#splash mountain retheme

[off-color-darkrai]

Tom Sawyer Island should Not be turned into a cars ride...

So this is basically a continuation of a previous post about Splash Mountain's rethemeing so if you want to see that first, check it out here

Anyway here's the rest.

The 'Splash Mountain' debacle is still an ongoing conversation topic in my friend group, and it was brought to my attention that D23 still stinks and they're doing more stupid, planning on redesigning Tom Sawyer Island for Cars...

Cars? CARS?! IN Frontier land?!?!

Have you lost what little thought you had in your skulls?!?

No, just, no.

I do agree Tom Sawyer Island needs work, but not cars. No, not after you just spent millions of dollars draining, patching, refurbishing, and refilling the 'rivers of the America's'. No.

They should retheme the island to be Tiana themed... Let me explain...

What people want from a princess and the frog locale isn't a ride, it's a restaurant! A jazzy Cajun restaurant that looks like the movie. So build Tiana's Palace (I learned recently it was palace, not place) on one side of Tom Sawyer Island, near the water, so at night you can light it up and people can hear the jazz music. If you position it right you can even make sure it's in the sightline from Fantasy land, keeping immersion up.

Now, this'll make some people upset, but make the restaurant basically reservation only. Tom Sawyer Island is sizeable, but not built for massive lines like that. It also means they can monitor safety better. The check in kiosk would be on the mainland, and you would be taken over to the restaurant on one of the rafts. This would also be how you leave the restaurant, or you can exit to the rest of the island.

That's right, I mentioned the rest of the island!

Tom Sawyer Island in it's current iteration is mostly used by parents for the parents to take a break from the rest of the park, while the kids can run around and explore in a contained, relatively safe environment. And honestly, fair.

So right outside Tiana's Palace they should build a small New Orleans style street, with false overhead balconies for shade, and a lot of chairs and tables. There should be a vendor for some of the easier/smaller/snackier food items found in the actual restaurant, like bennies or fried gator bits(sorry lewis) or small cups of gumbo. None of the buildings would be actual shops, mostly there for Disney's various storage or maintenance purposes, but there should be some kiosks like at the bazaar in adventure land and some that sell items specific to the island (the kiosks would also cut down on rambunctious kids running through stores willy nilly) Access to the rest of the Island besides the restaurant would come from the other raft, and (if they can manage it) the building of a dock for the Liberty Belle, which would also make the Liberty Belle more popular, and give better wheelchair access, as well as another evacuation point in case of emergency.

What about the kids? Well, with the rest of the island pretty much leave it as is, with a couple minor rethemes, but replace the fort with Mama Oddies Boat(make the cliff it's on look like the tree) and fix up the playground. They can even make it slightly interactive if they want. Sneak a few light changing things and voice lines in there!

Finally, if they do all this, keep the island open until a little after dark, so people can really appreciate the lights and the music.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk... But seriously, I might post a thing about how a brother bear ride would play out later, and update this with some sketches, who's to say.

[bumpscosity]

People would rather wait in 100+ minute wait lines than ride star tours we live in a society

[animatronicappreciation]

Hi!! So I have a question about a disney animatronic!

So I was rewatching defuntlands video about cinderella castle mystery tour with my mom and I wondered.. What happened to the horned king animatronic?

It'd be a shame if he was just abandoned, it was pretty bad ass. As resident number one horned king fan, it hands down has to be one of my favorite animatronics ever made for the parks.

With many Disney rides and attractions, it's hard to know what exactly has happened to the animatronics and other elements once the attraction has closed its doors for good. A great example of that is the recent retheming of Splash Mountain into Tiana's Bayou Adventure. No one truly knows what became of the cast of characters from Splash Mountain. We can only hope and pray that they (at the very least the ones that were former residents of America Sings) were saved in the Archives... and, well, I guess we'll have to hope the same for the Horned King.

Things get complicated with Tokyo Disneyland because they aren't just owned by Disney, but also by the Oriental Land Company. I don't know exactly how things work when an attraction closes in that park. However, we do have evidence that at least some of the relics are put in the archives, that evidence being the Mickey Mouse Revue animatronics that we've seen resurface. Mickey is known to be in the Archives, has been on display at times, and Donald, Panchito, and José were retrieved from the Archives in 2015 to be featured in the finale of Gran Fiesta Tour.

So TL;DR, I would say that there's a fair chance he might be in the Archives, but I have no idea if that's truly the case or not.

-Mod Possum

[tweltchy]

My D23 theme park predictions:

-Most of the presentation will focus on Walt Disney World.

-Animal Kingdom Dinoland retheme further explained, complete with an Indiana Jones Adventure clone where Dinosaur used to be.

-Disneyland Forward plans further explained. Downtown Disney expansion and some more hotels announced for now.

-Avengers Campus E-Ticket showcase.

-Confirmation of the fate and use of the Stitch's Great Escape building.

-Unnecessary Magic Kingdom expansion to compete with Epic Universe. Twice the meet-and-greets and gift shops, with a brand new ice cream kiosk that only sells the Citrus Swirl and nothing else.

-The Wonders Of Life pavilion will still be off-limits to guests, but this time with wire fencing. The building will be used for the rituals.

-More dirt to play with at EPCOT.

-Journey Into Imagination With Figment retheme into an Inside Out attraction that nobody fucking wanted, thus confirming the rumors. :(

-10,000 bricks until you die show for Magic Kingdom. Merlin summons a bunch of bricks to drop onto the audience at the castle stage.

-Dole Whip at all the parks in the world will be replaced with the Citrus Swirl.

-The Star Wars Lauch Bay in Hollywood Studios gutted to make way for a dark ride based off of The Pagemaster (1994)

-Mickey's Dick Smasher finally announced for Hollywood Studios and DCA.

-The Carousel of Progress will close to be rethemed into a show about a family of Disney Adults throughout history, complete with a forced sing-a-long.

-The Galactic Starcruiser repurposed into a DVC club where the walls close in on you whenever you try to sleep. They never retract.

-Only the Splash Mountain Rap will play on loop in at the Disneyland esplanade forever.

-International parks just get exclusive merchandise. It's entirely based on the Citrus Swirl.

-fort nite

[multi-fandomdisaster]

As somebody who has actually seen Song of the South with my own two eyes (I have a friend who has a bootleg dvd copy), I have such a deep appreciation for Splash Mountain and a...not quite "burning hatred" per say, but certainly a strong distaste for Tiana's Bayou Adventure. I finally decided to give in and watched TPMvids ride-through videos of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World's versions of the attraction, and it honestly hurts my soul a little bit how...(and this is my person opinion) strangely lifeless they feel in comparison to their predecessors.

(Full ramble under the cut. It should be noted that this contains my thoughts post-first viewing. My opinions may change as time goes on and I think about it more. This is just the INITIAL opinion.)

To be fair, my opinion of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure would probably be about the same regardless of if I’d viewed Song of the South or not. My viewing of Song of the South has if feel simply given me a greater appreciation for the scenes and story of Splash Mountain. I already thought it was an awesome ride regardless.

I feel like part of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure’s issue is that by being a retheme of a dearly beloved attraction, it’s forever stuck in a position where it more or less HAS to be compared to its predecessor in the eyes of the public (Sort of like Journey into Imagination → Journey into YOUR Imagination → Journey into Imagination With Figment, or DEFINITELY like Disneyland’s Tower of Terror → Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout and Maelstrom → Frozen Ever After). The other part is what’s actually in there from an objective perspective (that being the story it tells & how well it tells it).

Splash Mountain was such an exciting & lively attraction with a plethora of animated characters who were all having a good time and/or getting into silly hijinx. It didn’t technically have a linear story - instead hitting beats from the stories told in the film by Uncle Remus whilst also adding in its own individual flair - but it didn’t need to have one. You simply followed Br’er Rabbit as he went on adventures, and in the process, had a bit of an adventure of your own. It was charming and fun, and the lack of the general guests’ knowledge of the film it was based on allowed for them to create their own stories using the scenes presented to them. And once again, as someone who has seen the film, it was a beautiful, lively, and overall faithful portrayal of Uncle Remus’ stories of Br’er Rabbit which generations of guests who have gone on Splash Mountain have experienced & fallen in love with.

Now we turn to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and instead of telling us a story we already know (well...technically with Splash Mountain and Song of the South lol), it decides to make a new story as a continuation of the film The Princess and the Frog. I’ll admit: I love a good story continuation from time to time (Keywords are: from time to time. One of these days I’ll go into my gripes with Disney & their seemingly undying love for pointless cash-grab sequels), & I love seeing how creative people can get with a new story being woven using a pre-established universe. So what story do we get for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure?

“Princess Tiana is fixin’ to have a one-of-a-kind bayou bash—and you can join in the fun! Embark on a thrilling journey with Tiana and jazz-loving alligator Louis as they traverse winding waterways to find critter musicians who can jam out and entertain at Tiana’s southern soiree.” -Walt Disney World’s app description for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Alright! I can work with this! I’ll admit, I’m a bit skeptical on the logistics of you going through the bayou to find “critter musicians” (then again, it’s been a minute since I’ve seen The Princess and The Frog, so this could be pretty in-line with the universe & I’m just remembering it wrong), but I can look past that. At its core, this seems like a pretty general, pretty standard Disney ride description! It leaves a lot open & doesn’t spoil much in terms of the actual story experienced on the ride itself. It’s a vague summary, which I would expect from a Disney park.

So one would expect the ride itself to expand on this story more, right? That’s usually how parks do it when writing about a story-based attraction of theirs: they write a vague teaser of their ride’s story to intrigue the reader into wanting to consume the rest of the story, thus drawing them to the ride. Then they get the full story of the ride on the ride itself, & in the process create good memories that make them come back for more! That’s how this works, right? Well let’s check out the rides at both parks & find out!

Disneyland: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VSlbT6lEB5Q&pp=ygUXdGlhbmEncyBiYXlvdSBhZHZlbnR1cmU%3D

Walt Disney World: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mKY1Ojrs7Dg&pp=ygUXdGlhbmEncyBiYXlvdSBhZHZlbnR1cmU%3D

.....okay......not quite what I had in mind......

The visuals in the show scenes are overall pretty, I’ll give them that. There’s a lot of really nice things to look at. The figures in particular are really nice & high-tech & fairly fun to look at, but everything seems oddly paced & spaced out, almost like it belongs in a traditional dark ride, and not a log flume in order for the pacing to work better. The story itself feels...strange, & I don’t know if that’s partially because maybe some of the story is told in the queue with props & context clues (that’s what Disney did for Frozen Ever After, which as a theme park lore hunter, I appreciate), but like- okay, I lied a bit about me being alright with the story of us, the riders, going out & looking for musicians. And this is regardless of how I feel about those musicians all being animals. It feels like such a strange self-insert story to me. It sort of makes sense, and yet it's just...strange. I can't really explain it. Also, when I watched these POV videos, it was before I read the official ride’s description, and I wasn’t sure if it was us looking for musicians, or if we the guests were the musicians. There’s a significant lack of clarity in my opinion that I’m not a big fan of.

The lack of good pacing kills the vibes in my opinion. I can’t make myself become immersed in Tiana’s Bayou Adventure’s story. If you watch a ride-through of Splash Mountain, you’ll find that overall, the scenes are generally continuous and they all contain the same silly nonsense energy that gives the ride so much charm. There’s fewer moments of nothing happening. Then you look at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and it feels...idk, a bit choppy and lifeless in my opinion. Also, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure breaks the “show, don’t tell” rule quite a bit, and that ESPECIALLY kills my immersion. There’s animals around and playing instruments and having fun in both versions of the attraction, but in Splash Mountain, that’s it. Nobody has to tell you what’s going on, you can just look around and see that everyone’s having a good time. In Tiana’s, however, you turn a corner and suddenly either Tiana herself or Louis comments on them being “great musicians” and that you’re “doing a good job” or whatever. They talk to you too much.

Actually I think the characters talking to you too much is my primary gripe with this attraction. It’s the same reason I don’t like Frozen Ever After all that much. These characters are interacting with me too much. I personally prefer attractions where I’m simply watching the story unfold in front of me rather than the characters trying to make me go on a fetch quest when I can’t physically interact with the scene (unless it’s a shooter dark ride and I actually can interact with the scene). “Celebration” storylines are also really stupid to me. Stories that are all "Let’s all celebrate something that happened in the piece of media we’re from! Also you’re invited because you’re the rider!” feel a bit lazy to me. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is BOTH a fetch quest and a celebration story and...I don’t like it.

I feel like I’m either getting off-topic or repeating myself somehow, but in the end, this all boils down to me stating that I do not like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, especially when compared to its predecessor. Am I biased towards Splash Mountain? ABSOLUTELY. I adore Song of the South and any piece of media from it, which is not something to frequently come across, is a win in my book. Are the effects of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure good? Yes! Well, besides the couple of screens. I do NOT like screens in rides (another ramble for another day). Is Tiana’s Bayou Adventure a good ride on its own? Eh. It’s a good ride, but the story could use a lot of work.

That is all. I hope this made sense lol

[alanshee-keeper-of-realms]

What do you think of Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner?

Oh these two don't get me started on the drama they caused during the '80s, 90s amd 2000s at Disney, they are both pieces of work that have more cons than Pro

At least with Walt Disney or any of them they have shit that balances out the bad these guys they were just flat out me me me,

You know why DreamWorks was founded? because Jeffrey over here kept bragging about a job that he was going to have after the fact his so-called friend who had had the job before died in a helicopter crash!

It wasn't even a week later this asshole was walking around bragging about how he was going to get the job when they told him no and in fact fired him that's when he went and founded DreamWorks,

He also told animators to edit out scenes in the '80s when everything was still hand drawn, you couldn't edit out scenes. He was so obstinate on this that they had to get Eisner to stop him from destroying the film because he wouldn't listen to the animators behind it -.-

Also, blame Jeffrey for the reason why we do not have 2D animation in Disney anymore he tossed it out the window, and I quote because there is no money in it.

Jeffrey is definitely on my shit list I want to respect him but how can I respect him when he won't even listen to animators when they try to tell him you can't do certain things.

Eisner was a train wreck of a CEO did you know crime at the parks literally spiked, a kid was shot and killed in the Disneyland parking lot because of gang activity because of all the clubs he had added to the parks for teenagers and yes adults if you went to what they called Pleasure Island yes they had a land called Pleasure Island, it even had a lingerie store themed after Jessica Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit was actually the one sitting on the archway to the island,

I will say the majority of teens have good memories about one specific club called Videoopolis. However, the rest of the clubs were known for being well, not so good,

Team members of gangs would go to these clubs and hire kids out of them this went on for years,

He renamed the Zippity Doo Dah ride to Splash Mountain not because they were retheming it to actually fit the H2O splash mermaid movie. No, he just renamed it because he wanted to,

If anybody got a swift kick in the ass from Mickey Mouse, it would be Eisner. He about bankrupted the company a few times because originally no Hong Kong and Paris were absolutely bleeding money when they were initially built because they went so badly over budget because of Eisner!

He was a stubborn hard ass of a man who if anybody told him no he would throw a temper tantrum and figure out how to make it work anyways,

But the worst of the worst I will bring his name in is still chapek somehow chapek has beaten Eisner for being the worst CEO so Eisner isn't my most I do not like you on my list of Disney staffers but he's damn near close.

[klapollo]

i really cant believe i spent years saying i wanted splash mountain to be rethemed for PATF and in a few months it will be real. ppl always say "i planned this" but i truly planned this

[viviraptor]

DID WE ALL SEE THE NEW TIANA ANIMATRONIC FOR THE SPLASH MOUNTAIN RETHEME. THAT FACE ISN'T PROJECTED AND IT LOOKS SOOO GOOD

[ralfmaximus]

Okay, this is pretty cool.

Your typical Disneyland ridethru video for Splash Mountain. Just like you're there. Everything is normal and fun until about 12:00 into the video--

and the youtuber loses their camera.

But miraculously! The camera lands in the water, facing the ride. Still functioning, until its battery and/or storage is exhausted.

FOR 40+ MINUTES

So basically you have here:

cool 4K hires ride video of an iconic Disney attraction, shortly before it was closed forever for retheming

followed by 40 minutes of atmospheric underwater screaming as hundreds of ride vehicles pass by the submerged camera

Flippin delightful.

[queen-esther]

If I’m being honest, I don’t think Splash Mountain being rethemed into a Princess and the Frog ride should be controversial. Disney has changed their rides consistently since the parks first opened, and people ride Splash Mountain for that big waterfall drop at the end, not because they have any deep-seated love for Song of the South and were just dying to go on a ride themed after that movie. Like, get real for a second PLEASE.

[antimnemonic]

splash mountain retheme is like 9/11 for ppl with thin blue line bumper stickers

[off-color-darkrai]

Splash mountain shouldn't be rethemed to go with Princess and the Frog. If they were absolutely determined to make a Tiana themed ride at Disney world, they should have built a restaurant with a connected river ride like the Mexico pavilion at Epcot.

Splash mountain's retheming should have been based on Brother Bear.

And as you climb the part before the big drop you get the northern lights spooling out around you, like cave paintings suddenly coming to life along the walls, some probably appropriate mystical build-up music, before the older brother eagle shows up right at the crest, then you plunge down into the salmon run and get some more delightful Phil Collins music.

Just saying, we could have gotten two cool rides and a sweet Cajun sit down restaurant, instead of one ride that doesn't make much sense build wise.

Conversation continued-> Here

[best-chaotic-neutral]

I saw some ride throughs of the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride and like most people, I’m very disappointed in the lack of heart this ride seems to have.

I loved Splash Mountain, and I understand why it was outdated in a lot of ways, but I also love Princess and The Frog, and the theme absolutely fits like a glove when you’re retheming Splash Mountain. But the end result that we were shown feels like Disney was afraid to do anything with Tiana except give her a few speaking roles that amount to “find the critters”. It feels like they tried to do a sequel for the movie, but every idea was met with “no, that’s too controversial, people will get mad” they didn’t let Tiana have any personality at all it feels like

[tvguts]

watched the ridethrough of Tiana's Bayou Adventure and it looks soooo pretty and i'm so excited to check it out when i can!!! poked through the comments though and almost everyone was complaining about it and saying splash mountain was better. for a brief moment, i was like... oh no, do i have the wrong opinion about a theme park ride? is it actually worse than the old one? should they have not rethemed it after all? and then i remembered: they already did it, dude! it's over! and I, PERSONALLY, think it looks like an improvement which means, you guessed it, I WIN

[sammyshizzard]

As you may or may not have heard, Splash Mountain at Disneyland will be closing permanently to be rethemed to Princess and the Frog. While I understand the reasons for the change, I will still miss the ride in its original form since I rode it so much as a kid (and an adult!) I decided to draw Brer Fox and Brer Bear, cause they’re cute and part of me sees them as a couple ❤️

Also tried out a colored pencil look; I really like it for another vintage look :3

[millesbianforce]

Idk why so many people are acting like splash mountain is being completely demolished and removed when they're just rethemeing it to a not racist movie.