Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion

[FlaMatt]

On the Tar Baby subject, I had to go back and rewatch that scene for reference. Yeah it's just so wrong. You'd think somebody along the lines during production would think, You know, this just isn't a good idea at all.

Besides the obvious of it being racist, the scene itself is just ridiculous. Brer Rabbit basically saying if you don't say hello back when I say "How do you do?", I'm going to beat the living daylights out of you. And he's supposedly the "good" guy. Yeah, wha??

 

[Brer Panther]

It was a concept very, very early in its development. And it was being pitched heavily on its ability to sell Instagrammable food and merchandise, not because it was a fabulous story to tell. This was a complete 180 from how E Tickets were pitched and sold back in the 20th century. Back then, the story was the top priority, and then the merchandisers came in and made some cutesy souvenirs based on the story being told. This was a flip-flop of that process entirely.

To be fair to WDI, their entire business model is based on pitching ideas to add or remake new attractions and lands to any park that wants to pay them to do so. They need the business, and they aren't stupid enough to not see how things have changed under Chapek. If all theme parks suddenly stopped adding new rides, a lot of Imagineers in Glendale would be out of jobs and be stuck with a Tesla payment they suddenly couldn't afford. WDI has got hundreds of ideas ready to go for any park that wants to pay them. The Tiana's Bayou Bash N' Splash, Presented by Ziploc concept was just one of hundreds, and conveniently was sitting on a shelf in its infancy ready to meet the moment of erasing some history in 2020.

It's also incredibly telling, and obviously damning, that the ride is still operating in its allegedly offensive and "racist" format currently on both coasts. So, is it racist or is it not? Apparently it's not that racist, because it's still operating daily on both coasts.

That's because the Tiana replacement was not a fleshed out and developed concept. It was a basic proposal very early in its development. But thank God it was even at that infant stage, because Iger could claim they had big plans to erase Song Of The South and replace it with Tiana.

But that original racist log ride keeps operating nearly a year later on both coasts, because the Tiana concept was not nearly ready for prime time and still needs a lot of work and Imagineering to make it a reality. Check back in 2023. Until then, just try and forget that it's an allegedly racist log ride, if you'd be so kind.

So, Frederick Chambers didn't actually come up with the idea? Did he just find out about it and claim to have thought it up himself?

 

[PiratesMansion]

The instagrammable food narrative has no credibility whatsoever (nor does the "it was all one person on Twitter" narrative, incidentally).

What's stopping them from making instagrammable food literally right now to whatever they want?

Neither instagrammable food or one person's opinion on Twitter is going to be a reason to spend millions of dollars on a ride redo.

 

[Californian Elitist]

The instagrammable food narrative has no credibility whatsoever (nor does the "it was all one person on Twitter" narrative, incidentally).

What's stopping them from making instagrammable food literally right now to whatever they want?

Neither instagrammable food or one person's opinion on Twitter is going to be a reason to spend millions of dollars on a ride redo.

My thoughts exactly. I’m also trying to figure out the history that will be “erased.” People love to say “history is being erased” when things are removed. I said this once before, but people like Robert E. Lee will not magically disappear from history just because a statute of him was removed.

 

[_caleb]

If I was CEO of Disney I would release SotS on Disney+ immediately, create an Uncle Remus face character for the parks and announce a UNESCO World Heritage campaign for Splash Mountain so moron corporate executives never mess with it

That you're not is another thing I can be thankful for!

 

[EagleScout610]

That you're not is another thing I can be thankful for!

Something tells me a Remus face character wouldn't go over great

 

[EagleScout610]

Neither instagrammable food or one person's opinion on Twitter is going to be a reason to spend millions of dollars on a ride redo.

@Brer Panther

 

[CaptinEO]

The instagrammable food narrative has no credibility whatsoever (nor does the "it was all one person on Twitter" narrative, incidentally).

What's stopping them from making instagrammable food literally right now to whatever they want?

Neither instagrammable food or one person's opinion on Twitter is going to be a reason to spend millions of dollars on a ride redo.

The fun food options tied to characters tend to be popular. It makes complete sense to me.

Mickey Bar, Mickey Pretzel, Mickey Waffle, Vader Head Cup, Thor Arm Cup, Popcorn buckets, etc.

 

[CaptinEO]

It was a concept very, very early in its development. And it was being pitched heavily on its ability to sell Instagrammable food and merchandise, not because it was a fabulous story to tell. This was a complete 180 from how E Tickets were pitched and sold back in the 20th century. Back then, the story was the top priority, and then the merchandisers came in and made some cutesy souvenirs based on the story being told. This was a flip-flop of that process entirely.

To be fair to WDI, their entire business model is based on pitching ideas to add or remake new attractions and lands to any park that wants to pay them to do so. They need the business, and they aren't stupid enough to not see how things have changed under Chapek. If all theme parks suddenly stopped adding new rides, a lot of Imagineers in Glendale would be out of jobs and be stuck with a Tesla payment they suddenly couldn't afford. WDI has got hundreds of ideas ready to go for any park that wants to pay them. The Tiana's Bayou Bash N' Splash, Presented by Ziploc concept was just one of hundreds, and conveniently was sitting on a shelf in its infancy ready to meet the moment of erasing some history in 2020.

It's also incredibly telling, and obviously damning, that the ride is still operating in its allegedly offensive and "racist" format currently on both coasts. So, is it racist or is it not? Apparently it's not that racist, because it's still operating daily on both coasts.

That's because the Tiana replacement was not a fleshed out and developed concept. It was a basic proposal very early in its development. But thank God it was even at that infant stage, because Iger could claim they had big plans to erase Song Of The South and replace it with Tiana.

But that original racist log ride keeps operating nearly a year later on both coasts, because the Tiana concept was not nearly ready for prime time and still needs a lot of work and Imagineering to make it a reality. Check back in 2023. Until then, just try and forget that it's an allegedly racist log ride, if you'd be so kind.

Thank you so much for the explanation. I didn't realize WDI has concepts ready to go. I always figured the ideas were mandated from the top.

It's so surprising that

1)They announced this with no active development
2) They called the ride problematic but still operate it

The current state of things just proves more and more this is a money decision. (not that it should be surprising that a company makes all their decisions based on money)

 

[Californian Elitist]

I think some of you are making up things. I don’t believe Disney has ever made a public announcement stating that Splash was “racist” and/or “problematic.” Correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[el_super]

The current state of things just proves more and more this is a money decision.

Trying to dismiss this as a money decision betrays the fact that they think they will make more money by not having a problematic attraction.

 

[CaptinEO]

Trying to dismiss this as a money decision betrays the fact that they think they will make more money by not having a problematic attraction.

The attraction was doing decent merch sales
and even had a nice campaign going a year before it closed.

Disney is all about promoting properties. They certainly can't use the Song of the South property for more movies or TV Shows.

Makes sense they'd rather tie it to a brand they can market.

 

[EagleScout610]

I think some of you are making up things. I don’t believe Disney has ever made a public announcement stating that Splash was “racist” and/or “problematic.” Correct me if I’m wrong.

They never said that directly no but their behavior towards Song/Splash showed it

 

[CaptinEO]

I think some of you are making up things. I don’t believe Disney has ever made a public announcement stating that Splash was “racist” and/or “problematic.” Correct me if I’m wrong.

I thought they used the term problematic but you are right, they did not.

"The new concept is inclusive – one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by, and it speaks to the diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year."

They I guess imply the current ride isn't inclusive? Maybe?

 

[CaptinEO]

It's important to remember that no matter what the reasoning, money is the only thing that matters to a corporation. The "inclusion key of the kingdom" and what not, all financial decisions.

 

[_caleb]

It's important to remember that no matter what the reasoning, money is the only thing that matters to a corporation. The "inclusion key of the kingdom" and what not, all financial decisions.

Right, but this probably doesn't mean what a lot of people think it means. So much of this is positioning the company for what they think is the future. Whether or not people bought Br'er plushies is irrelevant.

 

[_caleb]

@Brer Panther

WHY

 

[el_super]

It's important to remember that no matter what the reasoning, money is the only thing that matters to a corporation. The "inclusion key of the kingdom" and what not, all financial decisions.

Yeah... but that's been true since Walt moved to California.

 

[CaptinEO]

Yeah... but that's been true since Walt moved to California.

That's been true since before there was a Walt Disney.

 

[PiratesMansion]

The fun food options tied to characters tend to be popular. It makes complete sense to me.

Mickey Bar, Mickey Pretzel, Mickey Waffle, Vader Head Cup, Thor Arm Cup, Popcorn buckets, etc.

Using just the Mickey things as an example: by that logic, they would have only done those things to promote Runaway Railway. But they didn't do those things to promote/justify MMRR. They already existed.

They were not built to promote anything Mickey related that was being done in the park or any Mickey feature film. They just happened.

It's much, much cheaper to just do those things from scratch than to insist on tying them to something. Why would a company only do that so they can justify spending millions of money? They could have done instagrammable Tiana sweets in 2009 or any year thereafter. They could have done all of those Pixar Fest treats and even kept the Festival and fireworks show without Pixar Pier becoming a thing.

There's literally nothing stopping them from making instagrammable food about anything. Tokyo does it all. the. time. That the US parks are lazier and/or less skilled about it doesn't mean that they can't.