Disney shares new details on the music of Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Jun 01, 2023 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

Posted: Thursday June 1, 2023 11:10am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has announced today that Walt Disney Imagineering is collaborating with award-winning artists PJ Morton and Terence Blanchard on the music guests will hear as part of Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

Disney's Carmen Smith said, "Both natives of New Orleans, PJ and Terence will help score a lyrical love letter to the region that first inspired our endeavor with Princess Tiana. We’ll have more to share down the road as our teams make progress on a new original song composed by PJ Morton and new renditions of fan favorite music from the Walt Disney Animation Studios hit film, 'The Princess and the Frog.'"

PJ Morton is writing, arranging and producing the original song for the attraction. He is performing on and producing the sessions in New Orleans of all-new arrangements of the song, as well as songs from “The Princess and the Frog” within the attraction. 

Terence Blanchard is helming music arrangement for the attraction’s queue. Terence is working to select songs from “The Princess and the Frog,” as well as iconic themes from New Orleans.

The music will borrow from several musical styles that either originated or took up permanent residence in New Orleans. Some brand-new Audio-Animatronics figures will bring the invigorating sounds of New Orleans to life. Take this new rendering of Prince Naveen’s brother, Ralphie, for example. It’s a scene you commonly see in New Orleans: the joie de vivre influencing his every movement as he jams to the beat of his songful soul. Or this band of friendly critters playing joyful Zydeco-style music. Ralphie will be one of 17 new audio-animatronics in the attraction.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure attraction is coming to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in late 2024.

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EagleScout6105 hours ago

I completely forgot they're planning on closing Big Thunder. That'll be disasterous for Frontierland if Bayou can't operate for a full day and BTMRR is down.

monothingie6 hours ago

BTM is planned to be closing for an extended refurbishment imminently. TBA as a new ride was unlikely to close this winter. Without TBA you have an entire land without a major attraction and a severe hit to capacity. They've painted themselves into a corner in terms of what they can do.

Mike S9 hours ago

Finally rode it myself. What a downgrade. Splash Mountain was a ride I could go on again and again every trip. This? Once is enough if I’m even feeling like it. Can’t wait to go to Tokyo one day just to see it again.

EagleScout61010 hours ago

The way I see it, they have two options - A. Shut down TBA less than a month after opening it to fix the bugs B. Wait until winter (when they would usually refurbish Splash) to take it down and fix it then. The issue becomes, do they admit their new ride can't function properly when the old one worked (admittedly less so at the end), or let it close multiple times a day for a good chunk of its debut season?

EricsBiscuit11 hours ago

IIRC it took them a while to fix FEA too. Within a couple months they’ll fine tune it.

monothingie14 hours ago

The problem with TBA is that they are unable or unwilling to fix it at this point. Unable because the problem can not be resolved without extended downtime. Unwilling because shutting it down for a month or more would be a tremendous embarrassment. Ironically I think more guests would be less critical of an unplanned refurbishment to get it working properly, than to have it breakdown for half the day on a constant basis. But I guess that would bruise some pretty inflated egos at the company.

EricsBiscuit21 hours ago

FEA is a very apt comparison. Both rides are enjoyable but had rough openings and are objectively not as good as what they replaced.

co1006422 hours ago

This attraction’s opening reminds me of FEA in so many ways. I wasn’t following the opening of FEA very closely, but I remember there being substantial downtime and ride evacs early on. I don’t know what changed to get the ride more reliable, but hopefully they can fix it soon! It’s very disappointing when you plan to experience a new attraction on a (very expensive) vacation but don’t get that opportunity.

MisterPenguin22 hours ago

MisterPenguin22 hours ago

BrerFoxesBayouAdventure22 hours ago

One can only hope DL's version isn't as pitiful in terms of operation.

lightningtap3471 day ago

This is egregiously bad too as today's a day where we didn't have any rain. Today was the day NOT to have this happen.

monothingie1 day ago

7 hours of total downtime today. Just the latest continuing example of a day in which the ride was down just as much as it was up. They can’t fix this thing and they can’t shut it down for an extended refurbishment so soon, so they’re just going to let it limp along and get progressively worse and downplay any vocal complaints about these problems. This was so predictable. Shame on the shills who gaslighted anyone critical of this mess. Congratulations Disney you built a mediocre attraction\

Professortango13 days ago

Roasting big wigs is a big part of industry events.