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

[SailorMercury]

I'm sure there were discussions and pitches for a change to this theme ahead of time. Since the announcement artwork looks way to good to be thrown together quickly. But I don't think they had the go ahead for any real planning until recently.

Bob Iger has wanted the thing gone forever. No one else did. Whenever Twitter was championing for it’s removal, Iger used that to get his way.

 

[wdwmagic]

I just wish he world could see this ride the way my 3 year old does ( and I still do).. a story about a rabbit whose love for adventure gets him in trouble with a bear and fox.

I still think most do.

 

[monothingie]

I just wish he world could see this ride the way my 3 year old does ( and I still do).. a story about a rabbit whose love for adventure gets him in trouble with a bear and fox.

 

[Kirby86]

Bob Iger has wanted the thing gone forever. No one else did. Whenever Twitter was championing for it’s removal, Iger used that to get his way.

Then Chapek said well if you want me to retheme two popular rides we gotta get the money somewhere and he put Black Widow on Disney+ to spite Iger.

 

[MrPromey]

I could make the very same argument regarding an Inside Out attraction for example. I personally really enjoyed the film, music, & characters myself and honestly think it’d be fun to see a multimedia show (a theatre show with a mixture of animatronics, spfx, and screens. (Think something along the lines of Cranium Command & Muppet*Vision 3D) but absolutely ‘despise’, no, ‘LOATHE’ the idea of it being a retheme of Journey Into Imagination (the first 2 attempts at a film IP retheme have sucked. So why the heck would they go that direction a third time? Just ludicrous..). The original was a beloved timeless classic that nearly ‘everyone’ enjoyed. So it seems really stupid they wouldn’t try to restore back its former glory instead with enhanced spfx & tech. But yeah.

The original Journey was one of my all time favorite attractions but we are never getting that back.

They will either close this and it will sit empty or just as a gift shop and movie theater or they will retrofit something else, yet again, into the space, maybe continuing to use the partial existing ride system or maybe not.

 

[Kirby86]

You guys get on me for saying modern Imagineering is inferior (with some exceptions) while admitting that they can’t build lengthy rides nowadays and excusing it. Don’t expect me to have faith in them ruining my favorite attraction when you yourselves don’t even trust them.

I don't think it's they can't build longer attractions rather they are choosing shorter attraction times. If you optimistic it's because they want to get as many people on as possible. However if you're Cynical it's because the more time you're on rides the less money you're spending. I lean towards the latter.

 

[DisneyDodo]

I don't think it's they can't build longer attractions rather they are choosing shorter attraction times. If you optimistic it's because they want to get as many people on as possible. However if you're Cynical it's because the more time you're on rides the less money you're spending. I lean towards the latter.

I think it's neither - longer rides don't mean less capacity and the amount of time people spend on rides is negligible compared to the amount of time they spend in line. The reason IMO is that longer rides cost more to build - more track, more themed elements, bigger show building etc. - but the extra length doesn't really do much to attract more guests. People may wish 7DMT were longer, but I doubt WDW attendance would be noticeably higher if it were twice as long. People will show up for Tron regardless of how long it is, so why spend extra money to make it longer?

 

[ppete1975]

honestly the retheme for splash should have been pocahontas.. its a no brainer.. But that wouldnt have helped the PR dept (call it what you will, but the choice of princess was intentional regardless if the switch makes sense). Change the ride vehicles to canoes.. and youre well on your way. BUT how long will pocahontas be PC? And is the movie popular enough to warrant it. This was a knee jerk publicity move that i think will be regretted if for no other reason, money that should have been spent elsewhere for more effect.

btw ive never seen pocahontas... just looking at the ride dynamics and potential fits.

 

[cookiee_munster]

honestly the retheme for splash should have been pocahontas.. its a no brainer.. But that wouldnt have helped the PR dept (call it what you will, but the choice of princess was intentional regardless if the switch makes sense). Change the ride vehicles to canoes.. and youre well on your way. BUT how long will pocahontas be PC? And is the movie popular enough to warrant it. This was a knee jerk publicity move that i think will be regretted if for no other reason, money that should have been spent elsewhere for more effect.

btw ive never seen pocahontas... just looking at the ride dynamics and potential fits.

I think re-theming it to Pocahontas would be even more problematic. The "Disney" story of Pocahontas takes it into the same grey area that Song of The South's own controversial elements are criticised for. it would be like going one step forward and two steps back.

What they really should do is just not try to shoe horn an I.P. into it and just bring the classic characters into it like mickey and minnie etc and just add a bit of whimsy here and there. There's no real cohesive story to Splash, other than a smattering of critters and brer bear and brer fox being outfooled by brer rabbit.

 

[LittleBuford]

honestly the retheme for splash should have been pocahontas.. its a no brainer..

I'm afraid I don't see why the fit is so obvious. Could you explain?

 

[seabreezept813]

I still think most do.

I’m an English teacher and I find it hard to argue there’s any allegory to it, it’s much more a fable to teach about not putting your foot in your mouth or straying too far from safety. Disney really did a doozy locking the SotS movie away. With context, it could have survived like any other movie you see on TCM as a product of its time that nowadays would and should do better.

 

[RSoxNo1]

So you’re excusing modern Disney’s inability to create lengthy attractions? You have to ruin another ride to get a “new” lengthy attraction because you don’t trust Disney enough to make a new one from scratch?

Yes.

I think that if they said they were replacing Splash Mountain with a Princess and the Frog attraction and they were demolishing the mountain, I would have less faith in the project.

 

[LittleBuford]

With context, it could have survived like any other movie you see on TCM as a product of its time that nowadays would and should do better.

I very much doubt it, for two reasons:

1. It's a pretty bad movie, except for the animated sequences.

2. It's Disney, and therefore expected to be suitable for children.

These conditions make the film far more difficult to redeem than, say, Gone with the Wind, which is a critically acclaimed movie primarily aimed at adult audiences.

 

[LittleBuford]

I still think most do.

I agree, but I also think it's worth listening to those who feel differently.

 

[deWild]

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.

Add New Orleans Square as a land from the Adventureland corridor (parade start/finish) up to Splash. They can worry about theming continuity from the rest of Frontierland to BTMRR later, when Tom Sawyer’s Island is inevitably rethemed.

 

[sup]

This really sucks frog water. Princess T. her frog and New Orleans have nothing to do with frontier land. It is so sad the magic and fun is being taken away. Why didn't they build it in America in Epcot. Really won't be the same without Zippidy Do Dah.

 

[J4546]

ROTR and MMRR are both pretty long rides and they are new

 

[networkpro]

This really sucks frog water. Princess T. her frog and New Orleans have nothing to do with frontier land. It is so sad the magic and fun is being taken away. Why didn't they build it in America in Epcot. Really won't be the same without Zippidy Do Dah.

Thats a great example of why the attempts to clone attractions from one park to another fail so miserably. Disneyland (the concrete jungle) has Splash Mountain located in Critter Country just beyond New Orleans Square. What fits thematically for one, doesn't for others with a different distribution of rides in lands.

 

[DisneyDodo]

ROTR and MMRR are both pretty long rides and they are new

Both solid length, but MMRR is shorter than the ride it replaced, and both are shorter than Splash (when considering only the actual ride portion of RotR).

Maybe @MisterPenguin or someone has a spreadsheet with data on this, but I'm fairly confident that on average, ride length has gone down significantly over the past decade or so.

 

[UNCgolf]

ROTR and MMRR are both pretty long rides and they are new

MMRR is less than 5 minutes long. If you count the preshow it adds some time (and I think the preshow is an important part of the attraction), but Disney has no issues skipping it. The actual ride length isn't close to the old EPCOT classics or other rides like Pirates of the Caribbean.

I think Rise is also only around 5 minutes in terms of the actual ride -- the preshow is an integral part of the experience (even moreso than MMRR), but again, Disney apparently thinks it's fine to skip. The full intended experience is much longer than MMRR, though.

With that said, Disney did build much shorter dark rides too -- the Fantasyland ones are generally 3-4 minutes long.