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

[celluloid]

Let's be honest, you can make a great or bad attraction on anything. It is its own medium. We know nothing based on one piece of concept art that is more of a promo then a model for designers to go by. Galaxy's Edge had plenty of hit to it with Rise of the Reistence but that is partially because things before it have been considered fun but not great. The theme park world in general has been resting on its laurels and theming coasters/putting them in the dark outside of overlays. This is technically an overlay, so the budget already provides things to be good, but I am with others when if you go by recent records, it is hard to give them a full benefit of the doubt.
You can be excited for the theme and think of the potential, but there is no reason to say the execution is automatically good because of the material.

 

[WondersOfLife]

They are probably going to replace the animatronics with those lousy new ones with projections. Like they have on "Frozen Ever After", "7 Dwarves" and "Mickey's Runaway Railway". I can't stand those versions, they just look cheap and unrealistic.

If not those ones than they'll just have 1 animatronic that breaks down all the time (Everest and Nav'i River).

Yes that's my biggest fear.

 

[Surferboy567]

Let's be honest, you can make a great or bad attraction on anything. It is its own medium. We know nothing based on one piece of concept art that is more of a promo then a model for designers to go by.
You can be excited for the theme and think of the potential, but there is no reason to say the execution is automatically good because of the material.

That isn’t what we are saying though. We are saying that given the cultural impact of the ride it will likely be done right. The theme being a decent one is also going along with the budget idea.

 

[celluloid]

That isn’t what we are saying though. We are saying that given the cultural impact of the ride it will likely be done right. The theme being a decent one is also going along with the budget idea.

I undersand that, but I would specify what you mean cultural impact vs risk. Cultural impact of replacing Splash? I could understand the pressure. Cultural impact of Princess and the Frog and the Social Climate now chiming in and Disney acting like this was a major reason(which comes and wanes) I doubt it. The princess revenue is what they are going for. It could be good enough because it has a thrill and rockwork. The theme will sell the gift shop merch. That is what they care about. Hopefully artistic value makes it in, but there is no reason to give benefit of the doubt just because of cultural impact.

 

[monothingie]

Clearly you’re not understanding or ignoring what I’m saying.

Also it’s laughable to say SWGE was on the cheap even if you aren’t happy with the final results.

Third attraction, roaming droids, interactive elements, TS restaurant. Cut because they were not needed and/or too expensive.

Disney has cut corners on virtually everything they've done recently. Since they continue to get fawning social media coverage it's never really exposed. They could tear all the AAs out of Splash and reskin it with nothing but screens and still get glorious reviews by social media idiots.

 

[celluloid]

I would also point to Star Tours.
Although it does not have the change to be more politically pressure backing it(even though again, that is not the major reason this IP factor is happening) it changed to become more relevant to the current Star Tours on something that was not new for its time.
It was an improvement in the experience, but was it drastically so? It is the same idea with updated film that had a random feature marketed that never really took off for rerideability the way they figured it might. At the end of the day you had an updated simulator, which is good, but in many ways they knew they could not fail because of the IP backing it had. The new Star Tours was not the groundbreaking popularity the orignal was in the late 80s. It would take nearly a decade until we had some groundbreaking game changing or at least maintaining Disney theme park level star wars attraction again.

Mama Odie's Treehouse and a soundtrack inspired journey with those drops is all Disney knows that is needed to satisfy the princess purchases at the end of the ride which sells more than Splash merch. They just need a healthy return on investment. The ride system has already done that since 1989.

 

[UpAllNight]

I’m certain this will be a good ride, there’s too many eyes on it for it not to be top drawer.

I’ve felt deflated with Disney since the announcement however, as I feel Splash Mountain was one of those sacred attractions that I’d be going on 20 years down the line. Let’s hope that this ride smashes it out the park (like imo they did with Guardians at DCA).

I just wish either DL or WDW was changing, and not both. As much as I love Guardians mission breakout, I appreciate it more knowing I can ride ToT at the studios. Disneylands by location would have been perfect for this change, but alas we’re here, so let’s hope they throw everything at it. I feel like my love for Disney hangs on it, I love Splash THAT much.

I'm not concerned with a lack of AA’s the showrooms are too big to fill them with screens.

 

[disneygeek90]

Doubt it, the days of AA heavy attraction at the Disney Parks are over (at least in the US). The Sinbad ride at Tokyo was the most recent Disney attraction with a huge amount of AAs.


There is some hope with the upcoming BATB ride at Tokyo (mainly from preview footage)

However since we're not in Tokyo, expect the AAs to be around the quality of The Little Mermaid ride.

The Belle AA's are beautiful.

 

[EagleScout610]

Now that I've had some time to think about it, I actually sorta welcome the change. Let's face it: No ride has an infinite shelf life (at least at Disney) and when I was there in 2016, 99% of people had no clue what Splash was based on [Not going down that road]. I'd honestly rather take my kids in the future and have something exciting [Don't get me wrong, I love Splash in its current state] that they'll enjoy rather than a 50 year old Splash that not only keeps the controversy, but for all we know could be completely neglected ala Carousel of Progress. Pick your poison at some point.

In the words of Brer Rabbit, Time to be moving along

 

[UNCgolf]

I just want to know what kind of budget they're getting. I also want to know if it's going to become a ride based almost entirely on screens and projections, but I don't think I even need to wait for an answer on that (and one won't be forthcoming for a long time anyways).

 

[Surferboy567]

I don’t support all projections but this IP lends itself very well to projections. I’d be ok with lots of projections as long as a decent amount of AA’s are still used.

 

[Bleed0range]

Doubt it, the days of AA heavy attraction at the Disney Parks are over (at least in the US). The Sinbad ride at Tokyo was the most recent Disney attraction with a huge amount of AAs.


There is some hope with the upcoming BATB ride at Tokyo (mainly from preview footage)

However since we're not in Tokyo, expect the AAs to be around the quality of The Little Mermaid ride.

These are the type of AAs I am hoping for. But I’m not holding my breath.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Disney's M.O. has always been promise big and gut the budget later. If they could do SWGE on the cheap, then there's no reason to think they would not do the same here.

Disney has not cut a budget after the fact in over a decade. The items that get cut between Feasibility and opening are not cut because the budget was reduced but to make money available for other items that are costing more.

 

[BrianLo]

Doubt it, the days of AA heavy attraction at the Disney Parks are over (at least in the US). The Sinbad ride at Tokyo was the most recent Disney attraction with a huge amount of AAs.


There is some hope with the upcoming BATB ride at Tokyo (mainly from preview footage)

However since we're not in Tokyo, expect the AAs to be around the quality of The Little Mermaid ride.

I wouldn't think so. That ride is kind of ancient now in terms of WDI's designer lifecycle. It's almost a decade old and was designed well before that. We've seen ?30+ newer designed rides out of WDI since then with some form of AA element. None have re-used the styling of Little Mermaid.

Far more likely to expect the Frozen Ever After Treatment OR what we've seen glimpses of from Tokyo even.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I actually assume they will follow the AA design from Tokyo’s BatB attraction. It would work perfectly.

 

[Bleed0range]

I actually assume they will follow the AA design from Tokyo’s BatB attraction. It would work perfectly.

This combined with some advanced lighting effects and projection effects could make this one of the best night attractions.

 

[_caleb]

The Belle AA's are beautiful.

*Except the chair one, in which she stares into your soul while smiling menacingly

 

[The March Hare]

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

This is best case scenario, IMO. Great ideas, thanks for sharing.

 

[fradz]

My opinion is that, I absolutely love the original ride. However, litteraly HOURS before the announcement, I was watching the PATF movie and I thought "well, if they ever have to retheme Splash, that'd work great". I'm sure the re-theme will work great. Will I miss the original? Absolutely. But it is understandable as to why the company is making this move.

 

[Surferboy567]

This is best case scenario, IMO. Great ideas, thanks for sharing.

Thanks!