Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion

[Rich T]

Just a note for anyone reading this who has never seen “The Princess and the Frog:”

Please, if you have time, check it out. It’s a wonderful, fun, imaginative film full of heroism, villainy, well-written characters, big laughs and some of the scariest scenes ever to appear in Disney animation. It contains everything that today’s Disney, for whatever reason, seems afraid to do anymore.

It is so, so, so much better than the one-note happy-happy grin-fest of Tiana’s Bayou Preschool Fetch Quest.

 

[CaptinEO]

More positivity to report, because I'm trying to overlook the weak parts of this WDW version...

Disney's Comunications team and their Parks Blog vehicle seem to have backed away from the creepy DEI thing they were doing for this ride back in 2022. Instead of making a point of how dumb President Wilson was (and his actions and deeds show he was truly a bigot), they are going for a more universal and uplifting tribute to ALL veterans and ALL patriotic Americans by noting Princess Tiana's father served in World War I, and that real life veteran's and their families love visiting Disneyland and WDW.

Good to see them revisit and fix their clunky and cringey messaging from 2022 on this ride! This new tone and messaging from last week is far more inclusive and far more positive than the stuff they started with on their ride messaging a few years ago.

Tiana's Dad Military Service Story Debuts in New Attraction Queue

Get a sneak peek at photos from the Tiana's Bayou Adventure queue that build on the backstory of Tiana's Dad, a decorated World War I veteran.

disneyparks.disney.go.com

Oh man I had forgotten about this. Seems Disney PR did get the message and stopped with the weird backstory details.

I think it's an improvement in terms of theming for this kid party ride to not go into the horrors of war and bigotry, too deep a topic for a log ride. A military salute is a much better fit for the attraction and Walt's park.

What happened to that thing about how the ride was supposed to represent the Philippines too? Seemed like they had a lot of plans that went unfulfilled.

 

[CaptinEO]

I feel I may be one of the only ones who found this better than expected. I posted this in the WDW side as well. But Disney's terrible output from 2015-Now really lowered my expectations.

Incredicoaster, Mission Breakout, Web Slingerz, Ant Man in Hong Kong, and Cars Route 66 in Paris are some of the worst Disney attractions/rethemes.

I find this at least much better than those and it's a pretty solid B for me, but it's not nearly as good as what it replaced and not a classic by any means.

They got a decent budget and some cute theming at parts and nice songs, which is more than I expected. I also am glad we don't have dialogue blasting at us the whole ride (such as Incredicoaster).

Splash Mountain was legendary even with how badly maintained it was. This isn't close to it and has some awkward empty parts and a few weird screens but it seems to be better than a large chunk of WDIs misses in the past 10 years.

This seems decent to me and to be honest is better than what I was fearing.

 

[Phroobar]

The problem here is the lack of AA characters at every point in the ride. Splash had something moving near the log at every point. Now you have show scenes spaced far apart. There are far less AA characters now. They didn't even reuse characters. It looks like they blew their budget at the end. Tiana seems to show up for no reason to tell us really nothing. What is with the wall at the first lift hill. I assume that area isn't finished. It is a missed opportunity to bring back the bad guy and have a voodoo section in the underground section and lift hill. A mediocre ride for a mediocre movie.

 

[CaptinEO]

There's no drama, no suspense, no bad guy, no danger. Why did they get rid of Dr. Facilier?!? That makes no sense. This is like the plotline to a very cheap kiddy dark ride at a 1970's Six Flags park. Your loveable animal friends are going to play a song for you... please exit to your left

Per this post from an insider:

Dr Facilier was pitched as the antagonist originally; this idea was scrapped because 'some' felt that replacing the perceptively racist attraction (Splash) with a new attraction depicting a black man as evil wasn't the message they wanted to send. This is the world we live in now.

News - Tiana's Bayou Adventure - latest details and construction progress

If the ride is dull/doesn’t make sense…the queue isn’t gonna change that

forums.wdwmagic.com

Not sure if true or not. I do know lots of churches were against Princess and the Frog due to the voodoo element so this may also be a reason his character is gone. Then again he is a roaming character at Disneyland, or at least used to be.

The signage. It's all so vapid and pointless. Why did this even have to be an Employee-Owned Food Cooperative? None of that matters in the ride or its very simple and boring plot. Much of the signage looks flat and cheap, especially the signs that hang over and above the flume in the first part of the ride. Like they got them done at Office Depot on their big color printer.

I think the evidence is adding up that they reallly backpedalled on what was once a story heavy ride because it was probably a worse product than what we ended up getting. It might explain why the final product has a nonexistent plot.

What was up with all those New Orleans research trips and using local artists for concept art? I am not seeing the end result.

Is this a good representative ride for New Orleans culture? They said so much conjecture about this, yet I feel the walkways and buildings in New Orleans square convey the city much better.

 

[Phroobar]

Per this post from an insider:

News - Tiana's Bayou Adventure - latest details and construction progress

If the ride is dull/doesn’t make sense…the queue isn’t gonna change that

forums.wdwmagic.com

Not sure if true or not. I do know lots of churches were against Princess and the Frog due to the voodoo element so this may also be a reason his character is gone. Then again he is a roaming character at Disneyland, or at least used to be.

I think the evidence is adding up that they reallly backpedalled on what was once a story heavy ride because it was probably a worse product than what we ended up getting. It might explain why the final product has a nonexistent plot.

What was up with all those New Orleans research trips and using local artists for concept art? I am not seeing the end result.

Is this a good representative ride for New Orleans culture? They said so much conjecture about this, yet I feel the walkways and buildings in New Orleans square convey the city much better.

There is no New Orleans in it at all. Tiana looks like she is jungle trek through a swamp. Poor Tony. I hope he doesn't see what they did to his baby.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

From @SplashMountainArchives, the refurbished logs for DL have moss on them now. Because bayou. Because adventure.

View attachment 789147
View attachment 789148

For gods sake... here's an absolutely perfect example of modern Imagineering and the Disney Company as a whole.

Look at the nose of the new log. Look at it.

Now look at this photo of the log pre refurb-

You see it? Imagineering shaved of the decorative hood ornament and left it empty. A simple, teensy, tiny detail representing charm and miniscule attention to detail... gone.

Playful charm replaced with nothing.

Did imagineering even fathom putting wood fireflies on them? Heck, they're so proud about their new band animals (and their idiotically personal backstories) why not put those on them? Even with their names on them ala Mr. Toad etc... "Dad, we're riding in Rufus!". Or hell, a wooden Tiana's food labelled beignet powdered sugar can! ANYTHING

At one point an imagineer made the decision to remove it and replace it with nothing. This tiny example symbolizes the entire redo... they removed all the small detail and charm and replaced it with nothing.

Man, now I get to go to work and be grumpy at the office all day over a stupid fake wood plastic hood ornament. Amazing. I'm upset at the absurdity of such a small seemingly pointless removal of charm and detail.

 

[Figments Friend]

Man, now I get to go to work and be grumpy at the office all day over a stupid fake wood plastic hood ornament.
Amazing. I'm upset at the absurdity of such a small seemingly pointless removal of charm and detail.

I know how you feel.
It IS frustrating.
The bad decisions, misdirections, and other issues at hand.

But don’t let it ruin your day.
Just put on some certain beloved log flume Attraction music on a loop via YouTube and breath deep.
Works for me.
Just did this the other day.
It helps….



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[CaptinEO]

There is no New Orleans in it at all. Tiana looks like she is jungle trek through a swamp. Poor Tony. I hope he doesn't see what they did to his baby.

Tony was signed on for this project on announcement and at somepoint left. My guess is he knew exactly what they were doing for Tiana.

 

[Too Many Hats]

I think the evidence is adding up that they reallly backpedalled on what was once a story heavy ride because it was probably a worse product than what we ended up getting. It might explain why the final product has a nonexistent plot.

I suspect the final product is due to initial ambitions being committee’d into oblivion.

What was up with all those New Orleans research trips and using local artists for concept art? I am not seeing the end result.

Completely bewildering, in retrospect. This is one of the bigger disappointments for me. I let myself believe this attraction might actually have some artistic merit and cultural value.

 

[Rich T]

I’m personally promoting Ripsaw Falls to the title of Best Log Flume in Florida.

And Knott’s Timber Mountain keeps its position as Best Log Flume in America.

 

[Too Many Hats]

I’m personally promoting Ripsaw Falls to the title of Best Log Flume in Florida.

I’ve always loved Ripsaw Falls’ many shots at Disney (spoofing Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Pirates, Mr. Toad, etc.).

I know Universal will never actually update the ride (it’s been in a state of disrepair for decades), but wouldn’t it be great if they could shoehorn in a couple references to Snidely’s Logs, an employee owned timber co-op?

 

[Rich T]

Things that. in my opinion, offer a more compelling story than TBA:

Nearly Every Other Indoor Disney Ride I Can ThInk of Except Navi River Journey

Nearly Everything at Universal and Islands of Adventure. Even Popeye.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Where’s Waldo

Putt Putt Saves the Zoo

 

[Parteecia]

Per this post from an insider:

News - Tiana's Bayou Adventure - latest details and construction progress

If the ride is dull/doesn’t make sense…the queue isn’t gonna change that

forums.wdwmagic.com

Not sure if true or not. I do know lots of churches were against Princess and the Frog due to the voodoo element so this may also be a reason his character is gone. Then again he is a roaming character at Disneyland, or at least used to be.

I think the evidence is adding up that they reallly backpedalled on what was once a story heavy ride because it was probably a worse product than what we ended up getting. It might explain why the final product has a nonexistent plot.

What was up with all those New Orleans research trips and using local artists for concept art? I am not seeing the end result.

Is this a good representative ride for New Orleans culture? They said so much conjecture about this, yet I feel the walkways and buildings in New Orleans square convey the city much better.

I thought it was because Facilier was defeated and gone at this point in her timeline. Maybe they made the ride be after the movie so they wouldn't have to include him?

 

[mickEblu]

Maybe they made the ride be after the movie so they wouldn't have to include him?

Most likely part of it in conjunction with wanting to focus on what a girl boss she is now with Tiana’s Foods. Certainly wasn’t because they thought what they did with shrinking down scene was a better idea.

 

[Phroobar]

Tony was signed on for this project on announcement and at somepoint left. My guess is he knew exactly what they were doing for Tiana.

He probably told them it was stupid but didn't have the power to stop it so he left. Poor guy.

 

[Rich T]

I thought it was because Facilier was defeated and gone at this point in her timeline. Maybe they made the ride be after the movie so they wouldn't have to include him?

It’s a world of magic, spirits, living shadows, voodoo and talking animals. They could have found a way of bringing his spirit back, even if it was as confined as having the logs take a wrong turn and fall into a “haunted” area of the swamp.

 

[TP2000]

What happened to that thing about how the ride was supposed to represent the Philippines too? Seemed like they had a lot of plans that went unfulfilled.

I'm sure there's a badly done newspaper clipping in the queue somewhere about that. Because when you think "Jazz Age New Orleans" you naturally think Filipinos and the Philippines. The Imagineers over a year ago said publicly there was also supposed to be call outs to the Chinese and Mexican communities allegedly living in NOLA in 1927.

Here's that data again that I found in a 2 minute Google search from the 1930 US Census Bureau on the racial makeup of the entire state of Louisiana...

Whites = 1.4 Million
Blacks = 700,000
American Indian = 1,536
Chinese = 422 (Four hundred and twenty two people living in Louisiana in 1930 were of Chinese descent)
Japanese = 52 (Fifty two people living in Louisiana in 1930 were of Japanese descent)
Other = 545 (perhaps those are where the Filipino's and Mexicans came from for the ride?)

The people currently running WDI are not good at building rides right now.

 

[TP2000]

What is with the wall at the first lift hill. I assume that area isn't finished.

That's a weird WDW thing only. That wall has been there since Splash Mt. opened in 1994. It hides an access path for some reason, and it may have to do with the very flat terrain of Magic Kingdom in general and the inability to dig down more than 5 feet below grade.

For Tiana's Bayou Adventure, they painted that 1994 wall with odd food and knife artwork. Prior to Tiana, that wall was always just brown. It's been weird and annoying since 1994, but at least it didn't have food art on it. Until now.

 

[Figments Friend]

Tony was signed on for this project on announcement and at somepoint left. My guess is he knew exactly what they were doing for Tiana.

He was connected to the project as a advisor only for a short time, and then stepped away.

He has great experience and can offer some excellent advice, but I get the impression every now and then that the new kids and upper management don’t want to listen.

We all lose in this case.

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