Disney (WDW & Disneyland) | Tiana's Bayou Adventure | Splash Mountain retheme | 2024
- Thread starter Matt N
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- retheme splash mountain
AidanCKY
Mega Poster
I've always been a huge splash fan. But I'm really shocked at how this retheme has been done, the story is uncompelling. Tianas lines are really repetitive and lazy.
The big drop loses it's buildup that those cultures gave before.
Like which imagineers worked on this project because it feels really lacking compared to other Disney projects.
The big drop loses it's buildup that those cultures gave before.
Like which imagineers worked on this project because it feels really lacking compared to other Disney projects.
Matt N
CF Legend
I apologise if this is controversial... but I think it looks pretty decent! The animatronics, as per usual with modern Disney, look excellent, it looks vibrant, it looks fun and musical, and it overall looks to maintain the vibe of the original pretty well, in my view!
I will preface my comments by saying that I only rode the original Splash Mountain once, back in 2019, so I don't hold any particular nostalgia towards it. I have also never watched The Princess & The Frog.
I will preface my comments by saying that I only rode the original Splash Mountain once, back in 2019, so I don't hold any particular nostalgia towards it. I have also never watched The Princess & The Frog.
Oh @Matt N !
Please stop apologising
- we're all friends here. You're not going to say anything that rattles any cages 
Matt N
CF Legend
By that, I meant that it looks to have the same sort of fun, musical vibe with lots of singing animals and such that made the original quite charming for me. As I say, though, I only rode it once and hold no great level of nostalgia for it.
InvertsAreMyJam
Mega Poster
Now, I have never rode Splash Mountain, nor have I watched the POV yet. But I know the first thing I think of when I’m talking about bayous are the mountains! Wait…
cookie
Giga Poster
It's supposed to be a salt dome. That's why they've placed the tall trees and the water tower in front of the drop to de-emphasize its height.
I have found between Fantasy Springs and Tiana that whoever Disney hires to shoot and edit these "official" POVs is doing a really poor job at presenting the rides in their best light (there even seems to be effects missing that previous videos have shown to be there like the exit into the drop being covered in mist), so I'm holding judgement until we get better recordings out there/word from people who've actually ridden it.
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Niles
Giga Poster
My favourite thing about the film is the villain Dr Facilier. Him not being in the ride is a massive missed opportunity, his villain song would have been perfect for the lift ( are you readyyy! ) and he would have given the ride a more foreboding tone, his character has presence and personality, what an odd choice to not have him and his friends on the other side.
Ride looks...fine but not close to the original for me.
Ride looks...fine but not close to the original for me.
I suspect they didn't want to run into the same sort of issues that Splash Mountain had by giving it a 'voodoo' theme.
InvertsAreMyJam
Mega Poster
I just watched the POV, and yikes. The animatronics look amazing, but everything just seems so empty and the story is lacking. I would be really disappointed if I had to wait upwards of an hour to ride this.
TPoseOnTantrum
Giga Poster
Personally as a huge critic of corporate Disney and someone who hasn't visited the parks in well over a decade, I'm willing to give the final product a little slack as it is from a logistical perspective alone.
Ride rethemes are usually fairly simple due to the lack of onboard story. It gets more complicated when you start attempting to reskin existing dark rides, given that the physical layout is coordinated well with story beats. It worked better with GOTG: Mission Breakout! and perhaps Knott's Beary Tales 2.0 because those were both simplistic attractions that could be more easily adapted to new story beats. On the other hand even before that project was nuked, Genting and Dynamic Attractions faced a huge problem after the SFX Coaster lost access to the AVP story, which had heavily influenced the final design of the ride. Designers have said in interviews just how absolutely integral a story is to shape the final ride design.
Disney was always going to have an uphill battle adapting a new story to the unchanged Splash Mountain infrastructure in more ways than one. New physical sets had to work with the show buildings as is, and Splash Mountain had a very effective beat by beat story that perfectly aligned with the ride experience. It's fairly obvious unfortunately that Disney wasn't able to pull out an as-effective ride storyline however, which not only doesn't fit snugly with the layout but is more complicated and jumbled. Tiana is poking around for a salt dome, but she's also preparing to host a party and Mama Odie is shrinking riders on their journey. That's three different ideas that arguably aren't meshing together effectively and will go over the average rider's head. In a case like that you can always dismiss structure and lean more towards a feel-good "greatest hits" movie experience similar to W&G's Thrill-O-Matic at PBB (also a retheme), but like others have said it leaves out Dr Facilier and the film's plot, and it's shallow and unbalanced as a result. There's talk that the story changed several times throughout the development, so this could all serve as an explanation.
Elaborating back on the technical side, the space available definitely impacted the development of new sets/scenes and what they could put where. Imagineering has definitely still got it and I think the animatronics look great, but this would also explain why other parts of the ride just look sparse in comparison. The focus is on the music here where it becomes used as a substitute for scenes rather than to compliment them, which is in itself a double edged sword. Disneyland's version may have a slight advantage in this regard as it had larger show buildings, so we'll have to see how much (if at all) the two projects differ.
Of course, nothing is excusing the fundamental questions behind this project, such as; Why did they choose to renovate two existing attractions simultaneously with this new story instead of experimenting with one? Why did they choose to retheme Splash Mountain's physical attraction hardware instead of starting from scratch? Why did they pick this movie, underrated as it is? Why did Disney announce it seemingly as a response to and during a tense sociopolitical movement that would go on to spark huge debate? Why were certain parts of the internet calling this the worst Disney attraction ever, while another Disney influencer dismissed legitimate criticism yesterday as coming from "Trump Supporters"? Assuming the reports are legit, why did Tokyo pass on the project and Disneyland leadership fight Bob Iger right up until Splash Mountain's last day? I suspect there's different logical and even obvious answers to all of these.
There's a contingent of modern Disney Fans that say otherwise, but replacing Splash Mountain was always going to leave huge shoes to fill. Disney understood the stakes behind this and brought their A game here, and I think this is likely the best product we were likely to get given the circumstances. It was always going to open the door to heavy criticism and I think people as a whole are and have been willing to give this one a fair shot. We'll have to see more when the ride actually opens and I'm sure we'll hear a lot more positive things. Tiana may still end up being great or even solid but I don't think it'll age as well as peak-level Splash Mountain did.
Ride rethemes are usually fairly simple due to the lack of onboard story. It gets more complicated when you start attempting to reskin existing dark rides, given that the physical layout is coordinated well with story beats. It worked better with GOTG: Mission Breakout! and perhaps Knott's Beary Tales 2.0 because those were both simplistic attractions that could be more easily adapted to new story beats. On the other hand even before that project was nuked, Genting and Dynamic Attractions faced a huge problem after the SFX Coaster lost access to the AVP story, which had heavily influenced the final design of the ride. Designers have said in interviews just how absolutely integral a story is to shape the final ride design.
Disney was always going to have an uphill battle adapting a new story to the unchanged Splash Mountain infrastructure in more ways than one. New physical sets had to work with the show buildings as is, and Splash Mountain had a very effective beat by beat story that perfectly aligned with the ride experience. It's fairly obvious unfortunately that Disney wasn't able to pull out an as-effective ride storyline however, which not only doesn't fit snugly with the layout but is more complicated and jumbled. Tiana is poking around for a salt dome, but she's also preparing to host a party and Mama Odie is shrinking riders on their journey. That's three different ideas that arguably aren't meshing together effectively and will go over the average rider's head. In a case like that you can always dismiss structure and lean more towards a feel-good "greatest hits" movie experience similar to W&G's Thrill-O-Matic at PBB (also a retheme), but like others have said it leaves out Dr Facilier and the film's plot, and it's shallow and unbalanced as a result. There's talk that the story changed several times throughout the development, so this could all serve as an explanation.
Elaborating back on the technical side, the space available definitely impacted the development of new sets/scenes and what they could put where. Imagineering has definitely still got it and I think the animatronics look great, but this would also explain why other parts of the ride just look sparse in comparison. The focus is on the music here where it becomes used as a substitute for scenes rather than to compliment them, which is in itself a double edged sword. Disneyland's version may have a slight advantage in this regard as it had larger show buildings, so we'll have to see how much (if at all) the two projects differ.
Of course, nothing is excusing the fundamental questions behind this project, such as; Why did they choose to renovate two existing attractions simultaneously with this new story instead of experimenting with one? Why did they choose to retheme Splash Mountain's physical attraction hardware instead of starting from scratch? Why did they pick this movie, underrated as it is? Why did Disney announce it seemingly as a response to and during a tense sociopolitical movement that would go on to spark huge debate? Why were certain parts of the internet calling this the worst Disney attraction ever, while another Disney influencer dismissed legitimate criticism yesterday as coming from "Trump Supporters"? Assuming the reports are legit, why did Tokyo pass on the project and Disneyland leadership fight Bob Iger right up until Splash Mountain's last day? I suspect there's different logical and even obvious answers to all of these.
There's a contingent of modern Disney Fans that say otherwise, but replacing Splash Mountain was always going to leave huge shoes to fill. Disney understood the stakes behind this and brought their A game here, and I think this is likely the best product we were likely to get given the circumstances. It was always going to open the door to heavy criticism and I think people as a whole are and have been willing to give this one a fair shot. We'll have to see more when the ride actually opens and I'm sure we'll hear a lot more positive things. Tiana may still end up being great or even solid but I don't think it'll age as well as peak-level Splash Mountain did.
InvertsAreMyJam
Mega Poster
It’s interesting to see the different responses to this. The comments on YouTube and Reddit are overwhelmingly negative, but on Disney forum sites it’s mostly positive. I wonder what the general public will think of this ride. In Disney’s eyes, that’ll be the most important factor. And honestly, the GP will likely have positive reception. Unlike theme park and Disney enthusiasts, they don’t meticulously follow the development of a ride, and probably don’t have the same expectations enthusiasts have either. Although, with Epic Universe opening soon, it could be that the general public gets sick of Disney constantly removing rides to replace them with soulless IP copies. Frozen Ever After, Guardians (which is supposed to be good but doesn’t belong in Epcot), and now this. Will it ever end? I hope Universal forces Disney to up their game with the theme parks. It’s sad that the Tokyo park, which is owned by a different company, is getting better attractions than the American parks.
Heck, even Disneyland is seemingly getting more attention than WDW. As many people have pointed out already in other forums, this ride feels much better suited to Disneyland’s Splash Mountain. That ride is about two minutes shorter, which would remove the dead spaces. It’s almost like they designed TBA to the shorter Splash Mountain, then were too lazy to add an extra scene or something to improve the ride. Heck, even adding some extra animatronics would have made this attraction MUCH better. Instead, it feels like a whole bunch of nothing.
After thinking about this for a while, I would say the biggest problem is the story. They just completely abandoned the food theme, apparently. And okay, I can see why they didn’t include Dr Facilier. The voodoo aspects could cause some controversy, and also be too scary for kids. But if they absolutely couldn’t do that, there’s still one thing this ride is missing: tension. There is absolutely no need for the 50 foot drop with the current story. I’m not exactly sure how they could have added tension without Facilier, but I’m sure the Imagineers could have come up with at least something. As it stands, TBA feels like a dark ride or tame water ride forced into a thrill water ride format.
Overall, I’m very disappointed in Disney. Since I never rode Splash Mountain, I‘m not one of those people who is ridiculously mad Disney changed it. But…Splash Mountain does genuinely seem like a better ride, at least from the POVs. And it’s not good when a 30+ year old ride is better than a brand new ride. Yikes.
Heck, even Disneyland is seemingly getting more attention than WDW. As many people have pointed out already in other forums, this ride feels much better suited to Disneyland’s Splash Mountain. That ride is about two minutes shorter, which would remove the dead spaces. It’s almost like they designed TBA to the shorter Splash Mountain, then were too lazy to add an extra scene or something to improve the ride. Heck, even adding some extra animatronics would have made this attraction MUCH better. Instead, it feels like a whole bunch of nothing.
After thinking about this for a while, I would say the biggest problem is the story. They just completely abandoned the food theme, apparently. And okay, I can see why they didn’t include Dr Facilier. The voodoo aspects could cause some controversy, and also be too scary for kids. But if they absolutely couldn’t do that, there’s still one thing this ride is missing: tension. There is absolutely no need for the 50 foot drop with the current story. I’m not exactly sure how they could have added tension without Facilier, but I’m sure the Imagineers could have come up with at least something. As it stands, TBA feels like a dark ride or tame water ride forced into a thrill water ride format.
Overall, I’m very disappointed in Disney. Since I never rode Splash Mountain, I‘m not one of those people who is ridiculously mad Disney changed it. But…Splash Mountain does genuinely seem like a better ride, at least from the POVs. And it’s not good when a 30+ year old ride is better than a brand new ride. Yikes.
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I still don't get why they ended up with "Bayou Adventure". Is it really common knowledge what a Bayou is, and even so, isn't it mostly known for stagnant water? This is a white-water thrill ride at heart, and the name "Splash Mountain" fit it perfectly. Its original story was not reflected in the name at all.
I guess they need a complete name change at the moment, to hammer home that the ride has been re-themed, but I won't give it many years until they change it to "Tiana's Splash Mountain" and then back to just "Splash Mountain", as that brand name is too iconic to get fully rid of. And it's still a mountain-sized ride that splashes a lot.
I guess they need a complete name change at the moment, to hammer home that the ride has been re-themed, but I won't give it many years until they change it to "Tiana's Splash Mountain" and then back to just "Splash Mountain", as that brand name is too iconic to get fully rid of. And it's still a mountain-sized ride that splashes a lot.
TPoseOnTantrum
Giga Poster
Since there's been reasonable questions circulating as to Dr. Facilier's absence, this hit tweet came out; https://x.com/vashsky/status/1797812247810707878
In summary WDI never actually considered voodoo for the ride at VP Carmen Smith's insistence that it would be "culturally insensitive". Mama Odie was also heavily disassociated from the voodoo aspects of her character. I would and did grumble at reasons like not scaring children or not fitting the desired upbeat tone, definitely up for debate but it is what it is. Voodoo however is indeed a real religion and despite a few rollbacks of select African attractions, theme parks continue delving into it thematically today.
Also leads into the question as to why they chose this film to adapt only to butcher so much of the material. Gone is its relevant connection to its plot and villain, what we have left are revised characters from the film in name only. Did Disney really reskin an attraction with connections to problematic material only to perceive so much of the replacement as problematic? Why that film then? What was the point? Just for the idea of New Orleans and the vibes? Seems like a bit of a disrespect to me. And that's not even approaching the sociopolitical stuff that helped push this development. I'm not going to let that go.
Look I'm not saying "the woke crowd ruined Tiana", but they're definitely there. Again story wise this was always going to be a tough project and there's not a huge amount of older "problematic" IP's that they'd be willing to dig up for attractions, so not expecting the Tiana's creative process to repeat itself. But my god if that's how Imagineering is willing to approach attractions these days then they deserve all of the criticism.
P.S. Previews have begun and it's spent most of them broken, teething issues is all. Some were fairer than others, but the Disney influencers have been unanimous about it being excellent. There's been a lot of retrospective ****ting on Splash Mountain today and heated defense about the ride's storytelling. Have seen arguments that its not even necessary to tell an effective plot on-ride. They'll probably set the bar for how the attraction is received, are these who Disney designed this for?
In summary WDI never actually considered voodoo for the ride at VP Carmen Smith's insistence that it would be "culturally insensitive". Mama Odie was also heavily disassociated from the voodoo aspects of her character. I would and did grumble at reasons like not scaring children or not fitting the desired upbeat tone, definitely up for debate but it is what it is. Voodoo however is indeed a real religion and despite a few rollbacks of select African attractions, theme parks continue delving into it thematically today.
Also leads into the question as to why they chose this film to adapt only to butcher so much of the material. Gone is its relevant connection to its plot and villain, what we have left are revised characters from the film in name only. Did Disney really reskin an attraction with connections to problematic material only to perceive so much of the replacement as problematic? Why that film then? What was the point? Just for the idea of New Orleans and the vibes? Seems like a bit of a disrespect to me. And that's not even approaching the sociopolitical stuff that helped push this development. I'm not going to let that go.
Look I'm not saying "the woke crowd ruined Tiana", but they're definitely there. Again story wise this was always going to be a tough project and there's not a huge amount of older "problematic" IP's that they'd be willing to dig up for attractions, so not expecting the Tiana's creative process to repeat itself. But my god if that's how Imagineering is willing to approach attractions these days then they deserve all of the criticism.
P.S. Previews have begun and it's spent most of them broken, teething issues is all. Some were fairer than others, but the Disney influencers have been unanimous about it being excellent. There's been a lot of retrospective ****ting on Splash Mountain today and heated defense about the ride's storytelling. Have seen arguments that its not even necessary to tell an effective plot on-ride. They'll probably set the bar for how the attraction is received, are these who Disney designed this for?
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Ollie
CF Legend
I'm in the crowd that thinks those winging about Splash Mountain going needed to let it rest. I get that you're nostalgic over it, but things change, and especially in the case of Splash Mountain it needed to with its links to Song of the South. Going with Tiana was a great move and gives some much needed representation in the parks and I was excited to see what they did with it.
Splash Mountain did look quite tacky and plastic (which I get as it's meant to be cartoony) but when you compare it to how lush and natural it looks now as Tianas its a big improvement in my opinion. Especially when its all lit up at night.
Having watched the POV now. It's alright. The animatronic figures are amazing and it gives a much better sense of going deeper and deeper than Splash did. There are a few dead zones where nothing happens but then Splash also had that. I am a bit gutted that Dr. Facilier isn't in it as like others have said, going up the lift hill hearing "Are you ready" would have been a great build up of tension and fitted that scene perfectly. But I do understand Disney wanting to avoid any association to Voodoo.
I'd call it a win overall. Its hard to overlay a new theme over an existing ride where the layout is already designed to hit the story beats of the previous attraction but they'd done a good job.
Splash Mountain did look quite tacky and plastic (which I get as it's meant to be cartoony) but when you compare it to how lush and natural it looks now as Tianas its a big improvement in my opinion. Especially when its all lit up at night.
Having watched the POV now. It's alright. The animatronic figures are amazing and it gives a much better sense of going deeper and deeper than Splash did. There are a few dead zones where nothing happens but then Splash also had that. I am a bit gutted that Dr. Facilier isn't in it as like others have said, going up the lift hill hearing "Are you ready" would have been a great build up of tension and fitted that scene perfectly. But I do understand Disney wanting to avoid any association to Voodoo.
I'd call it a win overall. Its hard to overlay a new theme over an existing ride where the layout is already designed to hit the story beats of the previous attraction but they'd done a good job.
Having watched a couple of other POVs there is a bit more that’s going spatially than is shown in that clumsy official POV which really didn’t showcase the ride very well.
… the cynical part of me wonders whether that somewhat sketchy ‘official’ POV was released to lower fan expectations, so that people post-ride will say “hey, that wasn’t so bad - much better than the POV!”
There’s still a lot to be disappointed with the ride though. It’s lost its ‘bite / menace’ (it was probably the most menacing ride at WDW aside from TZ:ToT - where HM sits is debatable) and there is no longer anything engaging at the human-experience/adult level. It’s gone from:
(1) the classic coming of age ‘moral story’ of: being bored -> seeking adventure -> being reckless -> getting into trouble -> an escape -> reflecting and learning to enjoy the simpler things;
to just;
(2) find a band -> find a band -> find some more band members -> shrink small (because insects?) -> arrive at the party as the ‘special spice’ (an awkward hangover from the now rightly abandoned ‘food theme’).
The sort of messaging in (1) is why films like the Lion King still resonate with adults as well as children - the choice between ‘responsibilities’ and an ‘easy life’ can weigh heavily on all of us from time to time. Comparatively, (2) is basic and hollow (IMO).
I also unfortunately have a pet peeve of anyone being spoken to ‘like a child/toddler’ (even when adults are speaking to toddlers… and especially when adults are talking to the elderly like they are idiotic children). It’s just so ‘one note’ and fake. Therefore I find Tiana’s tone of voice and dialogue on this ride, paired with the aforementioned lack of threat/growth, very grating.
If the original only resonated as a ‘boat ride with some singing animals’, which is ultimately fine, then yeah on that sort of level it’s more of the same, I guess? I’ll try and make the most of it when I get round to it and hope that’ll it’ll be more charming in person. But I do totally get the disappointment.
Obviously all of the ‘wOrST rIDe EvERR - WooOoOW D$sney FAIL - review click here
’ clickbait nonsense should be ignored, as always.
… the cynical part of me wonders whether that somewhat sketchy ‘official’ POV was released to lower fan expectations, so that people post-ride will say “hey, that wasn’t so bad - much better than the POV!”
There’s still a lot to be disappointed with the ride though. It’s lost its ‘bite / menace’ (it was probably the most menacing ride at WDW aside from TZ:ToT - where HM sits is debatable) and there is no longer anything engaging at the human-experience/adult level. It’s gone from:
(1) the classic coming of age ‘moral story’ of: being bored -> seeking adventure -> being reckless -> getting into trouble -> an escape -> reflecting and learning to enjoy the simpler things;
to just;
(2) find a band -> find a band -> find some more band members -> shrink small (because insects?) -> arrive at the party as the ‘special spice’ (an awkward hangover from the now rightly abandoned ‘food theme’).
The sort of messaging in (1) is why films like the Lion King still resonate with adults as well as children - the choice between ‘responsibilities’ and an ‘easy life’ can weigh heavily on all of us from time to time. Comparatively, (2) is basic and hollow (IMO).
I also unfortunately have a pet peeve of anyone being spoken to ‘like a child/toddler’ (even when adults are speaking to toddlers… and especially when adults are talking to the elderly like they are idiotic children). It’s just so ‘one note’ and fake. Therefore I find Tiana’s tone of voice and dialogue on this ride, paired with the aforementioned lack of threat/growth, very grating.
If the original only resonated as a ‘boat ride with some singing animals’, which is ultimately fine, then yeah on that sort of level it’s more of the same, I guess? I’ll try and make the most of it when I get round to it and hope that’ll it’ll be more charming in person. But I do totally get the disappointment.
Obviously all of the ‘wOrST rIDe EvERR - WooOoOW D$sney FAIL - review click here
’ clickbait nonsense should be ignored, as always.