Tianas Bayou Adventure - Disney Releases POV Ride Through

[Nimbus]

Obvious Spoiler here, Disney has released a POV of Tiana's. As someone who never went to WDW until I was 20 years old (I'm 38 now), I never had much attachment/nostalgia for Splash. It was just kind of ho-hum and hokey for us and we usually skipped it. I understand that for many people that is not the case.

For me, though, this looks like such an improvement and I can't wait to ride it with my kids (they love Princess and the Frog).

What do you guys think of it?!

 

[Dznefreek]

Eh . . . .

 

[japanese maple]

Looking forward to riding it.

 

[brightlined]

It's Ti'ana River Journey. Extremely well-made, but all atmosphere - no story to speak of.

They really should have had a villain (or something mischievous) be responsible for the shrinking, then had the lower-level sections be scary-ish (some kind of peril) - Tiana: "Here you are! We found them!" on the screen - and you being "rescued" via the incline. "We got you! Now get ready to make a splash at the party!"

They could've used the mischievous whatever to fill in the empty gaps in the initial scenes.

 

[djmeen]

I think it’s beautiful - nice animatronics and vegetation which really shines at night - and nice to see they included some songs from the movie. In fact I think they’d have been better off not using a new song for the big ride ending scene. It just doesn’t connect in the time it’s on screen in my opinion.

Hard to judge from a ride through so take these next comments with that grain of salt…

The “story” for the ride seems as bland as bad gumbo. There’s no there, there. Just kind of floating through scenes but didn’t feel like you were a part of anything happening or in the story. And there are a few parts where it just feels a bit… dead? - as in not much happening around you. I have no idea what the armadillo is about either. Maybe I missed something. lol.

I’ll ride it next time we go for sure to check it out in person but first impression is it lacks re-rideability and isn’t exactly a “laughing place” for me. We’ll see. It’s not horrendous. It’s just… a bowl of bland hotel gumbo (Tiana’s dad would not serve this - needs more Tabasco and spice ).

 

[djmeen]

(oops - double post - sorry!)

 

[gmi3804]

Did Splash have a story? I never found one in there.

 

[brightlined]

Did Splash have a story? I never found one in there.

It's all a story, and based on actual stories.

You meet B'rer Rabbit, who's bored with his home and off to find adventure. But he's being pursued by B'rer Fox and B'rer Bear. B'rer Rabbit tricks them into following him to his "Laughing Place", where they're attacked by bees. They kidnap him and threaten to "roast him", but he tricks them into throwing him into the briar patch, where he escapes. He returns home to a festive welcome, where he acknowledges that "there's no place like home".

 

[gmi3804]

It's all a story, and based on actual stories.

You meet B'rer Rabbit, who's bored with his home and off to find adventure. But he's being pursued by B'rer Fox and B'rer Bear. B'rer Rabbit tricks them into following him to his "Laughing Place", where they're attacked by bees. They kidnap him and threaten to "roast him", but he tricks them into throwing him into the briar patch, where he escapes. He returns home to a festive welcome, where he acknowledges that "there's no place like home".

Huh?

 

[brightlined]

Replacing this post with something I wrote later in the thread but (mostly) decided not to post:

Splash was literally telling three Uncle Remus stories in order, using the framework conceit of B'rer Rabbit "seeking adventure" that Disney created for Song of the South.

The scene with B'rer Bear in the trap is Br'er Rabbit Earns a Dollar a Minute. The scene with the Laughing Place is, perhaps unsurprisingly, The Laughing Place. The last section is based on The Tar-Baby - though they removed the titular item (for obvious reasons), and just included B'rer Rabbit escaping the trap by convincing B'rer Fox that he'd be harmed more by being thrown the Briar Patch.

Honestly, it might be a matter of people recognizing the source material.

I don't think the Uncle Remus stories and/or Song of the South made it out of the 80s - there was some criticism at the time that Disney was using dated source material for a new ride. (To be fair, it was basically a cost thing - the character animatronics were reused from America Sings at Disneyland for the original version there.)

It'd be totally fair to argue that the narrative wasn't crystal clear - and there were a lot of gaps in that ride, too. But considering it's based on literal literature - and considering that the ride was built to follow B'rer Rabbit on his adventure - it seems crazy to say it has "no story".

 

[Nimbus]

Did Splash have a story? I never found one in there.

I didn't find it to have all that compelling of a narrative either--certainly not one more coherent than the one presented in the video in the OP--but different people resonate with different things.

 

[SealedSeven]

Really missed the slam dunk by not having Dr. Facilier / "Friends on other side" be the build up to the drop.

Visually, it looks great. Seeing it in person should be better too. Can't give final thoughts til August when I ride it.

 

[HopperFan]

I love they released a full POV and the vloggers etc are upset!

I loved so many animatronics and overall upbeat! My DS has watched it several times, just glued. I wish Dr Facilier was in the dark place but I’ll live, I guess.

 

[lynch34]

Disappointing upgrade.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

I’m annoyed that I don’t like it. Such open space. Damn it

 

[lynch34]

And I should add…it took YEARS. Universal doubled their park on same timeline.

 

[Minnie1222]

I was at MK a few days ago and the exteriors look very nice. Looking forward to riding this when we return next month.

 

[Minnie1222]

And I should add…it took YEARS. Universal doubled their park on same timeline.

Hope you'll have a great time at Epic Universe. We will be there as well.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I watched the video on the way to Universal this morning and have some thoughts. Before I get anyone saying that I'm just a hater of the retheme, I wasn't super against it. I kind of felt nothing about it since Disney already rethemed one of my favorite rides and it ended up being below average lol

1. I kept saying that the lack of Dr. Facilier would be a mistake and unfortunately I was 100% right.
2. This reminds me a lot of Navi River Journey. Very pretty but no substance. There are too many scenes that are empty, boring and lifeless.
3. The animatronics look amazing aside from the critters which have very basic movement.
4. The music is.....not great (not talking about the songs from the film). Zip a dee do dah is way catcher than any of the new songs.
5. The lack of suspense and tension in the final drop is just awful lol. It's supposed to hype you up for that large drop and here it's just....why????

These aren't my first thoughts as I plan to ride it myself but I do find it very interesting that the comments on the YouTube upload are 98% negative. I expected most people to love this and for me to be the outlier but it's actually the other way around.

 

[neverlandsky]

With TBA lots of littles are riding it so it being more scenery than story makes sense considering the movie itself, Dr. Facilier, voo-doo, etc. being surrounded by controversy. Haven't watched the video. However, I do think TBA will be a very pretty night ride given the exterior pics of it at night.