Confirming my worries about the prior video, every single one of the new critters are indeed simple motion props ala Little Mermaid, but prettier. Not animatronics. Not only that, there are only 14 legitimate animatronics in the ride. Which is even less than what Splash Archive, Brayden and WDW Pro were saying...
There's a ton of wasted empty space where there used to be characters (again pretty empty space). The bands are mostly clustered together, which is fine if there were other characters populating the dead spots. The projected characters are also terrible, even using one for Mama Odie when she shrinks you instead of a figure.
Plot is just as stupid as expected.
The best part of this ride is the environmental scenery. I think they did quite well with that, at least the interior (the outside is still a mess and removed a lot of really charming detail after the millhouse lift without decent replacements). The jumping fountains DID return too, contrary to what I thought prior. Not a bad ride on its own merits if you ignore what it used to be, but that's kind of impossible to do. It's definitely a letdown and not as good as what came before.
