New Video - A Deep Dive into the Making of Tiana's Bayou Adventure with Walt Disney Imagineers

Mar 22, 2024 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

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Posted: Friday March 22, 2024 10:39am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The New Orleans Book Festival hosted Walt Disney Imagineering for a panel discussion on "Bringing Tiana's Bayou Adventure to Life," moderated by Leslie Iwerks.

In this 45-minute video, you can hear from WDI's Charita Carter and Carmen Smith and "honorary Imagineer" Stella Chase.

The New Orleans Book Festival brings the world's leading authors to Tulane University for a multi-day celebration of their works. The Festival features both fiction and non-fiction and convenes readings, panel discussions, symposia and keynote speeches. It provides an opportunity for outlets, authors and readers to interact with each other in one of the most vibrant and culturally diverse cities in the world.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure will open in the summer of 2024, but Disney has yet to announce a precise date.

The earliest and most optimistic estimates place a soft opening around Memorial Day (late May), which may put an official opening sometime in July.

The upcoming D23 Down in New Orleans event on March 23 provides Disney with one of two opportunities to announce an opening date; the other is the Annual Shareholders meeting on April 3.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure testing - March 4, 2024

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BrerFoxesBayouAdventure1 day ago

That's an insult to the artistry of Looney Tunes and the Warner Bros. cartoons. The Br'ers always gave me a "Warner Animation/MGM Studios" kind of vibe in how they're animated more expressively than the usual Disney fare.

Dear Prudence1 day ago

It actually makes the new animatronics being mostly non functioning a lot of the time even more glaringly obvious because they have such limited movements anyway.

Dear Prudence1 day ago

That's actually a really neat idea!!!!

Brer Panther1 day ago

Is it just me, or does Mondo look like a more advanced animatronic than the other "new" characters? I dunno, he just seems a bit more articulated...

HauntedPirate1 day ago

I'd opine that they chose to leave the significant gaps, but that's just me.

networkpro1 day ago

The scenery and props were designed for the Disneyland space so they had to leave significant gaps for Disneyworlds longer flume.

Incomudro1 day ago

Yes, there is little implied motion in any of these figures, or steps of figure. It's bad storyboarding.

EagleScout6102 days ago

The other issue I have with the animatronics on Bayou is that everyone is just standing/sitting firmly on the ground. There's no dynamic or interesting poses that allow for interesting animation. Splash had Br'er Rabbit jumping along the fence, Br'er Bear in the tree and thrashing around on his back, Br’er Fox springing up from the background, the Possum babies above the river hanging by their tails, turtles being lifted by geysers, the entire riverboat rocking back and forth... Everything on Bayou just looks so static in comparison. Edit - Forgot about Rufus the Turtle who bobs back and forth slightly. But it's still a very simple animation loop.

networkpro2 days ago

Curious enough I met Troy Landry at the Poly in 2020 while it was open just for DVC and diners. Nice fellow.

Animaniac93-982 days ago

They also don't interact much with each other and are very self contained vignettes that don't build to anything. Think of the geese who's fishing line has nabbed another's hat, or the fish that jumps through the empty net. Think of the vultures looking at each other and finishing the other's sentence. Think of the rabbits commenting on the Brers chasing each other while a projection effect plays in the background. All of that is gone...and the heavier reliance of screens makes the new scenes look physically flat. The ride's soundtrack is doing the heavy lifting of giving life to the scenes, not their staging or animation.

JoeCamel2 days ago

Shelby would run them over with his boat so we escape over the falls!

Brer Panther2 days ago

Yes, this. Both of this. I dunno if they really qualified as "evil", but yes, the film dig have frog hunters. It still would've been a major downgrade from Brer Fox, though... I don't think you could make those frog hunters threatening at all. I suppose they could've made up a brand new villain, but they probably couldn't be bothered (or they knew people would still be complaining that we got this new character instead of Facilier).