Some highlights from a Q&A with Carmen Smith, Charita Carter & Ted Robledo.
Question: Can you clarify which of the characters we’ve seen will physically be present in the ride? For example, the PJ art or Naveen’s little brother?
Charita: OK, well … playing back in my mind, everything that you have seen … I believe the answer is everything that you have seen will be manifested in a physical form. So when you saw earlier at the Jazz Museum, you saw the baby little brother Ralphie, he will be physically there with a physical drum set that was inspired by the drum set that we saw. The possum that you see in PJ's painting, she will be there. They all have names that I think we're going to be revealing, but yes, we have – I think Ted mentioned we have 17 new characters, and all of those characters will be represented as Audio Animatronics.
And then of course, what we call our hero characters, the main characters Tiana and Naveen, and of course, Louis, will all be physical animatronics. Does that answer your question? And, of course, Mama Odie. How can you forget Mama Odie?
Question: I have a quick two-parter question. Imagineering has a long history of sort of recycling some old things or reusing things, adding Easter eggs to attractions. And since Mark Davis built that incredible America Sings attraction that Tony Baxter then moved those animatronics over to Splash Mountain, do you all have any of the characters that we might see again in a different way or any other little Easter eggs to Splash Mountain?
Carmen: I say, you know, surprise. I say we don't want to, we want you … I think the ride is also a discovery, and I think when you find Easter Eggs it's like “Wow” and I don't think we want to give that away just yet.
Question: You're killing me. The other half of that is you've extended the storyline at Disneyland with Tiana's Palace restaurant and Eudora’s Chic Boutique shop. Will Walt Disney World get a similar treatment?
Carmen: I will say, can't say. Stay tuned.
Question: Is the attraction going to be tied at all to the Disney+ series?
Charita: Well, I think what we can say is just like we've been working with Walt Disney Animation Studio on the attraction itself, we have had a number of sessions with the Disney+ team, so it's very important to understand and have continuity along those lines. And I think that's really all I can say about that. But we are a very collaborating organization.
Carmen: This is something that you'll find out more about probably in 2024, but when I think about Tiana, someone asked a question about outfits, and I also work for Consumer Products, Games and Publishing, and I think about how we're going to express her story, her clothing in so many different ways. If you go to ESSENCE Fest coming up, you'll probably get a sneak preview of some things that we're thinking about. But again, we want people of every age and every walk of life to enjoy Tiana in some way, and we’re going to have that for you.
Full Q&A below.
Last week, Disney invited a few media members to historic Preservation Hall in New Orleans to have a Question and Answer session with the creative team working on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. The event was a part of a larger event giving some insight into how Imagineers are immersing themselves in
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