Can we just be glad they aren't gutting the ride and giving it a Marvel IP theme? At least now it's hooked to a more relevant and recent IP and one of the Disney Princesses. Seems like a no brainer to me 

4 minutes ago, Jdude95 said:

Can we just be glad they aren't gutting the ride and giving it a Marvel IP theme? At least now it's hooked to a more relevant and recent IP and one of the Disney Princesses. Seems like a no brainer to me 

Just wait until the Frog from the film is revealed in the second season of the Mandalorian to be 'the child' and now we have another Star Wars ride... hoooray

6 minutes ago, troll under the coaster said:

Just wait until the Frog from the film is revealed in the second season of the Mandalorian to be 'the child' and now we have another Star Wars ride... hoooray

God dammit! Lucas got us again! 

My issue with Guardians is its theme is so much worse than what it was. It looks cheap and tacky and the ride experiences lacks any of the suspense and thrill of the original. You ask “if building from scratch would you use an elevator ride system for this theme?” Course not. It’s a shoehorn. 
 

Other upgrades like Pirates have been amazingly done, Tony Baxter is involved so that bodes well. 
A princess and the frog theme for splash could be done in such a similar vein to the existing ride, a ride that portrays the essence of the film rather than an exact story telling. New Orleans styled music playing throughout as a cohesive theme like we have now could be done really well.  

Not to bring up an old post again, but Tony Goldmark of Some Jerk with a Camera fame, has just made a new State of the Parks video that discusses the Splash Mountain re-theme that provides some historical context about the ride. If you've got 46 minutes to spare, I reckon it's worth checking out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5hIamKrdxk

Edited September 6, 20205 yr by 19Michael96
Added proper url link

The POV has been released for Tiana's Bayou Adventure, and it is not looking good:

First off, there is a lack of story. Where is the villain? Where is the danger that you commonly see on rides like these? Splash Mountain had a clear and cohesive story, this only mentions the story a few times, it is mostly just listening to animals singing and suddenly you are about to get to the party.

Also there is much less animatronics and characters overall, in some areas there is only one animatronic and lots of greenery. Also a lot of it is just listening to music, with a large section lacking any story or dialogue.

And where did the suspense go, as I mentioned earlier? Splash Mountain had Brer Rabbit about to be skinned by Brer Frox and trying to trick him into throwing him down the mountain. The lift hill up the mountain is supposed to be suspenseful, instead this is just "Let's get you to the party" with happy music playing throughout. 

Compared to Jurassic Park - Jurassic World at USH this is a huge downgrade compared to the original. While USH properly updated the ride to a modern standard while keeping a coherent story, this just feels off with the lack of story. Not to mention this seems targeted only toward young girls, and a problem with that is are young girls the right target for a ride like this? A lot wouldn't want to ride it as it may look "Too Scary", and young boys wouldn't want to ride "The Princess Ride". Splash however wasn't targeted to a specific age group, the whole family could enjoy it. They have wasted a lot of money on this, they should've kept this the same like Japan. 

Edited June 1, 20241 yr by TBoy

6 hours ago, TBoy said:

Not to mention this seems targeted only toward young girls, and a problem with that is are young girls the right target for a ride like this? A lot wouldn't want to ride it as it may look "Too Scary", and young boys wouldn't want to ride "The Princess Ride".

I highly disagree here, nothing about it seems at all targeted towards 'young girls', and tbh I don't even know how what part of it possibly gave you that assumption.

It just seems like they wanted Splash Mountain's theme gone, and in the process defaulted to a stock-standard, unoffensive, "Disney" theme. Like, this exact aesthetic/story could easily be copy-pasted onto any of their boat pseudo-dark rides (Na'vi River Journey, Pirates, "It's a small world", etc.) without any changes, and it would not only work, but work much better than it has as a Splash Mountain reskin. They've not targeted the wrong audience, they've just gone with the easiest option for their audience.

Edited June 1, 20241 yr by Tricoart

I lot of it I like based off this POV, but it’s a shame they didn’t include Dr. Facilier (the movies villain) in the lift hill to include that villain aspect to the ride to make the build up the big drop more dramatic. I believe Disney said the rides story is based around being after the movie, so that’ll explain why, but it does feel a little lacklustre story wise. It felt like they kept telling us that they needed to go to this party, over and over again, which isn’t exciting from a story perspective.

It does also feel like there’s some dead spots where there’s not much happening (like they ran out of money). The use of screens is nicely done though and the animatronics are impressive.

I understand why Disney felt they needed to do this. Is it a worthy replacement of Splash Mountain… maybe. With the budget cuts and lack of depth to the story, it comes across as a swing and miss (just). Either way, people are still going to ride and a lot of people will love it. I’m sure I’ll still enjoy it when I get to ride it one day.

I personally felt it was easier to put my attention into this and get the story. I genuinely had no idea what the story was on splash until @TBoy's comment. I also never realised how much indoor space the ride uses. My gripes though are that fence approaching the lift hill, and, as i said in a comment on the main video, sightlines at Disney are important until you get on a ride. I dont want to see others on my ride unless the story calls for it, like Rise does.

10 hours ago, TBoy said:

Not to mention this seems targeted only toward young girls, and a problem with that is are young girls the right target for a ride like this? A lot wouldn't want to ride it as it may look "Too Scary", and young boys wouldn't want to ride "The Princess Ride"

This paragraph is the definition of “crock of shit”

 

 

 

1 hour ago, jjuttup said:

My gripes though are that fence approaching the lift hill

I think this is temporary because the ride isn’t officially open yet 

1 hour ago, jjuttup said:

I dont want to see others on my ride unless the story calls for it, like Rise does.

I think that is because they are in early testing, they most likely haven't worked out the vehicles fully, same reason that the boats keep stopping and the video cuts instead of it being one long scene

I don't want to be 'that guy' but why would you change a mountain-themed ride to the New Orleans Bayou?

Clearly no one from Disney has ever been to New Orleans because, famously, the highest point of elevation is only 27ft (8.2m) above sea level.

4 hours ago, TBoy said:

I think that is because they are in early testing, they most likely haven't worked out the vehicles fully, same reason that the boats keep stopping and the video cuts instead of it being one long scene

Nah, you can see it in their other water rides too. Pirates, Tangled etc

Oh noooo, it's so disappointing! I was really looking forward to this as I love Splash Mountain and I felt like the bayou theme and all the critters could work well. But I agree with most of the comments from the OP. The 'story' is clearly far too weak and has too few elements to be able to stretch throughout a ride of this length. And it really does feel like it's designed for 5-year-olds with the way Tianna talks to the riders and keeps repeating the same stuff over and over. The animatronics in splash were always so well done and there were so many of them. Now it looks like all of the money has been spent on a few AAA+ animatronics, to the detriment of everything else. The critters have less movement/animation than the original splash characters. The whole overlay just feels like it doesn't suit the exisiting mountain and ride layout at all. Super disappointing from the imagineers this time. Probably a budget issue but also a big miss on the story and creative front. Damn

Edited June 2, 20241 yr by GoGoBoy

2 hours ago, GoGoBoy said:

Probably a budget issue

Disney parks & budget issues are pretty much nonexistent IMO, they pretty much run off monopoly money atp (in both meanings of the word, ig). ‘Cause of that, I don’t see that likely to be it’s issue, if anything I’d guess it’s their general financial/industry-related position making them far too comfortable to allocate their immense resources on basic, safe storylines/attractions, without any pressure to second-guess suitability/coherency, reaffirm they’re allocating resources well, or just generally partake in any actual innovation.

Edited June 2, 20241 yr by Tricoart

Disney is a publicly listed company, so yes they do have budgets and not unlimited money.

This project is the perfect example of Disneys budget cuts. You just have to look at the concept artwork vs reality

Yes concept artworks are almost never a reality, but for Disney they generally are 

1 hour ago, Naazon said:

Disney is a publicly listed company, so yes they do have budgets and not unlimited money.

Obviously they have set amounts of money, what I mean is that the set amount they have accessible is leagues above that what’s needed to make a good ride/retheme if they were to use their resources strategically, but they instead continue to rely on their own backlog of proven concepts/ideas, dodging any logic (or, in most, especially USA cases, any unique ideas at all) no matter the cost, safe in the fact that most of their guests will still eat it up.

Edited June 2, 20241 yr by Tricoart

When I rode Splash Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland I was like, "yeah, such a great water ride!" But did I care about the theme, or the animatronics, or what the overall overarching story was through the queue and the slow sections of the ride was? No. Not a single bit, I didn't know that this was some old-school apparently racist live-action/cartoon hybrid adaptation, I didn't care about the supposed "stakes" of these rigid animatronics was throughout the so-called 'story', all I cared about was that I could look at something amusing and polished and entertaining while sitting down after having queued up for hours and get a 'rush and splash' at the end. I don't care about the IP, I don't have nostalgia for Disney brands (or Marvel or Star Wars brands for that matter) I just want something that looks good, sounds good and is fun.

Cool story bro. 

On 02/06/2024 at 8:37 PM, GoGoBoy said:

Oh noooo, it's so disappointing! I was really looking forward to this as I love Splash Mountain and I felt like the bayou theme and all the critters could work well. But I agree with most of the comments from the OP. The 'story' is clearly far too weak and has too few elements to be able to stretch throughout a ride of this length. And it really does feel like it's designed for 5-year-olds with the way Tianna talks to the riders and keeps repeating the same stuff over and over. The animatronics in splash were always so well done and there were so many of them. Now it looks like all of the money has been spent on a few AAA+ animatronics, to the detriment of everything else. The critters have less movement/animation than the original splash characters. The whole overlay just feels like it doesn't suit the exisiting mountain and ride layout at all. Super disappointing from the imagineers this time. Probably a budget issue but also a big miss on the story and creative front. Damn

It was a terrible idea, with even worse execution.

Splash is a relatively intense ride (for a castle park) and this version doesn't have a villain or any tension (which is needed on a flume) - think of West as the local example and the voice lines it plays leading up to the final drop (when they're working). I'd imagine little kids would be scared shitless with that drop that comes after "Lets get you to the party". Prime example of mismatching the story with the ride layout.

Just a case of a terrible IP match with the ride type, it looks like princess and the frog was shoehorned into the ride when the IP and story should be integrated ito the ride layout. The IP and the story they were trying to tell have been a much better fit for a ground-up gentle dark boat ride, I think Lilo and stitch would have been a much more suitable refit for Splash.

Edited June 6, 20241 yr by Baconjack

On 06/06/2024 at 9:23 PM, Baconjack said:

this version doesn't have a villain or any tension (which is needed on a flume)

*Cries in Viking's Revenge*

A flume doesn't need a villain. It needs a drop, and a splash. that's it. 

I love the traditional Brer story of the original splash. I will miss it. But it had darker tones towards the end that would scare younger riders. I think the Tiana animatronics look amazing, and I think there's too many folks remembering splash with rose coloured glasses on - as many scenes only had 1 animatronic character and a lot of trees. 

I still think its a downgrade but that's possibly mostly down to my nostalgic memories of the original.

I'm sure someone is going to produce a side-by-side comparison video, and I look forward to seeing the major differences together.

On 06/06/2024 at 9:23 PM, Baconjack said:

I think Lilo and stitch would have been a much more suitable refit for Splash.

How does Hawaii fit into New Orleans or Critter Country?

2 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

I'm sure someone is going to produce a side-by-side comparison video, and I look forward to seeing the major differences together.

 

The new look's no match for the intended, original look...hopefully SEQ theme-park operators get their nextgen flumes right....when they finally emerge!