Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
It really does.

Tiana needs a band because her incompetent husband and Louis forgot to book one. So she puts on her jodhpurs and hand-woven cloche hat and goes walking through the bayou, where she and Louis immediately find four groupings of very talented and well-rehearsed animal musicians already formed into bands who will willingly work her party gig. Done!

Now let's go to the Welcome Party and sing a song about how special you are for simply showing up. Exit to your left.

This is the kind stuff that has to be a head scratcher no matter how you feel about this retheme. How could this be the best the imagineers cooked up? I’ve been saying it for a few years now. When everyone was always blaming Chapek and giving the imagineers a pass on everything.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
I just don't get why none of the animals are singing. Where are the choirs of critters?

Right. They re not singing and a dead firefly is singing so I guess we’re left to assume that we are literally listening to a soundtrack? Seems like a weird place to drop the ball when they do other sings like make sure we know why the flume is there.
 
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TP2000

Well-Known Member
This is the kind stuff that has to be a head scratcher no matter how you feel about this retheme. How could this be the best the imagineers cooked up? I’ve been saying it for a few years now. When everyone was always blaming Chapek and giving the imagineers a pass on everything.

Yeah, I've come around on that with this first look at Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

I was right there with others blaming Chapek for years, just like we blamed Pressler and Cynthia for years. But now... there's clearly something wrong with WDI's creative process itself, and the creative executives who are leading that process.

WDI spent a lot of money on Tiana's ride, it's obvious. And they certainly took plenty of Immersion Trips to New Orleans (or other parts of Louisiana within a reasonable town car commute of the New Orleans Ritz-Carlton) to get the vibe and feel down. WDI had every resource and tool and talent source they could ever need for this ride, with full support of Bob Iger and Burbank.

And they came up with... this??? You can't blame Chapek or the sharp pencil boys for that. This mess is all on WDI itself.
 
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mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I've come around on that too with this first look at Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

I was right there with others blaming Chapek for years, just like we blamed Pressler and Cynthia for years. But now... there's clearly something wrong with WDI's creative process itself, and the creative executives who are leading that process.

WDI spent a lot of money on Tiana's ride, it's obvious. And they certainly took plenty of Immersion Trips to New Orleans (or other parts of Louisiana within a reasonable town car commute of the New Orleans Ritz-Carlton) to get the vibe and feel down. WDI had every resource and tool and talent source they could ever need for this ride, with full support of Bob Iger and Burbank.

And they came up with... this??? You can't blame Chapek or the sharp pencil boys for that. This mess is all on WDI itself.

It’s mind boggling. I was blaming Chapek too but also blaming the imagineers where applicable.
 

Rich T

Well-Known Member
Agree

One needs to ride in person to get a real sense of the settings.

I might not be overly keen on what has been revealed thus far, and I certainly disagree with the prior Attraction being removed.
Despite this, I do know something like this needs to be seen in person before passing final judgement.

-
Good points, but I do think we can fairly reasonably observe that the story (at least at MK) can be described as a preschool-level platter of bubble-wrapped happy faces with no danger or dramatic elements.

It’s still gonna be a fun log flume with some impressive AAs.

But if Disney continues along this path of wimpy narratives— and calling them “adventures”—it’s not hard to imagine a possible future Disneyland/Magic Kingdom where:

Pirates are all nice people just trying to help out…
Ghosts all smile and blow kisses…
Pooh gets a makeover to remove the storm and heffalump scenes… because they cause stress in some riders.
And no scenes of suspense or conflict of any kind are allowed.

… but Minnie still kicks Pluto into a car trunk, because THAT’S permissible in a park story. 😃
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
I'm happy to say I'm wrong about the number of characters - that happens.

The thing I'm curious about now is how many significant AAs were in Splash and are now in TBA.

I don't think it'd change my opinion of the ride, and I re-rode yesterday. But just for understanding how ride design works, it might be interesting.
It depends on what you consider "significant". Do you mean significant from a plot perspective, or significant from a motion perspective?

There are a total of 14 true animatronic figures in TBA (grand total including all duplicates, and these are all returning characters from the film), ones that have good to great range of motion that is also dynamic and non-repetitive. There are an additional 32 new instrument playing critter figures in the ride in total (16 individuals, but duplicated twice so they reappear in the finale). However, these 32 figures are extremely rudimentary. They only have 1-3 joints each. The turtle, one of the bobcats and two of the large bears for instance only have a single axis. None of the 32 critters have any motion above the neck, no eye or mouth movement. Their movement is also the same one-two-one-two back and forth pattern repeated over and over again forever. Nothing dynamic or synchronized to any sort of audio source (even the ancient Tiki Room birds put them to shame). For reference, the relatively "simple" squatting bullfrogs AA's in Splash could turn, blink, bob their heads and torsos, and open/close their mouths. All programmed to synchronize with the music and lyrics being played back. They could visibly talk and sing. Nothing looked repetitive.

With that baseline established, Splash Mountain at WDW had roughly 55 of these true animatronic figures. The simplest of which were the aforementioned squatting bullfrogs and the Mr Bluebird and Brer Roadrunner figures. Even these are still much more complex than any of TBA's new critters. The larger and more complex figures are actually still quite impressive to this day, in fact they actually still move better than four of the legitimate AA's in TBA (Charlotte, Eudora, Naveen and Ralphie I believe don't have any mouth movement).

tumblr_prxyz554Ny1v3nf2z_400.gif


^There were a substantial number of these large complex figures (and remember that their mouth movements were in sync with vocals). That finale scene alone in its entirety had about 17 characters of this caliber. There's something like 20ish other AA's scattered through the rest of the ride which were similarly complex (including the main Brers along with other secondary critters). So over 35 in total of these larger advanced AA's. But again that isn't including any of the bullfrogs or birds, which again are still "true" AA's in the sense that they have a decent amount of axes of motion. Programmed in a dynamic manner Including head turns/nods, blinking and mouths opening/closing in sync with recorded music/dialog. Of course, there were a fair few simpler moving props as well that i'm not including among this total. Spinning beehives, giggling fountain riding turtles, tiny hanging possums, a couple Brer Bears etc. I'll also note in passing that the entire riverboat itself also tilted back and forth, and the waterwheel would spin.

At Tokyo, you can add another 5 to the total of large complex AA's in addition to what WDW had, so about 60. They got a few extras from California that were missing from WDW's.

California's version had the most true AA's of the three Splashes. It inherited an additional handful from America Sings that weren't replicated in the other two versions. About 75 true AA's in total by my count. My count is ever so slightly less precise here because DL's is faster and has more to count (with fewer walls between the intertwining scenes), and I unfortunately never had the opportunity to ride it in person either. Nevertheless, over 70 genuine AA's. And a greater amount of large and complex ones too since it had additional geese, storks, dogs, cats, donkeys, wolves etc. Again not including the simple static or basic moving props of course. The finale scene alone had 26 large complex AA's. And their riverboat also used to tilt as well.
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
I'm happy to say I'm wrong about the number of characters - that happens.

The thing I'm curious about now is how many significant AAs were in Splash and are now in TBA.

I don't think it'd change my opinion of the ride, and I re-rode yesterday. But just for understanding how ride design works, it might be interesting.
If you take out the stuff that was about on par with Tiki Room, so all of the Bullfrogs, Mr Bluebird, Brer Roadrunner, the Brer Bear Butts, and the limited motion figures, you get around 45 I believe? These figures would all be A1 models, roughly on par with PotC (some more advanced than others).

For Tiana, giving it the benefit of the doubt that all of the humans are proper animatronics (which I’m not even sure is the case for Eudora, Naveen, Ralphie, and Charlotte) you get exactly 14. None of the critters besides Louis count because they are of the same complexity as Fantasyland figures, not even on par with Tiki Room.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Keep in mind, though, the Imagineers might have had far better ideas that were not greenlit. Maybe someday we’ll get the full behind-the-scenes.

In this case though it’s more the execution of the idea than the idea itself. Granted, the idea can be better too
 

Rich T

Well-Known Member
In this case though it’s more the execution of the idea than the idea itself. Granted, the idea can be better too
I’d love to know what the idea actually WAS for this thing. Did they intentionally sponge all suspense and drama from the IP, or were the parameters so restrictive that “gather animals and celebrate being special” was literally all they could arrive at?
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
I’d love to know what the idea actually WAS for this thing. Did they intentionally sponge all suspense and drama from the IP, or were the parameters so restrictive that “gather animals and celebrate being special” was literally all they could arrive at?

I’d imagine the only parameters were …

No Facilier/ No voodoo
Tiana can’t be a frog
Tiana needs to be the perfect human being/ girl boss/ authentic- haircut, clothing etc
AUTHENTICITY / INCLUSION

Outside of these things I think everything was fair game.

I have heard rumors that they didn't want this to be scary for kids so that could have been a parameter too but considering this is a ride with a 50 foot drop that would make absolutely no sense... so its probably true.
 
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mickEblu

Well-Known Member
I’d love to know what the idea actually WAS for this thing. Did they intentionally sponge all suspense and drama from the IP, or were the parameters so restrictive that “gather animals and celebrate being special” was literally all they could arrive at?

Forgot to mention the fallout from the parameters being that the story would now have to take place after the movie meaning Ray is now dead and Naveen is not represented in his most memorable form (although I think creative people could have worked around this).
 

Rich T

Well-Known Member
Forgot to mention the fallout from the parameters being that the story would now have to take place after the movie meaning Ray is now dead and Naveen is not represented in his most memorable form (although I think creative people could have worked around this).
I am actually sorry at this point that the “Louis lost his trumpet” storyline was just a rumor.

I would have had Louis lose his trumpet—and it turns out it’s a MAGIC trumpet that grants him human speech and intelligence, and without it he turns, werewolf-like, into a snarling hungry monster alligator who chases riders throughout the adventure and eventually over a cliff. At end of the drop runoff, you pass Louis holding up his trumpet, happily saying “Oh! We found it!”

And then everyone celebrates that we’re all still alive.

And then you pass Louis one more time at the last turn as the trumpet slips from his grasp into the swamp water and he says, “Uh-oh.” And then one final big jump scare featuring a great instant transformation illusion. 😃

Ok, maybe my pitch needs some work, but at least it’s a genuine adventure. 😃
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
It depends on what you consider "significant". Do you mean significant from a plot perspective, or significant from a motion perspective?

There are a total of 14 true animatronic figures in TBA (grand total including all duplicates, and these are all returning characters from the film), ones that have good to great range of motion that is also dynamic and non-repetitive. There are an additional 32 new instrument playing critter figures in the ride in total (16 individuals, but duplicated twice so they reappear in the finale). However, these 32 figures are extremely rudimentary. They only have 1-3 joints each. The turtle, one of the bobcats and two of the large bears for instance only have a single axis. None of the 32 critters have any motion above the neck, no eye or mouth movement. Their movement is also the same one-two-one-two back and forth pattern repeated over and over again forever. Nothing dynamic or synchronized to any sort of audio source (even the ancient Tiki Room birds put them to shame). For reference, the relatively "simple" squatting bullfrogs AA's in Splash could turn, blink, bob their heads and torsos, and open/close their mouths. All programmed to synchronize with the music and lyrics being played back. They could visibly talk and sing. Nothing looked repetitive.

With that baseline established, Splash Mountain at WDW had roughly 55 of these true animatronic figures. The simplest of which were the aforementioned squatting bullfrogs and the Mr Bluebird and Brer Roadrunner figures. Even these are still much more complex than any of TBA's new critters. The larger and more complex figures are actually still quite impressive to this day, in fact they actually still move better than four of the legitimate AA's in TBA (Charlotte, Eudora, Naveen and Ralphie I believe don't have any mouth movement).

tumblr_prxyz554Ny1v3nf2z_400.gif


^There were a substantial number of these large complex figures (and remember that their mouth movements were in sync with vocals). That finale scene alone in its entirety had about 17 characters of this caliber. There's something like 20ish other AA's scattered through the rest of the ride which were similarly complex (including the main Brers along with other secondary critters). So over 35 in total of these larger advanced AA's. But again that isn't including any of the bullfrogs or birds, which again are still "true" AA's in the sense that they have a decent amount of axes of motion. Programmed in a dynamic manner Including head turns/nods, blinking and mouths opening/closing in sync with recorded music/dialog. Of course, there were a fair few simpler moving props as well that i'm not including among this total. Spinning beehives, giggling fountain riding turtles, tiny hanging possums, a couple Brer Bears etc. I'll also note in passing that the entire riverboat itself also tilted back and forth, and the waterwheel would spin.

At Tokyo, you can add another 5 to the total of large complex AA's in addition to what WDW had, so about 60. They got a few extras from California that were missing from WDW's.

California's version had the most true AA's of the three Splashes. It inherited an additional handful from America Sings that weren't replicated in the other two versions. About 75 true AA's in total by my count. My count is ever so slightly less precise here because DL's is faster and has more to count (with fewer walls between the intertwining scenes), and I unfortunately never had the opportunity to ride it in person either. Nevertheless, over 70 genuine AA's. And a greater amount of large and complex ones too since it had additional geese, storks, dogs, cats, donkeys, wolves etc. Again not including the simple static or basic moving props of course. The finale scene alone had 26 large complex AA's. And their riverboat also used to tilt as well.

What a disaster. I cant believe they couldn't find a way to keep more of the old AA's.

14 genuine AA's? Wow. I remember someone (not you) coming down on me for predicting there would only be like three dozen AA's because I was feeding into the "false" narrative that there were going to be much fewer AA's. So when Disney said "dozens" of AA's they meant a dozen + 2? LOL. We gave them the benefit of the doubt and thought that at least meant between 24-36. In general though, so many people gave Disney the benefit of the doubt that TBA was going to get an A+ effort because of what it was replacing. Instead they get rid of a bunch of perfectly functioning AA's to cut down maintenance costs in the future and thought we wouldn't notice and get distracted by the twinkling lights and background projections. What a joke.
 
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BasiltheBatLord

Well-Known Member
What a disaster. I cant believe they couldn't find a way to keep more of the old AA's.

14 genuine AA's? Wow. I remember someone (not you) coming down on me for predicting there would only be like three dozen AA's because I was feeding into the "false" narrative that there were going to be much fewer AA's. So when Disney said "dozens" of AA's they meant a dozen + 2? LOL. We gave them the benefit of the doubt and thought that at least meant between 24-36. In general though, so many people gave Disney the benefit of the doubt that TBA was going to get an A+ effort because of what it was replacing. Instead they get rid of a bunch of perfectly functioning AA's to cut down maintenance costs in the future and thought we wouldn't notice and get distracted by the twinkling lights and background projections. What a joke.
If they're really dumping all the America Sings AA's (which seems to be the case, as none of the replicas were re-used at WDW) then that is a real shame. There's no reason they couldn't have picked a handful to stay in TBA.
 

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
I just really hope they aren't scrapping the America Sings figures. Those things have been a part of Disneyland for 50 years- they should be preserved. And not just a few of them- all the ones that remain.
Also hope this is the case, but something tells me that it will not be the complete collection.
I am sure a few choice figures will be saved by the Walt Disney Archives, but I don’t see ALL of the ‘Sings’ figures being saved.
They just don’t have the storage space, and perhaps at this point not even the interest to do so at this point.
But I could of course be completely wrong here…


There was talk recently about how many of the figures were having their mechanical parts reused to keep other figures going, which is a common salvaging practice with AAs.
I believe these comments were regarding the WDW ‘Splash Mountain’ critters, with the parts going towards the refurbishment of the ‘Country Bears’ figures.
That is typical, and expected at WDW.

-
 

Ne'er-Do-Well Cad

Well-Known Member
Oh I do agree with you.
It is obvious something is really ‘off’ about this Attraction, and it needs some tweaks ( and for some, maybe a complete re-do ).

And Pirates….
Reminds me of this famous quote from the ol’ Disney series ‘Jake & the Neverland Pirates’ -

View attachment 791596

X Atencio once lamented that POTC had degenerated into “Boy Scouts of the Caribbean.”

Your image makes me realize WDI has “Preschoolers of the Caribbean” in store for us next.
 

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