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

[MisterPenguin]

I hear banners are passé...

 

[James Alucobond]

I hear banners are passé...

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It’s more that there are 4-6 banners in the new attraction that are all slightly different flavors of “everyone’s welcome”. Somewhat excessive.

 

[zipadee999]

There's a sense of humor in setting scenes that Disney used to do so well.
From Pirates, to Jungle Cruise, to Splash etc...
Most of that seems to be lost to an unnecessary realism - even when animated characters are involved.
Scenes can look "better" now if you will, but they don't work better.

I noticed that while looking at the new scenes. While the animatronics are more ‘impressive,’ I’d still take any old scene over any new one. The old scenes are true ‘vignettes,’ where things are happening and can be observed. You feel like a story is unfolding around you. From what we have seen here, most of these scenes in Bayou Adventure look like a group of animatronics just standing around and gesturing at the riders. From what we have seen, it does not look like there’s anything ‘going on.’ Old imagineering mastered the cocktail party design, where the guests are passing through a rich and dynamic world. Modern imagineering seems set on dropping several A-1000s along the ride path to wave at riders and calling it a day. Yes, they’re using more impressive technology, but to me, the scenes as a whole are less impressive.

 

[JohnD]

At least 22...

That's short of "dozens". Just saying.

 

[EagleScout610]

I noticed that while looking at the new scenes. While the animatronics are more ‘impressive,’ I’d still take any old scene over any new one. The old scenes are true ‘vignettes,’ where things are happening and can be observed. You feel like a story is unfolding around you. From what we have seen here, most of these scenes in Bayou Adventure look like a group of animatronics just standing around and gesturing at the riders. From what we have seen, it does not look like there’s anything ‘going on.’ Old imagineering mastered the cocktail party design, where the guests are passing through a rich and dynamic world. Modern imagineering seems set on dropping several A-1000s along the ride path to wave at riders and calling it a day. Yes, they’re using more impressive technology, but to me, the scenes as a whole are less impressive.

 

[MisterPenguin]

That's short of "dozens". Just saying.

That's just the last scene.

Three critter bands with about 5 critters each is 15 AAs that appear twice, so, that's 30.

Tiana and Louis appear about 3 times each. So, were up to 36.

Tiana's family brings it up to 40.

Mama Odie makes it 42.

And the snake!! 44!!!

 

[aladdin2007]

so what scene have we not seen yet? the one with the shack? and then whatever else is after the laughin place? Everything else I think we have now more or less been shown...or...

 

[mickEblu]

I can count at least 14 critters in that scene, plus Louis, Tiana, Naveen, Ralphie, Eudora and Charlotte and the footage is not the best

Really, AA’s? Or are you counting the characters on screens? I’ll have to take another look.

 

[mickEblu]

That's just the last scene.

Three critter bands with about 5 critters each is 15 AAs that appear twice, so, that's 30.

Tiana and Louis appear about 3 times each. So, were up to 36.

Tiana's family brings it up to 40.

Mama Odie makes it 42.

And the snake!! 44!!!

So just 59 short of Disneylands version! Haha maybe Disneylands kept more of the America Sings AAs.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Sign on the entry to the finale

Oh, come on…

 

[mickEblu]

Oh, come on…

The imagineers are trolling us. I’m convinced.

 

[disneyC97]

Now that what we saw yesterday has settled... I'm not loving that we don't see Tiana in her signature green gown. Ive been saying this since we first saw the AA but she feels more like Tianas older sister or cousin or something. My theory is they wanted Tiana to look more like an average woman. The same way they do with dolls and barbies now. That's what drove this. Not that the sToRy tAkes plaCe aFter the mOviE. Other than that the finale feels full-ish but I'm not seeing a whole bunch of critter AA's. Is it just Louis, the beaver and a couple other ones? Trading a bunch of charming anthropomorphic critters singing a huge chorus on a rocking steamboat for a bunch of Humans was always going to be a downgrade. As predicted the finale is the biggest let down and that's not even getting into the song that replaced Zip. I think Tony could have helped a lot. It's a shame the "old dinosaur" probably wasn't wanted by this team.

I agree on the green gown for sure. Considering she put a giant crown on her water tower, you think she'd hold on to that dress. I remember when Splash was first opening at Disneyland that there was a change or two...I think the song choice before the lift hill being the main one. Would be nice to see them change out her dress and take down that ill-placed sign over the outdoor portion of the flume.

 

[EagleScout610]

so what scene have we not seen yet? the one with the shack? and then whatever else is after the laughin place? Everything else I think we have now more or less been shown...or...

- Porcupine/Racoon and the sweeping bunnies
- Very top of the dip drop (Where Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear were)
- Everything from the Laughin' Place cavern to the big plunge

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Some line ups with the Splash scenes:
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This is not to say the new ride is necessarily equal to or better than Splash, but I think it is instructive to put these little glimpses of the ride we've seen so far side-by-side with similar glimpses of Splash. If the overlay was in the other direction and we were seeing Splash in this fashion, I really wonder how many people would be thinking it was an upgrade over Tiana.

 

[Casper Gutman]

This is not to say the new ride is necessarily equal to or better than Splash, but I think it is instructive to put these little glimpses of the ride we've seen so far side-by-side with similar glimpses of Splash. If the overlay was in the other direction and we were seeing Splash in this fashion, I really wonder how many people would be thinking it was an upgrade over Tiana.

Well, as has been pointed out, in Splash the characters were actually DOING things and the ride was composed of a series of scenes…

 

[dothebrdwalk]

I'm starting to think the people who don't like Tiana's will just never like it lol

 

[SilentWindODoom]

I'm not sure what you think you're proving here. For starters, that scene hasn't been lit correctly for a number of years now, as that image demonstrates. It's supposed to be considerably darker with colorful lighting. But some idiot decided to either turn the worklights on permanently or switched to generic bright white lights. The scene when properly lit looked quite similar to that new scene in TBA (Disneyland was also lit like this as well). Except it also had the kinetics of the jumping fountains (also frequently broken in recent years), which unfortunately appear to have been removed entirely from the TBA scene with the empty concrete pits left behind. Marni1971 has a tribute video showing the scene in its proper glory. Though I won't link it since the mods will probably purge it.

There are supposedly four frog figures in that scene. You can see the trumpet flower playing one just off to the right, the other three are likely next to it. The design of these figures are very well done and I appreciate their unique details from one another, but they're unfortunately simple moving props with less motion than their proper AA predecessors.

The prior attraction not only had several genuine AA's in this room (about five), but also a substantial amount of simple moving props for all of the turtles and gophers. Disneyland had an even larger number of proper AA's, and hopefully some of them survived. Perhaps there are more figures than just the four frogs further down, but i'm not betting money on it. Human sized variants of the Zydeco critter band would be neat for instance. Or some enlarged fireflies, even though those would also likely be simple moving or static props.

I want a longer and clearer look at the figures in the ride to be 100% certain of this, but it looks like none of the new critter characters are proper AA's. Their movement seems to be very limited compared to many of their predecessors, both the smaller zydeco band and even the larger bobcats and bears. Even the otter seems to be fairly basic, despite the diagrams they released of him indicating more motion. It's starting to look like Splash Archive and Brayden may have been correct about there only being 17ish proper AA's. I'm glad that the ride isn't completely empty and that the character designs are good, but their limited motion is a huge disappointment.

This has been your standpoint for a while now and your biggest concern. But thinking on it... I don't know how important I feel it. When it comes to the frog hornblower, I don't know how much of an additional range of motion I need. He plays the instrument and sways to the beat. Looking at a lot of the old animatronics that had a lot of complex and minute movements, they were all singing and the motion conveyed this. Compare the drumming and singing porcupine to the harmonica-playing racoon beside him. Save for a waist swivel, the racoon doesn't have much difference from the new animatronics. The critters aren't going to be doing any of the singing, instead focusing on instruments.

Looking at the Mansion and Pirates, there are plenty of iconic characters that have limited-to-almost-no movement. While there's obviously a difference from Splash to Tiana's, I don't feel like an animatronic needs to have more movement than it would naturally do in its action just to say that it's more advanced, especially when you're travelling past speedily enough.

Of course, that's how I feel about it. It seems this is of a great interest and import to you, and with your deep knowledge of animatronics I'm sure your mind sees something missing far before your conscious can pick out what.

The lily pads have finally made it!

Now do the rest of the ride, where characters used to be fishing, farming, talking to one another, trying to catch or outsmart each other… instead of staring and flailing.

Haven't seen them yet. Don't know what's there. Or what audio goes along with what we've got. It was mostly the song track being played over everything.

The TBA sign looks far too modern and clashes with whatever time period/aesthetic the ride is going for.

We did this already a ways back in the thread. Splash Mountain's old font was supremely modern and broken away from the time period/aesthetic.

So is it true “we” are the special spice, or is it the critters?

It seems that the idea of there being a special spice came from the song rather than the search taking place in the ride. They're two separate things, but we took mentions of each and assumed (reasonably) that they were the same thing.

Apparently Tiana’s Foods is very successful if they’re opening locations in both FL and CA!

*a rustic Louisiana bayou and New Orleans.

-The awkward lift hill that looks like stage sets, those buildings have no depth.

That's how it always looked. The old mill had shallow shelves that actually seem to fit the new inventory better than the old.

Now that what we saw yesterday has settled... I'm not loving that we don't see Tiana in her signature green gown. Ive been saying this since we first saw the AA but she feels more like Tianas older sister or cousin or something. My theory is they wanted Tiana to look more like an average woman. The same way they do with dolls and barbies now.

Isn't the Disney Princess line infamous for doing the exact opposite?

The gown you’re referring to is her wedding gown (and a magically generated plant-based one at that). The one she wears in the finale of the ride is very similar to the one she wears at her restaurant at the end of the film. I don’t think this is specifically tied to some sort of agenda, but if you’re determined to tie everything about this ride to that, then I suppose you will.

As a father of a three year old daughter who loves Tiana and put myself in that moment of riding with her when she’s tall enough I want it to be the character she recognizes. I want it to be unmistakeable. Not authentic. I honestly don’t know if she’d even know it’s Tiana if we didn’t tell her or she heard her name over and over.

Yeah I think they re going to sell out of the swamp outfit for sure. Lol. Little girls will be fighting over ‘em.

I think James sums it up well enough. In their most marketed appearances...

Snow, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Rapunzel, Merida, Moana, and Raya wear their everyday clothes.

Cinderella's dress is the second-most-famous centerpiece of her story.

Aurora's dress is also a plot point and what she wears for the entire second-half of the film. Funnily enough, I'd never realized how much of the time spent with it is while it's blue. I imagine the company wanted some variety in merchandising its princess trio, so went with the color that would differentiate her form Cindy.

Ariel... wears two dresses besides her wedding dress in her whole be-legged existence, and the company seems to vacillate between them.

Belle's dress is the centerpiece of the film's iconography and is worn during the title song.

Tiana's "princess" dress in the form is... not actually heavily featured. It's a beautiful segment, of course. But even within the film it's immediately supplanted by another wedding dress. Honestly, when I think "Tiana", I imagine her in the yellow waitress dress most of all.

Funnily enough, the original princess costume seems to get equal representation in promotional material. But the augmented version is what they went with for the Princess line and costuming because it's the most ornate and royal as well as evoking frogginess. But it was a costume with no practical use. It's a big puffy gown. And when having a wedding and choosing a formal gown, she opted for something slimmer.

I think you're selling your daughters a bit short, especially when they're going to hear that familiar voice. Not to mention the fact that we've got a while where things like the new book can get one acquainted with her explorer outfit. But when I was little I met large, mute costumed characters representing cartoons and puppets and didn't have a problem recognizing them. And there's always room for a good ol' "*dramatic gasp* Look, it's Tiana!"

 

[Incomudro]

I noticed that while looking at the new scenes. While the animatronics are more ‘impressive,’ I’d still take any old scene over any new one. The old scenes are true ‘vignettes,’ where things are happening and can be observed. You feel like a story is unfolding around you. From what we have seen here, most of these scenes in Bayou Adventure look like a group of animatronics just standing around and gesturing at the riders. From what we have seen, it does not look like there’s anything ‘going on.’ Old imagineering mastered the cocktail party design, where the guests are passing through a rich and dynamic world. Modern imagineering seems set on dropping several A-1000s along the ride path to wave at riders and calling it a day. Yes, they’re using more impressive technology, but to me, the scenes as a whole are less impressive.

I couldn't (and didn't) say it better myself.
What you said is exactly what I was getting at.
Each scene was a story when done by the old imaginears.
A memorable scene.
Take the jail cell scene in Pirates for instance.

 

[Incomudro]

Well, as has been pointed out, in Splash the characters were actually DOING things and the ride was composed of a series of scenes…

And there was humor or whimsy in every scene.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I couldn't (and didn't) say it better myself.
What you said is exactly what I was getting at.
Each scene was a story when done by the old imaginears.
A memorable scene.
Take the jail cell scene in Pirates for instance.

I mean, it's just a different form of storytelling / theatre.

How that lands for each person is very subjective.