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

Phineas

Well-Known Member
I'm struggling to think of how we could fit a full scale Mama Odie's scene and Other Side Scene in this attraction. Both seem like they would be shoe-ins for the Laughing Place/Lift Hill Section.

While likely the unpopular opinion, if only one could be picked, I'd rather it go to Mama Odie (I'd probably structure it as "Goin' Down the Bayou to replace how do you do, some plot sections between there and Laughing place/Mama Odie, Down in New Orleans for the Riverboat Finale. Use some instrumentals from the Evangeline song for the build up at the beggining and "denouement.")
Interminable ear worm that it is, Dig a Little Deeper would make for a great theme/thesis for the whole attraction.
 

DarkMetroid567

Well-Known Member
Frozen Ever After doesn't even attempt to have a plot (one of the many problems with the ride). I think they almost have to have a plot for this ride because it's so long with so many show scenes.
Yup. Not to mention the drop on Splash is significantly more intense than FEA’s. You can’t really pass the drop as a happy-go-lucky fun time like in Frozen.

I think the ride has a lot of potential for shadow projections.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
It's possible (though unlikely) that the reason its set after the movie is to try and save the America Sings AA's since none of those are in the movie (they werent in song of the south either but Marc Davis created both so they kind of blended + the rabbit/foxes/frogs looked the same). I guess they can explain all the AAs as having all New Orleans fall under a curse or something?
If we are going to make a statement and showcase an African American princess, they’ll want her to be clearly African American the whole time. Merely using a frog voiced by an African American would not be viewed as a strong enough statement by some. Subtlety doesn’t work anymore.

Facilier went to hell. I understand they plan to bring him back for an encore.
 

KingdomofDreams

Well-Known Member
I'm warming up to the idea. I love the Louisiana Bayou/New Orleans theme and the beginning Bayou scene in Pirates at DL is one of my favorites on that ride. There's a lot of potential for a great, new experience if Disney doesn't muck it up. It's just disappointing to lose the attractions/rides that hold so many memories that make up that Disney feeling. Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Splash and CoP are those rides for me at Magic Kingdom. Losing the Great Movie Ride at the Studios was a big disappointment to our entire family, young and old. No one in our family is excited at all about Runaway Railway but maybe we'll enjoy it when we finally get to ride it. I just have a hard time thinking it will in any way prove to be a worthy replacement for GMR. If we lose SSE and Living with the Land at EPCOT.... I don't even want to think about it. I get that there are certain aspects that are problematic with the current theme of Splash. I never looked at it with any connection to SotS but I guess if others do, I can respect that.

I just wish (in general) Disney could grasp the concept of upgrading technology and plussing rather than dumbing down, and stop removing the huge, elaborate sets with AA's that really transport you into the experience, or sadly, doing away with the attractions completely. Where have all the truly imaginative and creative minds gone?

As far as dining goes... beignets and muffulettas? Yes, please!
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
I can't imagine Facilier being present in any form other than shadow. And the most logical place for that is the final lift hill. If they really wanted to be lazy and cheap, they might even reuse the projector for Brer Fox's shadow.
 

Surferboy567

Well-Known Member
I'm struggling to think of how we could fit a full scale Mama Odie's scene and Other Side Scene in this attraction. Both seem like they would be shoe-ins for the Laughing Place/Lift Hill Section.

While likely the unpopular opinion, if only one could be picked, I'd rather it go to Mama Odie (I'd probably structure it as "Goin' Down the Bayou to replace how do you do, some plot sections between there and Laughing place/Mama Odie, Down in New Orleans for the Riverboat Finale. Use some instrumentals from the Evangeline song for the build up at the beggining and "denouement.")

I really hate to plug myself but my concept has this exact idea in it. I think Dr. Facilier has to be the one that is responsible for our fall down Mama Odie’s house. This concept involves our journey into the bayou to her house in typical disney fashion something goes wrong...you know the drill.

Posted a similar thread over on Imagineering but here are my thoughts:
 

InnKpr

Well-Known Member
We know Mama Odie blasts shadow creatures with her club thingy, and Facilier is now nothing more than a shadow himself. Maybe this will be an opportunity for an Odie/Facilier showdown at the ride's climactic scene before the drop.

It's a shame those two couldn't go toe-to-toe just once in the movie, considering their skills in magic capabilities (not to mention the rumor it was once planned to reveal in the story that SHE trained him before he turned to greed.)
 

MythBuster

Active Member
Really hoping they take this opportunity to revise the catwalks and maintenance areas to let lighting adjustment happen more easily in the new ride. We've heard for years that the catwalks are an OSHA nightmare and that's the chief reason the show has looked so bad for years (unfocused and misaligned lighting, etc.).

Yes, let's hope so. Access to the show lighting has always been a problem. During construction the lighting is easy installed because of scaffolding everywhere but after opening it was very difficult to access the lighting and other show effects because they didn't provide anything for maintenance. I remember many nights putting an extension ladder in the middle of the flume, after it was drained of course, and leaning it on the lighting bar as the only means of support and usually only had a hour before they refilled the flume to cycle the logs for inspection.
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
Well thought out and certainly sounds quite plausible. I realize it is extremely unlikely, but wouldn't it be great if they enclosed the main/final drop and somehow the plot involved Dr. Facilier for some reason taking you 'up' somewhere and then at the top you were rescued and the drop was falling back to earth into Lake Pontchartrain and then floating up to the city at night with all the fireflies lit and then moving to the final show scene you were actually in the parade? I know it's thoroughly unrealistic, but I can dream, right?

No. Enclosing it would take away a lot of energy from the surrounding area.

A big problem I have with modern Disney "enhancing" attractions. Is they remove richly themed sets and replace them with these barren open rooms with an 1 really advanced AA or two and some video screens behind them in the back. Best example of this is when they replaced Maelstrom with Frozen ever after the richly themed and immersive scene where your boat is ambushed by trolls went from this:


View attachment 479936

to this:

View attachment 479940

and this isn't something I want to see keep happening to any attraction much less splash mountain! It feels like im riding through a showroom at Ikea or some tech demonstration at a convention

I guess people see things differently. I don’t find the bottom scene any less detailed. In fact, irrespective of anything else, I find the bottom scene a far more effective part of the ride.
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
It's possible (though unlikely) that the reason its set after the movie is to try and save the America Sings AA's since none of those are in the movie (they werent in song of the south either but Marc Davis created both so they kind of blended + the rabbit/foxes/frogs looked the same). I guess they can explain all the AAs as having all New Orleans fall under a curse or something?
The chances of Disney reusing the America Sings AA's are pretty low considering the trends and logic behind this overhaul. It depends on a couple of unlikely things. One being that the imagineers have fallen to a level of such extreme incompetence and lack of attention to detail that they don't know or don't care about the massive differences between the character designs and proportions of the Splash Mtn animals and the ones from PATF.

Look at these birds from this scene in PATF-

Now look at these from Splash Mountain-

The vast majority of Splash Mtn's animatronics are in this nebulous middle ground where they are simultaneously far too anthropomorphic to be reused for PATF's more realistic animal designs, but also entirely the wrong shape to be reskinned as humans. Louis is one of the only animals in the movie that has a shape you might be able to adapt from an existing animatronic (perhaps using parts from Brer Bear). And some of the tiny animals with more simplistic movement might also be reusable if you remove their clothing (Mr Bluebird, Roadrunner and the other smaller miscellaneous frogs and turtles). But that's about it.

The other problem is that the executives will be thirsty as all hell at the opportunity to gut yet another animatronics heavy ride in favor of one with much emptier and more sparsely detailed rooms. I don't see them approving anywhere close to the same amount of newly designed animatronic figures either.

My prediction is that much like the Frozen ride, much of the physical scenery will be gutted and replaced with empier hallways of projections and lasers (specifically for fireflies and other small bugs and birds). Any physical animal figures are likely to be much smaller in size, probably using a mixture of static models or simpler moving figures ala Little Mermaid (not actual animatronics). The only animatronics are likely to be a half dozen (if we're lucky) figures combined of Tiana, Naveen and possibly Mama Odie. Louis might be reskinned from a Brer Bear frame or something. If Facilier appears in any form, it almost certainly won't be an AA but a basic shadow projection. Incidentally, one hopes they don't go for facial projections for the humans. This effect rarely looks good and more often than not is awkward and poorly executed. It'll be even more of a challenge for characters with darker skin tones.
 
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Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
If we are going to make a statement and showcase an African American princess, they’ll want her to be clearly African American the whole time. Merely using a frog voiced by an African American would not be viewed as a strong enough statement by some. Subtlety doesn’t work anymore.

Facilier went to hell. I understand they plan to bring him back for an encore.

Next to Tiana (as a human), he's the best thing about that movie, although his potential was mostly wasted.
 

MaximumEd

Well-Known Member
I like how DLs and WDWs Splash Mountains are different. Two different soundtracks, a completely different feel...I’m guessing this stupid proposal has both versions being identical?

DLR’s Splash also has the flume running a foot per second or so faster, giving a slightly quicker pace to things.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
I guess people see things differently. I don’t find the bottom scene any less detailed. In fact, irrespective of anything else, I find the bottom scene a far more effective part of the ride.

I'm hard pressed to call anything about Frozen Ever After effective, but I think you're right that there's really not much (if any) less detail in the Frozen scene as there was in the Maelstrom scene.

That doesn't excuse FEA, though. It suffers from a criminal lack of detail throughout the entire ride; it's embarrassing.
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
I like how DLs and WDWs Splash Mountains are different. Two different soundtracks, a completely different feel...I’m guessing this stupid proposal has both versions being identical?
DLR’s Splash also has the flume running a foot per second or so faster, giving a slightly quicker pace to things.
The set dressing of the DL and WDW versions is vastly different. Particularly the interior scenes following the first drop.

These scenes at DL's feel more swampy and compact/interconnected with less separation. The walls are generally obscured with scenery and mostly painted dark colors so it feels more like a darker densely forested swamp environment. Even the foliage used to fill out the ceiling looks very different, colorful hanging ferns (or perhaps it's supposed to be Spanish moss).

WDW's scenery feels more like a river traveling along the edge of a forest. The walls are painted with brightly lit colorful murals of distant farmland, rolling hills, trees and sky. The scenes themselves are just as densely detailed, but also larger and better spread out and segmented from one another. Rockwork is more detailed and hilly, with redder looking dirt and clay layers. Even the ceiling foliage is very different, using tree branches adorned with leaves instead of the hanging moss/ferns from DL. Some of the same differences are present in the riverboat finale scene as well. By and large, a significant chunk of the scenery at WDW is much better and more detailed IMO. Not specifically because of the different environment it goes through (though I do prefer that too), the scenery simply received more attention and detail than the DL version.

Tokyo's by comparison seems more similar to the setting of Cali's, again deep within a swampy forest. Same sort of hanging moss/fern foliage as DL as well, and largely obscured walls that lack the aforementioned murals of WDW's. However much like WDW, greater detail was still put into the environmental scenery than Disneyland (mostly that is, I don't like the design of the Laughing Place caverns as much as DL and WDW, or the removal of the old water mill and shaft at the beginning).

Animatronics wise I believe Disneyland has the most figures by a small amount, Google lists it as 68 figures (which is roughly accurate from my count, though a couple of these are smaller simpler figures). It reuses the America Sings AAs, and a handful of characters didn't make it into WDW and Tokyo. Though it should be noted that the ones used for the main "Brer" trio from the movies have significantly better designs at WDW and Tokyo and several contain superior motion over their DL counterparts (especially the hopping Rabbit figure which isn't in DL). WDW and Tokyo also still utilize an enormous quantity on their own merits. I was only counting the ones with what I consider at least a decent range of motion, and that was about 55. Add an extra 5-10 for the simpler moving figures. Greater quantity by far than anything Disney has built over the past 20 years.
 
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InnKpr

Well-Known Member
Will that firefly character come back from the dead for this ride? We may be in for another prominent Jim Cummings performance...
Having a squished Ray in the ride would make for an awkward & depressing cameo. :(

Though his many family members are certain to be in this. He might be referenced, considering he's up in the sky now with Evangeline. Probably a screen effect somewhere along the ride.
 

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