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

[Vclguy90]

I mean, we knew this was going to be a let down from jump. Even Disney knew how we felt. What has me truly perplexed by this whole endeavor is why they would put out such a poorly made POV video to get us excited about it? It isn't even edited in a highlighting fashion.

Not only that, but I am super frustrated at Bob, everyone and their mother at imagineering, and park operations talking about sToRyTeLlInG and how they are the best at it - when this lame excuse for an overlay has none while replacing the ride that the "real" storytellers made.

Bob Iger: "The story of Splash Mountain is too controversial"

WDI: "You're right, so let's redo it and take out any type of story to not remind people of the previous controversial story."

Bob Iger: "But aren't your guys master storytellers?"

WDI: "eh"

Bob Iger: "oh yea, they're gonna love this."


I get baffled by this company the older I get.

 

[dig311dug]

Im not saying I’m still glad the original splash is alive and well somewhere on earth….


But I am.

 

[Incomudro]

This is a ride that absolutely will not hit if it’s running in B mode. Even if all of the Splash AAs were busted (still more movement than the new critters) you had the beautiful cartoony sets to marvel at. Now it’s just dark voids…kinda like Dinosaur.

A shame. The music is actually pretty darn good!

I was thinking the same thing.
Like I said yesterday, all of the whimsy and humor, and details that the scenes and set pieces Splash had still worked even in a still image.
This ride requires everything to move.
If AA's and effects are down, there's not much.

 

[Brian]

Are we allowed to criticize it now? Yes? Good.

Spoiler: my thoughts

I don't have any novel commentary to add. As had been suggested, it lacks thrill outside of the ride motion. The storyline is odd and seems to be stretched thin to match the somewhat lengthy ride time that comes along when they reskin an existing attraction. As a result, there's a lot of dead space. It would have been nice to add some elements of thrill to the story rather than these constant ovations of "oh gee, I can't wait for this party. did I mention everyone's invited??"

 

[Ayla]

I think that's actually the issue, though. A backstory is usually in the background -- something to help the designers (or actors, author, etc.) frame what they're doing. It's generally not part of marketing materials.

With the limited information we have right now, the backstory feels divorced from the attraction (i.e. if the backstory didn't exist it wouldn't have any material impact on the ride itself), and thus feels superfluous. That's not necessarily out of the ordinary for a backstory, but it becomes an issue here because Disney promoted it.

That could certainly change once the attraction opens and we see the whole thing, though, so there is a giant caveat on all of this.

I also don't think it's a major problem or one that should have any impact on a person's enjoyment of the attraction itself -- it just feels like a bit of a misfire on Disney's part. It's also why the Mama Odie's hot sauce bottle was so confusing.

I watched the POV out this morning and I agree with you. Tiana's Foods is superfluous to the story. I still hate that ugly "wall" with the vegetables painted on it right before the first lift hill.

 

[Incomudro]

I think he probably ran...

He's probably going back and forth in his mind between moments of sadness, and laughter.

 

[duncedoof]

Did you see a full ride through? Can you link it to me? I'd also love to see the entire ride which you must have seen based on your comments. I only saw 15 seconds worth of clips in the Imagineering video. Thanks! /s

Now we did. Exact same thoughts in my case.

Now the goalpost is on the (very brief) edits in the video. We've seen the ride. This is it.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

The last part of your post is completely accurate imo. Nothing would make them happy.

I see that we've moved on to rude dismissal of opposing opinions already. Even quite a few of the people in this thread who were looking forward to this ride now think it looks disappointing.

I was never expecting this to be as good as Splash. The imagineers of the modern era have shown themselves to be incapable of the sort of talent that their predecessors had. And the leadership above them are enabling many of these poor decisions while allowing that old guard to vanish, as their skills and experience are lost to time and not passed on to others at WDI.

However, I was still willing to give it a chance to try and was somewhat of a "soft defender" of the ride early on as I had heard some positive things about it that intrigued me. This does not live up to the moderate expectations I had.

Splash Mountain was a 10/10 best of the best attraction. I was expecting and hoping for at least an 8/10 or maybe 8.5/10 from Tiana. Instead i'd probably give it a 6 or 7 at most.

 

[Touchdown]

I’m not watching any videos or giving my opinion until I ride it. I’ll be riding both versions this year, hopefully both within a week of each other.

 

[the_rich]

I see that we've moved on to rude dismissal of opposing opinions already. Even quite a few of the people in this thread who were looking forward to this ride now think it looks disappointing.

I was never expecting this to be as good as Splash. The imagineers of the modern era have shown themselves to be incapable of the sort of talent that their predecessors had. And the leadership above them are enabling many of these poor decisions while allowing that old guard to vanish, as their skills and experience are lost to time and not passed on to others at WDI.

However, I was still willing to give it a chance to try and was somewhat of a "soft defender" of the ride early on as I had heard some positive things about it that intrigued me. This does not live up to the moderate expectations I had.

Splash Mountain was a 10/10 best of the best attraction. I was expecting and hoping for at least an 8/10 or maybe 8.5/10 from Tiana. Instead i'd probably give it a 6 or 7 at most.

I'm not talking to people who don't like the outcome or were apprehensive. I'm talking about the people who judged it from day 1. You don't like it, fine, that's your opinion. But there are more than a few posters who made up there mind before work even started

 

[Brian]

I'm not talking to people who don't like the outcome or were apprehensive. I'm talking about the people who judged it from day 1. You don't like it, fine, that's your opinion. But there are more than a few posters who made up there mind before work even started

The people you're describing as having made up their minds in advance were vindicated by the final product. There was little chance of them (myself included) being satisfied with the end result because, as @MerlinTheGoat opined, the talent is simply not there in WDI anymore to create a worthy successor to Splash Mountain.

 

[Splashin' Ryan]

I just wish all the bloggers and vloggers would actually, genuinely compare the two rides before they start their smiley chants about how good it is and how we should all just embrace change and stop complaining. Its this complacency with a lesser product that will keep giving us lesser and lesser products. They see the shiny new LED lights at night and fancy tech inside and will be wooed, but that's not pushing the boundaries of storytelling, its using the tech that is present at this moment. Creativity is found in the little moments that make you go wow, or get a jingle stuck in your head, or permeate pop culture, simply put, this does not have this.

 

[the_rich]

The people you're describing as having made up their minds in advance were vindicated by the final product. There was little chance of them (myself included) being satisfied with the end result because, as @MerlinTheGoat opined, the talent is simply not there in WDI anymore to create a worthy successor to Splash Mountain.

In your opinion. In my opinion it's better. The only place they are vindicated is in their own minds.

 

[monothingie]

I just wish all the bloggers and vloggers would actually, genuinely compare the two rides before they start their smiley chants about how good it is and how we should all just embrace change and stop complaining. Its this complacency with a lesser product that will keep giving us lesser and lesser products. They see the shiny new LED lights at night and fancy tech inside and will be wooed, but that's not pushing the boundaries of storytelling, its using the tech that is present at this moment. Creativity is found in the little moments that make you go wow, or get a jingle stuck in your head, or permeate pop culture, simply put, this does not have this.

That’s not a way to get access and swag from Daddy Disney.

Disney takes good care of and rewards their bought and paid for flunkies.

 

[ChewbaccaYourMum]

I skimmed the video because I’m dumb and curiosity got the best of me. I am waiting to ride it in person with AP previews on June 17th to finally see it and make my opinion.

Based off the little I saw while skimming though, and what people are posting here, I’m starting to get scared that my little fears on the outcome of this ride will be true. I have been VERY positive and optimistic of this. Splash was an iconic ride for me and I legitimately cried through the entire ride the last time I went on, knowing it was going forever.

I have been so excited for this and positive, but I’m starting to get nervous. And I don’t want to just be one of those people that’s like “well atleast it’s still a fun flume ride!!” Because that’s not all this ride should be, in my opinion.

I really hope I end up loving it. I really, really do.

 

[Speedy71]

So this how epcot fans felt after the OG imagination was replaced....

OLC gets another W

 

[EagleScout610]

I see that we've moved on to rude dismissal of opposing opinions already. Even quite a few of the people in this thread who were looking forward to this ride now think it looks disappointing.

I was never expecting this to be as good as Splash. The imagineers of the modern era have shown themselves to be incapable of the sort of talent that their predecessors had. And the leadership above them are enabling many of these poor decisions while allowing that old guard to vanish, as their skills and experience are lost to time and not passed on to others at WDI.

However, I was still willing to give it a chance to try and was somewhat of a "soft defender" of the ride early on as I had heard some positive things about it that intrigued me. This does not live up to the moderate expectations I had.

Splash Mountain was a 10/10 best of the best attraction. I was expecting and hoping for at least an 8/10 or maybe 8.5/10 from Tiana. Instead i'd probably give it a 6 or 7 at most.

They needed a home run to match Splash and to hit it out of the park to be considered "Better". Instead they barely made it to 2nd base.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I'm not talking to people who don't like the outcome or were apprehensive. I'm talking about the people who judged it from day 1. You don't like it, fine, that's your opinion. But there are more than a few posters who made up there mind before work even started

Disney should never have been given the benefit of the doubt, they did not deserve it and the outcome has validated much of what was assumed about the ride. It's not like they haven't screwed up countless other rides over the past several decades. We have a pretty well informed track record to let us know not to be optimistic and trusting. That was the more foolish assumption to make than assuming it would be disappointing. It was a mistake for me to do so, I regret it.

 

[JustInTime]

They won't want this because the movie flopped in Japan, and they've pretty much refused to deal with it since then. But then again, it doesn't mean they wouldn't necessarily do something else foolish with the ride. They're doing a temporary Marvel Avengers overlay for their Small World...

That said, they still have no incentive to change their Splash. It's an very popular ride, pushes a good amount of merch and has a connecting eatery that gets good business as far as I know. This ticks all the boxes to just leave it alone. And they don't care about what Americans think of the source material either, which was the only reason why ours was changed to begin with.


The tree trunks are mostly intact from Splash, just repainted and given new foliage. But a lot of the setpieces were indeed ripped out. Such as all of the critter homes.

That’s not true. One example of many:

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

They needed a home run to match Splash and to hit it out of the park to be considered "Better". Instead they barely made it to 2nd base.

... with Mama Odie.