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

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
The hasty decision making everyone on these boards thinks that WDI is constantly doing actually happens at Animation. Frozen 2 getting constantly rewritten, even as close to two weeks before the premiere, is one example. The Tangled Series also flies in the face of this arguement, in terms of age and demographics, as it’s target audience greatly shifted older compared to the movie.
The Tangled Series netting an older cult audience doesn’t take away from the fact that the target audience is still lower, ESPECIALLY for the merchandise, which is the most important category for the suits. I enjoy the new Mickey Mouse cartoons, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the target audience is much younger than my age.

There’s only so much you can do to shift the audience because the existing merchandise and the movie that most people are going to have seen skew younger. There’s no fighting that. The only thing that can be done is modifying the ride thrills itself, or creating supplementary experiences.

You’re not selling small dresses and Princess dolls to teenagers and young adults. So then you have the task of creating adult targeted specific merchandise, with characters targeted at a younger audience. It just becomes a very difficult thing to do.

The primary goal of this retheme is to give young children a black role model, and sell them merchandise in the end. How does this work if most of these children either can’t ride, or are too scared to ride?

I honestly think they would be better off converting it into a general boat ride if they want the smash hit merch sales they are expecting.
 

EagleScout610

Always causin' some kind of commotion downstream
Premium Member
So my question is, what do you think they can do to mitigate this issue? Will they tone down the drop? They did that from Maelstrom to Frozen, but that drop was also incredibly small to begin with. Will they create a supplementary Princess and The Frog attraction for intimidated youngsters? Maybe on TSI? Or a restaurant to replace Pecos Bill/Country Bears? Maybe they retheme the boat?
There's a plot of land next to Splash that seems like it could be used for a PatF mini land. Maybe use it to blend New Orleans/Adventure land with Frontierland somehow?
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Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
There is no target audience, that's the point. They just want the ride gone and replaced with something else, doesn't matter what replaces it as far as they are concerned.
I’m not so sure. There’s two possibilities.
You either have the blissfully ignorant Disney, that believes the Brer characters came from SotS, and are a symbol of bigotry. Then you have the opportunistic Disney, that saw the public outcry as the perfect opportunity to do away with an attraction that was expensive to maintain, difficult to market outside of the parks, and challenging to create merchandise for.

I don’t think it’s one or the other, but rather a mixture of both. But even if it’s more leaning towards the former, it’s harder to give them the same pass as the general public for not doing the research.

The best time to add Princess and the Frog to the parks and give the Brer Rabbit stories their proper context was in the early 2010s, when they were making New Fantasyland. The second best time was June 2020. The third best time is now.

The ball has always been in their court. They control the stigma.
 

PrinceCharming617

Well-Known Member
I'm sure the ride is going to be great, but we shouldn't have to lose something to get something. Disney has replaced way too many classics in California and Florida.

Mr. Toad / Winnie the Pooh
Maelstrom / Frozen
GMR / Runaway Railway
Tower / Mission Breakout
Bugs Land / Avengers Campus
Country Bears / Winnie the Pooh
Horizons / Mission Space
World of Motion / Test Track
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
I'm sure the ride is going to be great, but we shouldn't have to lose something to get something. Disney has replaced way too many classics in California and Florida.

Mr. Toad / Winnie the Pooh
Maelstrom / Frozen
GMR / Runaway Railway
Tower / Mission Breakout
Bugs Land / Avengers Campus
Country Bears / Winnie the Pooh
Horizons / Mission Space
World of Motion / Test Track

Don't forget 20k/Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and the Sea Cabs to Finding Nemo. Plus the upcoming Universe of Energy to Guardians.
 

Musical Mermaid

Well-Known Member
I'm sure the ride is going to be great, but we shouldn't have to lose something to get something. Disney has replaced way too many classics in California and Florida.

Mr. Toad / Winnie the Pooh
Maelstrom / Frozen
GMR / Runaway Railway
Tower / Mission Breakout
Bugs Land / Avengers Campus
Country Bears / Winnie the Pooh
Horizons / Mission Space
World of Motion / Test Track
Snow White / Princess Meet & Greet. That’d be a great spot for a fairytale ride instead of the frontier. And the gift shops in that area are already set up to sell princess merchandise.
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
There's a plot of land next to Splash that seems like it could be used for a PatF mini land. Maybe use it to blend New Orleans/Adventure land with Frontierland somehow?View attachment 546106
New Orleans Square is one of the best themed lands in the world. I would welcome some sort of blending of Adventureland, Liberty Square, Frontierland that results in a New Orleans Square. Especially if it means monte christos in Florida.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
New Orleans Square is one of the best themed lands in the world. I would welcome some sort of blending of Adventureland, Liberty Square, Frontierland that results in a New Orleans Square. Especially if it means monte christos in Florida.

They have them at the food court at Port Orleans, or at least did at one point.
 

PrinceCharming617

Well-Known Member
Don't forget 20k/Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and the Sea Cabs to Finding Nemo. Plus the upcoming Universe of Energy to Guardians.

Yep, that is true. I can forgive them for replacing Ellen's though. It was a snoozefest, I just wish it were Wall-E.

Snow White / Princess Meet & Greet. That’d be a great spot for a fairytale ride instead of the frontier. And the gift shops in that area are already set up to sell princess merchandise.

Indeed, Disney has been doing some weird stuff lately. They are putting Moana in Epcot instead of Adventureland???....???
 

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