I keep saying this but then I get the rebuttal that Imagineering has no “creatives” left and that they haven’t produced anything original. That’s Burbanks IP mandate, yes there have been amazing IP based attractions, but when you tell people to shove things where they don’t belong, sometimes you can’t make it work. An example of this is Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. It doesn’t fit in Frontierland
I think people were quite justified in their concerns that these robots were going to be trashed.
I’m not sure if this was directed at me, but… I never was concerned about the AA count. I have actually been pretty supportive of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (I quite honestly don’t care about any of the SoTS characters), and just enjoy the thrill of Splash, and that will remain.
The problem is that concerns are frequently being framed as fact, or at least filtered through a lens that suggests we have enough knowledge of the final product to pre-judge the narrative and weigh it against other attractions. We don't. We only know slightly more than the next-to-nothing we knew before.
Not directed at you. Just happened to follow your post.
Naturally it was a very emotional day for him.
Yeah, just look at what happened to the Great Movie Ride animatronics and the Universe of Energy dinosaurs.
Some of the original animatronics will probably be trashed. Just not all.
Disney has not produced a ride with a significant sized AA population since Sinbad in 2001, and that was for Tokyo. In other regions, not since the early 90s. And by "significant", I mean in the realm of around 50+ legit AA figures with a decent range (not counting their simple ones with only an axis or two of motion). Now, everything they build barely breaks double digits.
The SOTS characters at the very least won't be reappearing as they were. Whether that means they're getting scrapped or reskinned, I don't know. It's conceivable IMO they could reskin them into some of the larger instrument playing critters. I've spotted a bear character in some of the concept art. I was told the America Sings figures would remain in some form. Any info beyond that, no clue. We'll see if that claim is true.
I suppose that rabbit playing the license plate like a washboard could be a reskin of the Brer Rabbit animatronic in the Laughin' Place, but aside from that, I'm doubtful that any of the Brer animatronics will be reused. No way that hopping Brer Rabbit animatronic is getting reused, if nothing else.
I'm still iffy on that. Although I could still hypothetically see the storks in the Laughin' Place of the Disneyland version being reskinned as the spoonbills from the movie, but that's just a guess.
When they first announced the retheme, it was being done on the extreme cheap. It had a sub $40 million budget, pretty much all of the AA's gone (apart from maybe a dozen or so new ones, probably face projection ala Frozen ever after). Empty rooms with video projections on the walls. That was an entirely different concept, the "Lost Trumpet" version I believe Jim Hill discussed.
There's quite a lot of America Sings figures that could very easily be reskinned to work with the concept they've gone with for Tiana. Especially the larger figures. We've seen some fairly similar looking characters in some of the inspirational art released for the ride.
I sincerely hope you are right and we don’t get any last moment cost cuts.When they first announced the retheme, it was being done on the extreme cheap. It had a sub $40 million budget, pretty much all of the AA's gone (apart from maybe a dozen or so new ones, probably face projection ala Frozen ever after). Empty rooms with video projections on the walls. That was an entirely different concept, the "Lost Trumpet" version I believe Jim Hill discussed.
Things changed drastically after the announcement did not receive the praise they thought it would have. It reportedly scared them enough that they went back to the drawing board and created a whole new more elaborate ride experience. While I wasn't given a figure, i'm told the current budget is quite significant. The infrastructure installation alone was listed as $40 million on a recent permit (the figure originally floated for the earlier variant in its entirety), that's not including any of the actual setpieces, figures, music etc. Just the foundational stuff before any show scenes are installed.
From what I understand, Disney has sort of given up on doing this attraction on the cheap and are actually making an attempt to actually create something on the level of Splash. This seemingly includes not skimping on the AA's. I was even told they will have actual faces, not face projection. I don't know the exact quantity it will contain, but I was told that it shouldn't disappoint in this regard.
If the artwork of the critter band released late last year is any indication of what to expect of the full ride, there's some decent promise IMO. It's the same scene where the fishing geese and small frogs were originally located right after the first drop, the art actually showcases MORE AA's in that scene than there used to be. There were 8 figures in that scene originally, the art has 11. On top of that, the animals are now all unique. In Splash, there were 5 identical geese (different colored scarfs) and 3 identical frogs. Every figure in the TBA art however is unique. Even the three frogs there are unique distinct designs. What remains to be seen is how closely the final ride sticks with the art.
There's quite a lot of America Sings figures that could very easily be reskinned to work with the designs they've gone with for Tiana. Especially the larger figures. We've seen some fairly similar looking characters in some of the inspirational art released for the ride.
As well as this earlier piece of ride art for Disneyland where you can see a lot of silhouettes of instrument playing critters through background (you can even see the old hanging possums at the top, presumably hold overs from Splash).
I said the same thing when this retheme was first announced (got multiple old posts in the other thread about this very topic about the animal designs not matching). However, it has become evident from some of the art that they're going to be incorporating animals with more human-like proportions. You can see it in the backgrounds of the two pieces of art above, there are animals that have proportions similar to the characters in Splash.
I'm honestly surprised the backlash didn't completely scare them off.
It detracted from the salt mine backstory
I genuinely don't understand the salt mine. Was it an attempt to justify a mountain being in Louisiana?
That's the general assumption. During one of the field trip videos they mentioned that the salt mine they were visiting was one of the only places in Louisiana that had elevation.
I don't know if the tree was ever part of an actual budgeted plan. I'm sure creatives would have liked to have done it (as would I), but I can also tell even without being an engineer that it would have required more structural steel added on top (and perhaps underneath) to do it. An actual engineer would have to weigh in on the matter though, because i'm not one.
It's partially that. And the Avery Island salt dome being the main source of salt for Tabasco sauce.
This ^. I think the tree was just “artistic liberty”
