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

[JohnD]

Yes. It was a chance to rest your feet, cool off (it's a relatively long ride), listen to a song and then enjoy the drop. It's all for the drop.

I will never understand the love affair with Splash. I can understand geeking out over the animatronic technology, but not much more.

I'll miss Splash. I may even think Splash was better than TBA. That doesn't mean I won't enjoy TBA just the same.

 

[pigglewiggle]

Yeah... I'm getting the impression that it's going to be an attractive looking ride with some great AA's, but I'm not getting the impression it's going to be much more than that.

I'm not being facetious, but isn't that basically what Splash was? It's lore grew over time, of course, but that's what it started out as.

Time will tell, but I think this ride will be considered a classic at some point.

 

[LittleBuford]

I will never understand the love affair with Splash.

Perhaps you’re not a fan of dark rides. Those of us who are appreciated the ride-through at least as much as the drop.

 

[Professortango1]

That surprises me, because your feelings about the ride seem essentially unchanged from what they were before the new footage. And that goes for just about everyone who’s posting here (myself included). I don’t recall anyone indicating that the footage shifted their opinion one way or the other.

I can understand that response as I have always been torn between what I think of Disney's past rethemes and being cautiously optimistic for this new attraction. I think if we had received the fan-made version of the retheme it would be a stronger attraction and I was hoping Disney had some surprises in store for us.

I will say I was swayed positively by the footage of the Animatronics. That got me whistling a slightly better tune as the new figures are high quality. But when the recent footage of how they are staged and the whole finale...its taken away that hope of Disney delivering something that surprises me in a good way.

TLDR: I think Disney has been lazy, but I was hoping it wouldn't be with this. AA's made me think Disney understood the assignment. Recent footage confirms my earlier fears and optimism is squashed.

 

[DCLcruiser]

That’s a very low bar indeed, and not at all representative of how many of us feel. The drop was only a minor part of what made me love the previous ride.

I am a kid of the 90s. EPCOT's futurism was more my style.

I never had an attachment to the Splash characters (for obvious reasons) and the overall ride is slow and uninteresting. To me, it is a flume ride (and I don't love being soaked after rides). I think as a kid we skipped it on most trips. My mother doesn't do drops, and my father and I were into roller coasters.

 

[DCLcruiser]

Perhaps you’re not a fan of dark rides. Those of us who are appreciated the ride-through at least as much as the drop.

I do like dark rides...when they are interesting. But, we had almost zero connection to the story/characters of Splash. I think in college I went on Splash again and I had completely forgotten about the interior scenes.

 

[Professortango1]

Yes. It was a chance to rest your feet, cool off (it's a relatively long ride), listen to a song and then enjoy the drop. It's all for the drop.

I will never understand the love affair with Splash. I can understand geeking out over the animatronic technology, but not much more.

So none of the thematic elements mattered to you? The characters, music, set dressing, 3-act structure to our experience? It was simply about beating the heat?

 

[Casper Gutman]

Guys, who is this “Walt Disney?” Is he some sort of television puppet from the 70s? I just have no idea.

 

[DCLcruiser]

So none of the thematic elements mattered to you? The characters, music, set dressing, 3-act structure to our experience? It was simply about beating the heat?

It's a flume ride.

Barely remembered the characters from the cartoon shorts. I was a kid/teen so I didn't care about set, or act-structure. I don't think at 39 I even care about how many acts there are.

Since going on vacations as an adult with my wife, we do always ride Splash, and I do enjoy the meandering river scenes. But the animatronics were aged, and outside of Zip and the drop, it was relatively uneventful.

....Which is how it is for most people going on the ride. Again, it is a flume ride. It's advertised for the drop. It's Splash, not Br'er. (Yes, I know it is named due to the unrelated movie of the time).

 

[pigglewiggle]

Guys, who is this “Walt Disney?” Is he some sort of television puppet from the 70s? I just have no idea.

Hope this helps!

Walt Disney - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Casper Gutman]

That surprises me, because your feelings about the ride seem essentially unchanged from what they were before the new footage. And that goes for just about everyone who’s posting here (myself included). I don’t recall anyone indicating that the footage shifted their opinion one way or the other.

I will say I was holding out hope that the ride would be more populated with figures and might dodge the pitfalls of Disney’s recent dark rides. The video has me pretty firmly convinced that’s not the case (the Laughing Place looks particularly dispiriting). Merlin, a pretty strong, honest, and informed voice for optimism, had a lot to do with giving me some hope, and they seem to have changed tone in response to recent developments. We’ll see what the whole thing looks like.

 

[Earlie the Pearlie]

There's always exceptions to every rule. You would be one.

I’m flattered!

 

[BrerFoxesBayouAdventure]

One thing I am still curious about is whether any side critters are being included. Obviously none were shown in the promotional footage released, so I have to wonder if we’ll end up seeing those spoonbills, turtles, etc… they’d really help add some filler between scenes

I would be sad because they would not be invited to the party at the end of the ride.

 

[_caleb]

Oh so PJ Morton is from New Orleans huh? Just looked him up. Ok so that’s why he was hired to continue the “authentic” motif. Wish they would have just hired the person most qualified to give us a grand finale song for an attraction. It’s different having someone brought into this project thinking “ I’m going to bring my flavor to a Disney attraction” as opposed to someone saying “I’m going to make the best song possible for this grand finale.” Especially considering what it replaced. Been saying it from the beginning. Priorities have been all wrong.

Why can't it be both? And why are you assuming it's one and not the other?

 

[TalkToEthan]

Why can't it be both? And why are you assuming it's one and not the other?

because odds and statistics factor

 

[Figments Friend]

I remember asking one of the imagineers back in the day why the Country Bear Jamboree worked, while the Mickey Mouse Revue never seemed to connect. "Simple" he told me "CBJ was programmed by animators and MMR was programmed by programmers" The then told me to look at how eyes were. Bears moved and looked real. The major of the MMR has eyes that only blinked.

Yep.
Truth.

I have experience with this.
You have to move the figures as characters giving a performance, and not just ‘jiggling’ them around randomly.

There is a difference between a character performance and a figure just going through random motions.

-

 

[SilentWindODoom]

Trixie will also change her dress and I still won’t know which one is Trixie vs. Teddi Barra. Doesn’t really matter. They all make me laugh.

I mostly remember because of the line about Teddi Beara being the "last of the old time swayngers".

Liver Lips and the Sunbonnets are obvious. And Big Al is a classic if you're a fan. I'm actually blanking on the MC's name.

But I'm a big fan and never missed it, coming from a place of legitimately thinking the music rocked. When I mention I like more classic country and people ask for me to specify, I say "I unironically love the music of the Country Bear Jamboree."

 

[James Alucobond]

Hope this helps!

Walt Disney - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

A more flattering rendering ...

 

[_caleb]

More importantly, the song is tied to three major problems with the ride. The first is the absurd definition of “authenticity.” Nobody cares about the current or past residence of the guy who wrote the song or made a weathervane or painted a mural. This isn’t the New Orleans chamber of commerce, it’s a theme park ride. What matters is how the song FEELS. This song feels… fine. Certainly not the equal of an E-ticket finale song.

Because TBA is based on a real place, and people from that real place are qualified to create the art that comprise it, doesn't it make sense to have them do so? And wouldn't this person be better than someone who has no connection whatsoever to the place/culture being represented (even in a stylized, theme park sort of way)?

So much of the criticism Disney gets with cultural/localized content seems to come from people actually from those places saying, "this feels like a stereotype–like you're making fun of us––than an homage or having fun with us."

Of course, you also want theme park experts in the mix. From what I'm seeing, TBA is going to have a unique feel to it because of the collaboration of artists from New Orleans/Louisiana and WDI Imagineers.

 

[James Alucobond]

Because TBA is based on a real place, and people from that real place are qualified to create the art that comprise it, doesn't it make sense to have them do so? And wouldn't this person be better than someone who has no connection whatsoever to the place/culture being represented (even in a stylized, theme park sort of way)?

It makes sense if you can hit on the overlap of local craftspeople and people who create things that are reflective of the time period and style being represented. If you cannot find that, the time period and style should take precedence. For instance, someone who makes convincing Moorish Revival facades would be a better option for working on the Tower of Terror than a random architect who happens to live in a city where Moorish Revival was once popular, regardless of where the former lives.