![\"The](\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Tianas_Bayou_Adventure_131_OT.0.jpg\")
The new Princess and the Frog ride, opening June 28 at Walt Disney World, is the glow-up of the decade<\/p>\n
In 2020, Disney announced plans to reboot Splash Mountain<\/a>, the beloved but controversial log-flume ride found in three of its theme parks. The decision sparked plenty of griping from curmudgeonly fans<\/a>, largely because of the decision to focus the ride\u2019s makeover around the 2009 animated feature The Princess and the Frog<\/em> and its leading lady \u2014 Tiana, Disney\u2019s first Black princess. Personally, I thought, It\u2019s about damn time<\/em>. Splash Mountain needed an update years<\/em> ago, and no matter what antiquated OG Disney park fans claim, it finally has a worthy one. <\/p>\n Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure<\/a> keeps the good parts of Splash Mountain \u2014 that final 50-foot drop and the resulting SPLASH!<\/em> \u2014 while dropping the ties to Disney\u2019s buried movie Song of the South<\/em><\/a>, updating all the tech, and refurbishing the animatronics. The Walt Disney World version of the attraction, which opens to the public on June 28, keeps the same track, but fills it with a new story and radically updated technology. (Disney Parks says the Disneyland version will open in 2024, but has not yet set a date.)<\/p>\n Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure is a log-flume ride that floats parkgoers through locations inspired by the animated movie, as the ride gradually escalates in height and intensity. Going back to the frame of the old ride and seeing a new story and different characters there is like having a reunion with a high school acquaintance you only liked in certain settings, and finding out they\u2019ve gotten a glow-up while also shedding some of their biased views. Do I still want to hang out with said high school acquaintance? I\u2019m more open to it now that the ride isn\u2019t built around a story that already felt dated and dubious back in the 1980s. <\/p>\n As a kid growing up in Florida and visiting the theme park frequently, I had the opportunity to ride the original Splash Mountain often enough to declare that it was fundamentally fine<\/em>. I wasn\u2019t clamoring to visit it on every Walt Disney World trip, but I was totally open to riding it when the opportunity presented itself. It did offer some relief from the sweltering heat, and an exciting drop. <\/p>\n When it worked, that is. Splash Mountain broke down a lot<\/em>, with the long queues pausing indefinitely as the park attendants worked to get the ride functioning again. (Notably, this once happened in the middle of a school trip. My friends, already tense from getting up at 5 a.m. and walking around for hours in the Florida heat, launched a huge debate about who was going to wait for the ride to start up again and who was going to leave. Sides were<\/em> taken.)<\/p>\n Splash Mountain dropped to the middle of my Disney trip list, simply because I could get everything it offered somewhere else. If I wanted for a refreshing break from the heat, I\u2019d rather go somewhere actually <\/em>air-conditioned. If I was looking for a thrill, Space Mountain was more exciting, high octane from start to finish instead of a long, dull buildup to one adrenaline-hit moment. And if I wanted to stare at animatronics, I preferred Pirates of the Caribbean<\/a> or Haunted Mansion<\/a>, which were generally more atmospheric. I\u2019d take a chance if Splash Mountain was surprisingly unbusy (which did work out on some \u201ccolder\u201d weather trips), but my FastPass (RIP)<\/a> priorities lay elsewhere. <\/p>\n Even when the ride was working, the animatronics were dated and janky. Its plot, to the extent it had one, was so nonsensical and unrelatable that it took me ages to learn the characters came from a hotly contested movie<\/a> that wasn\u2019t available for viewing. That means I didn\u2019t see any familiar characters or scenes while riding it like I did at other Disney attractions, like the Peter Pan\u2019s Flight ride. Splash Mountain didn\u2019t have a nice, tight narrative of its own like other non-movie attractions, including Haunted Mansion or Tower of Terror. I usually zoned out during the slower parts of the ride, waiting for the big drop. <\/p>\n Learning that the ride was themed around Song of the South<\/em> didn\u2019t exactly help make the story more immersive, but it did<\/em> offer useful gossip fodder when I was waiting in line. By the time I was going on Disney field trips in high school, I was whispering to my friends, \u201cDid you know\u2026?\u201d and shaking my head at the cheerful critters singing \u201cZip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.\u201d <\/p>\n But Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure immediately grounds the story in elements familiar to modern Disney viewers. In its story, which opens after Princess and the Frog<\/em>\u2019s events, Tiana\u2019s restaurant has taken off, along with her employee-owned business, Tiana\u2019s Foods. To bring her community together, she\u2019s hosting a huge Mardi Gras bash. And to make the celebration complete, she needs musicians, so she sends Louis the trumpet-playing alligator<\/a> (and the park guests) to the bayou to look for some critters who know how to jam.<\/p>\n The log ride takes guests deeper into the bayou, where eventually, Voodoo priestess Mama Odie \u201ctransforms\u201d them down to frog size so they can have some animal perspective. That also adds fun to the ride by scaling the set-pieces larger to give the illusion that riders are now teeny-tiny. To \u201cget back to human size,\u201d riders hurtle down the attraction\u2019s final drop and toward the epilogue, where we see Tiana and her friends, human and animal, partying it up in New Orleans. <\/p>\n From the get-go, Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure is already more immersive and modern than its predecessor. The waiting area, which is supposed to take guests through Tiana\u2019s office and kitchen space, is chock-full of little details, like letters from her father\u2019s time in the military and newspaper clippings about her burgeoning food business. It\u2019s much more intricate than the original ride\u2019s generic farmhouse queue. The early parts of the line invite guests to amuse themselves by playing I Spy.<\/p>\n On a press trip to preview the ride ahead of opening, I spent the walk through the line area marveling at all the little details. Boarding the log flume, I found the plastic seating as hard as it was when I was a kid, and still dappled with droplets of water from previous ridethroughs. The log boat jerked forward, with the familiar old swish-swish of water lapping against fake wood. It was just as I remembered it, and I wasn\u2019t sure whether that was good or bad. I re-ride my favorite Disney attractions to experience the same joys over and over, simply because I am very fond of them, and want to recapture the glee they gave me the first time. But this was supposed to be something new<\/em>.<\/p>\n As a Disney PR rep confirmed to me on the press trip, the ride\u2019s basic frame and mechanics haven\u2019t changed. The winding water track that takes you inside and outdoors, through a series of animatronic set-pieces and tableaux, is the same as ever. It all played out as I expected \u2014 but the very evident makeover made all the difference. <\/p>\n The biggest updates are the animatronics, which are polished beyond the extent of recent Disney fare. Instead of the projected-face animatronics of the Frozen Ever After ride in neighboring Epcot, the Imagineers opted for the more expensive but full-fledged modern animatronics more often seen in Disneylands abroad.<\/a> They look like the animated movie lifted directly into a 3D space, moving fluidly and expressively. <\/p>\n As it turns out, having an existing attachment to the movie\u2019s characters and a familiarity with the ride\u2019s music (tracks directly from The Princess and the Frog<\/em>, like \u201cGonna Take You There\u201d and \u201cDown in New Orleans\u201d) makes the whole ride worth paying attention to. Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure had me actually looking forward to each turn of the ride, to catch all the new, detailed animatronics, the way the ride brings the movie\u2019s bayou setting to life, and the video screens showing animated scenes of the characters. The slow-moving parts were actually my favorites for once, since I could swivel my head like an owl and absorb every little detail of the setting and story.<\/p>\n The ride introduces new characters who aren\u2019t in the movie (all music-making critters for Tiana\u2019s new Mardi Gras band), but unless you\u2019re particularly predisposed to counting every single new possum and raccoon, the best parts are seeing the familiar characters in new scenarios. <\/p>\n Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure does lean a lot<\/em> on those new cartoon critters \u2014 which are all immediately available in plushie form in the adjacent store. The focus on animal characters could have been a sticking point here \u2014 one of the biggest critiques of the movie<\/a> was that Tiana spends most of the story as a frog, giving Disney a chance to boast about the film\u2019s racial representation while minimizing actual Black faces and bodies<\/a>. But the ride doesn\u2019t have a moment without Tiana. She\u2019s there with us via animatronic, voice-over, and video throughout the entire ride, sporting a cute new outfit and her usual determined attitude. The attraction is indisputably hers. And by the end, she and her friends are celebrating Mardi Gras with a spectacular party \u2014 plus an infectiously catchy new song<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure keeps Splash Mountain\u2019s general pacing and jaunty mood. The physical shell of the ride is still intact, with its lazy-river-like buildup, escalating into one of the theme park\u2019s most thrilling drops. But the new ride actually makes those languid parts interesting<\/em>. The world of The Princess and the Frog<\/em>, as seen in Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure, is bright and vibrant \u2014 and not <\/em>burdened with a racist legacy. Instead of the ride\u2019s only appeal being the singular drop, the entire attraction commands attention. It\u2019s just what Tiana deserves. <\/p>\n [<\/em><\/small>Disclosure:<\/strong><\/em><\/small> This article is based on a press event held at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, on June 9 through 11. Disney provided Polygon\u2019s travel and accommodations for the event. You can find additional information about <\/em><\/small>Polygon\u2019s ethics policy here<\/em><\/small><\/a>.]<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo: Olga Thompson\/Disney The new Princess and the Frog ride, opening June 28 at Walt Disney World, is the glow-up of the decade In 2020, Disney announced plans to reboot Splash Mountain, the beloved but controversial log-flume ride found in three of its theme parks. The decision sparked plenty of griping from curmudgeonly fans, largely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1657"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1667,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions\/1667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/TBA_ATTRACTION_8_OT.jpg\")
\n Photo: Olga Thompson\/Disney<\/cite>
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\n Photo: Olga Thompson\/Disney<\/cite>
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\n Photo: Olga Thompson\/Disney<\/cite>
\n <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Tianas_Bayou_Adventure_170_OT.jpg\")
\n Photo: Olga Thompson\/Disney<\/cite>
\n <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n![\"Tiana](\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/TBA_Scene_11_2742_OT.jpg\")
\n Photo: Olga Thompson\/Disney<\/cite>
\n <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Tianas_Bayou_Adventure_Attraction_Content_Capture_141_OT.jpg\")
\n Photo: Olga Thompson\/Disney<\/cite>
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