Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion

[Disney Irish]

Welcome back @GiveMeTheMusic


It’s actually going to be a vertical carousel. Some rumors suggest it’s going to be a boat ride, but they’re all fake news.

Don't forget the loop....

 

[mickEblu]

Looking at the Magic Happens concept art, Main Street is definitely Mickeyfied. There are Mickey head shapes on the top of the buildings, on the storefronts, and on banners hanging from the buildings. YIKES.

I’ll post the concept art featuring PatF, given this thread and because some people don’t believe that Disney has been utilizing this property throughout the parks for years already:

View attachment 654170

OMG how did we all miss this!? I remember there was a vague rumor at one point about us getting a Shangai style Mickey Ave. retheme of Main Street but if kind of didn’t really have any steam and it went away. I wonder if this concept art was where it originated. Even when that rumor floated around I don’t remember anyone pointing back to this concept art.

 

[Californian Elitist]

OMG how did we all miss this!? I remember there was a vague rumor at one point about us getting a Shangai style Mickey Ave. retheme of Main Street but if kind of didn’t really have any steam and it went away. I wonder if this concept art was where it originated. Even when that rumor floated around I don’t remember anyone pointing back to this concept art.

That’s what I thought when I went back and checked! I assume we were all focused on the details of the floats and not the surroundings. I know that’s what I likely did. It was right in our faces. Wow. I’m also wondering if it originated with this concept art. I’m also curious if the fan backlash from that time they temporarily turned Main Street Cinema into a store caused them to cancel the project? I believe that incident was back in 2019. Didn’t Magic Happens premiere in early 2020? They weren’t that far apart from each other.

 

[Californian Elitist]

@GiveMeTheMusic You can’t just come back with interesting information, then leave us again. You think we’re cheap dates?

At least stay for the rest of the evening.

 

[Disney Irish]

@GiveMeTheMusic You can’t just come back with interesting information, then leave us again. You think we’re cheap dates?

At least stay for the rest of the evening.

Do we call this an Insider Quickie?

 

[Californian Elitist]

Do we call this an Insider Quickie?

Hit-it-and-quit-it.

Gonna go cry to my girlfriends and complain about getting ghosted. “I actually thought he liked me, wah!”

 

[VJ]

Coming out of the shadows for two seconds to address this. Using SOTS as the theme for Splash Mountain was controversial within WDI when the ride was being created in the 80's. They knew then it was a risky proposition and made the choice to proceed anyway. This is well documented, ask Tony!

I can 100% confirm the retheme for Splash has been in active development for a long time. I don't know exactly when it was first pitched, but by the time it was announced in 2020, it was a developed concept that had been actively worked on for at least a year. You don't have to believe me, but that doesn't change that it's true.

A broad initiative has been in the works for some time (I first heard about it in 2018) to identify parts of the parks that could be improved from an inclusion standpoint. Many, many proposals have come out of this initiative - some have been canned (the Main Street retheme - take a look at the Magic Happens float concept art!), others have already been implemented (Jungle Cruise), and some are yet to come (the jury is still out on how the Native American scene in Peter Pan's Flight can be altered). There are other ones in the works you haven't heard about yet, and you may at D23! Or you may not! Fun!

Does this mean the entire company is now unable to commit problematic acts? Nope! It just means that there is a task force in WDI working on fixing potentially problematic issues within the parks.

Regardless of how anyone feels about these changes, they are happening, and they have been in the works for a long time. The timing of the announcement for Splash was definitely done to take advantage of the climate at the time so that the company could look in-step with public opinion. That's called PR! Big companies attempt to engage in it all time!

So you can either accept the chorus of insiders who know that the project predates its announcement, or you can continue to question it. And luckily for you, OLC is not going to pay to retheme their Splash Mountain, so the ride will continue to exist despite Disney's best efforts.

Okay, back to my cave now!

never thought I'd see the day...

 

[Pacnw]

never thought I'd see the day...

It was exciting while it lasted…

 

[CaptinEO]

Looking at the Magic Happens concept art, Main Street is definitely Mickeyfied. There are Mickey head shapes on the top of the buildings, on the storefronts, and on banners hanging from the buildings. YIKES.

I’ll post the concept art featuring PatF, given this thread and because some people don’t believe that Disney has been utilizing this property throughout the parks for years already:

View attachment 654170

It's amazing this was promotionally released art and in front of us this whole time.

I really dislike the idea of Mickey Avenue. Too many characters in the parks as is. I'm into themeparks and settings, not characters. How many reminders do we need that Mickey Mouse exists?

We all should probably still be weary that this can still happen though.

 

[Brer Panther]

So if the retheme really was planned before 2020, how does Frederick Chambers factor into all this? I don't buy the "it's just a coincidence that he had the exact same idea" claim.

 

[Californian Elitist]

It's amazing this was promotionally released art and in front of us this whole time.

I really dislike the idea of Mickey Avenue. Too many characters in the parks as is. I'm into themeparks and settings, not characters. How many reminders do we need that Mickey Mouse exists?

We all should probably still be weary that this can still happen though.

I agree. We know Mickey Mouse is basically the ambassador of Disneyland. He doesn’t need to be plastered everywhere, especially the way it’s presented in the concept art (banners…seriously?). Hopefully this idea is never considered again.

 

[180º]

So if the retheme really was planned before 2020, how does Frederick Chambers factor into all this? I don't buy the "it's just a coincidence that he had the exact same idea" claim.

You don’t buy that multiple (if not hundreds of) people could separately come up with the same very obvious re-theme idea? It happens all the time. “I think they should turn [ride] into [newer property with the same setting],” is Baby’s First Imagineering Pitch. I’ve thought it, I’m sure others here thought it too, and Frederick Chambers wasn’t the first. His petition just made the news on a slow news day.

 

[BuzzedPotatoHead89]

We all should probably still be weary that this can still happen though.

Honestly that’s what concerns me most about this.

Even though this reeks more of Iger (vs Chapek), to think that Walt’s original Main Street USA is deserving of a Sunshine Plaza/BVS level makeover is a laughable idea, if it weren’t so disconnected from reality.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

The Mickey Main Street idea was shelved for a lot of reasons. It's unnecessary, would have no net benefit from a marketing standpoint, and would too closely resemble BVS, which was already drawn from extensively for Mickey Ave in Shanghai. It's dead as a doornail.

You don’t buy that multiple (if not hundreds of) people could separately come up with the same very obvious re-theme idea? It happens all the time. “I think they should turn [ride] into [newer property with the same setting],” is Baby’s First Imagineering Pitch. I’ve thought it, I’m sure others here thought it too, and Frederick Chambers wasn’t the first. His petition just made the news on a slow news day.

Bingo. Anybody who spent 5 minutes thinking about what IP could replace SOTS would easily land on PATF pretty quick, especially for DL where the mountain borders NOS.

Now if I could just get someone in Glendale to listen to my incredible Pocahontas pitch for Big Thunder!

 

[Dear Prudence]

I am so, so glad this got rejected.

I am honestly glad, too. And if they are still concerned about it, they could maybe use it as an opportunity to highlight actual people who lived during that time instead of inventing people that that one WDW candy shop did (which was weird AF).But, you know, that would require actual work. :/

 

[Disney Analyst]

So if the retheme really was planned before 2020, how does Frederick Chambers factor into all this? I don't buy the "it's just a coincidence that he had the exact same idea" claim.

My god.

I even thought long ago PatF would be an obvious choice to replace sots if they needed to. I recall seeing Fredericks concept and going “wow, we’re all on the same page I guess?”.

 

[Disney Irish]

So if the retheme really was planned before 2020, how does Frederick Chambers factor into all this? I don't buy the "it's just a coincidence that he had the exact same idea" claim.

He is what we call an Armchair Imagineer, we have a whole section devoted to it on this site (pretty much every Disney Parks fan site has one). They think of ideas all day long on how they would change/improve the Parks. Thousands of ideas are thrown around all the time, sometimes they just happen to land on the same very thing that WDI is already working on. As they saying goes, "great minds think alike", meaning that just because another person came up with the same idea doesn't mean they originated it. He just happened to get his "15 minutes" out of this, that is all.

This has been gone over many times before.

 

[mickEblu]

The Mickey Main Street idea was shelved for a lot of reasons. It's unnecessary, would have no net benefit from a marketing standpoint, and would too closely resemble BVS, which was already drawn from extensively for Mickey Ave in Shanghai. It's dead as a doornail.



Bingo. Anybody who spent 5 minutes thinking about what IP could replace SOTS would easily land on PATF pretty quick, especially for DL where the mountain borders NOS.

Now if I could just get someone in Glendale to listen to my incredible Pocahontas pitch for Big Thunder!

So since Mickey Ave was obviously a bad idea for many reasons why was it considered in the first place?

 

[el_super]

Even though this reeks more of Iger (vs Chapek), to think that Walt’s original Main Street USA is deserving of a Sunshine Plaza/BVS level makeover is a laughable idea, if it weren’t so disconnected from reality.

WDI comes up with plans to reinvent Main Street every 15 years or so. It's just part of the job. I remember all the outcry about the idea of bumping Main Street up to the 1950s years and years ago, and I even think Tony had something to do with that. Eventually they bumped up Main Street in Paris to the 1920s and some thought they could do the same at Disneyland.

I would say nothing ever really comes of it, but Disneyland's Main Street is already so far removed from what Walt originally envisioned that it feels incorrect to suggest Walt's Main Street is still intact.

 

[VJ]

So since Mickey Ave was obviously a bad idea for many reasons why was it considered in the first place?

the "blue sky" stage means anything goes