did have an idea, they scrapped that idea and came up with a new, not so good, idea. Such a shame.
@karlstrauss2330 saw him going through the queue as I was exiting Temple of the Forbidden Eye since I ride it almost daily after school and from there, I waited for him to come out right at the exit.
@@SlushysSecret Just because Baxter hasn’t commented on this publicly doesn’t mean it isn’t true. The question merely comes down to whether or not you trust a random guys personal experience in the RUclips comments section.
This could have been so much cooler if they had us follow the plot of the movie with the final lift being the voodoo demons dragging us up the hill while the “are you ready” song plays, only for us to narrowly escape being sucked in. Like the jurassic park lift hill with the t-rex but with the otherworldly visual effects cranked up to 11. That right there had the potential to be one of the coolest and most iconic disney ride scenes ever. Also, calling any log flume ride “turbulent” is crazy. Those drops are smoother than most roller coasters
Ray is dead at the end of the movie, but they used him in the ride. They should have used Dr. Facilier in Florida because the big lift hill is towards the beginning of the ride, but at Disneyland it's towards the end. They could have catered the stories to be unique for each park, just like they've done for so many other classic attractions like Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we get to debate about who has the best version!!
The ride itself feels interesting, pop culture wise yes the og ride was conected to song of the south *but* the ride never felt conected in the same way that a ride like star tours is conected to star wars On the actual ride, it feels empty and rushed, a quick(er) way to repair the parks image. There is many long stretches in the ride where nothing is there other than a few props it feels completely empty compared to splash mountain which itself wasnt overly packed but had a strong story and plot points spread out throughout the ride. Amazing video btw!
Splash mountain was built off of the Movie "song of the south" which had its own drama attached to it, because a lot of people considered that movie a bit narrow minded and kinda racist. Then it was replace with "Tianas Bayou Adventure" just as the George Floyd thing happened. Yeah i dont this it was a coincidence either
Big tip for your visit to Disney World: If you can, and are not in a rush, wait until the lines get short enough to experience the regular line. When you go in the Lightning Lane, you miss out a TON of amazing immersive aesthetics and details that they put into the overall experience (ESPECIALLY at Galaxy's Edge! I made the mistake of going into the Lightning Lanes the first time through and missed out on a LOT of amazing Star Wars details, like Finn's water suit and all of the flight suits and helmets from Poe's flight squadron in the gear lockers at Rise of the Resistance).
i LOVEEEE ur analysis. As a huge disney rides nerd, its amazingg to see someone analyse and talk about rides the same way I do. I love how well you have communicated your thoughts in such a detailed and chronological manner. Youve covered everything people tend to miss such as the music, landscaping, queueing area, and the difference between concept and execution. Keep it up!!
I also avoided spoilers and had the SAME thoughts about the story when I first rode it!! I had absolutely no idea what the plot was until we walked off and my mum (who read spoilers) asked if I knew we got shrunk. I looked at her and went "What? When?". I think - like everyone else - that Disney really missed out on not including Dr. Facillier for some intensity and weight to the story. It's missing plot points along the ride. I'm all for show-dont-tell...... but now I'm begging for the characters to tell us whats going on! I also didn't appreciate the salt mine aspect. Or the first Tiana animation idle either. I think there's so much they can do to fix it!! It's not hopeless for Tiana, let her have her restaurant like Be Our Guest and fix her ride story!!!
Great take on the ride! I agree with most of what you said. In my experience, the biggest swing and a miss is the whole ‘shrinking down’ scene. It just doesn’t work. Dr Facilier and some suspense in this area could have really elevated this experience.
I will say this is what Universal has over Disney is that they already have the ride fully conceptualized before announcing it. Even if some rides aren’t as thrilling or exciting as others, their storytelling makes sense.
Now that we’re getting Pixar Cars in Frontierland 😂 all theme-consistency and land-aesthetic qualms I have with Tiana’s are dwarfed to irrelevancy. I had no idea how BAD things truly could be! 🤣💀
As a magic key holder I’m still bitter they took out Splash mountain LOL…I’ve lived in Orange County, CA my whole life and I have some of the best memories from Splash Mountain
I don't live in Cali but I too have very find memories of Splash mountain. I remember being scared of the big drop when I was little, and the the big zip a doo da party at the end made it feel like a reward for being brave. I still remember the songs too! I even met brer fox! He tried to eat my toy lol.
stumbled upon your channel and honestly I love all your content and how you go over the information because it's really from a consumer's point of view and not too biased
I've heard that as well in regards to seeing it as a better fit at Disneyland. Also the show building is smaller at Disneyland so there would be less dead space like what we see with the Magic Kingdom version. We will just have to wait and see.
gonna call you on it...what was really "inappropriate" about Splash Mountain on it's own? take out the fact it's based on animation from SOTS and what's left that offends? all I remember was music and critters.
Nothing was inappropriate about it, the br’er rabbit stories are traditional African American folklore and the ride itself had nothing but the characters in the stories
The ride itself didn't have bad imagery, but where it came from did. If you look into SOTS it was actually pretty bad. That being said, yeah, I can see why Disney, as a massive global corporation trying to cater to all people and be seen as generally in the right, wanted to remove themselves from it. But they did a terrible job going about it, and I personally feel like the poor re-theming is creating more anger and fighting between people on each side. If they opened an incredible new ride it would both do justice for those wanting it and the people upset wouldn't be able to argue with the good quality.
🎉🤔 FYI.... James Baskett was the first African American male actor to win an Academy Award!! That seems like something to be proud of. Sad Disney thinks to hide it. 😢
I thought it was a pretty good ride. The footage Disney showed does not do it justice. But it’s not nearly as good as splash mountain and I think everyone agrees with that.
I didn't personally have an issue with them giving her a ride, it just made no sense to take a currently existing ride layout and shoehorn a new IP into it that would have a story that was restricted to the same pacing as the older ride. Also, the fact that it's a bayou that's also a mountain made very little sense. They were able to get away with it for Splash Mountain because the drops are spots where you're being dropped into a new section of story and the laughing place is sort of a metaphorical place, not a literal one. I am reserving my own judgment to experiencing it myself, but it was a knee jerk reaction that they should have spent more time considering because whatever it is that we got wasn't as good as what we could have had, if they had spent some time to design the ride from the ground up with Tiana in mind.
@@SmallSpoonBrigadeit’s supposed to be a salt dome. Which honestly is a terrible pick if your trying to avoid controversy and you know anything about the state of Louisiana
@@MarkHeathcliff-bf2im You're* And people need to stop saying that, as slaves were forced to work everywhere that was remotely hard work. Just as slaves came in all races, they worked in all areas. You can't find an area they weren't forced to work in.
@@englishatheartYes I am aware slaves pretty much worked everywhere but the salt domes were a particularly brutal place to work at even for the standards of the time
I rode this and was so excited! Definitely was let down.. Tiana look like her mom so we were all confused who she was. The story was confusing. Splash mountain was so much better
Regarding your point on the bayou scenes - Splash Mountain had three main characters who we saw three times during the first indoor scenes before the Laughin' Place, which were also stretched out far enough so that you didn't see two Brer Rabbits at the same time. But the scenes without those characters had other characters featured - the fishing geese, the bullfrogs, the porcupine, the raccoon, the roadrunner, etc. Tiana's Bayou Adventure doesn't have that - the animals, who barely qualify as animatronics, are clumped together with Tiana and Louis, and the other scenes that once had animatronics are pretty much empty. So, we have... - Five geese and three bullfrogs replaced by one animatronic (Louis) - The porcupine, raccoon, and young bunnies being replaced by nothing - Brer Frog and Brer Gator being replaced by nothing - The roadrunner and possums being replaced by nothing This also applies to other scenes in the attraction, there are spots where animatronics once were replaced by... nothing, except maybe a screen. Also, the other characters in Splash Mountain actually did things. The geese, porcupine, bunnies, Brer Frog, roadrunner, and possums all sang or said something. In Tiana's Bayou Adventure, the new characters they hyped up in press releases don't have any dialogue or do anything but play their instruments. Combined with my previous point, it makes the attraction feel emptier than it is.
The 2nd drop would’ve been perfect that you’re going into Dr Facilier’s lair but I understand that it wouldn’t make sense to add him due to the timeline.
It actually could make good sense, Dr Facilier as a ghost could be lurking in a dark side of the bayou, you make a wrong turn from the party and accidentally go into the dark bayou where Facilier shrinks you into a frog and Facilier uses his dark magic on you with scary huge snakes and bugs surrounding you as you continue on, and the few turns before the lift can show dark magic and voodoo friends around you and as you ascend to the top smoke blocks the opening, and right before you drop mamma odie quickly comes in and turns you back to normal dropping down, the party in the end should be a little more extended celebrating you and we see some form of after math of Dr Faciliers spirit Now that’s what I call a timeless classic
@@Theravingranter the only problem is that there isn’t a mountain in the first movie, unlike splash where chickapin hill was tied in well with the story, using the story of the first film while going down a mountain that didn’t even exist to begin with starts a rip from the story and ride, so a new story involving Facilier as a ghost or him returning to the world with the inclusion of the mountain itself makes sense
And Disney’s Wind in the Willows segment of Ichabod and Mr. Toad didn’t have a scene where Toad gets hit by a train dies and goes to Hell yet the ride in the theme park ignored that little fact, so it’s not like they haven’t completely disregarded story in the source material for rides based on their films before and just made stuff up that never happened in them!
Agreed! Splash Mountain was an attraction that put a smile on one's face with an uplifting soundtrack and happy melody. Too bad our U.S Disney park aren't free imagine like Tokyo Disney without having to inject political correctness into every project. It totally stifles creativity and expression by the imagineering department for fear of offending a particular group. Tiana's Bayou should have included Dr Facilier to complete the attraction.
No one except a hand full of people, wanted Splash mountain gone. Disney should have given her own ride, instead of gutting the most popular ride in the world.
"Tiana's Bayou Revue" would also be a good alternate name (it's also what I thought the ride's name was for a long time because the actual name is so generic that my brain auto-filled something more interesting).
Didn't even think about how the lack of characters/ specific mix of characters chosen would affect the story. It makes me sad that their are like only 3 important characters in this ride, because Princess and the Frog has so many good characters! The Lottie and Naveen animatronics at the end were so good, wish we got to see more of them in the actual ride :( (also I am forever mad that they didn't build Mama Odie's giant tree on top of the mountain)
I first visited WDW in March 2021 (weird time for a first visit, I know). I rode Splash with absolutely no expectations. I was shocked to find it was my favorite ride - just barely beating out Mansion. The queue was full all day, and people all exited the ride happy and uplifted. Meanwhile, other rides that could easily be replaced (Winnie the pooh) had short lines and were underwhelming. The only reason to replace Splash was stupidity and ignorance. There is nothing problematic about traditional black folktales, celebrating a film which the academy awarded black voice actors for. It is disrespectful to American black culture from both ends. Splash doesn't deserve to be erased, and Tiana deserves a better attraction. Also the salt mine is a reference to a well known salt mine run by slaves in Louisiana. So now white people get to ride through a fake slave mine. Real nice.
I like your little theme park channel. I watch a lot of theme park channels and your voice is very soothing not annoying and I can listen to it for a while. You’re a detail oriented without being too much and this is great content . You’re doing great.
To be fair, it's a technique that was previously used in other attractions (see: Haunted Mansion busts) well before the modern furry fandom got into fursuits (which themselves were introduced to the community by former costuming cast members at Disneyland).
They decided retheme a ride based off a controversial movie too..... a ride based off of a controversial movie. And they didn't even do a great job with it. I don't think it's a BAD ride, hell, I would argue it's still a pretty good ride. However, for a ride that was meant to be a Splash Mountain successor. "Pretty Good" Doesn't Cut it.
I think some dumb soul at Disney saw that somebody wrote down ‘TBA’ (aka ‘To Be Announced’) in the documents regarding what the ride should be called and sadly didn’t know what those letters meant. They then believed these were the letters that MUST be used in naming the ride. That’s why the it’s adventure and not bash
The easiest and best way i can think of to convey that you are shrinking is just have a voiceover from Mama Odie singing a magical chant during the drop " SHRINK-A-DEE-DOO-DA!~"
I love the people who are like. Nobody wants to just see the movie In ride form! But then The opening of this was completely overshadowed by all the clips of Tokyo Disney with their tangled and Frozen rides, which are just that That's what I want. I want to see the pretty dresses and the magic. I want to see the stories I love play out in front of my eyes.
A better way to have fix the story to have some sort of suspense without changing what they have now, is to add Charlotte. Have her tag along then have her be some sort of damsel in distress with some bad critters, cuz she got lost in the bayou but she still tells them off but still needs Tiana’s and Louis help. Could fix mama odies part with turning them into frogs and helping everyone out while still getting critters for the party. Cuz for charlotte. She just kinda shows up. So she could be used to help add to the story. Boom a fix that can make this ride stand on its own. It’s a shame but if they don’t want to do that kind of work. Why not add more critters in the empty areas like they r hiding or playing? Cuz yknow, they are looking for critters! Tho why is that the story too, don’t the ppl still see them as wild and not talking like Louis? The story I just came up with without struggle could fix that cuz well, you get turned to frogs.
I always called it Tiana’s boat ride boogie, just because it sounds cooler and less forgettable. Tiana’s Bayou Boogie sounds like the name that it would have gotten given more time.
I will put my feelings about replacing Splash aside… Disney used to build the track and the atmosphere to fit the story it was telling in the ride…so, Splash’s track is built to tell Brer Rabbit’s story. All the twists and turns and ups and downs…. You can’t just tell a new story on it. It was a lawyer concept for sure to try to wedge a Tiana story into that ride system. It was announced in haste and then they had to try to live up to it, but they couldn’t…especially when they eliminated the one character who could make the last drop make sense in context of the story!
@2:42 It was kinda ironic you used WDW Tron as an example of new rides taking a long time to make, because it's not new. It's a copy and paste that took YEARS longer to construct than the original in Shanghai. I understand that wasn't the point you were making but I thought it was funny/sad to see how bad Disney parks are getting. They waste years to create nothing new. And I generally liked the Tron ride.
I would have loved the name Tiana's Bayou Splash. It mixes the old with the new while still being its own thing. I think if they based it off of the movies story with the big tree from the concept art, Mardi Gras Mountain would have been a PERFECT name. I also think they should have kept the showboat from the finale of Splash Mountain. It was the ONLY thing from Splash that would have fit with Tiana. They also should have painted all of the orange rockwork gray to match the bayou tone. Its really weird to see the red orange cliffs of Georgia from Splash Mountain while you're supposed to be going through the bayou to a New Orleans party. This ride could have been so much better and is pretty disappointing.
The concept art actually fits with the storyline we ended up getting. They wanted to add Mama odie's tree as the lift Hill is supposed to be The tree of her house but they couldn't add it because The existing structure could not hold the weight of the boat and the tree trunk
I'm scratching my head at the disclaimer..what importance, significance, or national value does a few months old ride hold? Unless you're including when it was Splash Mountain as well but I consider them two separate attractions rather than a retheme. The OG Splash Mountain had perfect execution: music, story, suspense and that unexplainable 'it' factor that made it one of the most popular rides.
Tiana's Swamp Mountain Excursion would be more truth in advertising. My thoughts are that Tiana should have been a flat boat ride (Small World) not a topographical anomaly. Park placement taken in to account, and the supposed reason for closing splash. Disneyland could have had an "accident" burning down Splash Mountain and replacing it with a thought out Tiana ride. Then in Florida they could have duped it in the Beyond Big Thunder area, leaving Splash Mountain alone. I'm sure that would have been much better for PR.
If I want a "Bayou Adventure" , I'll just drive to Baton Rogue or New Orleans, go swim in a river there and hope I don't get cancer or attacked by an alligator. Bayous have some of the nastiest water yall
The people who made this ride clearly don't understand the movie. It was Facilier who turned Naveen into a frog NOT Mama odie. She give advices to heroes and destroyed the shadows, that's it! Am i the only one who notices this? Speaking of the villain, it's really sad he's not in the ride! Facilier would add some fun and tension before the big Splash then we can see all the animals and Tiana chasing his ghost with the power of music and friendship 🥰
Thank you for saying it. No one else is talking about how it was a pandering response to the death of George Floyd and to get blm on Disneys side. When I saw that I was pissed
There's no story in the ride which isn't unprecedented. It's kind of a concert of music and songs from the movie with no context. Country Bear Jamboree does the same thing, but a fast-moving flume isn't a good way to present a concert. If they didn't know what to do, I don't understand why they didn't just do cool diorama recreations of scenes from the movie out of context - that's what all the classic dark rides do. They had the right idea making the Laughing Place the shrinking scene, but none of that's set up because they took all the magic out of the story. What else is Disney supposed to do well except magic? They don't have to tell _all_ the story, just take guests through the coolest parts. Alternate scenario: Tiana gets done with her restaurant day, so she wants to take a romantic boat ride with the Prince before she returns to sing later. It's magical, the animals sing along playing instruments, everyone's cruising in boats. The evil guy pops up unexpectedly "Wait, you can't be here, we defeated you!" and he's all "surprise kiddies, that was just a movie! this ain't no runaway railway" - 2nd drop shrinking scene, Tiana and Naveen are rightfully ticked at being frogs again, it's a lot wilder and scarier. Climb up to the hill is bad guy and Mama Odie just screaming at each other from different moving locations in the darkness firing magic lasers or whatever, they're behind walls so you just hear the battle up the hill. Big drop, the rest as it is.
Personally, i think Tiana deserved her own ride, not a re-skin of a ride. Having said that, ive yet to see anything about this ride being... anything good.
So the outdoor tiana thats on the lift hill. Is supposedly failing. The waterproofing to her servos and linkages are permiable and collecting moisture. So if the source is correct even before the preview if she was left with a idle aware loop there was server overheating and high humidity. The luis a1000 is also having issues with servo overheating and failures. Now my source could be full of shit, but a1000s that fail compliance or goes overlimits will thro a ride exception for show.
Tiana deserved her own amazing ride that went through her story and had her great dresses. This refurb just felt like a slap in the face for both Tiana and Spalsh Mountain fans.
Yup! NOBODY won 😪
Me as a Splash Mountain fan seeing my childhood ride being refurbished and not even liked by Tiana fans which was the whole idea kills me on the inside…
If they decided to retheme it just because they thought it was time to update the ride, sure. I wouldn't mind that so much. But the whole reason they did it was to pander to the social justice warriors. They made it political.
The only reason they created Tiana's bayou adventure is because they want to erase splash mountain because it's racist or whatever.
@@Sarah-gz4no this.
I’ve been saying for years how Disney is missing the opportunity to make a “Tianas Palace” restaurant. Her life goal was to open a restaurant so it makes so much sense.
@@zoereecie why this did not open with bayou adventure is just beyond me
The ride still doesn’t make sense. You have the Bayou in the middle of a desert. You have the ride next to big thunder Mountain, which is themed to the desert. You tell me that it makes sense because it really doesn’t make sense
They have one at Disneyland in California and they have one on the Disney Wonder cruise ship
@@gabrieldally6044thanks for saying this, I had no idea. It looks
gorgeous
There's nothing new about it because it was King built before I started becoming an annual pass holder and what kills me is they downgrade this ride 😊
It's so stupid that disney considers villans.... problematic. Of course they are problematic, they are villans. A concept that Walt Disney himself defined.
Modern Disney is a bunch of cowards except when it comes to dying on the strangest of hills
Hence why all their movies have been trash recently
It's not villains they find problematic, it's him being the "Voodoo Daddy". They didn't want Voodoo in the ride, and changed Mama Odie to the "Bayou Fairy Godmother" in the press releases to reflect that change.
@@TheToppestHat And that excuses the terrible storytelling how, exactly?
But now, villains can only be white, otherwise that would be racist. lol
It would be a far better story if Dr. Facilier somehow hijacked their adventure, and the turning small part was him turning all the guests into frogs to, with the lifted section to the drop of his song going, "Are you ready? Are you rea-dy? Transformation central! Reformation central! Transmogrification central! Can you feel it? You're changin', You're changin', You're changin', all right! I hope you're satisfied. But if you ain't, don't blame me! You can blame my friends on the other side!" and drop during "side"!
This one change would add some much needed tension and thrill, and immediately take this ride from a 5/10 to an 8/10.
That would've made for a really fun still then suddenly moving animatronic! Have Dr. Facilier just standing there, seemingly not noticing anything around then, all of a sudden, he moves, we get his "Are You Ready?" song and the "transformation" happens to the guests 🐸
Even the party could be interwoven with that story. Just have a special song spell & happy music being needed to defeat Dr F & for that to happen the guests have to help Tiana find the different band members in the bayou. Having the party being used to defeat Dr F in addition to being a celebration in & of itself would IMHO also add an extra element of fun 🎶
AAHHH! this is such a great idea, and I was able to imagine it so clearly with your description... like I felt more excited for this imaginary part of the ride than for the actual ride 😭It definitely would add some much-needed thrill to the attraction
Imagine the ride as the original movie. Where Tiana in her blue dress, kisses the frog and then we turn into frogs in the bayou while Dr faciller chases us with his demons! Imagine “are you ready” as you’re going up the hill and dr facillier poofs smoke and his eyes are showing in the dark as you splash down!!!! And then the ending is Tiana and naveens wedding, then a peppers ghost effect of the frogs turning into their human forms. Tiana in her beautiful green dress!!! With mama odie!!!
This is what we all wanted. The Mouse wanted to stay away from voodoo and anything remotely controversial or potentially insensitive (which I do understand). I commend the imagineers for coming up with a unique story for the attraction, though I feel like it would be better suited to a picture book or animated short
@@nickig213I see your point. Don’t have to think hard about the internet claiming Disney grooms witchcraft…
Dang, you nailed that. Honestly, that ride description feels like a prime Imagineer pitch from another time that we now hear about in awe, decades later, on Disney documentary shows like Behind the Attraction and The Imagineering Story. THAT description would've made for a hit ride that embodies the feeling of the movie story and its characters. Disney bots or interns scanning the web: can we please get the ride redone with these specs? And hire this person. Thank you.
@@nickig213 You understand their hypocrisy? Because they have no issues depicting straight white cis able-bodied men as evil.
I think this is what we were all expecting.
They hinged the climax of the attraction on the final drop and never considered having any conflict with villains. This was a HUGE error on their part. Every classic Disney attraction has the usual concept of "hey here's the story that's going on but wait, something goes wrong" and that's what made them great. This just seems so bland especially when the villain from this movie is great! I can forgive some things, but not this.
I think this is _the_ make or break issue as to whether or not you think this is a good revamp or not. All the defenders seem to sidestep this issue or say it's not that important if the ride is still fun, while I'm in the camp that it's _the_ most important thing they dropped the ball on and that no amount of fancy animatronics can save a bad story.
I hate that Dr. Facilier isn’t apart of the ride.
I liked the ride and that's my biggest complaint, he's an underrated villain
But he IS apart from the ride..... he's not A PART of the ride
@@allijo514☝️🤓
My biggest issue with the ride is the story telling is awful. Splash mountain had a beginning, middle and end to the rides story yet I fail to see that on this new ride.
id be more distracted with my own thoughts while riding this if anything, im js hoping the one in cali wont be any more empty than in florida cus theres sm dead space and failed potential
Now that you mention it, it is kinda odd how much Disney emphasized the "employee-owned" stuff in TBA, especially since, as far as I remember, that wasn't even a thing in the original movie.
Like Tiana was a waitress trying to create her own restaurant, but it's always treated as her just wanting to fulfill a lifelong dream and not her trying to do something socially conscious for her community.
She isn't even presented as financially struggling, she works multiple jobs to afford starting her own business, not because she would be unable to support herself otherwise.
Because someone at Disney thought that would somehow make the ride better in the eyes of certain crowds…despite such crowds typically despising big corporations like Disney.
It's a Mar.xist concept.
It's so scummy. One moment, Disney is advertising how it is "EMPLOYEE OWNED" and then going out of their way to condemn the writers'/actors' strikes on national TV. It just reeks of corporate greed and mistreating their own workes
Because she is based on Leah Chase, a real person and restauranteur here in New Orleans. Her business was family owned, and if I walk the few blocks to her restaurant today, her family still work there, are proud of her legacy and continue the tradition. Tiana didn’t have siblings, and her mamma wasn’t the cook in the family. So if you can’t do “family owned,” employee owned is a very close interpretation especially in Louisiana.
@@adelai3795 Call it what you want, but real intention is to push Mar,xist ideals.
Bro.....Why doesn't Naveen and Charlotte have more 'ride time'? All of it is just Tiana and Louis despite Naveen being with her the whole time and being her main co-star AS WELL AS THE FREAKING PRINCE OF THE MOVIE!
Did the people who made this ride even know who and what people liked from the film because it feels like it's missing so much and as a result, it just crashes and burns. It's just Tiana in khaki pants and oddly out of place animals. C'mon, now.
They wanted to avoid a retelling of the original film because apparently it was considered offensive that Tiana was in frog form for most of it.
naveen and charlotte could've even fit into the plot of the ride! they could've also been out helping tiana and louis and thus making the scenes a little livelier, there's so much dead air in the actual ride where nothing happens and it's such a bummer because the movie itself was so energetic
@@muptypppl are offended by everything 🙄🙄
I just hate the name Tiana’s Foods. They really couldn’t think of anything better? Maybe it’s in the movie idk i never seen it lol. It just sounds so unappealing.
Nope! In the movie her restaurant is called Tiana’s place/palace, so they could have worked around that or named it after her father since her father is her inspiration
The logo is even worse than the name. The logotype or "Tiana's Bayou General" store is ornate and very late 19th century to early 20th century in stylization.... but the "Tiana's Foods" logo is very mid-century (1960s even!) in style. It's baffling! It's a design any lay-person could do on their computer with absolutely no graphic design talent. Such a shame to have that on the water tower, imagine if it was more similar to to the Tiana's Bayou General look, it would mesh so much better with Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and Big Thunder and Frontierland at Magic Kingdom.
It was just a straight up graphic design blunder.
it's so...generic. it doesn't feel in-character for tiana, she'd have better sense than to name it that
a chatgpt request woulda came up wit something more original
This is the reason why Dr. Faciliar isn't in the new tiana ride, its because his soul is being held captive in a hotel in hell
I guess he *has been* in a hotel.
did he spend 50 thousand dollars
@@mriamo5003 ☠☠☠
Hot-hell
They could have set the ride before the film so he could of been in it they was a rumor that the whole voodoo theme was dropped because white folks would complain and can't have any thing with a edge or Karen from Atlanta will ask to see the manager
For all this talk about an employee co-op we never see a single employee working or doing anything with Tiana. It's just her, then the party.
Yes, when you see her on the first big lift standing with frosted glass doors behind her, it was a perfect opportunity to use rear-projection silhouettes of her "employees" and Naveen moving around the kitchen busily getting ready for the big party and maybe there could have been band members with trombones etc. blowing awful sounds while other characters cover their ears, making it clear WHY we need to go find members for the band.
Anyway, to have those frosted glass doors and no visual gag with animated silhouettes to help the story-telling is kind of an insane missed opportunity.
If you’re the only employee and you own it then it is employee owned.
@@MarkHeathcliff-bf2im Lol good one
And what kind of employee owned company names itself after themselves. Seems a bit narcissistic
@@danieldietrich9969 the kind of company that comes from hacks in Hollywood
Honestly, Disney has become way too focused on sanitizing everything nowadays. They need to bring back some of the darker elements they used to have in their parks, kids can handle it. And besides, at least half of their customer-base is adults now anyway
totally!! this can be said for their rides and their movies. i miss the deeper and darker stories, i think it was good to have kids digest that, yunno? it strengthened their media literacy and empathy and just made for better storytelling. i greatly dislike the cocomelon-ification direction they’ve been rolling with
They aren’t even that great at sanitizing stuff
But it's the adults bitching about things, not kids. Look at all the women who shit on Ariel and say how inappropriate the songs were. Ariel is my princess. I literally grew up with The Little Mermaid and she is the only Disney princess I see myself in. Love has always been the most important thing to me, but did I ever get it in my head that "Kiss the Girl" is somehow inappropriate and encourages sexual harassment? Hell no. Literally no one thought that until some moronic "feminists" who try to paint women as victims any chance they can get told themselves it was sexist and had to brainwash others to think that as well in order to feed their ego.
At least there's still Mr. Toad's out in Cali
The Rescuers definitely had a dark vibe to it but I still enjoyed it as a kid
This ride is a joke all around imo. They got rid of Splash mountain because of it's vague connections to slavery. But they built the new ride in a Salt mine, another location that relied heavily on slave labor.... Even if you ignore all politics with this ride, it really doesn't add much to the experience for the amount of money dumped into it. It would of been way better to make a new ride for Tiana, tear down some stupid shop or something instead of removing an existing ride. I am tired of Disney not growing their park capacity, instead always removing rides to replace them.
This attraction felt too neutered, like because the cast was black they couldn't let them have too much personality or depth because that could bring controversy. Like imagineers were trying to appease Twitter instead of putting love and care into a new attraction for a beloved character who is beloved because she's strong, independent, hard-working, and smart. It's just "Let's find the critters for my party!"
That irritates me too, it deadass feels so racist to neuter black characters and their personality and depth for this ride...
its like they put a baby ride story on a ride with a 50 foot drop. its insane. even the winnie the pooh ride has more conflict and stakes than this.
@@ThePhantomSafetyPinsoft bigotry of low expectations is prevalent at Disney these days
You criticize yourself for only riding it once, but that's how MOST people will also experience the ride. I think this was a very well thought-out critique of the new theme
thank you! That’s a good point.
I enjoyed the ride. But I do agree they should have left splash mountain alone and given Tiana her own attraction.
Exactly, you are correct Disney never wants to add, something always has to be sacrifice if it’s part of a ride or a whole land .
My biggest complaint is that as is, the story doesn't feel fitting for a thrill ride, and feels like it's pandering to an audience too young to be allowed to ride (ironic considering "Everyone is welcome" is a recurring theme, but the ride is a thrill ride that is inherently not inclusive of everyone). This would have worked better as a standalone ride that was purpose built to tell this story, with a tamer ride system with no height requirement that better fits the "everyone is welcome" theme they were going for.
A lot of people say that the main drop should have Dr Facilier but I think he should be at the drop where you shrink. Like he wants to ruin the party and so turns the guests into frogs. And then the big drop can be Mama Odie saving the guests and turning them back into humans. To fit the timeline maybe Dr Facilier doesn't appear in person but is just his shadow and his voice. He is the Shadow Man after all.
They messed it up. It was easy. Just follow the movie. They didn’t have to make anything new. How they didn’t see that ‘Aree You Readyyy” wouldn’t have been perfect as you go up the hill… that just seemed painfully obvious. They just didn’t need a new story. At all.
It seems like there are a few things they could do to greatly improve this attraction. First, many people are not understanding that Mama Odie has shrunk you down. To clarify that, instead of just having that big pink bottle as the first thing you see, have a bottle showing a reflection of YOUR LOG floating by but instead of people, show frogs sitting on the log. It would convey in a cool-effect way that YOU are now the size of a frog.
Second, totally agree on your "flat tone" comment. I think the Disney company is having an internal struggle -- an identity crisis, in essence -- about whether they can still tell *stories* and have tension and drama, because making people uncomfortable -- in any way -- is not in vogue right now. To improve this attraction, they need to revise the story a bit (it's incredibly weak) and add a tonal change -- a dark or overwhelmed moment before the big lift -- and at least have a spooky shadow of Dr. Facilier.
Instead of getting rid of this character, Disney needs to redefine him...he's *now* just a charlatan, a scoundrel, he is a huckster bragging about his "bayou magic" (don't say "voodoo") but really he's just an illusionist, everything is slight-of-hand and misdirection. It's very easy to just re-define the *fantastic* character and keep essentially every cool aspect of him and make him not religiously offensive.
i agree with that last point, but the problem with that is that it’s almost exactly what they did with splash mountain - keeping the general essence of the characters the same while trying to strip away the problematic aspects. obviously that didn’t work out with disney, so as much as i’d like to see them try to redefine facilier, i kind of understand why they wouldn’t. that’s no excuse for the plot and the big drop being a massive disappointment, just an observation
@@occultpyromancer I totally understand your point, and why there would be doubt. But I guess my larger point is that the Disney company -- and really all entertainment companies -- spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars trying to get audiences to form an attachment to their characters though media, merchandise, etc. And when audiences DO "fall in love" with a character, it's a big win. But it's also an implied *deal* that audiences strike with the entertainment company -- a deal of trust. The fan will be "a fan" and be loyal and spend money, and the entertainment company will manage the character in a way that fulfills the desires and expectations of the fans. That's the relationship. It works for both fans and the business.
But when a company just unilaterally decides: "yeah, fans,. we know we got you all in love with this character and you spent money on this character...but we're going to DISAPPEAR that character 'cause, you know, there's some challenges. We're pulling the plug." It's infuriating for fans and it breaks the trust. Fans should *not* trust Disney, essentially, they will DISAPPEAR any character or movie or whatever they want, at any time.
Someone could say "Well, it's their character and they can do what they want" but my answer is "Sure, they can, and I will start ignoring their content and characters and turn to other forms of media and other company's content." My point is that Disney should understand the broken trust around Facilier -- it's a big deal to just say a character *that* popular is "not okay" anymore. They should make a modicum of effort to adjust the character so he can work...forever. The win is huge, he's a great character aesthetically and personality-wise and I don't think he has to literally be a "voodoo" practitioner for him, as a very appealing character, to work.
If they gathered a handful of Disney Animation writers in a room for a whole day, brought in some sandwiches and gave them a white board...if they couldn't walk out of that room at 5:00pm with a redefined Facilier they should lose their jobs.
@@DrStarlanderI see no reason why he can’t just be an “evil sorcerer” either. We’ve had tons of Disney bad guys with loosely defined magic and he doesn’t have to be any different. Modify the design of his friends on the other side to be a little less voodoo and he can fit in just as well as mama Odie in the loosely defined magic person space.
I thought they could maybe just have it be his shadow and his evil spirits after the boat, since he’s been dragged to the other side. This would be an easy addition since the shadow can be projected, letting them add tension to the story without building a whole new animatronic.
It is odd to me that Facilier is considered offensive but Frollo is not.
@@Theravingranter I believe that there are two ways in which Disney became uncomfortable with Facilier. First, the voodoo is an actual religion so to characterize it in a disrespectful way was felt to not be acceptable by modern standards. For me, that's easy, he can be a generic evil or "bayou" magic or a huckster-charlatan and don't use voodoo-specific tropes.
The second is that he is a black male and a villain, and that was felt to be stereotypical in the way that for decades Hollywood would portray black males as criminals, "shady" threatening characters, etc. That's a true issue with Hollywood history. BUT, the counter argument is that the villains are among the most important Disney characters so to NOT have a black male villain is a different form of exclusion. Plus, he exists already...of all the Disney villains, can we not please have at least one black male villain -- that we already have and love? Is it really "more sensitive" and enlightened for Disney to just make him disappear?
In fact...they could make a movie similar to the book and Broadway musical Wicked, which told the story of the witches of The Wizard of Oz from *their perspective*, all about Facilier's life....what happened as a kid, how he became a huckster or discovered bayou magic. Tell HIS cool story so we understand him and love him even more as a character!
I’d be less bitter about Splash being gone if they didn’t go out of their way to remove the Br’er characters from everything. No more walk-around costumes or merch. They aren’t allowed to be drawn at Art of Disney anymore. They weren’t included in Once Upon a Studio. Even in Tokyo where Splash still exists, they seem to be restricted on what they can use (they can seemingly only get away with using the mountain itself on products but not the characters). It’s weird because the 30th anniversary celebration they did for the ride in 2019 seemed to be the most love the characters had gotten from Disney in awhile, with new plushes, Funkos, etc.
Really wish Disney had utilized them more outside the ride so that they wouldn’t just be tied to SotS anymore. What can you do though I guess…
It's honestly just lunacy at this point and I'm just happy DEIsney can't destroy Splash Mountain at Tokyo.
It sucks because I loved the Splash characters! They were so cute! I really wanted merch of them…
@SykoMuffin They will return eventually, but not anytime soon while under the current lunatics. In 2041, the film will become public domain, so art and media can be created and sold by anyone without fear of Disney sending c&ds.
@@SirBuzzLMAO wait though- you haters are the first to say it’s the exact same ride with a “new coat of paint” so; you’re willing to travel around the planet to get on the exact same ride? LMAO. Let’s be real here- ya don’t like Princess and the Frog (the black princess). You’re not gonna fly to Tokyo and enter a culture you probably have no respect for just to get on your racist log ride. LMAOOOO. You’re not. You people are so silly. 🤡
The whole reason they got rid of splash mountain was to basically attempt to erase all evidence of song of the south and distance themselves from it. Its not on disney plus, they stopped selling merch, the songs dont play at the park anymore, and they’ll just generally never acknowledge it. The characters dont show up anywhere anymore because Disney wants to pretend the movie they came from never existed.
"Tiana's Bayou Splash" would be an even better name.
I like that
@@TheRichlazyteen Thanks! Pays homage to the original ride and even makes some of Mama Odie's dialogue a little more relevant.
idk man to me it sounds off
Tiana is wearing the dress from the movie in the original concept art but she never has it in the actual ride
Disney never goes by the concept art, a majority of these changes could’ve also been from the transition from chapek to Iger
@@SlushysSecret The entire storyline had been changed.
@@thrillingadventures4164 a lot of the story was drastically changed and downgraded
@@SlushysSecret No, the ENTIRE story was changed. I made an entire comment explaining everything on here from what Baxter had told me so you'll find everything there
@@thrillingadventures4164 I’ll be taking this with a grain of salt considering if this was brought up during 2020 and the retheme being officially announced showing the clear absence of Facilier at the drop with mama odie still occupying the drop, the so they had 6 months thinking this through despite this retheme being put into consideration and some form of development as early as 2018, so they would’ve had Baxter come in during that time to help with the retheme, I also believe that the crew behind the redesign never considered Facilier for the retheme EVER, so the story probably was relatively similar to that of what we got such as Tiana in her original outfit, much broader mountain design, inclusion of prince naveen, and much more aspects that were incredibly downgraded in the end
They took an interesting looking Splash Mountain, and now it looks like an indistinct green mound. Also, a problem starts with the premise of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, what mountains are in the bayou ? No log flumes, no waterfalls, do they log in the Louisiana bayou ? I’ve never been there, but in all the photos I’ve seen it’s flat.
People dont really "log" in the bayou, but those who live on the bayou use airboats and pirogues typically. I've never gone to the bayou myself as its still far enough from NOLA, which makes sense as its still a city lol. But there are still swamp tours offered that will drive tourists out so they can see them.
That's the whole reason why they made the mountain a salt mine (even though that's never brought up in the ride). People were pointing out that there were no mountains in the bayou, so they made it a salt mine to "justify" it.
Some things I want to point out
1. This ride, and any other addition that is announced for Disneyland and WDW at the same time is 99.99% originally conceptualized, and designed with Disneyland in mind. For example the transitions in Hollywood studios to galaxy’s edge are greatly inferior to the transitions found at Disneyland. Or how the bayou theme fits better in Disneyland because it’s actually right next to New Orleans square. If you still don’t believe me, they have to design all the additions with the limited space of Disneyland in mind.
2. As to why Disney continued to keep the critters, Critter country is staying in Disneyland. In the future it will be a very important part of Disneyland Forward as you will soon have to walk through critter country to enter the new expansions. It serves as a very good transitional piece in the future of Disneyland and I believe Disney wanted to make sure the ride still fit in critter country so they didn’t have to rethink the already good transitional land to Disneyland forward.
And can I just say, I LOVE the shade that you are always throwing at Incredicoaster cause yeah it deserves all the shade.
The fact that you think this wasn't a budget cut is insane to me lol. It was clearly a rushed, thrown together story. Half of the animatronics are already broken I rode it twice the other day, the first time the first 2 Louises were broken, the 2nd time like all of the animatronics were static and broken. The story is absolute garbage, there's no climax, no point to the drops and no tension for them, a bunch of dead space, and for me it's just a total disaster. Each time I ride it, I get more and more disappointed with decisions they made. The ride is awful. Splash was sooo much better.
It feels like they didn't actually have any finalized plans when they announced it, announcing it solely to capitalize on the events of that summer before any specific details of the project were known. Feels like corporate pushed it through to have a nice vanity project to make themselves look good, not accounting for the long term optics of a half-baked overhaul that clearly needed more care and development than it was given.
@@A_A610 I mean it's obvious the ride was incomplete when they were forced to begin previews and training. Like the ride was unfinished and Disney approved it to open and forced the imagineers to leave things unfinished.
@@tgguitarguy With further followup, seems they were pretty far into development of a previous version that would have been more of a proper movie retelling with Facilier being a key part of the ride experience (they even brought Tony Baxter back on board to consult, since he was one of the creative leads behind the original Splash), before corporate stepped in and shot the proposal down because voodoo and villainous black people were seen as poor optics with a retheme that was intended to not be racially insensitive in the slightest. This forced them to have to start over from square one because they no longer had a story (or a proper creative consultant, since Tony Baxter walked away from the project in response to his input being completely disregarded), and they clearly never recovered from this change.
Seems like a hybrid of the issues with Imagination (retheming a well-crafted classic with corporate schlock that completely disregards any of the nuance of the original) and Superstar Limo (decent concept on paper heavily sanitized as so not to appear insensitive to contemporary events, but too sanitized to actually work as intended). Hoping Disney sobers up and tweaks the ride more in line with their original concept, since it's clearly what most guests were wanting and expecting out of the project before they continued shooting themselves in the foot.
@@A_A610 I mean Tony Baxter walked away I think from the getgo just because Splash was his creation that became one of the most iconic theme park attractions in the world, and Disney said nah screw you and your masterpiece, we want money and we believe making everything so vanilla and bland as possible = nobody offended which then = more money. lol
@@tgguitarguy He was on board for at least the first story draft (a move he probably made to help maintain some level of quality assurance, given how poorly they had previously handled Imagination).
Regardless of how long Baxter stayed involved, it was very much a story of corporate being utterly incompetent and out of touch.
TBA seems like the perfect name for an attraction for which you don't know what you are planning- To Be Announced.
Tiana should've gone somewhere else and Splash Mountain should've been left alone. I hate the intention behind Splash's removal for this
yes i agree
Tiana's ride would've been more fitting in fantasyland
@@Miqbtni mean new orleans square is a pretty smart place to put it…
edit: realizing it is disneyworld and not land
@@ChandlerWithaZMaybe they should have made a New New Orleans square and put it there..But that would require money so obviously they didn’t do it
Splash mountain was going to be removed anyway
Very good review! It's apparent that this attraction was a product of group think. It's a lot of different ideas that came together into one decent idea. The budget is great but the story is lame. If you gave the project of "turn Splash Mountain into a Princess and the Frog ride" to the average fan, they would suggest something with stakes that resemble the movie. If they didn't want to include Facilier, they could've at least included a "you're a frog so you can't make it to the party" dilemma. You're right, the story seems very one sided. I feel like they spent too much time on developing Tiana's employee-owned co-op business instead of a real story with more characters from the film.
i feel like if this is the direction they wanted to go with tiana’s, they should have kept the splash mountain name and general theme, replacing the song of the south characters and music with something else, and built tiana’s as an all-new mid thrill level water ride somewhere else in the park. i am imagining this version of tiana’s working really well as a much gentler version of the jurassic park flume ride at universal. the ride would be a crowd pleaser, and magic kingdom badly needs both a new water ride and a high capacity ride
The story really doesn't make any sense like at all
Why would we need to shrink down to frog size just to find more musical critters? Why would literally any of these characters be ok with Mama Oddie casually shrinking us to frog size, ESPECIALLY Tiana???
Why couldn't they have just had the ride go through the beats of the original story in the movie? They've done that with literally every other IP ride, so why not this one?
Like, could you imagine if we got to see Tiana's beautiful blue & green dresses IRL?? See snapshots of her's & Naveen's wild adveture??? All of the cool special effects with Dr Faciller's magic????
All that potential out the window... 😭
I arrived at Magic Kingdom the morning of the debut. Weeks prior, I knew I had no chance of riding this because of all the hype. With the virtual queue, I was in line at 8:30am-ish. Oddly, the queue was empty and no one was allowed to enter without a virtual queue on the Genie app. I felt bad for the many that should have been let in. My friends did not get a virtual queue and were told to wait for 1pm to try again. I sat alone at the front of the log. The logs in front and behind me were empty. I was puzzled. There should have been a large queue of people in line for the grand opening. Each log should have been full of people. I saw only bloggers set up along the bridge above the final drop talking about it while i searched for the entrance. The outdoor queue was empty as I was looking for the end of it. I'm used to Disneyland having the entrance for SM over by HM when the queue is at max. I had no idea I became a frog until watching this video a month later. Lol
Hey there! Came across this video and wanted to clear some things up! I hung out with Tony Baxter at Disneyland in December of 2023 and spent an evening riding rides, walking around, and just chilling with him and eventually, our conversations came to Tiana's. As soon as I brought it up, he immediately had a semi-sour face on himself and he gave me the scoop. Turns out, when he was first brought onto the project back in 2020, he gladly took it because he knew that if Splash Mountain was going to be rethemed, it had to at least be done correctly. The first concept of the attraction revolved around a complete re-telling of the first Princess and the Frog film, complete with Dr. Facilier and all. The entire concept got really far into development fairly quickly and within a year, they were almost ready to start construction BUT then a giant change came, Disney Leadership decided that they wanted a completely original storyline that did not have anything to do with Facilier because of the controversy that could be stirred up when it comes to voodoo and having a black man as a villain (I am not kidding, those are the literal reasons.) With that, all the work was wiped completely and Baxter left the project entirely, infuriated by Disney's choices. This is why the attraction on both coasts has taken an insane amount of time to actually construct from the time it was first announced to now. They really didn't have an idea of what they were doing when they first announced it and even when they did have an idea, they scrapped that idea and came up with a new, not so good, idea. Such a shame.
@@thrillingadventures4164 THATS SO INTERESTING, thank you so much for sharing
Question: how did you manage to run into Tony Baxter at Disney?
@karlstrauss2330 saw him going through the queue as I was exiting Temple of the Forbidden Eye since I ride it almost daily after school and from there, I waited for him to come out right at the exit.
@SlushysSecret you didn't read my comment and it shows.
@@SlushysSecret Just because Baxter hasn’t commented on this publicly doesn’t mean it isn’t true. The question merely comes down to whether or not you trust a random guys personal experience in the RUclips comments section.
This could have been so much cooler if they had us follow the plot of the movie with the final lift being the voodoo demons dragging us up the hill while the “are you ready” song plays, only for us to narrowly escape being sucked in. Like the jurassic park lift hill with the t-rex but with the otherworldly visual effects cranked up to 11. That right there had the potential to be one of the coolest and most iconic disney ride scenes ever.
Also, calling any log flume ride “turbulent” is crazy. Those drops are smoother than most roller coasters
Ray is dead at the end of the movie, but they used him in the ride.
They should have used Dr. Facilier in Florida because the big lift hill is towards the beginning of the ride, but at Disneyland it's towards the end. They could have catered the stories to be unique for each park, just like they've done for so many other classic attractions like Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we get to debate about who has the best version!!
@@misacruzader very good point, I totally forgot to mention Ray :)
smh cant believe they got rid of all the anticipation and fear leading up to the drop thats one of the best parts (it traumatized me as a child)
I looked it up, and they labeled it as “a lighthearted drop.” LIKE- Not everyone in the parks is a baby?!?!
The ride itself feels interesting, pop culture wise yes the og ride was conected to song of the south *but* the ride never felt conected in the same way that a ride like star tours is conected to star wars
On the actual ride, it feels empty and rushed, a quick(er) way to repair the parks image. There is many long stretches in the ride where nothing is there other than a few props it feels completely empty compared to splash mountain which itself wasnt overly packed but had a strong story and plot points spread out throughout the ride.
Amazing video btw!
Splash Mountain never needed re theming - but if it was ever going to change, then I think you can’t go wrong with ‘The Muppets Take Splash Mountain’!
Splash mountain was built off of the Movie "song of the south" which had its own drama attached to it, because a lot of people considered that movie a bit narrow minded and kinda racist. Then it was replace with "Tianas Bayou Adventure" just as the George Floyd thing happened. Yeah i dont this it was a coincidence either
Big tip for your visit to Disney World:
If you can, and are not in a rush, wait until the lines get short enough to experience the regular line. When you go in the Lightning Lane, you miss out a TON of amazing immersive aesthetics and details that they put into the overall experience (ESPECIALLY at Galaxy's Edge! I made the mistake of going into the Lightning Lanes the first time through and missed out on a LOT of amazing Star Wars details, like Finn's water suit and all of the flight suits and helmets from Poe's flight squadron in the gear lockers at Rise of the Resistance).
Dropping into a briar patch was also pretty cool
i LOVEEEE ur analysis. As a huge disney rides nerd, its amazingg to see someone analyse and talk about rides the same way I do. I love how well you have communicated your thoughts in such a detailed and chronological manner. Youve covered everything people tend to miss such as the music, landscaping, queueing area, and the difference between concept and execution. Keep it up!!
@@shanicecheng2971 thank you :)
“A southern bayou doesn’t make sense next to the Wild West” bro has clearly never played red dead redemption 2
@@megastarwarsrocks99 my fault
Bayou’s also don’t have mountains
@@ivansantiesteban-bx8zeIn the state of Louisiana we call a few hundred feet tall hill a mountain
@@ivansantiesteban-bx8ze Well, plurals don't have apostrophes. 🤷 It's just "Bayous."
I also avoided spoilers and had the SAME thoughts about the story when I first rode it!! I had absolutely no idea what the plot was until we walked off and my mum (who read spoilers) asked if I knew we got shrunk. I looked at her and went "What? When?".
I think - like everyone else - that Disney really missed out on not including Dr. Facillier for some intensity and weight to the story. It's missing plot points along the ride. I'm all for show-dont-tell...... but now I'm begging for the characters to tell us whats going on!
I also didn't appreciate the salt mine aspect. Or the first Tiana animation idle either. I think there's so much they can do to fix it!! It's not hopeless for Tiana, let her have her restaurant like Be Our Guest and fix her ride story!!!
Great take on the ride! I agree with most of what you said. In my experience, the biggest swing and a miss is the whole ‘shrinking down’ scene. It just doesn’t work. Dr Facilier and some suspense in this area could have really elevated this experience.
I will say this is what Universal has over Disney is that they already have the ride fully conceptualized before announcing it. Even if some rides aren’t as thrilling or exciting as others, their storytelling makes sense.
Now that we’re getting Pixar Cars in Frontierland 😂 all theme-consistency and land-aesthetic qualms I have with Tiana’s are dwarfed to irrelevancy.
I had no idea how BAD things truly could be! 🤣💀
As a magic key holder I’m still bitter they took out Splash mountain LOL…I’ve lived in Orange County, CA my whole life and I have some of the best memories from Splash Mountain
I don't live in Cali but I too have very find memories of Splash mountain. I remember being scared of the big drop when I was little, and the the big zip a doo da party at the end made it feel like a reward for being brave. I still remember the songs too! I even met brer fox! He tried to eat my toy lol.
Haunted Mansion has the last scary stories… Disney: hold my beer. Rumors say the hangman opening may go away 😮 Very thoughtful analysis btw.
stumbled upon your channel and honestly I love all your content and how you go over the information because it's really from a consumer's point of view and not too biased
@@harmonyfaith7530 thank you so much! :D
I feel like this ride will be a better fit in Disneyland. But I don’t think it self on the inside won’t be better
I've heard that as well in regards to seeing it as a better fit at Disneyland. Also the show building is smaller at Disneyland so there would be less dead space like what we see with the Magic Kingdom version. We will just have to wait and see.
It definitely looks better in Disneyland already. It blends into the trees by haunted mansion
gonna call you on it...what was really "inappropriate" about Splash Mountain on it's own? take out the fact it's based on animation from SOTS and what's left that offends? all I remember was music and critters.
Nothing was inappropriate about it, the br’er rabbit stories are traditional African American folklore and the ride itself had nothing but the characters in the stories
I think he meat to say "not inappropriate"
Its* own.
The ride itself didn't have bad imagery, but where it came from did. If you look into SOTS it was actually pretty bad. That being said, yeah, I can see why Disney, as a massive global corporation trying to cater to all people and be seen as generally in the right, wanted to remove themselves from it. But they did a terrible job going about it, and I personally feel like the poor re-theming is creating more anger and fighting between people on each side. If they opened an incredible new ride it would both do justice for those wanting it and the people upset wouldn't be able to argue with the good quality.
Only inappropriate part of the ride that they did avoid was making it so Brer Rabbit gets stuck in a beehive instead of the tar...you know.
🎉🤔 FYI.... James Baskett was the first African American male actor to win an Academy Award!! That seems like something to be proud of. Sad Disney thinks to hide it. 😢
They didn't even have live alligators? Tiana's Bayou Adventure my ass
😂
Splash mountain will rise again.
I thought it was a pretty good ride. The footage Disney showed does not do it justice. But it’s not nearly as good as splash mountain and I think everyone agrees with that.
I didn't personally have an issue with them giving her a ride, it just made no sense to take a currently existing ride layout and shoehorn a new IP into it that would have a story that was restricted to the same pacing as the older ride. Also, the fact that it's a bayou that's also a mountain made very little sense. They were able to get away with it for Splash Mountain because the drops are spots where you're being dropped into a new section of story and the laughing place is sort of a metaphorical place, not a literal one.
I am reserving my own judgment to experiencing it myself, but it was a knee jerk reaction that they should have spent more time considering because whatever it is that we got wasn't as good as what we could have had, if they had spent some time to design the ride from the ground up with Tiana in mind.
@@SmallSpoonBrigadeit’s supposed to be a salt dome. Which honestly is a terrible pick if your trying to avoid controversy and you know anything about the state of Louisiana
@@MarkHeathcliff-bf2im You're* And people need to stop saying that, as slaves were forced to work everywhere that was remotely hard work. Just as slaves came in all races, they worked in all areas. You can't find an area they weren't forced to work in.
@@englishatheartYes I am aware slaves pretty much worked everywhere but the salt domes were a particularly brutal place to work at even for the standards of the time
I rode this and was so excited! Definitely was let down.. Tiana look like her mom so we were all confused who she was. The story was confusing. Splash mountain was so much better
And the only way to get on it was through genie+ 7am opening and 1pm opening
Regarding your point on the bayou scenes - Splash Mountain had three main characters who we saw three times during the first indoor scenes before the Laughin' Place, which were also stretched out far enough so that you didn't see two Brer Rabbits at the same time. But the scenes without those characters had other characters featured - the fishing geese, the bullfrogs, the porcupine, the raccoon, the roadrunner, etc. Tiana's Bayou Adventure doesn't have that - the animals, who barely qualify as animatronics, are clumped together with Tiana and Louis, and the other scenes that once had animatronics are pretty much empty. So, we have...
- Five geese and three bullfrogs replaced by one animatronic (Louis)
- The porcupine, raccoon, and young bunnies being replaced by nothing
- Brer Frog and Brer Gator being replaced by nothing
- The roadrunner and possums being replaced by nothing
This also applies to other scenes in the attraction, there are spots where animatronics once were replaced by... nothing, except maybe a screen.
Also, the other characters in Splash Mountain actually did things. The geese, porcupine, bunnies, Brer Frog, roadrunner, and possums all sang or said something. In Tiana's Bayou Adventure, the new characters they hyped up in press releases don't have any dialogue or do anything but play their instruments. Combined with my previous point, it makes the attraction feel emptier than it is.
Bayou Bash is way better than Bayou Adventure
Thank you so much for your reasonable take in this video. It seems like that's a rare thing when it comes to this attraction.
@@brentparker7359 thank you!
The 2nd drop would’ve been perfect that you’re going into Dr Facilier’s lair but I understand that it wouldn’t make sense to add him due to the timeline.
It actually could make good sense, Dr Facilier as a ghost could be lurking in a dark side of the bayou, you make a wrong turn from the party and accidentally go into the dark bayou where Facilier shrinks you into a frog and Facilier uses his dark magic on you with scary huge snakes and bugs surrounding you as you continue on, and the few turns before the lift can show dark magic and voodoo friends around you and as you ascend to the top smoke blocks the opening, and right before you drop mamma odie quickly comes in and turns you back to normal dropping down, the party in the end should be a little more extended celebrating you and we see some form of after math of Dr Faciliers spirit
Now that’s what I call a timeless classic
They could have just made the ride during the movie and have him and his shadows chase you around the Bayou!
@@SlushysSecret that definitely sounds more interesting than what we have now
@@Theravingranter the only problem is that there isn’t a mountain in the first movie, unlike splash where chickapin hill was tied in well with the story, using the story of the first film while going down a mountain that didn’t even exist to begin with starts a rip from the story and ride, so a new story involving Facilier as a ghost or him returning to the world with the inclusion of the mountain itself makes sense
And Disney’s Wind in the Willows segment of Ichabod and Mr. Toad didn’t have a scene where Toad gets hit by a train dies and goes to Hell yet the ride in the theme park ignored that little fact, so it’s not like they haven’t completely disregarded story in the source material for rides based on their films before and just made stuff up that never happened in them!
Long Live the Briar Patch!! 🐰🐻🦊
Agreed! Splash Mountain was an attraction that put a smile on one's face with an uplifting soundtrack and happy melody. Too bad our U.S Disney park aren't free imagine like Tokyo Disney without having to inject political correctness into every project. It totally stifles creativity and expression by the imagineering department for fear of offending a particular group. Tiana's Bayou should have included Dr Facilier to complete the attraction.
No one except a hand full of people, wanted Splash mountain gone.
Disney should have given her own ride, instead of gutting the most popular ride in the world.
Disney was just pandering to left-wing BLM activists
"Tiana's Bayou Revue" would also be a good alternate name (it's also what I thought the ride's name was for a long time because the actual name is so generic that my brain auto-filled something more interesting).
snow white’s scary adventure was pretty terrifying to me as a kid so i feel like they could’ve added some scary elements to this ride
I heard the first SWSA was even more scary.
Well if they feature the shadow man than they would not have had an issue with repetitive animatronics
Didn't even think about how the lack of characters/ specific mix of characters chosen would affect the story. It makes me sad that their are like only 3 important characters in this ride, because Princess and the Frog has so many good characters! The Lottie and Naveen animatronics at the end were so good, wish we got to see more of them in the actual ride :( (also I am forever mad that they didn't build Mama Odie's giant tree on top of the mountain)
I first visited WDW in March 2021 (weird time for a first visit, I know). I rode Splash with absolutely no expectations. I was shocked to find it was my favorite ride - just barely beating out Mansion. The queue was full all day, and people all exited the ride happy and uplifted. Meanwhile, other rides that could easily be replaced (Winnie the pooh) had short lines and were underwhelming. The only reason to replace Splash was stupidity and ignorance. There is nothing problematic about traditional black folktales, celebrating a film which the academy awarded black voice actors for. It is disrespectful to American black culture from both ends. Splash doesn't deserve to be erased, and Tiana deserves a better attraction.
Also the salt mine is a reference to a well known salt mine run by slaves in Louisiana. So now white people get to ride through a fake slave mine. Real nice.
I like your little theme park channel. I watch a lot of theme park channels and your voice is very soothing not annoying and I can listen to it for a while. You’re a detail oriented without being too much and this is great content . You’re doing great.
wow i can't believe disney used a fursuit making technique for the eyes on those plastic frogs and armadillos lol
@@reallylongsnake oh fr?? LOL
To be fair, it's a technique that was previously used in other attractions (see: Haunted Mansion busts) well before the modern furry fandom got into fursuits (which themselves were introduced to the community by former costuming cast members at Disneyland).
They decided retheme a ride based off a controversial movie too..... a ride based off of a controversial movie.
And they didn't even do a great job with it.
I don't think it's a BAD ride, hell, I would argue it's still a pretty good ride. However, for a ride that was meant to be a Splash Mountain successor. "Pretty Good" Doesn't Cut it.
Literally this is the perfect way to put it. Thank you
How is princess and the frog controversial?
@@theketaminekid1241 - The movie is considered controversial, due to turning its African-American lead into a frog for 90% of the film.
@@ChienaAvtzon More like 75% of the film, but I could see that as a pretty valid complaint.. great movie tho
Wow. Someone focusing on the actual ride
I think some dumb soul at Disney saw that somebody wrote down ‘TBA’ (aka ‘To Be Announced’) in the documents regarding what the ride should be called and sadly didn’t know what those letters meant. They then believed these were the letters that MUST be used in naming the ride. That’s why the it’s adventure and not bash
@@trueplaid1155 LOL THATS SO FUNNY
The easiest and best way i can think of to convey that you are shrinking is just have a voiceover from Mama Odie singing a magical chant during the drop " SHRINK-A-DEE-DOO-DA!~"
What a wonderful day...to eat beignets!
Correction: Pinocchio's Daring Journey isn't a Disneyland attraction from the 1950's. It opened in 1983 with the New Fantasyland expansion.
I love the people who are like. Nobody wants to just see the movie In ride form!
But then The opening of this was completely overshadowed by all the clips of Tokyo Disney with their tangled and Frozen rides, which are just that
That's what I want. I want to see the pretty dresses and the magic. I want to see the stories I love play out in front of my eyes.
A better way to have fix the story to have some sort of suspense without changing what they have now, is to add Charlotte. Have her tag along then have her be some sort of damsel in distress with some bad critters, cuz she got lost in the bayou but she still tells them off but still needs Tiana’s and Louis help. Could fix mama odies part with turning them into frogs and helping everyone out while still getting critters for the party. Cuz for charlotte. She just kinda shows up. So she could be used to help add to the story. Boom a fix that can make this ride stand on its own. It’s a shame but if they don’t want to do that kind of work. Why not add more critters in the empty areas like they r hiding or playing? Cuz yknow, they are looking for critters! Tho why is that the story too, don’t the ppl still see them as wild and not talking like Louis? The story I just came up with without struggle could fix that cuz well, you get turned to frogs.
I always called it Tiana’s boat ride boogie, just because it sounds cooler and less forgettable. Tiana’s Bayou Boogie sounds like the name that it would have gotten given more time.
Too close to Bougie!
I will put my feelings about replacing Splash aside…
Disney used to build the track and the atmosphere to fit the story it was telling in the ride…so, Splash’s track is built to tell Brer Rabbit’s story. All the twists and turns and ups and downs….
You can’t just tell a new story on it.
It was a lawyer concept for sure to try to wedge a Tiana story into that ride system. It was announced in haste and then they had to try to live up to it, but they couldn’t…especially when they eliminated the one character who could make the last drop make sense in context of the story!
@2:42 It was kinda ironic you used WDW Tron as an example of new rides taking a long time to make, because it's not new. It's a copy and paste that took YEARS longer to construct than the original in Shanghai. I understand that wasn't the point you were making but I thought it was funny/sad to see how bad Disney parks are getting. They waste years to create nothing new. And I generally liked the Tron ride.
I would have loved the name Tiana's Bayou Splash. It mixes the old with the new while still being its own thing. I think if they based it off of the movies story with the big tree from the concept art, Mardi Gras Mountain would have been a PERFECT name. I also think they should have kept the showboat from the finale of Splash Mountain. It was the ONLY thing from Splash that would have fit with Tiana. They also should have painted all of the orange rockwork gray to match the bayou tone. Its really weird to see the red orange cliffs of Georgia from Splash Mountain while you're supposed to be going through the bayou to a New Orleans party. This ride could have been so much better and is pretty disappointing.
I really appreciate your genuine review. Great video!
The concept art actually fits with the storyline we ended up getting. They wanted to add Mama odie's tree as the lift Hill is supposed to be The tree of her house but they couldn't add it because The existing structure could not hold the weight of the boat and the tree trunk
I'm scratching my head at the disclaimer..what importance, significance, or national value does a few months old ride hold? Unless you're including when it was Splash Mountain as well but I consider them two separate attractions rather than a retheme. The OG Splash Mountain had perfect execution: music, story, suspense and that unexplainable 'it' factor that made it one of the most popular rides.
Great analysis. You earned my sub!
@@delacruzjeffrey thank you! :)
Tiana's Swamp Mountain Excursion would be more truth in advertising. My thoughts are that Tiana should have been a flat boat ride (Small World) not a topographical anomaly. Park placement taken in to account, and the supposed reason for closing splash. Disneyland could have had an "accident" burning down Splash Mountain and replacing it with a thought out Tiana ride. Then in Florida they could have duped it in the Beyond Big Thunder area, leaving Splash Mountain alone. I'm sure that would have been much better for PR.
If I want a "Bayou Adventure" , I'll just drive to Baton Rogue or New Orleans, go swim in a river there and hope I don't get cancer or attacked by an alligator.
Bayous have some of the nastiest water yall
subscribed. more long form Disneyland essays like this, please!
No villian, broken boats, brown water...
The people who made this ride clearly don't understand the movie. It was Facilier who turned Naveen into a frog NOT Mama odie. She give advices to heroes and destroyed the shadows, that's it! Am i the only one who notices this?
Speaking of the villain, it's really sad he's not in the ride! Facilier would add some fun and tension before the big Splash then we can see all the animals and Tiana chasing his ghost with the power of music and friendship 🥰
I went on this ride for the first time a week ago and I thought it was the worst ride in Magic Kingdom.
Thank you for saying it. No one else is talking about how it was a pandering response to the death of George Floyd and to get blm on Disneys side. When I saw that I was pissed
he was a hardened criminal with a checkered past. who cares
Blackwashing in generral is racist.
There's no story in the ride which isn't unprecedented. It's kind of a concert of music and songs from the movie with no context. Country Bear Jamboree does the same thing, but a fast-moving flume isn't a good way to present a concert. If they didn't know what to do, I don't understand why they didn't just do cool diorama recreations of scenes from the movie out of context - that's what all the classic dark rides do. They had the right idea making the Laughing Place the shrinking scene, but none of that's set up because they took all the magic out of the story. What else is Disney supposed to do well except magic? They don't have to tell _all_ the story, just take guests through the coolest parts.
Alternate scenario: Tiana gets done with her restaurant day, so she wants to take a romantic boat ride with the Prince before she returns to sing later. It's magical, the animals sing along playing instruments, everyone's cruising in boats. The evil guy pops up unexpectedly "Wait, you can't be here, we defeated you!" and he's all "surprise kiddies, that was just a movie! this ain't no runaway railway" - 2nd drop shrinking scene, Tiana and Naveen are rightfully ticked at being frogs again, it's a lot wilder and scarier. Climb up to the hill is bad guy and Mama Odie just screaming at each other from different moving locations in the darkness firing magic lasers or whatever, they're behind walls so you just hear the battle up the hill. Big drop, the rest as it is.
Really enjoyed this video, great job!
Naveen doesn't even play a big role in the ride which is weird since in the movie he obviously has one of the main roles besides Tiana.
Personally, i think Tiana deserved her own ride, not a re-skin of a ride.
Having said that, ive yet to see anything about this ride being... anything good.
So the outdoor tiana thats on the lift hill.
Is supposedly failing. The waterproofing to her servos and linkages are permiable and collecting moisture. So if the source is correct even before the preview if she was left with a idle aware loop there was server overheating and high humidity. The luis a1000 is also having issues with servo overheating and failures.
Now my source could be full of shit, but a1000s that fail compliance or goes overlimits will thro a ride exception for show.