Alright please forgive me, but the tin-foil hat is on.
In the recent video from WDI about the Tiana's Bayou Adventure animatronics, there are a number of b-roll shots throughout the video containing aspects from a variety of different projects. Most of these include projects we've already seen come to fruition like Journey of Water and Shanghai Pirates, but there was one incredibly specific clip that caught my eye. At the 7:25 mark of the video we see two imagineers, one of them wearing a virtual reality headset, reviewing some kind of test footage.
The shot only lasts for 26 frames but from what I can tell here, whatever they're testing seems entirely unfamiliar to me and appears to be a VR preliminary ride-through POV. The test footage has a silhouette of a ride vehicle in the bottom of the frame which stops in front of two pillars looking into a hallway with purple/dark blue walls. A light shines on a small figure in the center of view, who then promptly does a backflip as the light turns off and the ride vehicle pans away from the scene. In the room surrounding the imagineers, the walls are covered by large project boards covered in a wide variety of images. Most are too out of focus to discern, but on the right wall you can barely make out an image of Sorcerer Mickey, a silhouette of the Genie, and a character who resembles Ariel. Upon reviewing the footage, Sorcerer Mickey appears to be the backflipping character in the test footage.
View attachment 777635
View attachment 777636 Sorcerer Mickey
View attachment 777637 The Genie
View attachment 777638 Ariel?
View attachment 777639 Sorcerer Mickey in the test footage?
View attachment 777640 Closer
With that said, the first thing that comes to my mind when discussing an attraction with Sorcerer Mickey is Villains Land and the fan concept of "Fantasmic but it's a ride." Do you think this could be a very early draft of the Villains E-ticket? Or is this some other project I can't recall/something else entirely? Would love if any insiders could chime in.
