Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion

[JSouth25]

I think pretty much everyone, whether you didn’t want the retheme or were excited about it, can agree this ride should’ve turned out better than it did. I wanted to feel like, “I miss Splash, but this retheme is pretty cool too,” not, “This retheme is a downgrade, why couldn’t this be better?” I can only hope they go back and revisit it down the line, but who knows when that’ll be with Disneyland Forward and other projects taking priority coming up.

 

[Architectural Guinea Pig]

Remember kiddos, the general public doesn't give a donkey's left foot hair for the interior show scenes of the attraction, they only care about the giant 50-foot drop at the end. Ask a random person who's been to the parks before, and they'll tell you about how fun the splash is on Splash Mountain, not about how Brer Rabbit survived or how they stuffed a goose in a corner. Disney fulfills most people's needs, so we have no chance to see an improvement on an already decently popular ride.

Same with Web Slingers- people ride it for Spider-Man, not for the ride itself. There's a reason it can still hold 60-minute waits.

 

[coffeefan]

I just hope they can at least fix the signs and murals. Those affect the aesthetic of the land even if you don't go on the ride.

 

[Professortango1]

Today I decided to take a siesta and think about how I would approached this project.

Queue - Keeping the older more cobwebby version of the barn, I would have a mellow instrumental of "Almost There" playing with sketches and such indicating that this was the property she was trying to buy and fix up at the start of the film.
Bayou - Would keep the same, except use an instrumental version of "Down in New Orleans" rather than the lyrics.

Lift hill 1 - Have a Naveen frog AA talk to us and offer to tell us the story.

Outdoor roundabout - Not sure if its possible, but enclose the flume. We are at the Charlotte's party. Music plays, we hear the guests and party happening downstairs as we move through the upper hall. Odie door replaced with human Tiana and Frog Naveen getting ready to smooch. We careen off the balcony into the covered splash down.

Bayou entry - We are greeted with an instrumental version of "Goin Down the Bayou" as we see Tiana and Naveen, both as frogs, replacing the former frogs and gator.

Dollar a Minute - Louis AA in the water offering to help take Naveen and Tiana, who sit opposite where Tiana is currently, to Mama Odie, a mysterious figure of the Bayou.

Band # 2 - we are now surrounded by the wildlife in the Bayou singing the lyrics to "Goin' Down the Bayou." Fireflies light the way.

Take Me Along - A Facilier figure peers our behind a tree stump as Louis, Naveen, Tiana, and Ray are across the way, confirming that we have made it to Odie's. Her boat and tree lie ahead and we splash into our second drop.

Laughing Place I - We are dropped into a world of colored bottles hanging and instrumental to "Dig a Little Deeper"

Laughing Place 2 - The lyrics now join the music. Brer Bear/Mondo is replaced by Odie dancing with Juju. Mama Odie's bathtub spins around with Naveen and Tiana in it, Spoonbills sing along around the path.

Bee Hive - Facilier holding both frogs and telling them this is the end of the line for them.

Burrow's Lament - decked out in masks and talismans. The masks chant the infamous chant while Facilier's Talisman sits over the lift hill, glowing.

Lift Hill - Are You Ready with shadows and lights

Drop show scene - Tiana holding the talisman and threatening to smash it while Facilier's shadow pleads. We hear a crash and a "noo" as we crest over the hill and drop into the bayou.

Denouement - Instrumental of either "When I'm Human" or new finale song plays.

Finale - Similar to what we have now, but a better song. Instead of being Tiana's house, it is Tiana's place. The queue is paid off with seeing the space transformed.

Kiss goodnight - Naveen, human now, finishes off his narration with something akin to "and that is the tale of the Frog Prince." "You mean the princess and the frog!" The couple lovingly banters as we return to the unload.

Its not incredibly creative, but I think it works and it gives me what I'm looking for in regards to a Princess and the Frog ride stuck inside Splash Mountain.

 

[SuddenStorm]

Today I decided to take a siesta and think about how I would approached this project.

Queue - Keeping the older more cobwebby version of the barn, I would have a mellow instrumental of "Almost There" playing with sketches and such indicating that this was the property she was trying to buy and fix up at the start of the film.
Bayou - Would keep the same, except use an instrumental version of "Down in New Orleans" rather than the lyrics.

Lift hill 1 - Have a Naveen frog AA talk to us and offer to tell us the story.

Outdoor roundabout - Not sure if its possible, but enclose the flume. We are at the Charlotte's party. Music plays, we hear the guests and party happening downstairs as we move through the upper hall. Odie door replaced with human Tiana and Frog Naveen getting ready to smooch. We careen off the balcony into the covered splash down.

Bayou entry - We are greeted with an instrumental version of "Goin Down the Bayou" as we see Tiana and Naveen, both as frogs, replacing the former frogs and gator.

Dollar a Minute - Louis AA in the water offering to help take Naveen and Tiana, who sit opposite where Tiana is currently, to Mama Odie, a mysterious figure of the Bayou.

Band # 2 - we are now surrounded by the wildlife in the Bayou singing the lyrics to "Goin' Down the Bayou." Fireflies light the way.

Take Me Along - A Facilier figure peers our behind a tree stump as Louis, Naveen, Tiana, and Ray are across the way, confirming that we have made it to Odie's. Her boat and tree lie ahead and we splash into our second drop.

Laughing Place I - We are dropped into a world of colored bottles hanging and instrumental to "Dig a Little Deeper"

Laughing Place 2 - The lyrics now join the music. Brer Bear/Mondo is replaced by Odie dancing with Juju. Mama Odie's bathtub spins around with Naveen and Tiana in it, Spoonbills sing along around the path.

Bee Hive - Facilier holding both frogs and telling them this is the end of the line for them.

Burrow's Lament - decked out in masks and talismans. The masks chant the infamous chant while Facilier's Talisman sits over the lift hill, glowing.

Lift Hill - Are You Ready with shadows and lights

Drop show scene - Tiana holding the talisman and threatening to smash it while Facilier's shadow pleads. We hear a crash and a "noo" as we crest over the hill and drop into the bayou.

Denouement - Instrumental of either "When I'm Human" or new finale song plays.

Finale - Similar to what we have now, but a better song. Instead of being Tiana's house, it is Tiana's place. The queue is paid off with seeing the space transformed.

Kiss goodnight - Naveen, human now, finishes off his narration with something akin to "and that is the tale of the Frog Prince." "You mean the princess and the frog!" The couple lovingly banters as we return to the unload.

Its not incredibly creative, but I think it works and it gives me what I'm looking for in regards to a Princess and the Frog ride stuck inside Splash Mountain.

I actually thought about what I would do for this project also.

What if instead of Princess and the Frog, it was based on the Br'er Characters? We could integrate elements from some of their folk tales- like Br'er Rabbit Earns a Dollar a Minute, The Laughing Place, and Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, and the Briar Patch.

​

 

[Brer Oswald]

Lol ok thank you for the sentences. Most of your paragraphs aren’t really a review of the ride though. And when you are talking about the ride it’s not very detailed.

“Overall I like the music”
“I like the vibe”
“I like the story”

When I say “two sentences” I’m not just talking about two literal sentences. I’m asking for some specifics. The types of specifics that those of us who don’t like this retheme can’t fill up a novel with. The reason I believe we don’t get these specifics from people who “like” the retheme is because there really isn’t much good/ great to stuff talk about or one is easy to please and has lower standards. So we end up with comments that boil down to “I like it.” Let’s hope Disney doesn’t start playing down to those lower standards as you’ve indicated before.

I don't like the retheme, but I will give you a few sentences of what I like about it. There's a particular audio detail in the ride version of "Going Down the Bayou" that I like; the owls hoot and the frogs croak to the tune of the song! That's a very old school Disney detail. I like that the finale song sounds like a commercial jingle. It is very catchy! I also specifically like what they did to the Laughing Place in Florida, not so much in terms of sets, but specifically the rainbow lighting and the restoration of the jumping fountains! See Bayou Bros? It isn't that hard

 

[Rich T]

Remember kiddos, the general public doesn't give a donkey's left foot hair for the interior show scenes of the attraction, they only care about the giant 50-foot drop at the end. Ask a random person who's been to the parks before, and they'll tell you about how fun the splash is on Splash Mountain, not about how Brer Rabbit survived or how they stuffed a goose in a corner. Disney fulfills most people's needs, so we have no chance to see an improvement on an already decently popular ride.

Same with Web Slingers- people ride it for Spider-Man, not for the ride itself. There's a reason it can still hold 60-minute waits.

The thing is, any theme park can do this. The reason Disney built up a huge multi-generation fan base over decades was that they offered a level of rich, compelling storytelling at DL and WDW. The best adventures had an emotional and creative depth that resonated and stuck with people (and, of course, at a reasonable price, but that’s another discussion).

They created rides that people wanted to bring their children and grandchildren back to experience. And good storytelling played an important part in that.

TBA is certainly “ok” and “good enough.” But that level of product is not what made them legendary. TBA could have been so much more than what it is.

That’s all. Same with Webslingers. IMO, lost potential.

 

[mickEblu]

The thing is, any theme park can do this. The reason Disney built up a huge multi-generation fan base over decades was that they offered a level of rich, compelling storytelling at DL and WDW. The best adventures had an emotional and creative depth that resonated and stuck with people (and, of course, at a reasonable price, but that’s another discussion).

They created rides that people wanted to bring their children and grandchildren back to experience. And good storytelling played an important part in that.

TBA is certainly “ok” and “good enough.” But that level of product is not what made them legendary. TBA could have been so much more than what it is.

That’s all. Same with Webslingers. IMO, lost potential.

I’ll also add that DLR isn’t busy because of Webslingers. It’s because the likes of POTC, HM, Indiana Jones, Fantasyland, RSR etc. Thats why Webslingers has a 45 minute wait and thats why Disney can continue to eat up all our stored up goodwill. Because of the shoulders of giants they get to stand on. With all of that said, this doesn’t mean every ride moving forward will be junk. There are ebbs and flows in this companies 100 year history although lately it’s been much more bad than good. I fully expect the Avatar ride to be impressive. If it’s missing that Je ne sais quoi we’ll see.

 

[Epcot81Fan]

Who would have thought a year ago that the giant tiara on the water tower would not be the most idiotic element of this embarrassing mess?

 

[mickEblu]

Who would have thought a year ago that the giant tiara on the water tower would not be the most idiotic element of this embarrassing mess?

Not the most idiotic element… by far.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Lol ok thank you for the sentences. Most of your paragraphs aren’t really a review of the ride though. And when you are talking about the ride it’s not very detailed.

“Overall I like the music”
“I like the vibe”
“I like the story”

When I say “two sentences” I’m not just talking about two literal sentences. I’m asking for some specifics. The types of specifics that those of us who don’t like this retheme can’t fill up a novel with. The reason I believe we don’t get these specifics from people who “like” the retheme is because there really isn’t much good/ great to stuff talk about or one is easy to please and has lower standards. So we end up with comments that boil down to “I like it.” Let’s hope Disney doesn’t start playing down to those lower standards as you’ve indicated before.

This is a pretty fair review https://t.co/Gh0zUYxBAm

 

[Too Many Hats]

I guess that depends on how you look at it. Does there have to be 110 AAs on Disneylands faster paced version to be successful? No, but they can only help if staged properly. The biggest thing I think is they were replaced with inferior figures with low articulation that shouldn’t be anywhere near center stage. So they kind of get a pass on the finale because there is so much going on but for me they don’t work on the HDYD scenes because they are the focal point and there just isn’t enough going on. On Splash you had fully functioning AAs as side characters filling in the gaps and in the background. With TBA you have figures with low articulation taking center stage with a Spotlight on them to boot!

I mean, no matter what, the critter musicians are a huge downgrade from even the worst Marc Davis AAs on Splash. But I'm trying to set Splash aside and assess TBA on its own merits. At this point I probably just need to ride it in person before critiquing any further. Maybe the minimal-movement critters "work" better in person; maybe they don't.

 

[Too Many Hats]

Mama Odie screen still glitching out before the big drop. Guess they'll have to replace it with an AA.

 

[Too Many Hats]

What could they have done differently here? This low-light shot is somewhat misleading; there appears to be a long stretch of darkness between the Special Spice finale and the Mama Odie/Juju scene. Maybe just some pretty foliage and fireflies/twinkling lights? There's certainly no story beats to further expand upon.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

This is a pretty fair review https://t.co/Gh0zUYxBAm

“Well, that makes sense–they designed the ride reimagining for Disneyland and then shoehorned it into Magic Kingdom.”

Definitely fair and how I felt. I'm still a little salty because Splash Mountain at WDW was far superior...and I was like, they absolutely designed this for Disneyland and threw it in here. I'm especially salty now that Paris is getting basically a Lion King version.

This review did kind of lose me when they said Space Mountain is better at DL. For the last time, it's different at both parks. One is not better than the other. Unless you want to point out that the WDW one breaks more...

 

[SuddenStorm]

What could they have done differently here? This low-light shot is somewhat misleading; there appears to be a long stretch of darkness between the Special Spice finale and the Mama Odie/Juju scene. Maybe just some pretty foliage and fireflies/twinkling lights? There's certainly no story beats to further expand upon.

View attachment 822442

The fact there aren't story beats here is a problem. On Splash, you would have just gone past Br'er Bear and Fox with the gator- showing their end, and Br'er Rabbit at home back in the Briar Patch. It ties up the whole attraction nicely after the big finale.

Instead it's been reduced to a weird Mama Odie cameo, that doesn't work and feels unnatural. It's a horrible way to end the attraction. Something like this works in a C ticket dark ride like Monster's Inc with Roz. But not here.

 

[SplashJacket]

I think people are overfocused on the story.

IMHO, the story has a far smaller impact on TBA than you would believe from reading reviews and it has a far smaller impact on Splash than people would lead you to believe.

I made my account named after Splash before I really even knew the story. And that may be a reflection of me, but regardless…

 

[Too Many Hats]

The fact there aren't story beats here is a problem. On Splash, you would have just gone past Br'er Bear and Fox with the gator- showing their end, and Br'er Rabbit at home back in the Briar Patch. It ties up the whole attraction nicely after the big finale.

It really was so brilliant.

 

[Too Many Hats]

I think people are overfocused on the story.

IMHO, the story has a far smaller impact on TBA than you would believe from reading reviews and it has a far smaller impact on Splash than people would lead you to believe.

I made my account named after Splash before I really even knew the story. And that may be a reflection of me, but regardless…

I mean, it's the source of all TBA's shortcomings. There's a long dark empty tunnel at the end of the ride. If there were a story to tell, the tunnel wouldn't be empty.

 

[Homemade Imagineering]

I mean, no matter what, the critter musicians are a huge downgrade from even the worst Marc Davis AAs on Splash. But I'm trying to set Splash aside and assess TBA on its own merits. At this point I probably just need to ride it in person before critiquing any further. Maybe the minimal-movement critters "work" better in person; maybe they don't.

I will admit, as much as those critters have been universally panned across the board, I do enjoy their character designs. Not even a fair comparison to Marc Davis, but IMHO they’ve got some charm to them.

Now what really gets me is the fact they’re MASSIVE in person, and yet they couldn’t manage to fit more actuators into their mech designs?? Even having some of the same critters reappear in different gags along the way would’ve sold them for me, limited motion or not. These were written with extensive backstories in mind so it makes zero sense why they’re so one note. Feels like something(s) were definitely cut