News Splash Mountain retheme to Princess and the Frog - Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Captain Neo

Well-Known Member
I believe the sensitivity changes were his idea. I expect more, actually.

The changes to Jungle Cruise made sense because it’s offensive to depict Africans as savages and cannibals.

The splash mountain changes make no sense since it’s not directly tied to the song of the south movie and it’s about cartoon characters.

So far it seems like that lady supervising the project is just taking Disney for a ride paying for vacations to marty grass for “research” and having expensive paintings made. After two years very little about the actual attraction is known and there’s only 1 piece of concept art for the attraction. They haven’t even address what’s going to happen to all of those america sings animatronics if they will be repurposed if they are being relaxed by new AAs.

It would be a lot better if they just plus the existing attraction, keep it well maintained, and continue to both ignore song of the south and condemn negative black stereotypes

And if the big hang up is that the honey trap scene is too much like the tar baby scene in the movie just eliminate that scene with a different one and if the accents are a problem just re record new voices
 

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
it’s not directly tied to the song of the south movie and it’s about cartoon characters.
I don’t want to debate the appropriateness of the retheme—everything that can be said on the matter has already been said multiple times—but the quoted claim is categorically wrong. I have seen the film multiple times and can assure you that the ride is directly based on its animated sequences.
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
Are we really at the place where we are disparaging imagineers?
well.... the artwork produced so far leaves a lot to be desired, and it does seem a little like "how much research do you really need to do for a theme park attraction based on an animated film set in New Orleans in the 1920s that doesn't exist anymore"... aside from place-setting of historic architectural buildings... Feels like they are spending more time developing the settings for a theme park water flume ride than they spent developing the story for the film...
 

JD80

Well-Known Member
well.... the artwork produced so far leaves a lot to be desired, and it does seem a little like "how much research do you really need to do for a theme park attraction based on an animated film set in New Orleans in the 1920s that doesn't exist anymore"... aside from place-setting of historic architectural buildings... Feels like they are spending more time developing the settings for a theme park water flume ride than they spent developing the story for the film...

So we should disparage her character by saying she's stealing from the company?
 

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
The imagineers probably had big beautiful, detailed plans and they we’re shot down to save costs.

ACCOUNTING DEPT. TALKING TO IMAGINEERS: “we will only allow you there animatronics and a little money to change the scenery. Try to use some screens, some fog machines and some lighting and don’t spend too much on the fog and lighting, on second thought, fog machines cost too much to maintain, so you can have only one”
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
no vitriol. Disney was always my happy place and something I am very passionate about.
I honestly wish we did not have to gut this ride, but could use it as a way of highlighting these stories and their origins... That is the important story that will be erased. I would rather see the exit become an exhibit which explained the history of these folk tales and why it is important to remember them, not forget they existed. The movie was a product of it's time... Perhaps the motive should be in protecting the legacy of African American story tellers rather than a new story and Mardi Gras...
 

Captain Neo

Well-Known Member
Are we really at the place where we are disparaging imagineers?

What exactly are Charita Carter's qualifications?

Bruce Gordon and Tony Baxter already had a lot of outstanding projects under their belt by the time they were tasked to build Splash Mountain. What projects has Carter been attached to? Why is she being paid well over a six figure salary just to be the face this redo?
 

EagleScout610

Always causin' some kind of commotion downstream
Premium Member
What exactly are Charita Carter's qualifications?

Bruce Gordon and Tony Baxter already had a lot of outstanding projects under their belt by the time they were tasked to build Splash Mountain. What projects has Carter been attached to? Why is she being paid well over a six figure salary just to be the face this redo?
I believe Carter was involved with converting GMR to MMRR. She may have worked on Galaxy Edge but I'd have to double check
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
I don't know what other projects she was involved in, but Carter was apparently one of the heads of the Mickey ride. I'm not a fan of that ride at all, and i'd be very upset if that was any indication of how Tiana turns out.

But like I said, the last bit of info shared with me was that there's going to be a heavy emphasis on physical scenery and retaining the animatronics population. Not that i'm assuming there won't be SOME screens, but hopefully they're utilized in a restrained and tasteful manner, secondary to the AA's and physical props. The mapping effects added to the Fantasyland dark rides at Disneyland for example are generally nice IMO. In addition, the info also claimed that Tony Baxter was actually substantially involved in the overhaul. Not just some PR mouthpiece they paid to give his "blessing" to the changeover, like legitimately and meaningfully involved in its creation. Hopefully there's truth in all of this.
 

HMF

Well-Known Member
I believe Carter was involved with converting GMR to MMRR. She may have worked on Galaxy Edge but I'd have to double check
I will credit her for MMRR. blaming her for the removal of GMR is not fair. Usually , I don't blame WDI for bad projects unless the bad ideas come from WDI itself like the 07 SSE Refurb.
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
To each their own. But I literally cannot grasp why anyone enjoys such a short ride with massive empty rooms lined with wall-to-wall video screens. I have a VERY strong distaste for MMRR. Particularly when comparing it to what existed in that space before. The mapping tech is better suited to upgrading smaller classic dark rides that already use static painted flats. Scenery that probably wouldn't be ruined with a bit of added motion.

I don't blame Carter for the actual decision to get rid of GMR, as I would imagine that came from well above her influence. But I don't like her solution at all. As a replacement to GMR (a lengthy and impressively detailed ride full of elaborate physical sets and large amounts of AA's), it falls entirely short with its obscenely reduced length and large massive empty rooms lined with flat video projections. I find it quite abhorrent.

There's now thankfully a significant chance we're NOT getting this type of ride with Tiana, and that it's going to be more comparable to Splash's physical-based design philosophy. If MMRR's empty screen-based approach IS what the Tiana overhaul ends up being though (and earlier concepts seemed more in line with that), i'll be fully on board with the hate train. Mark my words, hell will have no fury...
 
Last edited:

James Alucobond

Well-Known Member
To each their own. But I literally cannot grasp why anyone enjoys such a short ride with massive empty rooms lined with wall-to-wall video screens. I have a VERY strong distaste for MMRR. Particularly when comparing it to what existed in that space before. The tech would be somewhat better suited to upgrades for smaller classic dark rides that already use static painted flats, scenery that probably wouldn't be ruined with a bit of added motion.
I feel like if you're going to go super screen/projection-heavy, you honestly should go all the way. I feel things should either be all/mostly practical, all/mostly screens, or practical foreground with a consistent depth at which things convert to screens. I find random interspersed screens worse than an attraction that's 100% screens, like the screen where Ariel gets her legs or the random shattering mirror in Snow White's Enchanted Adventure. As a side note, this doesn't always apply to projection mapping, which can sometimes be very well integrated with practical sets, like in the switch from the Evil Queen to the witch.
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
I feel like if you're going to go super screen/projection-heavy, you honestly should go all the way. I feel things should either be all/mostly practical, all/mostly screens, or practical foreground with a consistent depth at which things convert to screens. I find random interspersed screens worse than an attraction that's 100% screens, like the screen where Ariel gets her legs or the random shattering mirror in Snow White's Enchanted Adventure. As a side note, this doesn't always apply to projection mapping, which can sometimes be very well integrated with practical sets, like in the switch from the Evil Queen to the witch.
Up until the recent Enchanted Wish overhaul, the mapping tech previously added to Snow White was actually very tastefully done IMO. This was before they made any real changes to the way scenes were laid out though, just added some extra kinetic energy to surfaces that were otherwise flat and static to begin with. The transformation of the queen's chamber walls and the rain effect on the cliff both look great IMO.

Enchanted Wish has a couple of additional mapping effects that were quality as well. I like the extra effects added to the cauldron scene. And while I dislike that they dumbed down the dungeon by removing the skeletons, the bubbling potion vial doesn't look bad on its own merits. I don't much care for the alterations made to the corridor between the cottage and mine entrance though, it took a really dark moody area and made it way too bright, ruining the atmosphere.

The scene alterations following the dungeons are particularly poorly done, though i wouldn't say the mapping tech itself is inherently to blame (not entirely). They altered and compressed all of the scenes starting after the dungeon to make room for the new "happy ending", and the result is a complete cluster****. Removing the scary trees, the bizarre and awkward choice to shove a mirror in the short castle wall tunnel, relocating a shrunken down and less detailed version of the cliff finale (replacing the physical witch figure with a tiny animation loop at the top), and wasting WAY too much space on a sparsely populated "happy ending" that didn't even include the dwarfs...

The projection effects added to Alice and Peter Pan at Disneyland in the past decade or so are tastefully done IMO.
 
Last edited:

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom