Mixed Reactions as Disney Unveils Tiana's Bayou Adventure Ride Through Video

Jun 01, 2024 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

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Posted: Saturday June 1, 2024 3:00pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney took the unusual step of releasing a full POV (point of view) ride-through video today of their highly anticipated new attraction, Tiana's Bayou Adventure, nearly a month before it opens at Walt Disney World on June 28.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure POV teaser

The ride, which replaces the iconic Splash Mountain, has sparked a wave of mixed reactions among YouTube viewers. We reviewed the first 1500 YouTube user comments submitted in the first 6 hours of the video's debut to compile this summary.

It should be noted that the comments we reviewed are all based on Disney's official POV, not in-person ride experiences, and they are the opinion of the YouTube users and not WDWMAGIC. We will hear many more in-person reviews once previews begin on June 2, and we will also have an in-depth WDWMAGIC review after we get to experience the ride in-person.

While the animatronics and some visual aspects of the ride have been praised, the overall sentiment has skewed negatively, with many YouTube viewers expressing disappointment in the new attraction's storytelling and overall experience.

Story and Narrative: A Missed Opportunity?

One of the most frequent criticisms centers around the ride's storyline. Viewers find the plot—centering on Tiana searching for party musicians—lacking depth and coherence. Many feel the story does not capture the magic of "The Princess and the Frog" and misses an opportunity to include more iconic elements from the film.

"The storyline is a miss for me. You could've worked in Dr Facilier and his voodoo friends. While searching for a band for the party we could've taken a wrong turn in the bayou and had the evil, dark tension leading up to the drop," one viewer comments.

Another viewer echoes this sentiment, stating, "There's like 3 stories in this ride, 1st we are looking for people/creatures aka musicians to play in a band 2nd we get shrunk or turned into frogs to look for tiny musicians, 3rd we are a special ingredient/spice for Tiana's party."

Comparisons to Splash Mountain

Many fans can't help but compare Tiana's Bayou Adventure to its predecessor, Splash Mountain. The new ride is frequently unfavorably compared to the old, with viewers lamenting the loss of the original's cohesive story, dramatic tension, and memorable music.

"Splash Mountain had a story with an ANTAGONIST. This one… did not, instead you are looking for some kind of spice… Off to Japan I go. ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH EVERYONE," one comment reads.

"From a fun zipadeedodah story that starts with a nice leisurely ride through Brer Rabbit's home… And now we have… food," another user remarks.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure walls removed - May 30 2024

Ride Experience: Criticisms of Empty Spaces

The new ride is also criticized for having too much empty space and dead air, making parts of it feel dull and lifeless. Viewers note that certain sections feel underwhelming and lack the engaging elements that made Splash Mountain a beloved attraction.

"Some portions are awkwardly quiet…" one viewer points out.

"Except for the finale it just seems so empty. There seems to just be a lot of dead space that they really had no idea what to do with," another review states.

No Dr. Facillier

Fans are particularly vocal about the missed opportunities in the ride's design and storytelling. The absence of Dr. Facilier, a key antagonist from the movie, is a common point of contention. Many feel his inclusion would have added much-needed tension and excitement.

"The greatest missed opportunity in Disney parks history is to leave out Facilier and not have 'are you ready!???' playing while going up the lift hill for the final drop," one disappointed fan notes.

"Spent all the money on the plastic plants and Christmas lights to hide all of the dead space. Bayou magic? Magic it is not. The word 'boring' comes to mind," another adds.

Praise for Animatronics and Visuals

Despite the criticism, several aspects of the ride receive praise. Viewers appreciate the high-quality animatronics and visual design, which many find to be a significant improvement over Splash Mountain.

"The animatronics are beautiful and well done. I love Tiana and think it's awesome that she's getting some love. That last scene is beautiful and impressive," one user remarks.

Another viewer adds, "Visually, it's fantastic, and 'Special Spice' is a fantastic earworm."

Fans also note the ride's appeal to younger audiences who may not have experienced Splash Mountain, with some expressing excitement to see it in person. "The animatronics look amazing! I can't wait to ride it next month!" one comment reads.

Mixed Reactions

The overall reaction from viewers so far is one of disappointment, with many expressing that the ride does not meet their expectations. Despite some praise for the animatronics and visual effects, the lack of a compelling story and the numerous missed opportunities leave many fans yearning for Splash Mountain.

"This is so disappointing, Tiana deserved waaaay better than this snooze fest," one user comments.

"A beautiful, dull, muddled mess. No sense of drama, pace, excitement. So much dead air and plastic flowers. But lots and lots of fireflies," another review concludes.

As Tiana's Bayou Adventure prepares to open, it remains to be seen how the attraction will be received by the wider public. For now, the mixed reactions from the official POV video highlight the challenges Disney faces in reimagining beloved attractions while meeting the high expectations of its fans.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure walls removed - May 30 2024

Discuss on the Forums

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The MomJul 21, 2025

This thread will serve to update on construction progress, new storyline details, and other details specific to Tiana's Bayou Adventure. It is not to discuss the merits of the retheme of Splash Mountain, please continue to use the original thread at https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads...s-and-the-frog-tianas-bayou-adventure.965899/

osianJul 20, 2025

Test Track 3.0 in the forest drive section!

WorldExplorerJul 20, 2025

"Old Epcot and Tokyo did/do it" is exactly the response I expected.

MerlinTheGoatJul 20, 2025

There are some other Disney attractions in the world that have somewhat brightly lit environments in that same vein. And there used to be a larger amount at WDW years back. Several of the old EPCOT Future World classics did, and Great Movie Ride with some scenes. One attraction that has some very similar looking sunny scenery to Splash that still exists today (and isn't Splash) is Pooh's Hunny Hunt from Tokyo.

JayspencyJul 20, 2025

I think living with the land did this as well for the farm scene. Though it’s much darker in there compared to splash.

MerlinTheGoatJul 20, 2025

How did you get any of this out of that post? They said the exact opposite. The only real similarity with the previous ride is that they reused the same building and track layout. The reason why that's an issue is because TBA does not work with this layout. A more talented team probably could have come up with a better fit. But as it stands, almost none of the scenes feel like much thought was put into them. The concerns Tony Baxter noted in a podcast about how you need a tense and scary story to justify the lifts and drops also ended up being accurate. Secondly, the scenery is very off in a number of ways. I've mentioned this myself. The previous ride's environments were all thoroughly stylized to appear like a cartoon come to life. Most of the set design was custom, sculpted and painted in an exaggerated and non-realistic art style. One of the best comparison examples are the grassy surfaces in those shots above. In the previous ride, the grass was a sculpted element, it was a largely smooth minimally textured surface. Only the edges had a bit of physical texture to simulate thick cartoonish blades of grass draping over the sides of the riverbank. The paint and brush strokes did the work for all of the finer detail and texture. And they used very bright colors that popped even in a bright "sunny" looking environment. TBA is also based on an animated film, and it has figures that are somewhat similarly cartoony and stylized to that of the predecessor. Some of the walls are also hand painted (with animated projections) in this style. Those elements look somewhat appropriate to the cartoon stylization at least. However, no such consideration was given to the physical set design at all, resulting in different art styles clashing together. They filled in the mostly gutted sets with generic realistic fake grass bought from a store. They attempted to simulate a colorful painted style with lighting, but it doesn't work well because the shapes and textures that fill out the setpieces still have that generic realistic appearance. Lights also can't control fine details like paint and brush strokes can. In a ride that was going for a more realistic setting such as Pirates or Living with the Land, this realistic foliage would work well (provided everything else matched). But not for a ride based off an animated film with cartoony characters and backgrounds.

IncomudroJul 19, 2025

The current crop of Imaginears - or at least the crew assigned to this project - truly don't know what they are doing. I've said it before, I'll say it again: With Splash, each scene was a storyboard. The scenes worked even when static. There was a sense of implied movement, and every scene worked even by itself. Narration wasn't even needed. With Tiana, it's all gesturing and dialog.

Jedi14Jul 19, 2025

From what they had said about the show, it was to be set after TBA and partially about Tiana’s new role as a community leader and future queen.

LindseyDisneyJul 19, 2025

I posted this on reddit and I thought I would share my thoughts on here. I'm curious what everyone thinks? This is just my own wild theory, but I’ve always thought the characters we’re seeing in Tiana's Bayou Adventure were originally meant to be introduced in the canceled Tiana series. Since that show was scrapped, I can’t help but wonder what the future holds for Tiana's Bayou Adventure. My guess is that in the next 10 to 15 years, Disney might end up tweaking the ride's storyline. While they’ll definitely keep the Princess and the Frog IP, I could see them changing the narrative. Or potential inclusion of Dr. Facilier. With the upcoming Villains Land in the parks, how can they not include him? I’m almost imagining a scenario like Journey into Imagination. where we end up with two different Princess and the Frog storylines / rides in the parks.

EagleScout610Jul 19, 2025

Even as someone with a Splash poster 10 feet from my desk, and Br'er Bear and Rabbit funkos among the many on my desk, I get the annoyance, but it's pointless to rehash the Splash argument again. Splash is gone, and now we can just make fun of how bad Bayou is

HMFJul 19, 2025

For my own sanity I mostly avoided the Splash threads from 2020 until it opened and then rendered my opinion.

HMFJul 18, 2025

I remember thinking in the early 2010s Things at WDW probably could not get any worse, I was wrong about that.

WorldExplorerJul 18, 2025

And now we're supposed to do all of this all over again. I don't normally quote myself, but I feel like I really got the Piston Peak situation down pat a year ago;

Splash4evaJul 18, 2025

Exactly. We saw the same playbook with GMR. Sadly no matter what shape Splash was in and towards the end and even other times its was rough with many things not working but end of day the ride was still the best and a classic. One where you can sing from start to finish and have an absolute joyous time on.