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Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion
- Thread starter Californian Elitist
- Start date
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
It is just so much story to cram in. I love different cultures and what they bring to the world. But like how is this all gonna fit in to the ride? Again if it's just a fully furnished queue with eastereggs I guess it makes sense. But if it's the ride? I have no idea.What a difference a day makes! Just 24 hours ago I was feeling fairly optimistic about the new Tiana ride, and then this arrived...
What on earth?!? Is this still a log ride, or is it now a lecture series?
My head hurts, and a lot of this stuff doesn't pass the smell test. So I Googled. The sudden inclusion of Filipino's, Mexicans and Chinese into this log ride story just seems really... forced. Like something only an HR committee with no Internet access could come up with.
According to the 1930 US Census, the population of Louisiana was 2.1 Million and the state had the following racial demographics;
Whites = 63% or 1.4 Million
Blacks = 36.9% or 700,000
American Indian = 0.1% or 1,536
Chinese = 0.02% or 422 (Four hundred and twenty two people living in Louisiana in 1930 were of Chinese descent)
Japanese = 0.002% or 52 (Fifty two people living in Louisiana in 1930 were of Japanese descent)
Other = 0.02% or 545 (perhaps those are where the Filipino's and Mexicans came from for the ride?)
If I were from New Orleans, I would be a tad upset that the already colorful and fabulous culture of that uniquely American city was being divided up like that. Because the 99.98% of the citizenry isn't inclusive enough now? So you have to make up history that didn't happen and pretend there was a noticeable Chinese or Mexican influence in the city circa 1930? And you aren't going to give a nod to 0.1% of the state that was American Indian, but instead are going to celebrate the 0.02% who were Chinese?
The mind boggles at how the HR department makes that mathematic equation work, but I'm not surprised any more.
https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/population-volume-2/37779195v2p18ch3.pdf
No kidding. This is getting messy very fast. Now we're also celebrating WWI vets and 0.02% of the state population? Employee owned!
You forgot about her mom making dresses for the local children which inspired Tiana's entrepreneurial spirit very briefly before Tiana turned her businesses over to the employee's to own. Also, there's a big drop and a splash somewhere in there too.
For the record I'm against too much story in any ride. Even things like Haunted Mansion and Pirates which people
claim have a big backstory, actually don't.
Things should kickstart the rider's imagination, not tell them.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
What's even funnier is that there is barely any room in the Splash Mountain queue for props and sets. Once you enter the barn doors there's that one little display area about 15 feet wide, then it's a series of tight hallways and narrow tunnels that are always packed full of people shoulder-to-shoulder, so all you'll be able to see is a few of the flat poster art WDI will install along those very narrow hallways...
It will be these narrow hallways with an old-timey radio show that no one can actually hear over the din telling us that "Tiana needs our help to save the celebration, Recruits!"
And then a long stream of artsty posters and prints that will exclaim the various HR approved angles to this elaborate backstory...
Plus, the sounds of the White-Breasted Nuthatch chirping in the queue are exactly like the bird the Imagineers heard chirping one morning on the breakfast terrace of the New Orleans Ritz-Carlton. Immersed!
It's all just so mind-numbing and tiring. Who thinks this is what people go on theme park log rides for???
At least a bunch of Imagineers got their Bonvoy points boosted quite substantially for the "research" on this sudden project.
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Adventureland Veranda
Well-Known Member
At least the queue will be employee owned now.
Maybe Disney could make the employees owners of the company too.
I cannot. I am all for inclusiveness but I think they are getting too carried away with trying to wedge in every possibility in one theme park ride.
shambolicdefending
Well-Known Member
Hey now, the Disney Corp. isn't hiring all of those highly paid DEI executives just to be window dressing...I just went over and scanned the WDW version of this thread, just to see if both coasts were on the same page after today's news update.
Yup! The WDW folks are now as worried about it as we are here. Some rather insightful comments from the East Coasters too, and they trend towards a concern that Disney no longer knows how to have fun just for the sake of having fun. Like on a silly musical log ride. It has to be focus grouped and led by a dour HR committee and put through a politically correct meat grinder until what comes out is no longer fun, it's a lecture series on the ills of humanity instead of a fun ride based on the brightness of humanity.
It's just insufferable at this point. And it never sells to the masses.
Just make a musical log ride with a wacky alligator that plays the Saxophone, please. And leave the humorless dolts in HR out of it.
I think the team is simply having fun with this project. It seems they want to do right by the IP and New Orleans. None of the announcements have indicated that all of these details will be in the actual ride and are essential to the general premise. They are attraction details.
PatF is personally important to me and I’m enjoying these details that are going into the attraction.
PatF is personally important to me and I’m enjoying these details that are going into the attraction.
Midwest Elitist
Well-Known Member
No thanks, I have better drugs
Model3 McQueen
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Will Awkwafina be rapping for us in the final show scene after the drop?
I really hope that is true. My reaction is the same as when some Latinx groups complained that they were not represented in the movie "In The Heights." Lin-Manuel Miranda apologized but my take on it is, why do they all have to be in one movie? Why can't there be a variety of movies with a variety of cultures? Ditto theme park attractions.
Chad Thundercaulk
Member
I think that's the biggest problem with this change is that it is window dressing, and the only reason a change is happening is because Disney Execs believed they could make more money on merchandise for Princess and the Frog. They knew they could justify getting rid of a beloved attraction on the pretense of racism.
Princess and the Frog has several of the same "issues" that Song of the South had. Princess and the Frog negates the issues of the Jim Crow south, similar to how Song of the South negates the issues of the reconstruction south. Disney movies are impossible without negation, they don't show you the chim chiminey lung cancer.
The depictions of Louisiana Voodoo in Princess and the Frog have been criticized similarly to the dialect used in Song of the South.
The only major difference in the movies is that Tiana is a restaurant owner while Uncle Remus is a sharecropper, and it seems Tiana doesn't even own the restaurant anymore.
BubbaisSleep
Well-Known Member
Ahh, well now it all makes sense lol. Jk
Exactly, someone on another post said exactly what I’d image. The queue containing a lot of details & probably some props after the first two outdoor lift hills, but after the first drop it will look like old Splash but with a bayou theme. I’m sure most topics released will be limited to a corner or shelf in the queue accompanied by a newspaper explaining, similar to many Potter queues.
I love love love NOLA, Walt’s version at Disneyland is what made me want to go so on my second ever flight at 23. I took my brother to Mardi Gras in 2015 & I’ve been back 3 times since. The bayou is such a fun place to visit & I have a feeling this ride will be gorgeous. I’m imagining the boat ride at Avatar’s Pandora but with gorgeous swamp trees and fireflies everywhere. Possibly screens used in some scenes like in the Avatar boat ride too to give it more ambiance & depth. I’ll miss splash but I’m really excited for Tiana to come! I actually took a picture of the tree that Mama Ode’s home was based off of last year below. So cool!
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Chad Thundercaulk
Member
Exactly this. It's gone from a primary source retelling of stories told by blacks in the south that bring together Native American and African influences, to white people telling a German fairy tale, but set in New Orleans and the Princess is black.
SSG
Well-Known Member
I give you the greatest attraction backstory ever:
“There is a way in which Guardians of the Galaxy is almost an intrusion, It’s coming out of nowhere — kaboom! — into this space. The idea that it would come out of nowhere — kablam! — like a square peg in a round hole, is like the Guardians.” --Joe Rohde
DavidDL
Well-Known Member
I think all this talk from Disney regarding seemingly superfluous story details (like the WW1 stuff) is probably just them blowing very minor queue details up into something "newsworthy" due to a lack of (or unwillingness to show) major attraction updates right now.
All the little backstory stuff and fluff they've talked about so far will probably just end up being fun little details in the queue a la Tower of Terror, Roger Rabbit, etc. -and that's awesome. But I think the issue some folks might be having with the current news cycle or lack/presentation of, is that we're starving to see something of greater substance finished and shared at this point. I mean, this attraction was announced nearly 3 years ago. Some animatronics, a soundtrack clip, anything. Instead, it's been all talk about tiny backstory details and about Imagineering's many trips to New Orleans. But at this point I think the fandom at large is ready to start seeing or hearing something that's really going to make us say, "Wow, this is gonna be awesome!".
Think of it this way: no one would be complaining if Imagineering wanted to share fun, little backstories or the tales about how they picked out all the various knick-knacks strewn about the lobby and offices of the Tower of Terror (like the seemingly sudden end to two patrons game of cards). But they probably would be if this was all they had to share after 3 years, with no actual ground being broken on the future site of the hotel.
I don't think all of this extra detail will be on-ride things we have to think about. At least, I hope not. It's probably just a poorly managed news cycle. Again, I hope. I don't want them to forget to keep things fun and simple with this attraction. This doesn't have to be Star Wars where fans like myself obsess over having every little detail interconnected into a wider universe.
This should be simple fun, with good music and an easy to follow story. Like helping to find Louis' trumpet before the big Bayou Bash. Or searching for Tiana's missing ingredient. Not much else needs to be added. Aside from a few thrilling drops, of course.
All the little backstory stuff and fluff they've talked about so far will probably just end up being fun little details in the queue a la Tower of Terror, Roger Rabbit, etc. -and that's awesome. But I think the issue some folks might be having with the current news cycle or lack/presentation of, is that we're starving to see something of greater substance finished and shared at this point. I mean, this attraction was announced nearly 3 years ago. Some animatronics, a soundtrack clip, anything. Instead, it's been all talk about tiny backstory details and about Imagineering's many trips to New Orleans. But at this point I think the fandom at large is ready to start seeing or hearing something that's really going to make us say, "Wow, this is gonna be awesome!".
Think of it this way: no one would be complaining if Imagineering wanted to share fun, little backstories or the tales about how they picked out all the various knick-knacks strewn about the lobby and offices of the Tower of Terror (like the seemingly sudden end to two patrons game of cards). But they probably would be if this was all they had to share after 3 years, with no actual ground being broken on the future site of the hotel.
I don't think all of this extra detail will be on-ride things we have to think about. At least, I hope not. It's probably just a poorly managed news cycle. Again, I hope. I don't want them to forget to keep things fun and simple with this attraction. This doesn't have to be Star Wars where fans like myself obsess over having every little detail interconnected into a wider universe.
This should be simple fun, with good music and an easy to follow story. Like helping to find Louis' trumpet before the big Bayou Bash. Or searching for Tiana's missing ingredient. Not much else needs to be added. Aside from a few thrilling drops, of course.
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TP2000
Well-Known Member
It's just so baffling to me. It tells me that the WDI Execs designing this stuff for the 2020's have absolutely no idea how their attractions operate or how their paying "guests" experience them.
Putting aside the cringey and forced socio-political angle of pablum like "Employee Owned Cooperative!" and how Blacks served admirably in WWI under a notoriously racist and eugenics fan of a President, all these forced details and minor backstory angles are just way, way too much.
No one experiences Disney attractions like the WDI Execs apparently now think they experience them. I find it to be even further proof that the theme park division of Disney is now being designed and led by people who don't understand how the parks operate, and rarely (if ever) use the products they are designing and managing for people.
That type of executive strategy almost never works out.
I'd forgot about that one!
While that one left me wondering what exactly they were putting into the water coolers at the WDI campus, it was at least a bit closer to the type of backstories Walt and his team used to offer for attractions that went on to become wildly successful with paying audiences.
Walt Disney explaining Pirates of the Caribbean on national color TV in 1965:
"People are gonna get on a boat here, and ride through the lagoon, and then as they get around here we're gonna take 'em down a waterfall! And take 'em back into the past, into the days of the pirates you know, the whole Caribbean area was full of pirates, and they were always sacking towns and things."
Cut, print, that's a wrap! Walt just explained the most expensive & elaborate attraction in Disney history perfectly.
No further info needed.