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

[Hotamber]

I think the question will be why is this princess in the Frontierland bayou by the railroad tracks away from all the other ones by the castle. I see this redo causing more issues then it solves. Zootopia or American Legands would have had fit better and actually sent a better message. WDI is going against their own branding by dropping the mountain part of the name. I guess the princesses will be in all lands at Magic Kingdom now. Space mountain is blue cannot wait for Elsas frozen space adventure. Even Universal keeps their minions in a row and they don't even have lands. Sad that laziness and greed are killing Walt's original layout of different lands

 

[MisterPenguin]

I think the question will be why is this princess in the Frontierland bayou by the railroad tracks away from all the other ones by the castle. I see this redo causing more issues then it solves. Zootopia or American Legands would have had fit better and actually sent a better message. WDI is going against their own branding by dropping the mountain part of the name. I guess the princesses will be in all lands at Magic Kingdom now. Space mountain is blue cannot wait for Elsas frozen space adventure. Even Universal keeps their minions in a row and they don't even have lands. Sad that laziness and greed are killing Walt's original layout of different lands

The Bayou setting fits very well in DL, not so much in MK.

But, as has been mentioned many times in this thread in just the past few days and weeks, that the Liberty Square to Frontierland area is already a thematic mess in which geographic and chronological themes are ignored.

Splash in WDW had been somewhat visually Old-Westified, even though the stories and characters remain Deep South. So, Splash itself wasn't a good fit for it's placement.

In fact, Frontierland regularly confuses Old South with Wild West. The Old South's timeframe as presented in the MK had not been "the frontier" for over a hundred years. And a Country Bear Jamboree singing songs from the mid-20th century is neither Old South nor Frontier.

Also, not all Princesses have to be confined to Fantasyland as if it were an internment camp. Jasmine fits in just fine in Adventureland.

 

[Hotamber]

My point is in 10 years from now no one is going to question why all the non white princesses are not in Fantasyland. Seems like trying to solve one issue will cause worse ones that will be harder for the company to justify in the future. Does not seem like they looked at the bigger picture especially with what the lands represent and how people perceive living by a castle vs a railroad

 

[harryk]

I don't believe that I've ever seen a mountain in a bayou - so why not just build

Tiana's Bayou Adventure​

somewhere else in the Magic Kingdom. Seems more realistic to me. That way the keep a 'ride' going and add another. Or is there some other reason that they want to eliminate a ride that is based upon Song of the South ???

 

[Figgy1]

The original announcement of the Splash Mountain to Princess and the Frog thread is now available in the 'Politics and Social Issues' forum at https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/splash-mountain-re-theme-announced.965846/unread

In the absence of many specific details on the project and due to its polarizing nature, the original thread is mostly a political/social debate, which is best served in the Politics/Social section of the forum. In its original location in News & Rumors it became impossible to moderate within the no-political discussion rule that we have in place (see Terms and rules).

This thread will serve as the ongoing thread for discussion of the attraction retheme. ANY political/social commentary in this thread will be deleted and the poster will be banned from taking any further part.

Here is the original announcement news article which contains concept art and all of the released information at this point.

Splash Mountain to be rethemed to The Princess and the Frog

The massively popular Magic Kingdom ride loosely based on Song of the South will be rethemed.

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[maemae74]

I can't believe there are so many opinions on this subject!! Everything in the darn park is make believe why can't we all just pretend that this fits perfectly in Splash's spot and enjoy the new ride. So much energy going into being ed about a make believe princess evicting some make believe animals from their home .

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

I can't believe there are so many opinions on this subject!! Everything in the darn park is make believe why can't we all just pretend that this fits perfectly in Splash's spot and enjoy the new ride. So much energy going into being ****ed about a make believe princess evicting some make believe animals from their home .

 

[drizgirl]

I can't believe there are so many opinions on this subject!! Everything in the darn park is make believe why can't we all just pretend that this fits perfectly in Splash's spot and enjoy the new ride. So much energy going into being ****ed about a make believe princess evicting some make believe animals from their home .

Probably has something to do with the fact that Disney cared about this sort of thing for so long.

 

[JoeCamel]

I can't believe there are so many opinions on this subject!! Everything in the darn park is make believe why can't we all just pretend that this fits perfectly in Splash's spot and enjoy the new ride. So much energy going into being ****ed about a make believe princess evicting some make believe animals from their home .

Probably has something to do with the fact that Disney cared about this sort of thing for so long.

They built a business on the back of theme, invented the standard and to just lump it together and say its made up so why care discounts all the people that worked their whole careers to make sure everything you see works together to create an experience. To the op, things are in their place because they were designed with great thought and effort to be that way. The lot today takes a dump on all that hard work.

 

[montyz81]

Oh its sarcasm. Guess you havent seen any of my old posts….

Sorry, I haven't. I'll definitely pay attention from now on. I'm glad it was sarcasm

 

[Touchdown]

In our lifetimes a lot of things Disney are going to go public domain, starting with Mickey in 2024 (although I suspect Disney will be able to retain his trademark as well as the fab 5 due to the “intresinically linked to the company clause” movie characters start falling out 10 years after that, and perhaps with the exception of Tink they are going to have a hard time blocking those. The world is about to change, Disney fought tooth and nail to extend trademarks in the past but there is a big public resistance to do so again.

 

[EagleScout610]

I don't believe that I've ever seen a mountain in a bayou - so why not just build

Tiana's Bayou Adventure​

somewhere else in the Magic Kingdom. Seems more realistic to me. That way the keep a 'ride' going and add another. Or is there some other reason that they want to eliminate a ride that is based upon Song of the South ???

I don't think anyone in the mainstream was publicly saying the issue was a lack of a Tiana ride (If they were I missed it), the issue was the ride being connected to Song Of the South.

 

[eliza61nyc]

I can't believe there are so many opinions on this subject!! Everything in the darn park is make believe why can't we all just pretend that this fits perfectly in Splash's spot and enjoy the new ride. So much energy going into being ****ed about a make believe princess evicting some make believe animals from their home .

lol, I think in reality it's only important to a small percentage of visitors. remember many of the folks here grew up with disney in general playing a big part of their childhood. They watched Wonderful world of disney sunday nights after dinner, Disney vacations were part of their growing up.
I remember the 500+ page thread on the new creperie in France and how evil Disney was because it didn't look like an actually creperie in France.
I have found over the years that the average Joe doesn't really give a flip about this redo.

 

[Haymarket2008]

I think the question will be why is this princess in the Frontierland bayou by the railroad tracks away from all the other ones by the castle. I see this redo causing more issues then it solves. Zootopia or American Legands would have had fit better and actually sent a better message. WDI is going against their own branding by dropping the mountain part of the name. I guess the princesses will be in all lands at Magic Kingdom now. Space mountain is blue cannot wait for Elsas frozen space adventure. Even Universal keeps their minions in a row and they don't even have lands. Sad that laziness and greed are killing Walt's original layout of different lands

Laziness = putting Tiana in Frontierland? I agree. But Zootopia is a “better” fit? That would be infinitely more egregious. Not even in the same universe.

 

[ppete1975]

I don't believe that I've ever seen a mountain in a bayou - so why not just build

Tiana's Bayou Adventure​

somewhere else in the Magic Kingdom. Seems more realistic to me. That way the keep a 'ride' going and add another. Or is there some other reason that they want to eliminate a ride that is based upon Song of the South ???

First was to remove any thing that could be tied to song of the south. Second was that lots of groups wanted song of the south not only replaced but replaced by Tiana. That was a huge thing for years. And disney for the publicity did it. Oddly one of the first times they did what some fans wanted lol. What they should have done, especially with the crowds and universal was...

• create a brer rabbit disney plus show that had nothing to do with song of the south and separate those characters from song of the south (very unlikely this would ever happened)
• Retheme splash to something else.. though pocahontas would have fit well, it will have the same issue eventually if not already. But even a donald duck ride with a western theme and original story would have worked.. or tied it into the story of big thunder
• Then build tiana in a different area as a new ride

the parks need new rides not just retheming.. If splash was an issue thats fine you can retheme.. but dont retheme and not add. Tiana should have been a new custom build with a restaurant, maybe blue bayou style where the restaurant is part of the ride.

 

[WDW Pro]

Because there would still be the problem of a Song of the South connected ride.

This is all about getting rid of all references to Song of the South. So... what do you put in its place?

The replacement had better be marvelous. Because Tokyo and the Oriental Land Company are always going to have Splash Mountain in its original form, working perfectly, shining a light on whatever Disney comes up with. In the words of the Imagineers themselves, this " had better be outstanding.

 

[Tha Realest]

I like all the people suggesting Disney play hardball against the OLC.

WDI’s been copying OLC’s homework for the last decade. No way they spite that golden goose.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

The replacement had better be marvelous. Because Tokyo and the Oriental Land Company are always going to have Splash Mountain in its original form, working perfectly, shining a light on whatever Disney comes up with. In the words of the Imagineers themselves, this had better be outstanding.

that didn't answer the penguins question.
What do you put in its place ?

 

[Figgy1]

The replacement had better be marvelous. Because Tokyo and the Oriental Land Company are always going to have Splash Mountain in its original form, working perfectly, shining a light on whatever Disney comes up with. In the words of the Imagineers themselves, this had better be outstanding.

What do you mean by the last sentence?

that didn't answer the penguins question.
What do you put in its place ?

^^^This

 

[Kirby86]

Because there would still be the problem of a Song of the South connected ride.

This is all about getting rid of all references to Song of the South. So... what do you put in its place?

Since keeping the current theme is out of the question Princess and the frog works for Disney Land. As for Disney World I will always say a Muppet ride could work. They could fit in a Frontierland setting.