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

[_caleb]

Crazy concept - People just want to ride a ride without memorizing a textbook sized backstory

So is it too complicated, or overly-simple? Because I’m hearing both here.

 

[_caleb]

We're at the point where discussion feels impossible, because people who think it's a decent attraction but a downgrade from Splash (or think it's outright terrible, although I don't quite get that opinion) are dismissed and told their opinion is solely due to nostalgia, confirmation bias, etc., and people who think it's as good or better than Splash are dismissed as paid shills.

I think I’m the only one who’s used those words, so maybe you’re referring to me? Man, something I wrote must have really came across badly because I never intended to be dismissive of “people who think it’s a decent attraction but a downgrade from Splash.” I’m merely pointing out how many opinions were formed (and reinforced) by the fixed-POV video.

I apologize.

Any opinion is just dismissed out of hand by people who don't agree with it, regardless of what the opinion actually is.

I’ve been looking forward to TBA, but I’m honestly trying not to formulate an opinion until I get to ride it. My commentary thus far has been more about how people are responding and what they’re responding to.

 

[JoeCamel]

This post at the Dis explains how the setup/storyline for the ride begins in the queue.

Something Scott Gustin mentions in his review:

Everyone knows how this ride should have been marketed except those that did the marketing. This is the world's entertainment company?

 

[_caleb]

A queue can be good setup for a ride's storyline, but it should never be a necessity, especially when the paid line skipping service cuts a good chunk of it out. Oh, and people with mobility issues will never see it. It's competely beyond a set of stairs.

See, I enjoy rides that start the storytelling in the queue. I know line-skipping can threaten that (I’ve only seen the queue for FoP once!), so that affects what they can and maybe should do.

I also think there’s a fine line between a themed queue that merely “sets the stage” for the story (Splash, Everest, etc.) and one that introduces key elements that help make the ride make sense (Indy, FoP, etc.).

 

[HonorableMention]

Some of this video was featured in the broken animatronics vid but it still is a good one to look at:



- This POV showcased the nature sounds during that long stretch to Tiana on the stump well. I really like what they did with that audio, the clearer POVs I hear the more I like the music direction of this attraction, minus disembodied Tiana and Ray voices.

- There’s a long log jam, and it really shows how little these scenes have going on after they’ve been triggered.

I’m not judging the animatronic/sync issues too much yet since this is still a technical rehearsal. It’s not a great look for Disney but it’s understandable from a practical perspective.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

So is it too complicated, or overly-simple? Because I’m hearing both here.

Probably because it IS quite a bit of both.

There's a complicated backstory in the queue. Except that it doesn't really apply to anything in the actual ride whatsoever after the first drop (I disagree with those who say it does). I'm not even criticizing the ride for this as I prefer rides that don't rely on queue details and lore to enjoy them. I don't even have all that much criticism of the queue. It's unimportant and irrelevant to the ride, but has some decent visuals (outside of that ugly barn mural).

The interior story of the ride is somewhat random and all over the place. The queue doesn't really help you keep track of what is going on, but nether does the ride itself. The finale song also feels very disconnected from the rest of the ride as well. As people have mentioned, I get the feeling the "secret ingredient" used to be more prominent throughout the ride and they cut most of that out at some point but left the random song lyrics in at the end.

But at the same time, the dialog used by the character figures as the ride is going is very juvenile and basic. It's all bland Dora the Explorer ish variations of "look at these critters, they can play music" spoken at passing boats over and over again.

In summary, the scene to scene progression of the ride and especially the finale song are weirdly random and disjointed. That is what I think leads to confusion. But at other times, the dialog sounds like it was written exclusively for toddlers. It's a very weird mishmash of conflicting complications and simplifications.

I guess the best way to describe this is that even a preschool level story is going to be confusing to highly literate adults if you rip half of the pages out. Many details would be missing, and disparate bits of the otherwise simple story just randomly and abruptly jump around.

 

[Tha Realest]

Everyone knows how this ride should have been marketed except those that did the marketing. This is the world's entertainment company?

Oh we’re already blaming the “marketing” are we? The attraction’s not even open to the public yet!

 

[Chomama]

So is it too complicated, or overly-simple? Because I’m hearing both here.

Having ridden it - I’m not sure! Only because I couldn’t freaking hear anything over the music and we didn’t spend enough time in the queue to read everything. Could be complicated. Could be simple. We will never know!

 

[Tha Realest]

A queue can be good setup for a ride's storyline, but it should never be a necessity, especially when the paid line skipping service cuts a good chunk of it out. Oh, and people with mobility issues will never see it. It's competely beyond a set of stairs.

So the disabled get a sub-par, incomplete experience?

 

[Chomama]

So the disabled get a sub-par, incomplete experience?

No less than anyone is wing lightning lane? We used regular queue and had no clue what the story was. I will say the regular queue was visually interesting. Much better than splash queue but

 

[Brer Oswald]

See, I enjoy rides that start the storytelling in the queue. I know line-skipping can threaten that (I’ve only seen the queue for FoP once!), so that affects what they can and maybe should do.

I also think there’s a fine line between a themed queue that merely “sets the stage” for the story (Splash, Everest, etc.) and one that introduces key elements that help make the ride make sense (Indy, FoP, etc.).

I don't think it's a bad strategy at all. Splash did it as well. But Splash also set up the story and introduced the characters on the ride. It was impossible to miss unless you chose to ignore it.

With Tiana, it's not so much the story that will confuse. It's the characters that aren't formally introduced. For us Disney fanatics, we know it all going in. For some general folks, especially kids, I see how they might be confused.

I suspect most know of Louis and Princess Tiana, but many will question the outfit change. The new critters are not introduced/referred to by name at all on the ride, not that it's necessarily an issue. I think Mama Odie is the biggest one though. If you haven't watched the movie, you probably don't know who she is or who she's affiliated with. I saw a POV from ResortTV1 and their kid pointed at Odie saying "Who's that? Is she the bad guy?". And quite frankly, I am not surprised at how someone would come to that conclusion with zero context given. She randomly shrinks you halfway through the ride, then tosses you over the scary waterfall whilst cackling at you.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Some of this video was featured in the broken animatronics vid but it still is a good one to look at:



- This POV showcased the nature sounds during that long stretch to Tiana on the stump well. I really like what they did with that audio, the clearer POVs I hear the more I like the music direction of this attraction, minus disembodied Tiana and Ray voices.

- There’s a long log jam, and it really shows how little these scenes have going on after they’ve been triggered.

I’m not judging the animatronic/sync issues too much yet since this is still a technical rehearsal. It’s not a great look for Disney but it’s understandable from a practical perspective.

The instrumental music is the one thing I can confidently give credit to. It doesn't hold a candle to either version of Splash, but it is pretty great on it's own. Unlike other elements of the ride, I think this truly can be appreciated without direct comparisons to the prior attraction, and I look forward to listening to higher quality rips in the future.

 

[co10064]

I don't think it's a bad strategy at all. Splash did it as well. But Splash also set up the story and introduced the characters on the ride. It was impossible to miss unless you chose to ignore it.

With Tiana, it's not so much the story that will confuse. It's the characters that aren't formally introduced. For us Disney fanatics, we know it all going in. For some general folks, especially kids, I see how they might be confused.

I suspect most know of Louis and Princess Tiana, but many will question the outfit change. The new critters are not introduced/referred to by name at all on the ride, not that it's necessarily an issue. I think Mama Odie is the biggest one though. If you haven't watched the movie, you probably don't know who she is or who she's affiliated with. I saw a POV from ResortTV1 and their kid pointed at Odie saying "Who's that? Is she the bad guy?". And quite frankly, I am not surprised at how someone would come to that conclusion with zero context given. She randomly shrinks you halfway through the ride, then tosses you over the scary waterfall whilst cackling at you.

Great points. I watched the POV with someone who had never seen The Princess and the Frog, and he mostly followed the attraction’s story until Mama Odie was introduced (on the screen before the dip drop), when he had to ask me what was going on/who she was.

 

[co10064]

These are fundamentally different things. Starcruiser had its own price of admission, and people invited for free were indeed less capable of doing a true cost-benefit analysis because it cost them nothing (which many noted in their reviews). Tiana is part of regular admission. There’s no extra layer that significantly separates the experience of an invited, publication-employed reviewer from that of a standard guest.

Except the difference is that the reviewers still get exclusive/early access (sometimes paired with behind-the-scenes tours, visits with Imagineers, free meals, etc.) and if they are critical of Disney, they risk losing that for the next Disney media event. It doesn’t matter if the reviewer is a journalist or an influencer—the experience is the same.

*One caveat is those who attended a Cast Member preview rather than an official media event

 

[_caleb]

Again, the backstory has nothing to do with the narrative weakness that I and others have pointed out.

I’m confused. I didn’t think I was disagreeing with you at all, but it seems like you thought I was? I just meant that some folks were seeing the queue as the setup that helped make the ride make more sense. Sounds like you disagree with them?

 

[_caleb]

Crazy concept - People just want to ride a ride without memorizing a textbook sized backstory

I imagine the backstory isn’t necessary to enjoy the ride, but something that can add a little fun for those who get into that sort of thing. Like when they added the S.E.A. backstories to several attractions—not necessary, but fun for some.

 

[SilentWindODoom]

Oh we’re already blaming the “marketing” are we? The attraction’s not even open to the public yet!

Everyone spent months complaining about how terrible the marketing was. It caaaaan't now be suggested anyone who says such is finding excuses.

 

[SuddenStorm]

The pacing on this ride is all over the place.



I mean, you place 'high energy' vignettes (if we can even call it that) of bands performing- then nothing before the dip drop. Just Tiana awkwardly sitting to the sound of crickets until your log gets close enough to trigger her telling us to keep exploring. It's like any energy they had just deflates.

But worse, I don't think any of the plot elements read visually.

Disney used to be able to create compelling set pieces with gags that read instantly- Pirates and Mansion are chock full of them. Splash's set pieces reinforced the story they were trying to tell. This ride doesn't have any of that- which is probably why they had to add banners everywhere to tell us what's happening.

 

[Kirby86]

I saw Princess and the Frog and I'm wondering what Mama Odie is doing in the ride. Honestly that whole shrinking thing is weird. Mama Odie shrinks us because the Imagineers needed to reuse the laughing place set , Tiana tells Luis she has to find us since we shrunk, then Tiana and Luis forget about us when they see the musical frogs. I assume Tiana leaves since she has to rehearse, again not to worried about where we were aperently. That middle section up to the drop is so odd.

 

[Professortango1]

These are fundamentally different things. Starcruiser had its own price of admission, and people invited for free were indeed less capable of doing a true cost-benefit analysis because it cost them nothing (which many noted in their reviews). Tiana is part of regular admission. There’s no extra layer that significantly separates the experience of an invited, publication-employed reviewer from that of a standard guest.

Many of these folks are being allowed to ride the attraction early and also sit in private logs for taping and such. They are being given a privileged experience and not part of general admission. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the invited guests are also let into MK without a ticket or anything.

Special access is still worth considering when responding to people's coverage of the attraction. Privilege breeds loyalty.