I'm having difficulty believing that the America Sings animatronics will all be reused too. If nothing else, if the climactic lift hill is going to be turned into a cheery trip through Mama Odie's house, I'd say that torpedoes any chance of the vultures being kept around. If the scene won't be "scary" in the slightest, I can't picture them sticking around (I can't even picture them being moved to another part of the ride if the ride is going to be conflict-free).
Depends on whether the entire lift hill is going to be happy, or just the top. I don't know either way. Though i'm admittedly not really expecting any real tension or fear in the plot given their recent content of this type. I do expect any returning figures will probably be shifted around and reskinned to some extent though. As seen with that newest piece of art with the critter band, which are entirely new figures in the place where the fishing geese previously were.
I was told that "all" of the old America Sings figures would be retained. Though if any AS characters were actually scrapped, the vultures do seem likely candidates. I do believe the source's broader claims that there won't be a reduction in the quantity of AA's, i'm already seeing some evidence in that regard. The newest piece of art showcases more figures than Splash had for that one particular scene. But I'm curious to see how accurate the "all old ones are staying" claim ends up being. Because I do know there are quite a lot of new ones as well.
Plus, isn't a major reason they're doing this retheme because they're getting tired of constantly fixing Splash Mountain's animatronics?
That was originally something they hoped for, yes. The "Lost Trumpet" variant was going to have a mass removal of the AA's and would lean heavily into video projection along flat empty hallways. That plan seemingly didn't last long. I'll miss the tree atop the peak, but everything else i've heard about it would have been a disgrace and the better version won out.
I'm sorry, but I'm having difficulty believing that the retheme is going to have more animatronics than Splash Mountain, even if there ARE going to be a lot of animatronics. I don't even remember the last time Disney built an attraction with more than sixty (that's around the amount that our Splash Mountain had, right?) animatronics.
WDW's Splash has around 60 AA's, while Disneyland's is about 70. Sinbad at Tokyo Disneysea was the last attraction they built with a significant number of AA's, over 20 years ago. They really went all out with it too, literally around 140 AA's. As far as i'm aware, that's the most i've ever seen in a Disney attraction. Most of them have a wide range of too and with very fluid motion. I think World of Motion was Disney's previous runner up for AA quantity.
Or is this just an extension of the "they were going to cheap out but then realized 'Oh crap, we have to make this spectacular' after the initial backlash' rumor?
I'm told that is exactly what happened, yes. The initial announcement for the retheme did not receive the unanimous praise they expected. Quite the opposite in fact. It got even uglier when budgets and plans for the Lost Trumpet variant were shared online.
This isn't a Star Wars or Beauty and the Beast situation where there's a guarantee of minimal backlash and basic success no matter what they do. As I understand it, it has been made abundantly loud and clear to Disney's leadership and imagineers that this is not a normal situation and cannot be approached in the same way they have with other rides for the past several decades now.
If they mess this ride up, there's going to be hell to pay, and they know it. It unfortunately didn't scare them enough to scrap the plan outright (mixture of digging themselves in too deep and ego), but it has seemingly motivated them to take this seriously and attempt to do actual justice to Splash Mountain. Whether they have the actual talent to do so remains to be seen. That's where i'm keeping some skepticism in reserve.
