New concept art and details unveiled for Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World

Apr 12, 2023 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

Gallery / 1 Photo
Tiana's Bayou Adventure concept art - April 2023

Posted: Wednesday April 12, 2023 1:13pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has today announced more details on the upcoming Tiana's Bayou Adventure attraction coming to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in late 2024, including news on animatronics and the appearance of Mama Odie.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure concept art - April 2023

As depicted in this newly released rendering above, Mama Odie jokes with guests along their journey after a special display of her magic. The two-hundred-year-old Bayou Fairy Godmother, with her eccentric belongings and “seeing eye snake,” Juju, is comically eccentric, yet wise and all-knowing, throughout the adventure. Actress Jenifer Lewis, who starred as the voice of Mama Odie in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “The Princess and the Frog,” is once again returning to her role for the attraction.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure - Concept art of first drop into the bayou

Other new details announced for today for Tiana's Bayou Adventure include:

Brand-new cast of original Disney characters with distinct names and personalities
Dozens of entirely new Audio-Animatronics figures
Adorable critters with incredible talent, bringing the diverse flavors of musical gumbo found in New Orleans!
New, original music alongside favorite tunes from the film
Alluring scent of beignets being prepared for the party will be part of the attraction queue!
Additional talent voices from the film reprising their roles, including Bruno Campos as Prince Naveen, Michael Leon Wooley as Louis, and the one and only Anika Noni Rose as Princess Tiana
Familiar faces from the film such as Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen, Mama Odie, Louis, Eudora, Charlotte, “Big Daddy,” the King and Queen of Maldonia and Prince Ralphie

Disney also announced today that Splash Mountain at Disneyland park will be closed starting May 31, 2023.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure concept model - D23 Expo exhibit

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Dranth1 day ago

We went mid-November and had our first ride on TBA. I waited a while to post anything so as to not be reactionary, but this is a bad update. The characters don't show any personality, the dialog is repetitive and annoying, half the ride feels sparse and devoid of life, the human AAs in particular feel off and flail around way too much. Not only that, but the number of broken AAs and issues on a ride that has had a half a year to iron these things out is completely unacceptable. Even from the get-go, when you first meet Tiana and watch her sit there mostly frozen waiting for each backed up boat to hit her sensor to activate you immediately get pulled out of the experience and it didn't get a whole lot better from there. I don’t know who is responsible for what with this thing and without knowing the exact inner workings of the company and what execs interfered (if they did), how much leeway the team had etc. I am not comfortable pinning this on any one person or group but as a whole, the company failed with this redo. At the end of the day, I know it is just a ride and still fun enough if for no other reason than the nature of the ride system itself, but this is a significant step back from what we had and a huge missed opportunity.

celluloid2 days ago

Not only has the outcome been lackluster, but concerned fans were also right about Disney not having the ride in very good condition for long. There is so much still operationally broken and still neglected that the thing is also already in deplorable shape. By the time it is out of its first season of long hour days of MK hard ticket event abuse...its just going to get uglier.

EagleScout6102 days ago

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Splash should have been down for two years at minimum. Gut it down to the bare bones and restart it. Give us something that actually resembles the film instead of the old How Do You Do sets dyed brown covered in plants. If they had done that and truly built something new and just left the layout of Splash I believe many would have been much much more forgiving of losing Splash.

mickEblu2 days ago

TBA disappointed a lot of people that were excited for the ride whether they expected a rehash of the film or not. This ride does the source material zero justice and that’s something I don’t think anyone really predicted. At the very least I think people thought the ride would feel like the movie and it doesn’t in the slightest. Doesn’t capture any of the magic from the movie or the setting. You have a dark forest posing as a bayou filled with unrecognizable characters*, Tianas cool aunt in her adventure outfit, no Facilier, no Ray and for all intents / purposes no Naveen. Even Louis looks like a big fuzzy teddy bear and doesn’t play any music. * to add insult to injury they happen to be far inferior to the AAs figures they replaced.

Incomudro2 days ago

I watched PatF right after Disney made the official announcement of the retheme. I watched it because I wanted to see if the film could lend itself well to the retheme of the ride. I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw.

LittleBuford3 days ago

The discussion in the original thread (linked below) doesn’t substantiate this. People were already asking on Day 1 how Facilier could possibly feature given that the story would take place after the film. Yes, some (myself included) were hoping they might include him in spirit form, but this was always understood as wishful thinking rather than a real likelihood. The mood surrounding the whole project was overwhelmingly pessimistic from the outset. The situation we’ve ended up with is bad enough as it is without having to pretend that Disney failed to deliver on the fans’ initial optimism. Such optimism was never more than a minority position—at least in this forum. https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/splash-mountain-re-theme-announced.965846/

Disgruntled Walt3 days ago

Ok, maybe most people didn't think it was going to be a complete rehash of the movie, but I think it's fair to say that most people were expecting the storyline to match the linear nature of the film's story, most likely using Dr. Facilier as the antagonist leading up to the drop. Also, when they say they're going to use the powerful music from the film, did we not all think "Friends on the Other Side" would be there?

JackCH3 days ago

I actually think the attraction itself is fine, but between the tech difficulties and Splash already being great it overall feels like a downgrade.

Fox&Hound3 days ago

I think they did a wonderful job with the exterior, love the queue much more than I thought I would, there are impressive AAs, but I feel the story is the weakest element. I am holding out hope that a few years from now we will get a halloween overlay that includes Dr Facillier and then due to positive fan reaction they will just keep it. I mean, couldnt they replace a few of the frogs in the scene before the lift hill with shadow creatures, change the music and lighting, and then make Facillier and his voodoo dolls appear on the screen where we now have giant Tiana and Louis. Does not seem impossible. :)

bwr8273 days ago

I’d give Tiana’s an 8/10. Rode it four times and enjoyed each one. Great music, fun animatronics, awesome drop and a gorgeous finale scene.

LittleBuford4 days ago

OK, but that doesn’t relate to what I actually wrote, does it?

EagleScout6104 days ago

We knew there was a chance for them to screw this up with how high of a bar Splash had set, but we thought they could pull this off. Then Disney started talking about Co-Ops, salt domes and employee owned companies...

LittleBuford4 days ago

I too am far from satisfied with how the attraction has turned out, but I cannot agree with your assessment here. The reaction when the retheme was announced was overwhelmingly negative, with only a handful of posters expressing any kind of excitement. And at no point did anyone think we would be reliving the story of the film; Disney told us from the outset that the attraction would “pick up this story after the final kiss, and join Princess Tiana and Louis on a musical adventure – featuring some of the powerful music from the film – as they prepare for their first-ever Mardi Gras performance.” https://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/splash-mountain/news/25jun2020-splash-mountain-to-be-rethemed-to-the-princess-and-the-frog.htm