Okay. I experienced TBA in person last night (DL version). You can search my posting history here to see I was not a fan of this project, from conception to execution.
That said, I give this a 9.5 / 10 upon experiencing it in person. I have some slight knocks which I’ll detail in a moment, and a slight caveat to say that I do thing it was conceived and intended for the DL setting vs WDW.
Placement: 10/10. It felt it belonged organically. We did not arrive in that area of the park until after dusk, and it looked beautiful.
Experience: 10/10. I was utterly charmed by the general experience of it.
Story: 8 / 10. That said, the presentation of the story you were “in” felt very forced notwithstanding the fact you were spoon fed it throughout.
AAs: 9.5 / 10. Most everything was functioning properly. Tiana sitting on (Louis? A log? We went by very quickly) wasn’t moving, but that was the only problem. Also very noticeable was the felt material that constitutes Louis - as we passed him, my son said, “Is he a stuffed animal?” As he said it my mind went to Lotso Huggin Bear vs Louis (especially when you see him in more reptilian form earlier in the ride).
Finale: 9 / 10. There is a tough incongruency throughout the ride between the video animations and the AAs. The AAs by themselves are great and nice realizations in three dimensional space of the characters. Their movements are fluid and look great. But when placed adjacent to much more vivid and fluid animations, it makes the (admittedly impressive) AAs look more stilted and mechanical than they otherwise would appear.
Conclusion: 9.5 / 10 (don’t try to add up the subcategories - I’m not sure how I weight them respectively). Overall, very impressed in a way that overcame my priors. I can see how the DL version comes off better than the WDW version as you’re whisked through there so quickly there is not a lot of time to process the shortcomings in real time. Did not get a sense of boredom riding it. A very pleasant experience which I will gladly do again.