Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has finally replaced Splash Mountain at Disney World. The Disney Parks YouTube account is celebrating the completion of this unprecedented transformation with a almost 10-minute 4K drive-through.
Our first impression? My goodness, they Strictly speaking did it!
The attraction’s designers had to walk a tightrope while reimagining one of the biggest attractions in Disney’s theme parks in terms of size and popularity. They had to maintain (or improve) Splash Mountain’s abundance of animatronic characters that represent the classic approach of Disney’s most famous attractions. But they also had to incorporate modern technology (ultra-high resolution screens, custom 3D animation) to make Bayou Adventure fit alongside the parks’ other new attractions.E-ticket attractions”, such as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Mickey’s Runaway Railroad.
The nostalgic among us will rejoice, as the design team went for the old-school approach and packed the ride with an astonishing number of animated characters. Screens were used to complement the experience, like the powdered sugar on a delicious beignet.
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Image: Disney
Like Splash Mountain, the ride starts off relaxed. Guests take a leisurely tour of Tiana’s garden and the nearby bayou on a log flume before picking up animal instrumentalists who play a song at the Disney Princess’ restaurant. First, riders meet a zydeco band featuring opossums, beavers, bears and wolves. Then voodoo priestess Mama Odie shrinks riders to the size of a frog so they can explore a miniature version of the bayou and befriend some musically gifted bug and amphibian friends.
The highlight of the ride, as promised, is a performance by Tiana in her restaurant, accompanied by her animal orchestra. By our count, this massive space contains no fewer than 15 animatronics, a replica of Tiana’s restaurant, and a variety of high-resolution screens featuring more characters from the film, transformed from 2D to 3D.
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Image: Walt Disney Animation Studios
Splash Mountain, based on the 1946 film Song of the Southwas released in 1992, although Disney never released the film on home video in the United States because of its racist portrayal of life on a plantation in the South. In 2023, Scout Tafoya wrote about Disney’s long history of trying to recreate the story of Song of the Southby treating the film as a cultural artifact that has become toxic due to changing sensibilities. “But even in his time,” writes Tafoya, “Song of the South Was ridiculed as racist panderingand a nationwide boycott attempt was made.
In 2020, Disney Parks announced that Splash Mountain would be replaced with an attraction inspired by the 2009 attraction. kiss the frog.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens at Walt Disney World on June 28 and Disneyland later this year. Polygon will tour the attraction before it opens, so stop by later this month for first-hand impressions and interviews!
