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

[Disney Irish]

No, that's not accurate.

Like you do, I think the animatronic looks a bit older than her movie image. And she's certainly looking less glamorous in her bayou togs and mom-hairdo than she was in her Princess dress and glam updo.

What you are confusing me with is a series of posts/comments by @Disney Irish over in the Disneyland discussion that suggested the aging of Tiana wasn't news and is a purposeful move by WDI to set the ride (and also her Disneyland restaurant) years after the movie took place. From that information provided by Mr. Irish...

Mr. Irish said that as if the aging of Tiana was something we all knew was happening, when its apparent now that many of us didn't know that Tiana was going to be aged in the ride. Which would also seem to move the era of the ride into the Great Depression of the 1930's instead of the Roaring 20's the movie was set in.

What I'm still unclear on is if this aging of Tiana for the ride (and face character appearances at her Disneyland restaurant, and thus her future face character appearances at WDW also), is a purposeful decision? Does the ride really take place in the Great Depression now instead of the Roaring 20's of the movie?

Or is this just an unflattering debut of Tiana's new animatronic, paired with a questionable casting decision by Disneyland's Entertainment Department to make Tiana look noticeably older and less glamorous?

It all comes from the backstory article that did which gives the date of 1927 for the formation of Tiana's Foods. So its set either in 1927 or shortly after -

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

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

The ride doesn't take place many many years after the movie. It's maybe a year or two after it at most. Ralphie is still a little kid. And I don't think Tiana looks substantially older.

Incidentally, one little detail I noticed is that one of the images of the AA is missing eyelashes (if something else already noticed this then I apologized), but the video posted of her has the eyelashes.

 

[TP2000]

It all comes from the backstory article that did which gives the date of 1927 for the formation of Tiana's Foods. So its set either in 1927 or shortly after -

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

The movie was set in 1926. She formed the employee-owned Tiana's Foods in 1927. So the ride is set in 1927 or 1928? A young woman doesn't change that much in two years, from the time she's 18 or 19 to the time she's 20 or 21.

But just recently in the Disneyland thread you said, with what I took to be authority, that this was a purposeful decision to set the ride and Tiana's appearances in the parks as being years later, thus why the animatronic and her face character at Disneyland's Tiana's Palace restaurant looks noticeably older.

This isn't new information. The attraction announcement since day one has stated to be after the events of the movie, and subsequent information since has come out that its set years after the movie. Even the art work shows Tiana in new outfits and older than the movie. So not sure why this is now a surprise 3+ years later for some.

How do they take two years, from 1926 to 1928, and turn it into a decade or more of aging for her Disneyland face character?

And again, I can't think of any other Disney animated character in a ride, show, or parade that was aged like this. Especially an official Disney Princess. Why are they doing this to Tiana? They're turning her into a career woman with a mom-hairdo and older vibe, instead of the gorgeous and glamorous young Princess she was introduced to us as?

That seems rather weird. And the first time I've ever seen Disney do this with a character.

 

[LittleBuford]

No, that's not accurate.

Your posts are there for anyone to read and check for themselves.

 

[monothingie]

Complex Animatronic figures have to be designed and engineered and tested anew every time. A1000 is a classification more than a standardization - Figures that are run by Electric Motors (instead of Hydraulic Actuators) and have a certain amount of points of articulation will be classified as part of the A1000 series. Each figure within that series will have had each of its moving elements custom designed, shaped, and engineered to function differently, despite operating from a similar base methodology of Electric rather than Hydraulic movement.

Great. Thanks for the really nice explanation.

 

[Disney Irish]

The movie was set in 1926. She formed the employee-owned Tiana's Foods in 1927. So the ride is set in 1927 or 1928? A young woman doesn't change that much in two years, from the time she's 18 or 19 to the time she's 20 or 21.

But just recently in the Disneyland thread you said, with what I took to be authority, that this was a purposeful decision to set the ride and Tiana's appearances in the parks as being years later, thus why the animatronic and her face character at Disneyland's Tiana's Palace restaurant looks noticeably older.


How do they take two years, from 1926 to 1928, and turn it into a decade or more of aging for her Disneyland face character?

And again, I can't think of any other Disney animated character in a ride, show, or parade that was aged like this. Especially an official Disney Princess. Why are they doing this to Tiana? They're turning her into a career woman with a mom-hairdo and older vibe, instead of the gorgeous and glamorous young Princess she was introduced to us as?

That seems rather weird. And the first time I've ever seen Disney do this with a character.

I just stated that it’s known to take place years, meaning at least a year or two, after the movie takes place. I don’t think the AA makes her look decades older.

 

[TP2000]

Your posts are there for anyone to read and check for themselves.

Yes, I just quoted some of them myself.

This seems to be confusion caused by @DisneyIrish, who said that Disney was purposely aging Tiana in the ride and in the park (face character) to set the ride and her current timeline years after the movie. And not only that, but it was all information previously released by Disney that Tiana was now older.

That seems to be the cause of the confusion, when no such thing has taken place and the ride is only set two (2) years after the movie took place in 1926. Instead of purposeful aging of the character with @DisneyIrish claiming that this was all information we have been told about prior and they were doing it on purpose, this actually just appears to be a case of an unflattering Social Media debut in harsh lighting of the new Tiana animatronic, paired with a photo @DisneyIrish gave us showing an older Tiana that is actually just a questionable casting decision by Disneyland's Entertainment Department.

I'm now of the opinion that this isn't a purposeful and official aging of Tiana by a decade or more, but just @DisneyIrish typing stuff like this:

This isn't new information. The attraction announcement since day one has stated to be after the events of the movie, and subsequent information since has come out that its set years after the movie. Even the art work shows Tiana in new outfits and older than the movie. So not sure why this is now a surprise 3+ years later for some.

Tiana that has been doing the M&G at Tiana's Palace (I believe she still comes around) is also portrayed to be older similar to how she will look in the ride -

 

[Disney Irish]

Yes, I just quoted some of them myself.

This seems to be confusion caused by @DisneyIrish, who said that Disney was purposely aging Tiana in the ride and in the park (face character) to set the ride and her current timeline years after the movie. And not only that, but it was all information previously released by Disney that Tiana was now older.

That seems to be the cause of the confusion, when no such thing has taken place and the ride is only set two (2) years after the movie took place in 1926. Instead of purposeful aging of the character with @DisneyIrish claiming that this was all information we have been told about prior and they were doing it on purpose, this actually just appears to be a case of an unflattering Social Media debut in harsh lighting of the new Tiana animatronic, paired with a photo @DisneyIrish gave us showing an older Tiana that is actually just a questionable casting decision by Disneyland's Entertainment Department.

I'm now of the opinion that this isn't a purposeful and official aging of Tiana by a decade or more, but just @DisneyIrish typing stuff like this:

You made the assumption that it meant aging her up decades, I never made such a claim.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I do not believe Tiana looks significantly older than her film counterpart at all. She's a couple of years older at most, and it doesn't even show on her face at all IMO. Thinking she looks decades older is absurd to me.

 

[TP2000]

You made the assumption that it meant aging her up decades, I never made such a claim.

No, I didn't. No one said "decades". She doesn't look 50, she now looks 30-ish, instead of looking 20-ish in the movie. A bunch of us were commenting on how the new Tiana animatronic makes her look older and more mom like. I even used the term "mom-hairdo" to describe her new hairstyle that is different than her Princess updo she had in the movie.

And then you swooped in with several comments that this was all planned and all announced by Disney that Tiana was going to be aged by years in the ride, and if we were surprised by this news we hadn't been paying attention.

When in reality, this is just an unflattering photo of an animatronic in warehouse lighting and a questionable casting decision by a Disneyland Entertainment Dept. manager or two. And the info you yourself provided for Disney has Tiana's Foods being founded in 1927, one year after the movie took place.

This isn't new information. The attraction announcement since day one has stated to be after the events of the movie, and subsequent information since has come out that its set years after the movie. Even the art work shows Tiana in new outfits and older than the movie. So not sure why this is now a surprise 3+ years later for some.

They will have merch from both the new attraction and from the movie, both iterations of the character.

So in reality, the ride is taking place in about 1928, and theoretically Tiana should still be a pretty young woman. But that new mom-hairdo isn't helping her much.

 

[monothingie]

That is not the way in which you originally claimed the value engineering occurred. You claimed reuse.

I don’t think I used the term value engineering to describe that but if I did it was the wrong term to use. My original point to which I’ve been corrected was that there could be cost savings in reusing the engineering and design from past AA. That apparently is wrong based on how AAs are designed and built.

 

[LittleBuford]

No, I didn't. No one said "decades". She doesn't look 50, she now looks 30-ish, instead of looking 20-ish in the movie.

Her animatronic and face character look at least 15 years older

 

[Disney Irish]

No, I didn't. No one said "decades". She doesn't look 50, she now looks 30-ish, instead of looking 20-ish in the movie. A bunch of us were commenting on how the new Tiana animatronic makes her look older and more mom like. I even used the term "mom-hairdo" to describe her new hairstyle that is different than her Princess updo she had in the movie.

And then you swooped in with several comments that this was all planned and all announced by Disney that Tiana was going to be aged by years in the ride, and if we were surprised by this news we hadn't been paying attention.

When in reality, this is just an unflattering photo of an animatronic in warehouse lighting and a questionable casting decision by a Disneyland Entertainment Dept. manager or two. And the info you yourself provided for Disney has Tiana's Foods being founded in 1927, one year after the movie took place.



So in reality, the ride is taking place in about 1928, and theoretically Tiana should still be a pretty young woman. But that new mom-hairdo isn't helping her much.

I don't think the AA hair a "mom-hairdo", as period appropriate for the late 1920s, or even the early 1930s (if it happens to fall into that period).

 

[Drew the Disney Dude]

I'm patiently waiting hoping to get a video of a log test.

Edit: I just peeked through the mesh and water is running behind the construction walls too. Unfortunately I can't get a photo of it but everything is testing right now, besides logs, so far...

 

[TP2000]

That was said early in the Disneyland discussion a few days ago, when the only image we saw of the animatronic was under warehouse lighting. And from a quote from @Disney Irish where he was pretending to speak with authority that Disneyland was making conscious decisions to cast older looking actresses as Tiana in the park at the Disneyland restaurant. That now appears to not be the case, and the animatronic has since been shown to look better under better lighting conditions.

What I have been reminded of by this hilarity is that one must take anything Mr. Irish says, even when said repeatedly with a tone of authority, with a grain of salt.

He was simply speculating that Tiana would be noticeably aged for her new role in the ride and appearances in the parks.

Tiana's ride is set in roughly 1928, not the 1930's, and her animatronic will look more flattering and prettier with better lighting. And hopefully Disneyland's Entertainment Department can find actresses that look more like a 22 year old Tiana in the future.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I don't think the AA hair a "mom-hairdo", as period appropriate for the late 1920s, or even the early 1930s (if it happens to fall into that period).

I googled "1920's Hairstyles" and this was literally the first image that came up:

 

[Disney Irish]

That was said early in the Disneyland discussion a few days ago, when the only image we saw of the animatronic was under warehouse lighting. And from a quote from @Disney Irish where he was pretending to speak with authority that Disneyland was making conscious decisions to cast older looking actresses as Tiana in the park at the Disneyland restaurant. That now appears to not be the case, and the animatronic has since been shown to look better under better lighting conditions.

What I have been reminded of by this hilarity is that one must take anything Mr. Irish says, even when said repeatedly with a tone of authority, with a grain of salt.

He was simply speculating that Tiana would be noticeably aged for her new role in the ride and appearances in the parks.

I've never made claims or even inferred to be of any authority regard Disney inside information. All information I have is provided by Disney themselves in their own blogs.

her animatronic will look more flattering and prettier with better lighting.

This has literally been said by myself and others in the DL Tiana thread.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Great it’s good to hear that Disney is committed to not cut things during development and execution.

Just curious were the budget increases because of cost overruns or inadequate forecasting or wanting to do more for the attraction experience?

Wanting to do more for the attraction experience.

There was a cynical sort of way in which this decision was made to be entirely fair, namely that executives were expecting a more unanimous positive reaction to the initial announcement. There was more of a backlash than they expected, and a more lukewarm response even from many of the people who they expected to support the retheme.

So as I understand it, a decision was reached that they can't get away with half-a$$ing this project. At least, as far as rethemes of existing rides go (that should have been from-scratch builds). The budget is apparently safely padded. It's not a cheap project with no effort put into it, regardless of whatever anyone says. And there is seemingly passion and talent behind it. So we'll see.

I know I say this a lot, but what is even going on in this thread?

I agree that the "Tiana is a reskinned Belle" claim is absurd, but you can't deny that there's been a lot of "you can't say anything negative about this retheme" in this thread.

I'm still against this retheme happening at all and remain doubtful that it will ever live up to what it's replacing. This isn't based on information told to me though, it's just because I have such a high opinion of the predecessor and it's hard to imagine that modern WDI has the talent to pull off a suitable replacement. My source however believes there's a good chance of this ride turning out really well and potentially serving as a worthy replacement for Splash (and they share my opinions of Splash and are also against the retheme).

But i'm not going to fabricate false claims in order to fit an agenda as i've seen people doing lately. If any of the stuff i've been told about this attraction turns out to be false, you'll see me swiftly apologizing and join in with the haters. I have very high standards and expectations, and there will be hell to pay if they're not met.

 

[James Alucobond]

I know I say this a lot, but what is even going on in this thread?

I agree that the "Tiana is a reskinned Belle" claim is absurd, but you can't deny that there's been a lot of "you can't say anything negative about this retheme" in this thread.

On the contrary, there are several people who refuse to acknowledge anything positive about this retheme. Most posters who can generally find good things to say about what we've seen so far still express reservations about elements that look dubious at the moment, like the murals, the cheugy text on the back of the watertower, the lack of certain characters in the known narrative, etc. By contrast, there are people who, without resorting to exaggeration, only come into this thread to post negatively about every bit of new information regardless of what it is.

 

[Disney Analyst]

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I'm patiently waiting hoping to get a video of a log test.

Edit: I just peeked through the mesh and water is running behind the construction walls too. Unfortunately I can't get a photo of it but everything is testing right now, besides logs, so far...

Thanks for sharing all this great stuff!!