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

[neo999955]

. There's little to no financial upside here. Companies don't spend a lot of money on things with little to no financial upside. I personally am expecting a very long and dark scene that requires little to no theming (other than some "mist" and lights) to reduce the burden. Splash Mountain is simply too long and too complicated of an attraction to be done correctly under these circumstances.

Splash is one of their most beloved and popular rides. They are aware of the pushback and I'm sure they know how important it is to get this right. People may dislike new decisions like Guardians in EPCOT, but even with the removed AA the investment is massive most people love the end product. I would be surprised if this retheme wasn't given top-notch effort and sufficient budget (not that it won't be cut down, I'm sure there's a good reason they haven't shown anything inside so we don't see too many of those cuts).

I agree with point made earlier that Disney imagineers are not trying to make bad rides and I think Disney has launched really stunning premier rides the past five years (putting aside controversial theme placement) - FoP, M&MRR, RoTR and Guardians. I think this will be given that amount of attention and love. This will basically be the only major ride (re-)opening in all of 2024 in the four parks and might have to tide marketing over until new lands/rides are ready starting in 2025 or 2026. I have high hopes.

 

[fgmnt]

- Get a more current intellectual property into the park for the magic of modern corporate synergy
- The closest thing we get to creativity out of the front office in Burbank, where they market an old ride as a new ride (something that Bob C. has loved doing despite it not having any realized benefit)
- Redesign the show of the ride to permanently lessen the upkeep the current show demands since they clearly are uninterested in meeting that mark

These are all more important to the change in this attraction for cueball & co. than any public social pressure.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

This feels like one of those projects where they're trying to please everyone and will utimately end up pleasing no one because of it. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Disstevefan1]

More merchandise sales is what is going to make the project more money than the theme that currently sits. That is the reason the change is happening. Otherwise, any theme other than a major princess merch draw under utilized would have worked.

Selling more merch may be a happy side effect just like when they announced the change, Ebay re sellers purchasing massive amounts of Splash Mountain merch.

Sure, they will sell more merch when they retheme Splash, mostly because its new different merch. A happy side effect.

You know what sells merch at WDW? Just putting it on the shelf. The merch sells itself by just being there.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

With them committing to a post-PatF timeline, I think it doesn't look good for Dr. Facilier. Especially if they haven't announced Keith David, and Jim Cummings confirmed he's not coming back. The only way I could see Facilier coming back at this point would be in Shadow form, if they work in the shadow monsters from the film. I think we could see a Facilier shadow mixed in, but even that seems less likely as they seem to be moving away from the voodoo elements of the movie. Plus I don't think the shadows would work without the Shadow Man puppeting them.

I believe it's plausible that Facilier could make an appearance "from the other side" since that is where he currently resides even in a non speaking role with music only. Who knows but I'm not writing him off just yet.

 

[retr0gate]

I attended the D23 Expo where Imagineers that are working on this project were stationed around the model in the parks exhibit answering questions. Multiple Imagineers I spoke to told me they would NOT be repurposing the America Sings animatronics. Any of them. Haven't seen this discussed much so I'm not sure if anybody else inquired about it, but I was pretty surprised to hear. There will still be "critters," one of which they've already previewed, but these will be new and not reskins of pre-existing characters.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I attended the D23 Expo where Imagineers that are working on this project were stationed around the model in the parks exhibit answering questions. Multiple Imagineers I spoke to told me they would NOT be repurposing the America Sings animatronics. Any of them. Haven't seen this discussed much so I'm not sure if anybody else inquired about it, but I was pretty surprised to hear. There will still be "critters," one of which they've already previewed, but these will be new and not reskins of pre-existing characters.

We will be lucky if we get a fraction of the 77 animatronics that is there now.
We all know, they will want to reduce costs of maintenance, therefore there will be far fewer animatronics.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I attended the D23 Expo where Imagineers that are working on this project were stationed around the model in the parks exhibit answering questions. Multiple Imagineers I spoke to told me they would NOT be repurposing the America Sings animatronics. Any of them. Haven't seen this discussed much so I'm not sure if anybody else inquired about it, but I was pretty surprised to hear. There will still be "critters," one of which they've already previewed, but these will be new and not reskins of pre-existing characters.

Great. So we will have 10 AAs with those weird Frozen Ever After faces.

 

[celluloid]

Selling more merch may be a happy side effect just like when they announced the change, Ebay re sellers purchasing massive amounts of Splash Mountain merch.

Sure, they will sell more merch when they retheme Splash, mostly because its new different merch. A happy side effect.

You know what sells merch at WDW? Just putting it on the shelf. The merch sells itself by just being there.

Your last point is not true in terms of how much sells. This is why theme parks exist with their efforts and gift shops at the exit of every ride. People are emotional creatures. When they are on a seretonin influence kick they buy more merch. If so, we would just have a mall instead of a theme park, and as much as the Bobs try to run things like that, catalysts are what works. Figment does not sell merch because of the current attraction. Figment sells as much merch as he still does because people remember the great attraction and character he once was.

 

[phillip9698]

Selling more merch may be a happy side effect just like when they announced the change, Ebay re sellers purchasing massive amounts of Splash Mountain merch.

Sure, they will sell more merch when they retheme Splash, mostly because its new different merch. A happy side effect.

You know what sells merch at WDW? Just putting it on the shelf. The merch sells itself by just being there.

Disney is using that as a way to get the Princess and The Frog IP into the parks at a reduced cost.

And merch definitely doesnt sell itself, plenty of ways to get that stuff at a discount once Disney starts unloading the duds. Those god awful, tacky, mens button up shirts and womens totes fill the outlets.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Great. So we will have 10 AAs with those weird Frozen Ever After faces.

10? I love your optimism.

 

[UNCgolf]

Great. So we will have 10 AAs with those weird Frozen Ever After faces.

I hate those projection faces. Especially when you compare them to what they did with BatB in Tokyo.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Since we're in the WDW section of the forums, may I remind everyone that, AFAIK, the AAs in MK's Splash Mountain aren't from America Sings. Those AAs went into DL's Splash Mountain (and two became droids elsewhere).

Also, those original America Sings AAs are now close to 50 years old. I doubt many of them have any of their original parts. Ships of Theseus and all that. And the ones in MK's Splash Mountain are 30 years old.

I find nostalgic attachment to those specific limited-movement animatronic skeletons to be a bit odd. "We got to keep them and reskin them!!" Why? Why wouldn't we hope for newer, better AAs?

 

[Animaniac93-98]

There is VERY MINIMAL public pressure to change that ride. Minuscule. Overwhelming majority of people either dont know about the controversy, dont care, or can dissociate the ride from the movie.

Having been on Splash at both Disneyland and WDW multiple times since the announcement, this would be the most accurate description of the situation. No one visiting the park and lining up to ride this (still open) attraction cares.

This is not an example of public pressure, but internal pressure from a select group of people within the company who have the authority/attention to make things happen. If only a million other things about the parks and company had such privilege.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Since we're in the WDW section of the forums, may I remind everyone that, AFAIK, the AAs in MK's Splash Mountain aren't from America Sings. Those AAs went into DL's Splash Mountain (and two became droids elsewhere).

Also, those original America Sings AAs are now close to 50 years old. I doubt many of them have any of their original parts. Ships of Theseus and all that. And the ones in MK's Splash Mountain are 30 years old.

I find nostalgic attachment to those specific limited-movement animatronic skeletons to be a bit odd. "We got to keep them and reskin them!!" Why? Why wouldn't we hope for newer, better AAs?

We will be getting new AAs.

They are going to rip out the 77 original AAs and replace them with three new AAs and a bunch of screens

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I hate those projection faces. Especially when you compare them to what they did with BatB in Tokyo.

I wonder if we're now past this phase of WDI? Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Frozen Ever After opened two years apart and were the initial showcase of this style of AA*. 5 years later Tokyo ditches the concept completely for both BatB and their Frozen ride. I'm hoping WDI has learned that projections are not a replacement for actual faces.

Buzz Lightyear tried this way back in 1998, but it was kind of a one-off example for a long time.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Oh I absolutely expect it to be a worse ride than what exists now, and probably significantly worse -- it would be hard not to be, honestly, considering Splash Mountain is one of the best rides at Disney.

I just think it's silly to insinuate Disney actually doesn't want to make it better (or at least equal). They're not going out thinking, "let's see how we can make this attraction worse!"

Agreed, BUT, what would satisfy and impress the likes of a Tony Baxter or Joe Rhode and these new imagineers combined with Chappie and Josh’s satisfaction I’m afraid are two totally different sets of standards.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Since we're in the WDW section of the forums, may I remind everyone that, AFAIK, the AAs in MK's Splash Mountain aren't from America Sings. Those AAs went into DL's Splash Mountain (and two became droids elsewhere).

Also, those original America Sings AAs are now close to 50 years old. I doubt many of them have any of their original parts. Ships of Theseus and all that. And the ones in MK's Splash Mountain are 30 years old.

I find nostalgic attachment to those specific limited-movement animatronic skeletons to be a bit odd. "We got to keep them and reskin them!!" Why? Why wouldn't we hope for newer, better AAs?

My concern is that, with the cost of AAs and the budget of this ride, we won’t end up with many.

Something like RotR. It’s a great ride, but not an AA tour de force like Splash (or in the way it was hyped).

 

[montyz81]

I had a thought; It would be interesting to see if ridership priority for this ride goes down once the retheme is done. To me that would be the best indicator to whether or not Corporate made the right decision to return this ride.
I am not sure if or how that could be tracked, but it would really be interesting to see.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I had a thought; It would be interesting to see if ridership priority for this ride goes down once the retheme is done. To me that would be the best indicator to whether or not Corporate made the right decision to return this ride.
I am not sure if or how that could be tracked, but it would really be interesting to see.

It will be new and in far better shape than Splash has been in for some time, so that’s a hard comparison to make. I would expect it to have very long lines.

Splash has been in a deplorable state for years. It’s a real pity that this is how it ends. The least they could have done was a proper refurb before its final year. Instead, half of the leaves were painted and its condition has deteriorated further this year. Ugh.