News Tiana's Bayou Adventure - latest details and construction progress

[mickEblu]

What’s the consensus on the amount of AAs that will be in TBA? I’m of the opinion that 40 is possible but probably too optimistic. That would still be 60 less AAs than Disneyland’s Splash Mountain. How can that loss not be felt? I guess you could argue that really atmospheric scenes, cool effects, lighting and projections could do some of the heavy lifting. Still, a lot to make up for. I think this has been said before but a musical Navi River Journey (with more AAs obviously) might be what we’re in store for.

 

[Incomudro]

To all the “the coop is just a backstory” folks, why are you ignoring what Disney’s published regarding the storyline for the ride? The on-ride continuation of the mural corroborates this is what we’re largely going to get:

View attachment 762030

Disney Reveals New Storyline for Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Walt Disney Imagineering shares next chapter in Tiana's story, as part of Tiana's Bayou Adventure attraction experience coming to Disneyland Park and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort.

disneyparks.disney.go.com

I can't believe how dreadful that reads.

 

[Incomudro]

That’s because TWDC is following the wrong I word… Inclusion instead of Imagineering…it’s almost like the company feels that as long as the ride checks the correct boxes, it really won’t matter if Tiana is superior to Splash…it would be ironic if the best addition is the weathervane…

100%.
The box checking... That's exactly what I noticed when I just read the promo bit for this ride.
It's SO bad that it sounds like a joke.
It sounds like something that was made up to make fun of this whole inclusivity, DEI, etc., thing that's endlessly pushed.
If this ride is good, and I really hope it is good, it'll be good in spite of all of that - not because of it.
I know I've said it a bunch of times, but the film gave them all of the ingredients (pun intended) to make this a great ride.
But these people believe they know better, and think their messaging is more important than entertainment.

 

[mickEblu]

100%.
The box checking... That's exactly what I noticed when I just read the promo bit for this ride.
It's SO bad that it sounds like a joke.
It sounds like something that was made up to make fun of this whole inclusivity, DEI, etc., thing that's endlessly pushed.
If this ride is good, and I really hope it is good, it'll be good in spite of all of that - not because of it.
I know I've said it a bunch of times, but the film gave them all of the ingredients (pun intended) to make this a great ride.
But these people believe they know better, and think their messaging is more important than entertainment.

So far we have murals that look out of place, a rain forest facade in Frontierland, ridiculous backstories and the probability that the ride will have 50% fewer AAs than Disneylands Splash Mountain and most likely 40-50% fewer AAs than MK’s version. I’ve always maintained that this retheme will at the very least come out decent but that kind of changed today. Something about that mural in the mill is really bothersome. That in conjunction with the compounding effect of questionable choices + reading that ridiculous backstory has got me second guessing.

 

[celluloid]

That Mural of a giant bowl of ingredients coming together as Jambalaya has nothing to do with the the environment of the outside themed world and nothing that evokes what is going on with the characterized world of the inside.


That mural would be gawdy awkward even on Main Street.

 

[mickEblu]

That Mural of a giant bowl of ingredients coming together as Jambalaya has nothing to do with the the environment of the outside themed world and nothing that invokes what is going on with the characterized world of the inside.


That mural would be gawdy awkward even on Main Street.

It speaks volumes.

 

[Indy_UK]

I know we talk about far less animatronics but let’s be real, most of them on Splash Mountain didn’t have tons of movement

 

[celluloid]

I know we talk about far less animatronics but let’s be real, most of them on Splash Mountain didn’t have tons of movement

What year? in the early to late 90s. Oh yeah they did. Varying degrees after that but mostly the bad upkeep the entire resort has had issues with.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I know we talk about far less animatronics but let’s be real, most of them on Splash Mountain didn’t have tons of movement

That’s true for most of the classics, pirates, mansion, etc. many AA’s are pretty limited.

Even hall of presidents, only Lincoln, Washington, and the current President ever do much.

 

[mickEblu]

I know we talk about far less animatronics but let’s be real, most of them on Splash Mountain didn’t have tons of movement

That didn’t really matter with as fast as you go on Disneylands Splash Mountain. Regardless, I’d rather have 100 mediocre AAs than 10 excellent AAs and 20 mediocre AAs. They add a lot of depth. The new finale will most likely be the most disappointing. To lose Zip-a-dee-do-dah, a bunch of AAs and that excellent staging with the riverboat. I don’t envy the imagineers. It’s an impossible task. Hopefully there’s some nice murals in there.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

What’s the consensus on the amount of AAs that will be in TBA? I’m of the opinion that 40 is possible but probably too optimistic. That would still be 60 less AAs than Disneyland’s Splash Mountain. How can that loss not be felt? I guess you could argue that really atmospheric scenes, cool effects, lighting and projections could do some of the heavy lifting. Still, a lot to make up for. I think this has been said before but a musical Navi River Journey (with more AAs obviously) might be what we’re in store for.

Disney's claims about Splash having "over 100" animatronics aren't true. They counted a lot of static or single axis props such as the spinning behives to arrive at that amount. And none of those props should qualify for such a term. The Tiki Room birds have far more motion by comparison, and those birds are also a pretty good baseline for the sort of motion i'd say classifies as an AA. The actual amount of real animatronics used in Disneyland's version of Splash was somewhere in the 70s. With WDW having between 55-60. That's still a lot, and far more than anything they've built since Sinbad (or Splash itself stateside). But that's the standard they'll have to meet for Tiana.

I don't have an exact number for how many animatronics Tiana will have. We know it will have "dozens" (plural) from Disney's own statement, which admittedly isn't necessarily helpful given their dishonesty about what they claimed qualifies as an AA from Splash's roster. However, I do indeed believe that it will have at least close to or even perhaps greater than 50. It was told to me back in 2022 that it will have a lot, the source indicating a comparable amount to Splash. That said, this is oldish information and they also said they were reusing the America Sings figures at Disneyland. A claim that Splash Archive has contested for what it's worth. My source has been correct about most of what they've said so far, while Archive got ahold of legitimate renders of the ride scenes (albeit very incomplete ones that were still being used to test out different character configurations).

A member here called cupofchai claimed there would be "over four dozen new AA's". I asked for clarification on that matter due to many people often conflating static or simple moving props with AA's. They said there would ALSO be a lot of simpler moving figures throughout as well (same as Splash), but that the over four dozen they meant were indeed legitimate animatronics. This person also broke the news that the riverboat was being removed and replaced with a Tiana's Palace structure. Before Splash Archive's renders were leaked. The two pieces of art I posted earlier of the interior includes quite a lot of figures (one actually has a larger quantity than Splash in that particular scene), so I do believe there's going to be a significant amount in the ride.

The biggest concern I have at the moment are Splash Archive's claims that the finale will have a significantly reduced amount of animatronics. I'm remaining skeptical of this claim given the clearly incomplete nature of the renders they got ahold of, and that there seems to be quite a lot of empty platforms that seem tailor-made to include AA's. But we'll see. Even if the rest of the scenes have a lot of figures, having only so few figures in the finale would be ride-ruiner for me.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

That’s true for most of the classics, pirates, mansion, etc. many AA’s are pretty limited.

Even hall of presidents, only Lincoln, Washington, and the current President ever do much.

Technology and cost were the main reasons why most of them were not very sophisticated, however the Imagineers knew that you went by these scenes to fast it wasn't necessary to have more that a few key movements. The sheer volume of them and the scale of the sets is what made them so impressive, even today.

 

[celluloid]

Technology and cost were the main reasons why most of them were not very sophisticated, however the Imagineers knew that you went by these scenes to fast it wasn't necessary to have more that a few key movements. The sheer volume of them and the scale of the sets is what made them so impressive, even today.

Not to mention the kinetic energy and staging.

I don't count on us having anything as cool as a rocking paddlewheel boat in a finale or the large-scale overhead sets with animated and lit details. Fish jumping through nets, small background details and foreground details.

I look to Mermaid to see the modern sensibility on that kind of scene and it is not nearly as good.

Firework projection finale of mermaid really comes to mind. It is not like Disney often does better AAs. Maybe more rubbery fluent, but that does not make more motion nor make well staged foreground and kinetic environments automatic.

Seeing Elsa is kind of cool and she is fluent, but the three headed troll was better staged rising up over your boat as the fiber optic swirl of a maelstrom.

 

[Brer Oswald]

I know we talk about far less animatronics but let’s be real, most of them on Splash Mountain didn’t have tons of movement

Most of them had at least a dozen or so points of articulation (as is the case for the Pirates animatronics), which I think is more than enough for a boat ride that moves at a decent pace.

The Navi Shaman on River Journey may have 100 or so complex movements, but there’s really no time to appreciate it on the ride.

By overspending on more complex animatronics (as is rumoured for Tiana) it is reasonable to assume there will be a lot less of them, and the ride will feel emptier as a result.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

With WDW having between 55-60. That's still a lot, and far more than anything they've built since Sinbad (or Splash itself stateside). But that's the standard they'll have to meet.

Rise has 60+ animatronics so they can still do it ... Hopefully they do it here as well

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I look to Mermaid to see the modern sensibility on that kind of scene and it is not nearly as good.

That’s what I was thinking of as well. The plastic water coming out of plastic fish is the cheapest looking thing I’ve seen Disney do. Even mr. Toad with the cutouts still manages to have fish spitting real water into a fountain!

And those stationary starfish glued to the wall…

Seeing Elsa is kind of cool and she is fluent, but the three headed troll was better staged rising up over your boat as the fiber optic swirl of a maelstrom.

Yeah but that troll didn’t send you through a narrow hall of video screens with large snowflakes on them!!!

 

[Brer Oswald]

Rise has 60+ animatronics so they can still do it ... Hopefully they do it here as well

That 60+ figure includes the 40 Stormtroopers in the large room, most of which just have slight head movements, some of which don’t even have that.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

That 60+ figure includes the 40 Stormtroopers in the large room, most of which just have slight head movements, some of which don’t even have that.

Thank you.

Also If you take out the pre-shows the actual attraction has like 10?

 

[mickEblu]

Rise has 60+ animatronics so they can still do it ... Hopefully they do it here as well

Do the Stormtrooper mannequins in the Hangar really count though?

 

[Brer Oswald]

Thank you.

Also If you take out the pre-shows the actual attraction has like 10?

If you count the AT-ATs that’s probably right. If not, I’m pretty sure it’s only four. Two Kylos, a Finn, and a Hux?

Edit: 5 cause there’s that Ackbar-like character at the end too.