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

[MagicHappens1971]

I think as many others have said, I'm sure Disney knows that fans will be ready to critique the replacement and the bloggers (the ones Disney doesn't invite for free preview) may give their honest opinion if there are to be major short-comings with this replacement. I'm not expecting a Splash caliber replacement, but I think it will have to be a pretty solid redo if they want to keep up the good press they are trying to create. To add-on, this announcement has brought back the conversation of Disney's first African-American princess being a frog for the majority of the movie, so I wonder if this attraction will take place after the events of the film to combat that? I believe it was originally implied that it does, but then we heard bits of pieces about Dr. Facilier making an appearance. I guess we will have to hope for the best and wait it out.

 

[Phicinfan]

I know it's not coming to the park, but it's not like the Disney of 2021 wouldn't turn Grizzly River Run into "Guardians of New Orleans: Mission: MARDI GRAS".

It makes about as much sense as anything else they've done with the park of late.

Though a PatF stage show at the Hyperion would actually be good.

Gambit - Xmen cough cough...

 

[RSoxNo1]

If splash is really a racist ride that needs to be removed then fine tear it down. Build the new ride in its place, but let it be designed from the ground up to tell its story.

Normally I'm with you, but I would also anticipate the replacement to be "less than" Splash. Disney doesn't typically build those 10+ minute long rides anymore. This is a situation where if it must go, I'd welcome retaining the track layout from a storytelling standpoint.

I do think Tiana is out of place in the current version of Frontierland, and if the do go through with this as announced, I would welcome an answer to that theming problem.

 

[EagleScout610]

Normally I'm with you, but I would also anticipate the replacement to be "less than" Splash. Disney doesn't typically build those 10+ minute long rides anymore. This is a situation where if it must go, I'd welcome retaining the track layout from a storytelling standpoint.

I do think Tiana is out of place in the current version of Frontierland, and if the do go through with this as announced, I would welcome an answer to that theming problem.

They'll have no choice but to do a 10 min ride if they go through with redoing Splash and don't want to blow the budget on the flume

 

[RSoxNo1]

They'll have no choice but to do a 10 min ride if they go through with redoing Splash and don't want to blow the budget on the flume

Right, but if they were to completely remove Splash and say build a dark ride for Tiana on the footprint, I'm guessing it would be a 4-5 minute dark ride. That's what they do now.

 

[bshah365]

This is something.

Taking one of the greatest themed attractions of all time and re-theming it.

When the new attraction opens the media and bloggers will fall all over themselves to praise it.

We will get an actual idea once it’s open to the general public.

Does anyone have faith that Imagineering can actually produce something as special as splash?

What if the ride sucks?

Who is going to dare criticize it without fear of being canceled ?

I don't understand this mentality? Splash is one of the greatest themed attractions, yes. But, the theming is all staying... The animatronics are getting swapped out, the sets are getting fresh paint to match the bayou color scheme, and a cohesive storyline (which lacked at dland) is being added.... on top of that, if anything, the outside facade is getting *more* theming added on to what currently exists with Mama Odie's boat... All of this along with projection mapping animation (which we've already seen incorporated in fantasyland dark rides which looks incredible).. what is there to complain about?

If you're upset because of your nostalgia and attachment to the brer characters and hate to see them go, I completely understand and you're valid.

But if you're upset that the ride will be ruined, less themed, less impressive... That's just not going to happen...

The current ride that stands is 30 yrs old with half of its animations and characters not working and it hasn't been a problem. A multimillion dollar refurb isn't going to make anything worse than what exists now, regardless of any change.

 

[Trauma]

I don't understand this mentality? Splash is one of the greatest themed attractions, yes. But, the theming is all staying... The animatronics are getting swapped out, the sets are getting fresh paint to match the bayou color scheme, and a cohesive storyline (which lacked at dland) is being added.... on top of that, if anything, the outside facade is getting *more* theming added on to what currently exists with Mama Odie's boat... All of this along with projection mapping animation (which we've already seen incorporated in fantasyland dark rides which looks incredible).. what is there to complain about?

If you're upset because of your nostalgia and attachment to the brer characters and hate to see them go, I completely understand and you're valid.

But if you're upset that the ride will be ruined, less themed, less impressive... That's just not going to happen...

The current ride that stands is 30 yrs old with half of its animations and characters not working and it hasn't been a problem. A multimillion dollar refurb isn't going to make anything worse than what exists now, regardless of any change.

You have a lot more faith in imagineering than a person who has been paying attention does I guess.

 

[bshah365]

You have a lot more faith in imagineering than a person who has been paying attention does I guess.

I don't have faith in imagineering, specially after Spider-Man and SWGE. I just know what's coming and I'm very excited.

 

[DisneyDodo]

I don't understand this mentality? Splash is one of the greatest themed attractions, yes. But, the theming is all staying... The animatronics are getting swapped out, the sets are getting fresh paint to match the bayou color scheme, and a cohesive storyline (which lacked at dland) is being added.... on top of that, if anything, the outside facade is getting *more* theming added on to what currently exists with Mama Odie's boat... All of this along with projection mapping animation (which we've already seen incorporated in fantasyland dark rides which looks incredible).. what is there to complain about?

If you're upset because of your nostalgia and attachment to the brer characters and hate to see them go, I completely understand and you're valid.

But if you're upset that the ride will be ruined, less themed, less impressive... That's just not going to happen...

The current ride that stands is 30 yrs old with half of its animations and characters not working and it hasn't been a problem. A multimillion dollar refurb isn't going to make anything worse than what exists now, regardless of any change.

I anticipate that when the animatronics are swapped back in, they will be much fewer in number, based both on rumors for this attraction and Disney's recent track record when it comes to animatronics. Of course, animatronic count is only a single aspect of a ride, and is in no way a comprehensive metric to determine how good it will be. But on that criterion specifically, we are likely to see a substantial downgrade.

 

[Magicart87]

But if you're upset that the ride will be ruined, less themed, less impressive... That's just not going to happen...

Saved for posterity.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

I don't understand this mentality? Splash is one of the greatest themed attractions, yes. But, the theming is all staying... The animatronics are getting swapped out, the sets are getting fresh paint to match the bayou color scheme, and a cohesive storyline (which lacked at dland) is being added.... on top of that, if anything, the outside facade is getting *more* theming added on to what currently exists with Mama Odie's boat... All of this along with projection mapping animation (which we've already seen incorporated in fantasyland dark rides which looks incredible).. what is there to complain about?

If you're upset because of your nostalgia and attachment to the brer characters and hate to see them go, I completely understand and you're valid.

But if you're upset that the ride will be ruined, less themed, less impressive... That's just not going to happen...

The current ride that stands is 30 yrs old with half of its animations and characters not working and it hasn't been a problem. A multimillion dollar refurb isn't going to make anything worse than what exists now, regardless of any change.

Don't care what anyone says, they aren't gonna come close to creating the joy a lot of us feel when hearing zippadeedoodah.

The laughing place, how do you do, burrows lament.. all about to be replaced with IP, heard before, been there done that music. That alone is enough to ruin it for me.

 

[UNCgolf]

Don't care what anyone says, they aren't gonna come close to creating the joy a lot of us feel when hearing zippadeedoodah.

The laughing place, how do you do, burrows lament.. all about to be replaced with IP, heard before, been there done that music. That alone is enough to ruin it for me.

I don't really understand this -- all the music in Splash is also movie IP music. I think Zip-a-dee-doo-dah is better than any of the songs in PatF, but they aren't bad songs either.

I have very little faith that the PatF retheme will result in a ride that's even remotely as impressive as Splash, but the specific music complaint (at least the way you framed it) doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

I don't really understand this -- all the music in Splash is also movie IP music. I think Zip-a-dee-doo-dah is better than any of the songs in PatF, but they aren't bad songs either.

I have very little faith that the PatF retheme will result in a ride that's even remotely as impressive as Splash, but the specific music complaint (at least the way you framed it) doesn't make sense to me.

Most of us have not seen SotS, Disney wants to pretend it doesn't exist, so how can we truly familiarize ourselves with the music from it? But plenty of us have seen PatF - several times for me, that is, and know all of it. Hence the been there done that for PatF, but not so for SotS.

 

[LittleBuford]

Most of us have not seen SotS, Disney wants to pretend it doesn't exist, so how can we truly familiarize ourselves with the music from it?

You can Google and find any of the songs from Song of the South in a matter of seconds.

 

[wedenterprises]

This is my biggest fear.

I feel like they are forcing Tiana into this ride.

Why not just make a whole new ride based on the movie?

Its like yeah we want a ride with a black lead character. We just don’t want it enough to create anything new and amazing so instead let’s just shove her into splash.

I’m not a person of color so what do I know, but I would be curios if someone who is can comment on how you truly feel about this.

Isn’t this kind of insulting?

If splash is really a racist ride that needs to be removed then fine tear it down. Build the new ride in its place, but let it be designed from the ground up to tell its story.

They likely wanted to replace Splash regardless of what IP replaced it.

Tearing it down to build something in it's place is incredibly cost-prohibitive when people still enjoy the fundamental physical experience the existing ride offers.

 

[doctornick]

I don't really understand this -- all the music in Splash is also movie IP music. I think Zip-a-dee-doo-dah is better than any of the songs in PatF, but they aren't bad songs either.

I have very little faith that the PatF retheme will result in a ride that's even remotely as impressive as Splash, but the specific music complaint (at least the way you framed it) doesn't make sense to me.

Opinions vary, but I find the music in Splash to be particularly strong - even among the pantheon of great ride music at Disney - and executed particularly well with the scenes and actions in the ride. I think it is quite a "lightening in a bottle" situation which will be difficult to replicate, even with very skilled Imagineers working on it (and I unfortunately don't have faith in today's folks as much as those from the era when Splash was created).

PatF has some decent song but they are not IMHO likely to fit a ride experience anywhere near as well as those in Splash. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but I think it will feel like most of Disney's other recent offerings were it's just music playing where you happen to be traveling in your ride and not feeling as well "synched" or integral to the experience.

 

[Hawkeye_2018]

The splash mnt music is the best thing about the ride. Hopefully they can put it to use elsewhere

 

[Model3 McQueen]

You can Google and find any of the songs from Song of the South in a matter of seconds.

That's not my point. These are all assumptions, but I don't think very many people would pull up the soundtrack to SotS, whereas plenty of people have heard the songs from PatF, and then probably brought them up on YouTube again.

 

[UNCgolf]

Opinions vary, but I find the music in Splash to be particularly strong - even among the pantheon of great ride music at Disney - and executed particularly well with the scenes and actions in the ride. I think it is quite a "lightening in a bottle" situation which will be difficult to replicate, even with very skilled Imagineers working on it (and I unfortunately don't have faith in today's folks as much as those from the era when Splash was created).

PatF has some decent song but they are not IMHO likely to fit a ride experience anywhere near as well as those in Splash. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but I think it will feel like most of Disney's other recent offerings were it's just music playing where you happen to be traveling in your ride and not feeling as well "synched" or integral to the experience.

I agree with that -- my issue was the "IP been there done that" comment. That's true for the Splash music too; it wasn't about the overall quality of the songs (as I said, I personally think Zip-a-dee-doo-dah is much better than anything in PatF). Was just a strange way to phrase the complaint.

 

[FigmentFan82]

if this just never ended up happening, do you think anyone would ever bring it up?