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

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BuzzedPotatoHead89

Well-Known Member
I think it’s fair to say that a ten-year-old child is far likelier to be familiar with The Princess and the Frog than with Song of the South. Whatever objections one may have to the retheme, there is no denying that the PatF IP is a more contemporary than the one it’s replacing.

I do agree with this one. Though I think there are some natural Target market limits, as a child of the 90s I’ve underestimated how much SOTS has left the mainstream consciousness for younger generations.

As an example I spoke with yet another “informal focus groups” at a socially distanced family bbq yesterday that included my 8 year old godchild and 4 year old cousin (both girls who are princess fans).

Needless to say it was a very compelling conversation of course. However my godchild who had a traumatic experience on Splash Mohntain before (about 2 years ago) was excited about the change as a fan of P&TF. However, when explaining to her this was still the same splash mountain with drops, etc. she was a bit disappointed and unsure if she’d try it out again (though I’m sure that’ll change with age).

The 4 year old likes Princess Tiana but is not tall enough to go on it. Both the 4 and 8 year old LOVE Pirates of the Caribbean, Mansion, Peter Pan, etc. Their thrill seeking older siblings (high school age teenagers) had also never heard of the original SOTS but really didn’t seem to care much for P&TF either. As long as the drops stayed, they’re happy.
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
The side I agree with is leave the classics alone. The common, more popular, easier side is "oh Walt said Disney is never complete, let's keep the changes coming".
Based on the context of Walt’s career, I always took that quote to mean something a bit different.

While making the films, there would obviously be a point of completion. While Walt did enjoy making his first few films, when the War and the Strike hit, the combination of low returns and low company morale took a toll on him as a filmmaker. After the war, he put a lot into SotS, and a bit into Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. SotS and Alice flopped. Cinderella and Peter succeeded. Putting so much into a project only to have it fail was hard on him. People often say he hated his Alice in Wonderland. But evidence shows that he liked it up until completion and the poor reception of it.

The wonderful thing about Disneyland was that he could keep tinkering with it even if some things failed. In this quote, he acknowledges this.

Not only that, but you can kind of interpret it as his way of saying “I’m too busy to worry about films now because Disneyland is always going to need to grow”. The context fits. He stopped putting much attention into his films from Lady and the Tramp up until Mary Poppins.

Finally, I’ve seen some people say that Walt would be happy about this change. I hate to put words in the man’s mouth, but I severely doubt this. The Brer Rabbit tales were stories he held very close to his heart since he was a young boy. Like Peter Pan and Alice, that’s why he made the film. I think he would’ve been overjoyed to know that his company made such a wonderful adaptation of these stories through the Splash Mountain attraction, and extremely saddened that it had to be weaponized for politics.

But most of the people weaponizing Splash Mountain don’t really care anyways. They think Walt was a “hardcore racist” because of a movie they’ve never watched, and allegations that have been proven false several times over. Not sure why they’re taking his words as gospel then. Seems a little two faced to me.
 

Homemade Imagineering

Well-Known Member
I know this is random, but I had a strange dream the night after I saw the photo of the photoshopped Brer Rabbit on the log, and for the fun of it I thought I’d mention it. To put it simply, there was a viral video going around the Internet, where Disney muted Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah in the finale scene of SM, and all you could hear was the clicking of the animatronic’s pneumatics. In the video, the person filming was disappointed, and said “really Disney? Ughhhhh, this is pathetic.” I can see why I had this dream, since that day I was thinking about whether Disney will want to erase Splash Mountain from its history like they’ve don’t with Song of the South.
 

Jayhawker

Member
You know, at first I was against this, but after watching PatF a couple times recently, I have done a complete 180 opinion wise. I am now very excited for the change. I do hope the reimagining is still AA heavy as it seems like WDI has been getting away from AA’s in general or sometimes they give us 1 or 2 highly sophisticated AA’s. Navi River Journey is a prime example of the latter.

Like others have said, will be fun to see how they theme Frontierland. Overall, I trust imagineering on this one. They have too much to lose!
 

EagleScout610

These cats can PLAAAAAYYYYY
Premium Member
I know this is random, but I had a strange dream the night after I saw the photo of the photoshopped Brer Rabbit on the log, and for the fun of it I thought I’d mention it. To put it simply, there was a viral video going around the Internet, where Disney muted Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah in the finale scene of SM, and all you could hear was the clicking of the animatronic’s pneumatics. In the video, the person filming was disappointed, and said “really Disney? Ughhhhh, this is pathetic.” I can see why I had this dream, since that day I was thinking about whether Disney will want to erase Splash Mountain from its history like they’ve don’t with Song of the South.
I had one once where all of the AAs were removed except for Million Dollar Bunny and Brer Bear with the beehive. An employee single handedly pushed my log the entire way
 

hokielutz

Well-Known Member
He didn’t stand up to anything. He just regurgitated some corporate crap. And honestly, he probably has to for the sake of his job.

Yes on the Corp blah-blah... The working on this for a year is a laughable farce that the corp wigs are continuing to peddle. Working on it one year and only one piece of concept artwork to show for it? And it conveniently came out weeks after the petition surfaced with a paltry 22K signatures.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Yes on the Corp blah-blah... The working on this for a year is a laughable farce that the corp wigs are continuing to peddle. Working on it one year and only one piece of concept artwork to show for it? And it conveniently came out weeks after the petition surfaced with a paltry 22K signatures.

Several insiders have said there was more than a piece of concept art so it's partially true. They certainly don't have a full redesign to approve yet.
 

seabreezept813

Well-Known Member
Based on the context of Walt’s career, I always took that quote to mean something a bit different.

While making the films, there would obviously be a point of completion. While Walt did enjoy making his first few films, when the War and the Strike hit, the combination of low returns and low company morale took a toll on him as a filmmaker. After the war, he put a lot into SotS, and a bit into Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. SotS and Alice flopped. Cinderella and Peter succeeded. Putting so much into a project only to have it fail was hard on him. People often say he hated his Alice in Wonderland. But evidence shows that he liked it up until completion and the poor reception of it.

The wonderful thing about Disneyland was that he could keep tinkering with it even if some things failed. In this quote, he acknowledges this.

Not only that, but you can kind of interpret it as his way of saying “I’m too busy to worry about films now because Disneyland is always going to need to grow”. The context fits. He stopped putting much attention into his films from Lady and the Tramp up until Mary Poppins.

Finally, I’ve seen some people say that Walt would be happy about this change. I hate to put words in the man’s mouth, but I severely doubt this. The Brer Rabbit tales were stories he held very close to his heart since he was a young boy. Like Peter Pan and Alice, that’s why he made the film. I think he would’ve been overjoyed to know that his company made such a wonderful adaptation of these stories through the Splash Mountain attraction, and extremely saddened that it had to be weaponized for politics.

But most of the people weaponizing Splash Mountain don’t really care anyways. They think Walt was a “hardcore racist” because of a movie they’ve never watched, and allegations that have been proven false several times over. Not sure why they’re taking his words as gospel then. Seems a little two faced to me.

Walt also has high expectations. I think it would be hard to argue that when he says things should keep changing that means lets make this cheaper and less intricate.
 

deWild

Well-Known Member
@marni1971 Lance at Screamscape reported that some guests are receiving surveys asking about older attractions, specifically CBJ and TSI in Frontierland. Visit the site and it’s the first link under today’s date.

Are these rumors valid? Are there plans to revive the Frontierland expansion that was circulating a few years ago? The timing would make sense given the overhaul to Splash. Forgive me if the information/site is not accurate.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
@marni1971 Lance at Screamscape reported that some guests are receiving surveys asking about older attractions, specifically CBJ and TSI in Frontierland. Visit the site and it’s the first link under today’s date.

Are these rumors valid? Are there plans to revive the Frontierland expansion that was circulating a few years ago? The timing would make sense given the overhaul to Splash. Forgive me if the information/site is not accurate.
I believe there’s surveys about most attractions at the moment.
 

Homemade Imagineering

Well-Known Member
I believe there’s surveys about most attractions at the moment.
Yup. I mentioned this in another thread, where people were speculating that Philharmagic was a possible contender for replacement because they received a survey about it, while tons of other attractions had surveys as well. I remember the same thing happening last year in late June, where Len Testa brought up the notion that IASW in Disneyland was a possible contender for replacement, because he, or one of his friends received a survey about IASW, and it ended up being a complete miscommunication after he found out that Disney had been sending out surveys for almost every other attraction in the park.
 

deWild

Well-Known Member
I believe there’s surveys about most attractions at the moment.

Yup. I mentioned this in another thread, where people were speculating that Philharmagic was a possible contender for replacement because they received a survey about it, while tons of other attractions had surveys as well. I remember the same thing happening last year in late June, where Len Testa brought up the notion that IASW in Disneyland was a possible contender for replacement, because he, or one of his friends received a survey about IASW, and it ended up being a complete miscommunication after he found out that Disney had been sending out surveys for almost every other attraction in the park.

Thanks for the insight! Thought I’d ask to clear the air.
 

MickeyMouse10

Well-Known Member
Disney - Quick we need some concept art, to make it look like we've be planning this since last year.
Thomas Kinkade Studios - I've been working on something... I'll have to do some cutting and pasting though.
Disney - Sure, that's fine, they'll never know.

Very similar art styles between the concept art they've had under wraps and Kinkade's style.

EbYBlzsX0AYHjQN.jpg

prifro.jpg


P.S. Somehow Tiana and Naveen's frog bodies are in the picture with their human ones???

Also a hidden Cinderella is on the left of the 2nd one. I have no idea how she got there from the late 1600's - early 1700's and from France. Maybe a delorean or phone booth or magic???
 
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