Tiana’s Bayou Adventure expected to open at Disney Parks in late 2024

Splash Mountain closing Jan 23rd 2023

RIP…..

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2022/12/a-new-scene-and-new-...At97mP4lWE

I was hoping that they conveniently forgot about this.

Why? I don't find anything about the IP on Splash Mountain to be relevant or interesting. My kids knows his Disney stuff, only cares about the drop and the splash.

I have never seen Song of the South, my only exposure to any of that movie is Splash Mountain (other then Zip-a-dee-doo-dah which I only knew as a Disney anthem) but I fell in love with the ride the first time I rode it as a teen. I love how it weaves the story together, love the music, love the ride. I’m worried about what this change is going to be and that it may be worse. Not because of PatF/Tiana but the tidbits that are being released. When it was first announced while I was saddened to be losing the ride I at least thought if they could recreate Goin’ Down the Bayou and have a cool Friends on the Other Side portion it wouldn’t be bad, but then I learned that this was after the movie and neither Ray or Dr Facilier (the best Disney villain in decades) would be featured, at all. They seem gun hoe on completly minimizing a lot of the fairy tale aspects and instead all about riding through Tianas business. Then they dropped the bomb that they won’t be using any of the songs (new music inspired by the movie) and it just so happens a D+ show will have the same setting as the ride. Currently my favorite ride at the MK is being transformed into a ride based on a property thats unknown, and based on anything original on D+ not Marvel/Star Wars has been mostly trash (I want to say Disenchanted is the first “Disney” D+ original I liked.). If Disney screws this up I will not be happy.

I hope to be proven wrong.

Also, looking back at the thread glad to be proven right about Enchantment and Harmonious glad Happily Ever After is returning, and hope the new show at Epcot is better.

If y'all bring up Walt's grave movement, I'm banishing you to the blogger sites. 😂

Don’t worry I won’t. Disney is so much bigger than him at this point, it’s why the company has dropped his first name from everything but the animation studio and WDW. Besides I’m a millennial, the Disney decade/renaissance is my “golden years” for lack of a better word.

I was in college at the time, so I get it. I'll never forget seeing Lion King in the theater for that first scene. (If you want that feeling again, see it on stage... I feel it every time.)

Jeff:

Why?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Just want to point out that some people think that Journey Into Imagination isn't broke.

Splash might be the best example of narrative flow out of any of the attractions at the domestic parks, with the possible exception of Pirates. Disneyland's version carries this off better than Orlando, but both are just excellent.

I suspect that the overlay won't work quite as well, but until we see it, who knows? The layout of the ride is tailor-made for something that should work. If the re-skin has some moment of dramatic tension, it has a shot at matching the current one. If it is all happiness and light, it will have lost something.

But, even if it doesn't work entirely as well as a narrative, it is easy to see why the company might want to swap the IP it is based on. There are plenty of dated films in the library that have individual depictions that some folks consider problematic--and some that are not so dated. But I can't think of any others that Disney refuses to admit exist in the way they've treated SotS. It's almost certainly not an accident that they are replacing it with PatF specifically.

You can complain about it, and you can argue that the difference in representation in the two properties is not important. But, Disney disagrees with you. In Disney's estimation, this change is good for business--good enough to justify spending the money to re-skin both flumes.

Probably the main reason they are updating it. How many under 40s and under 30s even know what ‘Song of the South’ was??? Disney has successfully erased it.

To be clear the January 23rd close date is just for Magic Kingdom, not Disneyland. Disney has not announced that closure date yet. I'm hoping it is still open at Disneyland on January 26th when we visit, just to get one last ride. At the same time I'm sure the reimagining of the ride will be top notch.

I have zero attachment to Song of the South. We watched it in a college class, and I have no memory of any of the characters or songs from my childhood.

But I will miss Splash Mountain terribly. I have so many great memories from that ride.

I also have zero attachment to Princess and the Frog. But I also realize many do, and I know this will be a big win if they do it right. I'm just going to personally miss the current ride.

The thing about Song of the South is that while Disney has, with a remarkable degree of success, made the movie go away, it seems they have not similarly tried to erase Bre'r Rabbit and company, so far as I know still showing those short animated films...and it's those stories (and only the less 'problematic' of those)--not Song of the South as a whole--that Splash Mountain is based on. Oh, and that song, of course.

The practical upshot of all this is that Splash Mountain re-tells a story that, while you can't watch it in the original movie anymore, has not been black-holed (dare I say that? It's an astronomical phenomenon...) in the Disney vaults. But even so, most people aren't likely to be too familiar with it. But that doesn't matter because Splash Mountain sets up a pretty simple story and carries it through.

I just hope that whatever they do with it does at least as good of a job of telling the story. Because I have never seen Princess and the Frog, and except for the context of this project, I've never heard of Tiana.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Others have said it but Splash Mountain is as timeless as Haunted Mansion or Pirates to me. It’s going to be awfully hard to top it.

I think Disney should've come up with a different new IP for each location. Princess and the Frog will fit in that area of Disneyland given the proximity to New Orleans Square. For the Florida version, maybe something to go a little better with the Frontierland theme? On top of that, maybe it would make people want to visit both parks due to the different themes. Just my two cents.

The property that would fit best at WDW was Coco.

Mexico is close enough to the SW US, the land of the dead has plenty of water features, the movie has great music, is an ethnic minority, can easily transition between the land of the living (outside) and land of the dead (inside.). They would just need to design a story that fits.

That would have been an interesting idea. You can always go to Japan and see the entire themed area dedicated to Splash Mountain.

jkpark:
maybe something to go a little better with the Frontierland theme?

I vote for The Adventures of Spin and Marty.

None of the movies really fit a frontier theme. You might as well make it Tatooine. Princess and the Frog will be just as good as whatever Splash Mountain was (I remember liking the ride but no one in my family had any clue what kind of "story" was being told...if any). That said, I can't think of anything with regards to Princess and the Frog that has anything to do with a cave. Or a mountain. Or waterfall drops. But the ride itself is so good you could put a Wreck it Ralph theme in there and people would like it.

A better move might have been to just ditch any movie theme whatsoever and, like the mine train next door, just integrate a sweet mining theme like Knott's Berry Farm's equally good flume ride.

Then, a few years later, make a movie starring the Rock about the new ride and put it on Disney +.