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News Splash Mountain retheme to Princess and the Frog - Tiana's Bayou Adventure
- Thread starter wdwmagic
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VJ
Well-Known Member
there are indeed exceptions to that rule!
Smiley/OCD
Well-Known Member
Reread your posts…you’re implying that the only reason Tony Baxter created SM is because there were surplus AA’s from America Sings. I would think the extra AA’s were just an added bonus saving TWDC money. From every interview I’ve seen with Tony, he was stuck in a California traffic jam, and came up with the idea of an attraction based on SotS. I do not remember if the ride idea was first or the theme. I’d have to go search for those interviews again.
JohnD
Well-Known Member
Is he still involved in the project? Or maybe because he came up with the idea for Splash Mountain from SoTS, he's a non-starter imagineer.
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
Of course we'd not have had the shoe-horned in POTC if the WRE had been built. But that too would have its problems with diversity nowdays too....
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
I was told he was significantly involved in Tiana.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
The plan to build a log flume predated the theme. The availability of the America Sings animatronics was a major factor in the choice of theme.
Baxter remembers being stuck in rush hour traffic on the way to Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale when he first conceived the idea of reusing dozens of animatronic creatures from the aging America Sings! attraction that had been highlighted during the nation’s Bicentennial inside the former Carousel of Progress building but had since become tired and less popular.
“People had kind of had enough of it,” Baxter said. “But there were something like 90 creatures in there that were beautifully designed.”
He recalled that Dick Nunis, then-president of Walt Disney Attractions, wanted to build a flume ride that would follow up on the huge success of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Baxter’s idea, to reuse animated characters and stories from Song of the South worked because it was Southern themed, matching the adjacent New Orleans Square, also provided the flume ride that Nunis wanted.
“By the time I got to work, I had a story we could work around,” Baxter recalled. “I was as giddy as a little kid.”
The team, including project manager Bruce Gordon and show designer John Stone, set to work immediately on the idea, which would take four years to come to fruition.
Baxter remembers successfully pitching the ride to Michael Eisner — and his 14-year-son Breck — only a few days after Eisner took over the reins of the Walt Disney Company.
Disneyland’s Splash Mountain marks 30 wet years on Wednesday, July 17
Disney Imagineer Tony Baxter says the idea for the plume ride came to him while he was stuck in rush-hour traffic.
www.ocregister.com
Smiley/OCD
Well-Known Member
He is named on the project as a figurehead solely to bridge the gap between his SM and Tiana…that’s fine if that’s what he wants his last Disney legacy to be. I’m sure he’s thinking this will keep him in TWDC’s good graces as he sails off into his next adventure or retirement. This is just MY opinion that if the new attraction doesn’t hit a home run (or even a double), he’s going to feel REALLY let down.
TalkToEthan
Well-Known Member
You mean that Navi sitting Indian style bongoing? What a boring thing to do. Might as well be stringing beads or crushing tree nuts with a mortar and pestle. Weak effort.
Throw a rock
Use a bow and arrow
Whack a forest animal with a club
Hold up a spear over the head like a Star Wars sandman in a threatening posture.
aladdin2007
Well-Known Member
No matter how this turns out, without some of the classic memorable songs from the movie this will be an epic fail. It sounds like nothing more than a disneyplus/blue focus attraction, especially after reading that pr statement mess. Just throwing together music etc that people don't recognize as Disney is pointless. I think they are going to have more problems with this in perception and public opinion than they ever had with splash mountain. Keep downgrading your parks disney your on a sad good roll. And I was all for some kind of Tiana ride but one based on the movie and its songs, not a tiana dressed like a jungle cruise skipper,,they have lost it.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I don’t think this is entirely fair. It was regarded as a masterpiece of Imagineering long before the retheme was announced (and rightly so).every "SPLASH MOUNTAIN IS THE PINNACLE OF WALT DISNEY IMAGINEERING" take is dramatic
it's almost as if an attraction becomes the best thing disney's ever done as soon as it's announced to be closing
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Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
So a perpetually maxed out park is taking a people eater offline in late January and not opening its new ride until April?
Enjoy the Magic Kingdom over Spring Break kids!
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
By who? He's been retired for some time and in many recent interviews he's very candid about the company and speaks decidedly in the past tense.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Can't say, or I would have by now. Not a bus driver though. I have good reason to not doubt them.
Dear Prudence
Well-Known Member
The Baxter story sounds like just that, a story that sounds good that can be repeated in interviews. It's called media training.
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
Why wasn’t he on the New Orleans walking tour? Featured on the D23 panel? Referenced in these recent updates? Part of any recent interviews?Can't say, or I would have by now. Not a bus driver though. I have good reason to not doubt them.
If you really, truly do have an icon and Legend working on this, putting him out there front and center could quell and silence a lot of this concern. If his involvement is true.
TwilightZone
Well-Known Member
It's asking for a solution to a problem that doesnt exist. Splash Mountain also takes place "at the bayou" and its never explained there why there's sudden lifts and drops. You go in it, immerse yourself, and dont care it doesnt match with reality. Tiana splash, no matter how good it turns out, does care it matches with reality a little too much.
Kirby86
Well-Known Member
I'm sure there are kernel of truths in there though. Did it necessarily happen in traffic? who knows but I'm sure he wanted to keep the America sings animatronics and figured Marc Davis designed them and the Song of the South characters so match made in heaven.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Quite possibly/probably because they don't want to have him (an old white guy) upstage Carter (a younger black woman) as the lead.
They also said Bob Weis was heavily involved prior to his departure.
This is not information I got from PR, otherwise I would rightfully disregard it as everyone else has.
Again believe what you want, but I was just as upset and negative about this project as everyone else here until very recently. I'm not one to show any optimism without damn good reason and solid info from someone I trust. The ride might still end up disappointing. But it has the necessary imagineering talent, budget and elements I most value in attractions to have a very good chance of succeeding.
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