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

[Disney Analyst]

The current rumour for MK is April-May. Who knows if that will happen, but the exterior is looking close at least.

 

[stitchangel]

I think I might just wait a bit before booking for the month of august, vine though most of you are now convinced the ride will be open by now! But if it opens in April or may, Disney will announce an opening date very soon allowing me to travel there in June.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

This is especially true of the two heads on this project, one of whom is an accountant and the other of whom is a diversity editor. Thankfully these two are mostly just marketing figureheads, with the creative process being handed over to people who allegedly do have some talent. But it still says a lot about the current creative situation at Disney that they're appointing people with absolutely no creative or artistic talent in leadership roles at WDI.

I feel like we have to get real clear about the facts here - Charita Carter was an accountant for Imagineering . . . in 1997. Since 2007 she has been working in the creative branches of WDI, moving from being a Show Producer to a Senior Creative Producer to Executive Creative Producer to now Executive Creative Producer-VP. Carmen Smith started with Disney at ABC in 2000 and has spent 14 years in her current role as Senior Vice President Creative Development Content-Products & Inclusive Strategies. These people have been around for years creating work you've enjoyed, but only now that their names are visibly and publicly attached to a project that people dislike for . . . reasons . . . they're abruptly being treated as if they couldn't possibly have earned their positions.

To incorrectly call these people figureheads, assume they have no talent, clearly attempt to dismiss them as "an accountant & a diversity editor", neither of which are wholly accurate descriptors, and disregard their many years of productive creative work in which they both worked their way up the ladder within this company is pointedly ugly given the context.

You don't have to like this these people, the ride, or even their work on it, but this kind of misguided devaluing of these women, their positions, and their achievements speaks to exactly the kind of gross and charged negative behavior people are hurling at this project. I would encourage you to speak more mindfully on this subject in the future.

 

[Brer Panther]

Riding around another warehouse in trackless vehicles shaped like boats doesn’t sound very fun to me.

I never even thought of that, but... you're right. A Ratatouille/Runaway Railway/Shanghai Disneyland Zootopia ride-style Princess and the Frog dark ride would've been far, far worse than this Splash Mountain retheme.

Most of the imagineers working at Disney right now are new hires with very little creative experience. There were mass layoffs from WDI during Covid (something that has been ongoing for many years prior). Not to mention a great many voluntary departures due to unhappiness with the executives. And unlike a lot of prior generations, much of the new crop weren't trained by their predecessors to ensure that the lineage of classic Disney artistry and creativity is passed down.

This sort of thing makes me worried that Iger has done irreparable damage to Disney and the parks.

Especially when there’s nothing particularly special about said weathervane that would instantly be recognizable to guests.

It ain’t exactly Haunted Mansion or Peter Pan’s Flight.

Or the Brer Rabbit weathervane that Splash Mountain had.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I feel like we have to get real clear about the facts here - Charita Carter was an accountant for Imagineering . . . in 1997. Since 2007 she has been working in the creative branches of WDI, moving from being a Show Producer to a Senior Creative Producer to Executive Creative Producer to now Executive Creative Producer-VP. Carmen Smith started with Disney at ABC in 2000 and has spent 14 years in her current role as Senior Vice President Creative Development Content-Products & Inclusive Strategies. These people have been around for years creating work you've enjoyed, but only now that their names are visibly and publicly attached to a project that people dislike for . . . reasons . . . they're abruptly being treated as if they couldn't possibly have earned their positions.

To incorrectly call these people figureheads, assume they have no talent, clearly attempt to dismiss them as "an accountant & a diversity editor", neither of which are wholly accurate descriptors, and disregard their many years of productive creative work in which they both worked their way up the ladder within this company is pointedly ugly given the context.

You don't have to like this these people, the ride, or even their work on it, but this kind of misguided devaluing of these women, their positions, and their achievements speaks to exactly the kind of gross and charged negative behavior people are hurling at this project. I would encourage you to speak more mindfully on this subject in the future.

Here here!!

 

[mickEblu]

I never even thought of that, but... you're right. A Ratatouille/Runaway Railway/Shanghai Disneyland Zootopia ride-style Princess and the Frog dark ride would've been far, far worse than this Splash Mountain retheme.

This sort of thing makes me worried that Iger has done irreparable damage to Disney and the parks.

Or the Brer Rabbit weathervane that Splash Mountain had.

Right. Although I’d rather have a crappy PatF ride if it meant Splash Mountain survived.

 

[𝕴𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖗97]

disregard their many years of productive creative work in which they both worked their way up the ladder within this company is pointedly ugly given the context.

Can you elaborate on the productive creative work that each one has been responsible for? I'm not challenging you, just asking for further explanation.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

(ps - I’d wager that most of y’all probably didn’t know that the PPF vane even existed)

If you’re keeping score - I did know the Peter Pan vane existed - I love tik-tok croc! But I didn’t know about the bat on the vane in haunted mansion.

The other weather vane I recall is the Mary Poppins one on jolly holiday cafe - winds in the east and all!

 

[JD80]

Some of the weirdest marketing I’ve ever seen for any ride. Nobody cares. Yay we have artists from New Orleans painting murals that look out of place and authentic weathervanes and drum set replicas lol. But not the best song or the bad guy from the movie. What a joke.

I care and I enjoy watching little snippets of the work being done. If you don't like it go somewhere else.

 

[mickEblu]

I care and I enjoy watching little snippets of the work being done. If you don't like it go somewhere else.

There’s always one…

 

[_caleb]

It's an absurd argument that only artists or imagineers have the authority to decide what looks correct and that no other opinions are valid.

How is it absurd? I’ve not said ONLY artists or imagineers have authority to judge, just that nobody is in a better position than they.

Eventually, we’ll be able to experience it as a whole and judge whether we like it or not, and how well we think it “fits” in the broader area of the parks.

Making definitive statements about the consistency or quality of the work at this point is like tasting dinner before all the ingredients have been added (when you don’t even know what dish is being made and aren’t familiar with the cuisine), declaring it to be disgusting and the chef to be incompetent.

The pieces of "concept art" she drew for the attraction mostly look quite awkward and messy.

I imagine you wouldn’t say such a thing if you were judging the work of an indigenous artist in a remote part of the world; and rightly so, because “awkward” is relative, and it’d be rude to call another culture’s art “messy.” But somehow here, we all suppose our standards for art are universal.

 

[JD80]

I feel like we have to get real clear about the facts here - Charita Carter was an accountant for Imagineering . . . in 1997. Since 2007 she has been working in the creative branches of WDI, moving from being a Show Producer to a Senior Creative Producer to Executive Creative Producer to now Executive Creative Producer-VP. Carmen Smith started with Disney at ABC in 2000 and has spent 14 years in her current role as Senior Vice President Creative Development Content-Products & Inclusive Strategies. These people have been around for years creating work you've enjoyed, but only now that their names are visibly and publicly attached to a project that people dislike for . . . reasons . . . they're abruptly being treated as if they couldn't possibly have earned their positions.

To incorrectly call these people figureheads, assume they have no talent, clearly attempt to dismiss them as "an accountant & a diversity editor", neither of which are wholly accurate descriptors, and disregard their many years of productive creative work in which they both worked their way up the ladder within this company is pointedly ugly given the context.

You don't have to like this these people, the ride, or even their work on it, but this kind of misguided devaluing of these women, their positions, and their achievements speaks to exactly the kind of gross and charged negative behavior people are hurling at this project. I would encourage you to speak more mindfully on this subject in the future.

Well said. Thank you for writing that.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Can you elaborate on the productive creative work that each one has been responsible for? I'm not challenging you, just asking for further explanation.

Carters team added projection mapping to snow whites scary adventures (prior to the enchanted wish rehab), she worked on legend of jack sparrow at Hollywood studios, and worked directly with Kevin Rafferty on Runaway Railway.

 

[JD80]

There’s always one…

Yes me and the thousands of people who enjoyed watching that tiktok. Keep talking.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Producers and project leads typically aren’t creatives, they handle the money, the scheduling, the logistics, the big picture planning… that’s better left to someone with an accounting background than an art major.

That doesn’t mean they don’t have artistic input but it’s likely at the approval level rather than the pen to paper level.

ETA: the highlight being on the management team, rather than the art team, is a little different but makes sense in the context of highlighting the inclusiveness and authenticity of the ride.

 

[mickEblu]

Keep talking.

Will Do

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Producers and project leads typically aren’t creatives, they handle the money, the scheduling, the logistics, the big picture planning… that’s better left to someone with an accounting background than an art major.

I think you have it backwards - producers and project leads are typically creatives. Tony Baxter, Joe Rohde, Scott Trowbridge, Kevin Rafferrty, etc.

Edit to add - I don’t think of Carter as an accountant though. Yes that was her background, but she has worked in blue sky studio and as a creative on attractions for several years now.

 

[MisterPenguin]

The current rumour for MK is April-May. Who knows if that will happen, but the exterior is looking close at least.

Whence the April-May rumor?

 

[𝕴𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖗97]

Some of the weirdest marketing I’ve ever seen for any ride. Nobody cares. Yay we have artists from New Orleans painting murals that look out of place and authentic weathervanes and drum set replicas lol. But not the best song or the bad guy from the movie. What a joke.

No, this weathervane is important! How else will we remember to look back at our bird tails as we're riding this?

 

[JD80]

The last 6 pages have just proved that almost no one knows what they are talking about. Or basically, it's still the internet.