Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion

[DrAlice]

So, I just watched the FreshBaked DL ride-through and I don't think we got a better version than Florida. Some things I noted:

* The first half of the ride has less blank space in DL.
That's the one West Coast Win. The rest is better at WDW (at least comparing the video of DL - I have only been on the WDW version.)

* The second half of the DL ride is lacking a lot. The area right before the big lift hill has an entire blank wall on the right side. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I don't think that is the case at WDW.
* The "we're shrunk!" area at DL is missing leaping water features present in the WDW version and overall has less to look at.
* JuJu was not working at the end of the ride in the DL version.

Perhaps those last two will change before the official opening in November.

 

[TomboyJanet]

Only having seen videos, as I have not yet taken my semi yearly Disney trips, here is my view of the Cali Version.

So It seems better than the Florida version by a lot. The pacing helps, but the fact that they HAD to fill it with more animatronics makes it look less like a Disney store in the cave scenes. I like that they added a cave at the begining to make more sense as to why your going under something cavern looking, The additional frogs are GREAT and I love their animations. It still suffers from a lack of story though. The Screens also look out of place compared to how much better the animatronics look. I know the quality is decreased on the vids, but when I was say, riding web slingers, I was not impressed by the quality either. Guardians Tower did ok but blurred from time to time which made it look artificial and flat. These look like they don't have as much of that layered (similar to old Disney animation) 3-D style that saves screens from being COMPLETELY detested by me. Again, this could just be that video. Though It seems the fireflies magnified in the bottle scene is unimpressive because hey it's a screen they can animate them to do whatever they want, you know how it works. I preferred the old disney "HOW DOES IT WORK...HOW DID THEY DO THAT?" feel. I also would like to say that though the music is so out of place, the lifthill scene with the light tunnel effect is pulled off way better in this smaller tunnel space. I miss the blinky eyes but at least you can see them in Pirates, albeit it doesn't have that menacing feel going toward the station. (The blinky eyes never appeared in the Cali Splash Mt anyway, IF i recall from last year, so IDK why I'm mentioning them)

All of this couldn't save it from a lack of story however. It's still just about you as my boyfriend put it "Running errands while travelling in an unnecessarily dangerous manner". And Mama Ode has now gone from charming weirdo to annoying menace. Kinda like Figment in a way, but at least figment was sticking it to the institute that ruined his ride. This leaves me wondering if Ode has kinda lost more of her marbles after the movie and become a female mr toad.

 

[DrAlice]

We are a few days into previews, how hard is it to get a virtual queue? I'm going in a week and hope it isn't too difficult.

I don't think they are letting people ride all day. At least on the first day it was only for the afternoon, so perhaps that is why it's been difficult.

 

[HonorableMention]

Comparing to Frozen in Epcot again since I think they’re fairly similar:

While Frozen re-used songs from the movie, they changed the lyrics to make it fit the ride. It’s charming and elevates an okay experience.

They didn’t change any lyrics here. I just noticed that in the Laughing Place, you’ll hear these lyrics:

“Prince Froggy is a rich little boy
You wanna be rich again
That ain't gonna make you happy now
Did it make you happy then?”

That just…doesn’t fit at all with what’s happening. Why not go the Frozen route with some of the music? For example, Gonna Take You There could have been altered to something like this:

“Going down the bayou, singing down the bayou, playing down the bayou, finding a band today”

 

[TomboyJanet]

Comparing to Frozen in Epcot again since I think they’re fairly similar:

While Frozen re-used songs from the movie, they changed the lyrics to make it fit the ride. It’s charming and elevates an okay experience.

They didn’t change any lyrics here. I just noticed that in the Laughing Place, you’ll hear these lyrics:

“Prince Froggy is a rich little boy
You wanna be rich again
That ain't gonna make you happy now
Did it make you happy then?”

That just…doesn’t fit at all with what’s happening. Why not go the Frozen route with some of the music? For example, Gonna Take You There could have been altered to something like this:

“Going down the bayou, singing down the bayou, playing down the bayou, finding a band today”

Even Zip a Dee Do Dah was changed to include the famous "B'rer Fox and B'rer Bear are gonna get it today!"

That's not to mention the MANY versions of How do you do simultaneously sung from "time to be movin' along" to Hitchhiking Gator's "Might as well take me along". Even the laughing place became the "Don't you go to the laughing place or the fox will get you too". It was just so much more layered and in depth than what we have now.

 

[mickEblu]

Comparing to Frozen in Epcot again since I think they’re fairly similar:

While Frozen re-used songs from the movie, they changed the lyrics to make it fit the ride. It’s charming and elevates an okay experience.

They didn’t change any lyrics here. I just noticed that in the Laughing Place, you’ll hear these lyrics:

“Prince Froggy is a rich little boy
You wanna be rich again
That ain't gonna make you happy now
Did it make you happy then?”

That just…doesn’t fit at all with what’s happening. Why not go the Frozen route with some of the music? For example, Gonna Take You There could have been altered to something like this:

“Going down the bayou, singing down the bayou, playing down the bayou, finding a band today”

Great example of the level laziness applied to this retheme. Unbelievable.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Let's dissect one of the lyrics from the song "Special Spice!"

"Sometimes it's hard to believe that the very thing we were searching for was right here all along."

So we were looking for a band. There was nobody available.

We left Tiana's Foods to go into the bayou to look for them (because that makes perfect sense).

Then we found animals that can play instruments that they made out of logs and stuff.

So we brought them back to the "Fleur de Bayou" (you know, the "proud home" (whatever that means) of Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen), and then Tiana sings about how the very thing we were searching for was actually right there all along.

What is she talking about? We just brought all these musical animals from the wilderness into her proud home. They weren't there all along.

The entire ride has been about our quest (if you can call it that) to get musicians at her party. There were NO MUSICIANS THERE ALL ALONG. That's the whole (stupid) point of this ride.

I could do this for lots of lines in the song. It's so dumb.

 

[mickEblu]

Let's dissect one of the lyrics from the song "Special Spice!"

"Sometimes it's hard to believe that the very thing we were searching for was right here all along."

So we were looking for a band. There was nobody available.

We left Tiana's Foods to go into the bayou to look for them (because that makes perfect sense).

Then we found animals that can play instruments that they made out of logs and stuff.

So we brought them back to the "Fleur de Bayou" (you know, the "proud home" (whatever that means) of Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen), and then Tiana sings about how the very thing we were searching for was actually right there all along.

What is she talking about? We just brought all these musical animals from the wilderness into her proud home. They weren't there all along.

The entire ride has been about our quest (if you can call it that) to get musicians at her party. There were NO MUSICIANS THERE ALL ALONG. That's the whole (stupid) point of this ride.

I could do this for lots of lines in the song. It's so dumb.

HOW ON EARTH DID THIS VERSION OF THE RIDE SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY? Something has to be very very broken over there.

 

[Epcot81Fan]

Entire dramatic, compelling E ticket plot of attraction:

Scene 1: We need to find a band!!! (Insert flailing)

Scene 2: Hey, look, there’s a band. (More flailing)

The end.

 

[TomboyJanet]

Let's dissect one of the lyrics from the song "Special Spice!"

"Sometimes it's hard to believe that the very thing we were searching for was right here all along."

So we were looking for a band. There was nobody available.

We left Tiana's Foods to go into the bayou to look for them (because that makes perfect sense).

Then we found animals that can play instruments that they made out of logs and stuff.

So we brought them back to the "Fleur de Bayou" (you know, the "proud home" (whatever that means) of Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen), and then Tiana sings about how the very thing we were searching for was actually right there all along.

What is she talking about? We just brought all these musical animals from the wilderness into her proud home. They weren't there all along.

The entire ride has been about our quest (if you can call it that) to get musicians at her party. There were NO MUSICIANS THERE ALL ALONG. That's the whole (stupid) point of this ride.

I could do this for lots of lines in the song. It's so dumb.

NOTHING about this ride makes sense it's just like those six flags rides that play audio clips of movies at random times to get your adrenaline pumped but they have no context on a superman coaster (as they are from more than just superhero movies)

 

[DarkMetroid567]

Guys, at a certain point you need to get offline and let things go.

I hate Web Slingers. Guess how many times I’ve thought of or brought up Web Slingers in the last three years?

 

[MK-fan]

Entire dramatic, compelling E ticket plot of attraction:

Scene 1: We need to find a band!!! (Insert flailing)

Scene 2: Hey, look, there’s a band. (More flailing)

The end.

Great premise, I like the part where they found the band.

 

[Ice Gator]

Let's dissect one of the lyrics from the song "Special Spice!"

"Sometimes it's hard to believe that the very thing we were searching for was right here all along."

But the special spice is YOU!!!

Heck to all of the critters we just recruited for our band, we never needed them anyways. The special spice was the friends we made along the way while trying to get the perfect gumbo ingredients…I mean find a band…I mean…wait why did we have to go to the bayou again?

 

[HonorableMention]

Guys, at a certain point you need to get offline and let things go.

I hate Web Slingers. Guess how many times I’ve thought of or brought up Web Slingers in the last three years?

Fair enough. I don’t hate the ride, more than anything I’m disappointed because it had SO much potential. Some of the ingredients (pun intended) for a great ride are there and it sucks that it turned out like this.

I didn’t have high expectations for Web Slingers, but I did for this.

 

[mickEblu]

Fair enough. I don’t hate the ride, more than anything I’m disappointed because it had SO much potential. Some of the ingredients (pun intended) for a great ride are there and it sucks that it turned out like this.

I didn’t have high expectations for Web Slingers, but I did for this.

No not fair enough haha. This thing literally just opened at Disneyland 2 days ago. Of course we re going to be talking about it. Webslingers is a terrible example too. Not only did it open years ago but it didn’t replace anything (too) beloved.

 

[Too Many Hats]

Well said. I don’t agree with your take on the HYDY scenes or that they should remove the drop to match their ineptitude but agree with the rest.

That’s cool, I think we otherwise agree the ride has some fundamental shortcomings and is a monument to missed opportunities. I do think many scenes and moments work well enough, but overall it comes up short.

I’m being cheeky when I say they should remove the drop. But I do sincerely believe it’s the worst moment of the ride.

Not sure though why you won’t buy into the fact that TBA’s shortcomings are due to more than just a lack of talent. You yourself said WDI knows better.

They do know better. Is your perspective that WDI’s leadership simply looked the other way on TBA’s amateurish missteps because this is ostensibly an “important”attraction that checks certain boxes for inclusion/representation?

If so, it’s possible that happened but we don’t have any actual evidence for it, and in fact one might assume the opposite would happen (that TBA would be prioritized and provided infinite resources so that WDI surely “gets it right”), knowing the corporate culture of this era.

 

[Architectural Guinea Pig]

If we’re talking storyline, let’s move the discussion to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey…

 

[Too Many Hats]

If we’re talking storyline, let’s move the discussion to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey…

The story and script are so bad, and I’ve complained about it since opening day.

“Hermione did it! They’re flying!”

“Look out! The dragon!”

“Watch out for the Whomping Willow!”

“Dementors!”

It’s a super fun ride and I love it, but it falls short of perfection because of the lazy writing and collage-approach to storytelling. Compare these quotes to the excellent writing on Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man or Rise of the Resistance.

I don’t have a vendetta against Tiana; happy to call out subpar writing on any theme park attraction.

 

[JSouth25]

No not fair enough haha. This thing literally just opened at Disneyland 2 days ago. Of course we re going to be talking out. Webslingers is a terrible example too. Not only did it open years ago but it didn’t replace anything (too) beloved.

For what it’s worth, I do miss It’s Tough to be a Bug quite a bit.

 

[mickEblu]

For what it’s worth, I do miss It’s Tough to be a Bug quite a bit.

So do I