MK Tiana's Bayou Adventure - latest details and construction progress

[yensidtlaw1969]

To be fair, it doesn't exactly look like its namesake, Princess and the Frog version of Tiana. She also looks older. This is grown businesswoman and wearer of many hats, Tiana. To that end, I guess the Disney+ series would help explain her appearance. She doesn't quite look like Tiana, but you can still tell it's Tiana. The same way that Spiderman on Hollywood Boulevard is still Spiderman.

If AA Belle is the Gold standard than fashionista explorer Tiana is a "sterling" Silver.

In fairness, I'm not quite sure why the Belle animatronic gets so much love - she's further off-model than Tiana:

I did a quick Photoshop using liquify to make her look more like her animated counterpart - it's not perfect, but flip between these two images and see how weird the above image looks compared to the edit below:

 

[TheEPCOTHistorian]

I'm pretty sure that newspaper was in the prologue, when Tiana was a kid. Then the actual story takes place in 1927 when Tiana is older.

 

[SplashJacket]

In fairness, I'm not quite sure why the Belle animatronic gets so much love - she's further off-model than Tiana:

View attachment 768454

I did a quick Photoshop using liquify to make her look more like her animated counterpart - it's not perfect, but flip between these two images and see how weird the Above image looks compared to the edit below:

View attachment 768456

I think part of the issue is Belle is dressed in a recognizable outfit and hairstyle whereas Tiana has neither.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I'm pretty sure that newspaper was in the prologue, when Tiana was a kid. Then the actual story takes place in 1927 when Tiana is older.

The prologue is set pretty firmly in 1912, but the main events are set in "The 1920's". If the ride takes place in 1927 then presumably the events of the film are at least a couple of years before, considering how much has happened since we last saw her.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

To be fair, it doesn't exactly look like its namesake, Princess and the Frog version of Tiana. She also looks older. This is grown businesswoman and wearer of many hats, Tiana. To that end, I guess the Disney+ series would help explain her appearance. She doesn't quite look like Tiana, but you can still tell it's Tiana. The same way that Spiderman on Hollywood Boulevard is still Spiderman.

If AA Belle is the Gold standard than fashionista explorer Tiana is a "sterling" Silver.

UPDATE: The "spark of life". That's what's missing. The eye glimmer needed to show that she's not a dead-eyed great white shark but a human being. Exaggerated here for reference.

View attachment 768455

Something else worth noting - her Eyelashes had not been attached yet by the time this photo was taken. Between that and the standard figure finishing that is done once the character is installed in the ride and under fully controlled show lighting, it's very possible she'll come to full life once guests are riding.

 

[UNCgolf]

In fairness, I'm not quite sure why the Belle animatronic gets so much love - she's further off-model than Tiana:

View attachment 768454

I did a quick Photoshop using liquify to make her look more like her animated counterpart - it's not perfect, but flip between these two images and see how weird the above image looks compared to the edit below:

View attachment 768456

Yeah, both AAs have faces that are larger/rounder than their animated counterparts. I wonder if that's simply a necessity for the AA mechanics.

I don't think Belle is further off-model than Tiana, although the familiar costume and hairstyle probably helps.

 

[Bocabear]

running a salt mine and Foods factory business can age a person...But yeah, the animatronic is nice but it could be just about anyone...It could be Tiana's half sister....or that nice lady that lives down the road... It just doesn't look like her.... It is a shame they have dragged her so far off-story...
Though, would we recognize a 25 year old Alice if she was not in Wonderland and was now a Bank Teller at the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank? and 40 year old Librarian Belle ?

 

[ToTBellHop]

The film is set in 1926. This is 1927. I asked someone who would know. It is approximately 13 months after the film.

 

[UNCgolf]

In the film, Tiana is 19 years old. That means during the time of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, she’s 34. The Average life expectancy of women in the 1920s was 54 years, meaning she is 63% of the way through her life during the attraction.

She’s just old (for the time period).

Her life expectancy would have been higher than 54 years at the age of 19 (putting aside any other timeline issues discussed above).

For most of human history, average life expectancy was dragged down significantly by high levels of infant mortality -- people's life expectancy tended to increase significantly if they survived past the first few years of their life. It still wasn't as high as it is today, but the average life expectancy as an adult was much higher than the average life expectancy at birth throughout essentially all of history.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Ralphie doesn't look significantly older (if at all), so yeah not long after the film. Tiana still has a couple more years till the market collapse.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Something else worth noting - her Eyelashes had not been attached yet by the time this photo was taken. Between that and the standard figure finishing that is done once the character is installed in the ride and under fully controlled show lighting, it's very possible she'll come to full life once guests are riding.

I think I might have said something to that effect in an earlier post.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

The film is set in 1926. This is 1927. I asked someone who would know. It is approximately 13 months after the film.

Nothing wrong with ambition but dang Tiana, slow down! You're going to burn out by your 30s.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Nothing wrong with ambition but dang Tiana, slow down! You're going to burn out by your 30s.

Co op ain’t gonna build itself.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

When someone says “dozens”, they don’t mean 2 dozen, typically. In the colloquial sense, it tends to mean “a lot but not 100”. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term used for less than 3 dozen, in any event. You’d usually say “a couple dozen” or even “a few dozen” for less.

I’ve heard well north of 36 figures, at least. Not all A100s, of course.

I was never given a precise number, the most specific was a very recent update from my source claiming Tiana would have "easily as many animatronics as Splash". They claim to have personally seen new finalized mockups of all of the scenes. This includes the finale, which I specifically asked them about due to claims that it would be very sparse. They assured me this was completely false and that the finale (and the other scenes) was at least as well populated as Splash. But we'll see.

Cupofchai stated a long time ago that it would be "over four dozen" new animatronics, and they were the one who broke the news about the riverboat being dismantled and replaced with a Tiana's Palace facade.

 

[Alanzo]

Her life expectancy would have been higher than 54 years at the age of 19 (putting aside any other timeline issues discussed above).

For most of human history, average life expectancy was dragged down significantly by high levels of infant mortality -- people's life expectancy tended to increase significantly if they survived past the first few years of their life. It still wasn't as high as it is today, but the average life expectancy as an adult was much higher than the average life expectancy at birth throughout essentially all of history.

You beat me to it. Thanks for not letting that miscarriage of statistics stand.

 

[Drew the Disney Dude]

Jumping into the Animatronics conversation:

Josh D'Amaro said "these folks are doing amazing work. They're hard at work on all the figures that we are just packing into this attraction" at Destination D23.

Not only that, but when Disney has said we are getting a "brand-new cast of original Disney characters with distinct names and personalities," these are all going to be Animatronics, too.

"It feels like they may have a bigger role to play in this story … but we’ll just have to wait and see on that one."

We already got confirmation 17 of these new characters will be Animatronics, so if each of them appear at least twice, that's 34 right there. We could easily see 36+ new figures being just the critters themselves, not including Tiana, Naveen, Mama Odie, Louis, Eudora, Charlotte, “Big Daddy,” the King and Queen of Maldonia and Ralphie, and this is all official info, they are telling us without telling us.

I have no idea if any of the Splash figures are being repurposed or the exact number of new ones, but strictly going off official info we have got, all signs point to a ton of new ones, between the critters and main characters. There should be no concern about Animatronics in this ride.

When Ted Robledo has talked about building on what Splash Mountain had, giving us a dozens of animal animatronics would line up with that, and I wouldn't be shocked if part of the PR push is for these guys once their names and personalities are revealed. They know we loved the animals in Splash, and dare I say having 17 new characters in Tiana will be better, especially with current Animatronics technology.

 

[TheEPCOTHistorian]

You beat me to it. Thanks for not letting that miscarriage of statistics stand.

That was the joke lol. See my above post about the comedically inaccurate long winded excuses. Thank you all for indulging my point

 

[SplashJacket]

I do wonder, when was the last ride (Disney or otherwise) that contains an abundance of highly advanced animatronics?

Sinbad’s at Tokyo Disney Sea? So 23 years?

This is exciting for that reason alone.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I do wonder, when was the last ride (Disney or otherwise) that contains an abundance of highly advanced animatronics?

Sinbad’s at Tokyo Disney Sea? So 23 years?

This is exciting for that reason alone.

Sinbad was the last one, yeah. And by my count, I believe it had the largest number of proper animatronics of any ride Disney ever built. "Proper" as in not primitive animated props. Small World of course also has a ton of figures, but they're again extremely simplistic. Sinbad's have an amazing range of dynamic fluid motion, even the simplest ones in the ride are really high quality.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Yeah, both AAs have faces that are larger/rounder than their animated counterparts. I wonder if that's simply a necessity for the AA mechanics.

I don't think Belle is further off-model than Tiana, although the familiar costume and hairstyle probably helps.

Re: The bolded - I did a quick photoshop of Tiana too, she needed far less modification to match the character from the movie. Mostly just bringing in the cheeks a little:

Real Photo:

Photoshop: