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

wdwmagic

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The original announcement of the Splash Mountain to Princess and the Frog thread is now available in the 'Politics and Social Issues' forum at https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/splash-mountain-re-theme-announced.965846/unread

In the absence of many specific details on the project and due to its polarizing nature, the original thread is mostly a political/social debate, which is best served in the Politics/Social section of the forum. In its original location in News & Rumors it became impossible to moderate within the no-political discussion rule that we have in place (see Terms and rules).

This thread will serve as the ongoing thread for discussion of the attraction retheme. ANY political/social commentary in this thread will be deleted and the poster will be banned from taking any further part.

Here is the original announcement news article which contains concept art and all of the released information at this point.

 
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Surferboy567

Well-Known Member
Posted a similar thread over on Imagineering but here are my thoughts:

Preface

I would like to share how I would go about retheming the attraction from start to finish. This is my first attempt at something like this so it’s rough around the edges but it get’s the job done.

Last night, I watched Princess and the Frog for my second time ever last night (I think, it felt like the first time to be honest). Quick review wasn’t a fan of the beginning but it got really good toward the middle and ending. I wanted to give PATF (princess and the frog is WAY too long) a fair shot. I enjoyed the movie but something I really enjoyed was the music. Almost all the songs in the film were awesome very catchy besides one or two. With my quick thoughts out of the way let’s get to the retheming.

Some Ground Rules

- No changes may be done to the ride system itself
- I know budget is a hot button issue here but I really can’t account for that
- I must follow the story laid out by Disney Parks Blog

Part 1 The Queue

Guests enter a New Orleans style setting where they walk though a town (similar to BTM). In this town, they see posters advertising a mardi gras party peformance by Tiana and Co. The queue would have instrumentals of music from the film. The spiel would be done by Louie.

Part 2 The Ride

Guests move out of the station and ascend the first small lift hill (the one where you can see the drop) Tiana is floating outside on a barge with Louie (they are both new models of AA) they talk with you about their first Mardi Gras celebration and how excited they are to be preforming. She needs to make preparations at Mama Ode‘s house and then she will perform. We are invited for the performance and to accompany Tiana.

After this small brief scene guests ascend the bigger lift hill to where (How Do You Do?) is played now. Here the song “Down in New Orleans ” is played the song does a great job of setting up the world as it is the prologue. They can add some trees and bits of scenery to make it look swampy as you get closer to the bayou.

You then splash down the first drop (Slippin’ Falls) and head into the first show scene. You have arrived at the beginning part of the bayou and see a bunch of AA animal figures singing “Going Down the Bayou” they are also with Louie. Fireflies are also present in this scene as it has been changed to be a bayou. You can see Mama Ode’s House up ahead!

Toward the end of the scene you see a shadow form into a creature (using projection mapping) and the creature drags your log down the second drop (Laughin Place) into a dark cave. You hear drums banging and creepy masks are represented by a mix of projection mapping and AA mouth’s and then you hear “ARE YOU READY, ARE YOU READY ARE YOU REEEEDY”. Then an extremely lifelike AA of the shadow man himself as he taunts guests by telling them that it was his plan to get revenge on Tiana by ruining her Mardi Gras performance. He casts a Vodoo spell on your log (using projection mapping) and you start ascending ”friends on the other side” continues to play with ominous music. On the left you see Mama Ode trying to stop the log from going over the edge of the top of her tree house (this part I had problems with finding a justification for) but it is too late.

Side Note: They probably won’t do this but this is where I would insert a nod to Splash Mountain at this point. ”Time to be turning around if only you could” should be said by the shadowman as a small nod to Splash Mountain.

After the final drop, we hear some very jazzy music up ahead. We enter the final show scene and the scene is of New Orleans at night from the water. This is achieved using projection mapping, we see a riverboat modeled after the one in the film and all key characters from the film and some animal AA’s sing “Dig a little deeper”. After this we see another impressive Tiana and Navine AA bidding us good bye and guests exit though the New Orleans streets they came from.

What does the community think of this idea for fitting PATF into Splash Mountain? What are your ideas?
 

brb1006

Well-Known Member
I just want to know if it’ll feature an AA heavy cast, or mainly screens and projection mapping.
Doubt it, the days of AA heavy attraction at the Disney Parks are over (at least in the US). The Sinbad ride at Tokyo was the most recent Disney attraction with a huge amount of AAs.


There is some hope with the upcoming BATB ride at Tokyo (mainly from preview footage)
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However since we're not in Tokyo, expect the AAs to be around the quality of The Little Mermaid ride.
 

Surferboy567

Well-Known Member
Doubt it, the days of AA heavy attraction at the Disney Parks are over (at least in the US). The Sinbad ride at Tokyo was the most recent Disney attraction with a huge amount of AAs.


There is some hope with the upcoming BATB ride at Tokyo (mainly from preview footage)
giphy.gif


tumblr_pjduq9IuQ81wzypxlo10_500.gifv


ThisFoolhardyHyena-size_restricted.gif



However since we're not in Tokyo, expect the AAs to be around the quality of The Little Mermaid ride.


Is it me but does Belle on the chair kinda freak you out a little?
 

celluloid

Well-Known Member
Hmm. If they retain ALL the AAs from Splash (reskinned, maybe?) but also add screens as backdrops, that could be nice. Aren’t the current backdrops just scrims with gradient lighting?

Backdrops a plenty will be touched and repainted with projections over them. Which ones specifically make the cut yet to be seen as things so early change. I don't think the AAs will remain, hardly at all except for the cast of extras in the post finale scene possibly using the frame and being random animals on the riverboat. The animatronics will be here and there and resemble as pointed out, the recent meathod of "look here" scene displays that Frozen does and lifthills often having projections surrounding you.
The songs from the movie carrying each one, but inspired by and edited since it is not a retelling book report. The pacing of the excitement that the story of Splash Mountain has will be much different, because so much of this is shoehorned and a change of tone.
 

_caleb

Well-Known Member
I wonder about the state of the AAs, ride system, building, etc. @lazyboy97o mentioned on the previous thread that those will all likely need attention (and eat into the meager budget for the actual retheme).
 

Surferboy567

Well-Known Member
I wonder about the state of the AAs, ride system, building, etc. @lazyboy97o mentioned on the previous thread that those will all likely need attention (and eat into the meager budget for the actual retheme).

They are all pretty outdated at this point, if they are going to remove Splash Mountain wouldn’t they just replace most of the AA’s and add new ones were necessary. Salvage the old ones were possible?
 

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