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

[tanc]

TBA is the one ride I want to ride if I go back, it would be a great send off for WDW for a while. Hoping they announce something during Mardi Gras this year.

 

[Incomudro]

I think it's easy to think something different from what we know will be worse/less special, but I think it's worth holding out hope based on something like Guardians in California. They kept the ride, changed the feel/tone of it, and it produced something different, but not necessarily worse/less special. Just different.

I'm hoping that the feeling of Tiana's final lift, even if not as foreboding as the one in Splash, evokes an equally strong feeling that is just as wonderful. Obviously the drop itself is the same, but the spirit of it will be very different, no doubt, but that hopefully that doesn't mean it'll be worse or less special.

Ofc, once people ride it, they'll have different tastes (I prefer ToT to Guardians), but I can see the value and equal specialness in both.

Not going with Facilier is a huge missed opportunity as I've said often.
That doesn't mean however that the lift cant be done well with Mama Odie.
She's a great character, and in the right hands (that's where I have my reservations) she can be used well in this location.

 

[Casper Gutman]

It was originally obtained by Splash Archive and he shared it with a couple of people in private. Someone he shared it with leaked it in this thread without permission, and it was deleted fairly quickly. Archive asked people who managed to save them not to repost them. I was lucky and saw them before they were taken down.

What was leaked was four screenshot taken from the Disneyland version of the finale with different angles. The environments don't have color or textures yet. just simple blank white geometry. Three of the renders showing closeups of the scenes contain characters. One image has no characters placed at all yet.

There are strands of lightbulbs draped across the flume between the two sides. On the left side of the flume where the Swamp Boys used to be is now some sort of gazebo-looking structure with some thin poles and railings. In the closeup of this structure, Charlotte and Eudora are standing within smiling at guests. Charlotte is wearing the exact same outfit she wore while dancing with Ralphie at the end of the film. Eudora is wearing her usual brownish clothes and is holding a parasol. There's what appears to be a table with a punch bowl in the center of the room behind them. This seems like a fairly large structure, and could easily contain quite a few additional AA figures if they wanted it to. And it does look like a big party scene. Though we'll see.

On the right side where the Riverboat used to be is now a large New Orleans style building facade. There's a bottom level with a porch landing almost right up against the water (where the water wheel was), and an upper level balcony with railing. It's not the same exact design as Tiana's Palace from the movie. There are also two curving staircases on the sides leading up to this balcony, also with their own railings and double landings each. Which is why I'm hoping they use these extra spaces for AA's. The restaurant facade in the film did not contain these extra stairs and landings. In that sense, they took some ideas from the Riverboat. I also noticed that the twisting designs within the metal railings used in both structures form vegetable shapes. In particular, bell peppers.

There are two closeups of the bottom landing. Each shows a set of two AA's. One has Naveen and Ralphie playing their instruments, Ralphie looks like the art they released and Naveen is wearing the same clothes (without the hat) he had at the beginning of the movie. The other set are Tiana and Louis in a t-pose (the default state of 3D models that haven't been posed yet). Tiana is in a long yellow dress with long sleeves that I don't recognize from the film. Louis' joints have gaps in them with rudimentary approximations of AA endoskeleton parts, so the model is probably also being used for building and animating the physical figure. All four of these characters can and probably will end up fitting within this same porch landing.

There are three other characters that aren't in these renders but which I know will appear somewhere in this finale- Naveen's parents and Big Daddy. Hopefully there will be others as well, as Splash had around 26 figures in its finale.

Thank you so much for this description. Not surprisingly, it worries me a great deal by seeming to reinforce a lot of my fears for the attraction and concerns about Disneys approach generally.

1) an obsessive fidelity to the details of an IP while ignoring its essence and the requirements of the dark ride medium. The finale seems to focus on all the least interesting characters from the film - who cares about Naveen’s relatives? - which only emphasizes that the genuinely interesting figures (Ray, Facilier, the frog prince and princess) are absent. We’ve known about that decision for a long time, of course, but the logical way forward would have been to fill the scene with colorful critters created to suit the ride, not populate the tableau with bland extras from the film. Honestly, this scene seems to be keeping the worst elements of a book report ride. That leads us to the related issue of

1b) Louis. The ride seems to be heavily reliant on the most generic major character from the film, an animal sidekick that seemed churned out because that’s what Disney does. Ray was a distinct personality with an arc, pathos, and a unique presence - Louis seemed to exist for no narrative reason other then that Ray was going to die and the movie needed a backup. At least Louis will be a distinctive figure, however, and not another

2) Humanoid AA. This is less an issue here then in RotR because the characters will be cartoonish, but Disneys reliance on human AAs continues to be frustrating. Splash was special in large part because it was a feast of unique AAs, creatures of every size and shape that couldn’t be reproduced by humans in costumes. That’s one of the advantages of using AAs! Of course, the greatest dark ride of all time, Pirates, is full of (caricatured) AAs, but it avoids a feeling of banality by not falling into the trap of the

3) “face and wave.” The push to “put guests in the story” means that, rather then forming interesting or comical scenes, modern Disney AAs largely just look and wave at guests, often while singing. It’s very boring. This new finale seems reminiscent of the last scene of Frozen, in which the characters stand there, staring at us and singing.

An attraction can withstand one of these issues and still be great. All three together, however, are an extreme liability.

 

[ToTBellHop]

It would be disappointing to see marketing hold this back. For one, it will get stronger early reviews if it has several months of 90-degree day operation. Cold, wet people will be more critical.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Thank you so much for this description. Not surprisingly, it worries me a great deal by seeming to reinforce a lot of my fears for the attraction and concerns about Disneys approach generally.

1) an obsessive fidelity to the details of an IP while ignoring its essence and the requirements of the dark ride medium. The finale seems to focus on all the least interesting characters from the film - who cares about Naveen’s relatives? - which only emphasizes that the genuinely interesting figures (Ray, Facilier, the frog prince and princess) are absent. We’ve known about that decision for a long time, of course, but the logical way forward would have been to fill the scene with colorful critters created to suit the ride, not populate the tableau with bland extras from the film. Honestly, this scene seems to be keeping the worst elements of a book report ride. That leads us to the related issue of

1b) Louis. The ride seems to be heavily reliant on the most generic major character from the film, an animal sidekick that seemed churned out because that’s what Disney does. Ray was a distinct personality with an arc, pathos, and a unique presence - Louis seemed to exist for no narrative reason other then that Ray was going to die and the movie needed a backup. At least Louis will be a distinctive figure, however, and not another

2) Humanoid AA. This is less an issue here then in RotR because the characters will be cartoonish, but Disneys reliance on human AAs continues to be frustrating. Splash was special in large part because it was a feast of unique AAs, creatures of every size and shape that couldn’t be reproduced by humans in costumes. That’s one of the advantages of using AAs! Of course, the greatest dark ride of all time, Pirates, is full of (caricatured) AAs, but it avoids a feeling of banality by not falling into the trap of the

3) “face and wave.” The push to “put guests in the story” means that, rather then forming interesting or comical scenes, modern Disney AAs largely just look and wave at guests, often while singing. It’s very boring. This new finale seems reminiscent of the last scene of Frozen, in which the characters stand there, staring at us and singing.

An attraction can withstand one of these issues and still be great. All three together, however, are an extreme liability.

This is the greatest summary of thoughts I couldn’t put into words.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

It would be disappointing to see marketing hold this back. For one, it will get stronger early reviews if it has several months of 90-degree day operation. Cold, wet people will be more critical.

I would hope ops can get some big push to have this open for the hot summer rather than wait for marketing reasons

 

[ToTBellHop]

I would hope ops can get some big push to have this open for the hot summer rather than wait for marketing reasons

It baffles my mind that they waited to close DL’s until May so it can miss two summers there and open in time for their awful winter weather. Makes no sense.

 

[aladdin2007]

I don't like Cosmic Rewind. Even the expectations of it being a roller coaster through dark space fell far short of what they advertised when it was first announced. In terms of scenery, a lot of it feels more like an updated Space Mountain than anything. The GOTG IP has some insanely detailed planet environments, but they largely ignored them in favor of black space with some scattered stars and an occasional projection of some ships flying around or the large bad guy.

The concept art showed some more ambitious planet and space designs that never made it in. The video small video screens of the Guardians lined up along the first tunnel are also lazy. I at least expected an animatronics group congratulating guests at the end, but nope, just a projection. Apparently AA's were a planned thing at one point but cut. I'm really struggling to figure out where that $500 million went.

While I have strong doubts that Tiana can match up to what it's replacing, I do at least expect it to be a more similar interior experience to its predecessor than GOTG was compared to what it replaced.

that really shocked me the most, that is a really large room too and its just empty with one screen, complete waste of what could have been detailed show space.

 

[aladdin2007]

Will there be passholder previews for TBA? I know it’s speculative

probably but trying to win the lottery to get it will be a nightmare, its a horrible system unless they are going to go about it a different way.

 

[Brer Oswald]

It baffles my mind that they waited to close DL’s until May so it can miss two summers there and open in time for their awful winter weather. Makes no sense.

I’m glad it did cause it gave me the chance to ride it again

 

[mattpeto]

probably but trying to win the lottery to get it will be a nightmare, its a horrible system unless they are going to go about it a different way.

Tron had long AP preview IIRC.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Tron had long AP preview IIRC.

Tron had really long CM previews too. In Christmas 2022 that thing was running with people on it.

 

[aladdin2007]

Tron had long AP preview IIRC.

was it through an online lottery system that constantly malfunctioned or was it via different means? I didnt do the tron preview so wasn't sure how that operated?

 

[tanc]

Maybe it's an incentive to sell more AP

 

[SilentWindODoom]

We all knew going into this from very early on if not the very beginning that it would be taking place after the film. Whether or not you think that is a bad idea... that's one thing. But knowing that that is the case, that that is a definite truth and is the basis for everything, there are things you can't ask for.

Facilier is dead. Fit his friends on the other side somewhere, even if just as voices. The chorus from the end of his song would be perfect for the final lift. But Facilier is gone.

Ray is dead. Include other fireflies, although I don't know if they're reasonable as anything besides glow lights unless the shrinking part is true. Perhaps some of the small homes can be repurposed or homaged with firefly homes, although that isn't explicitly suggested in the film. I expect to see two stars somewhere, but Ray's dead.

Tiana and Naveen are human. We've already seen two frogs and it would not be surprising to see plenty others inside the ride, but Tiana and Naveen have been changed back and given the same squeaky wheels that led to the entire project are likely to have overlap with those that complained about them being frogs, it's unreasonable to expect them to portray them that way. In fact, this is likely a large reason why to make it post-film. Either you feature Tiana in frog form a lot or you don't feature her a lot in her own ride and both are no-win scenarios.

As for the shrinking thing, I completely forgot that I planned in my last message to address that but somewhere along the way missed the quoting of the posts that questioned how this would make sense. I can see it fitting into the narrative of us actively helping find something. It turns out that it's in somewhere inaccessible to the larger characters (funnily enough much like the plot of The Rescuers that it was earlier said would be referenced) and we're shrunken down. The sequence becomes us delving into the tight spot with the screens including Louis's eye poking in at us and updating us and Tiana to our progress. Put a giant version of whatever it is in the bend before the lift hill, and upon finding it we get to be brought back. I can see how they might do it.

 

[Bocabear]

Do we know that Facilier is dead though? Or did he just get dragged to "The Other Side" and is still plotting his way back?
That is the device that wouldallow him to be in any fthing... I mean why has he had any park presence if he is dead? Likewise we know that Malefecint is dead at the end of Beauty but she seems to be around a lot... The Wicked queen as well...They are all dead by the of the princess films, but everyone loves seeing them....so.....

 

[Joel]

Facilier is dead. Fit his friends on the other side somewhere, even if just as voices. The chorus from the end of his song would be perfect for the final lift. But Facilier is gone.

"Somehow, Facilier returned." Boom, done.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Facilier (and to a lesser extent, Ray) are as dead as Disney wants them to be at any given moment. They’re fictional.

 

[Incomudro]

Humans sustaining the most brutal injuries that apparently end their lives in so many of today's films somehow make it.
A voodoo guy connected to the spirit world could certainly return in a fictional world.

 

[Homemade Imagineering]

Dusty Sage claimed they’re installing massive set pieces for TBA, and whether that has a more literal meaning in connection to a possible shrinking plot is anyone’s guess. I thought of this as soon as I heard Alicia Stella’s claims, though I’m sure this could (and likely) be alluding to any other set pieces such as Tiana’s Palace in the finale. Still something that popped into my head regardless