Tiana's Bayou Adventure reaches new milestone as Disney Imagineers begin test rides

Epcot82Guy16 minutes ago

The theme for the mental health/Inside Out/Cranium Command redo confirmed.

Epcot82Guy18 minutes ago

Agreed. It feels more like interior design than actual theme. It's like how you would go about designing a museum display, not thematic place setting. The pieces of place setting have a sense of logic and purpose. It's never been perfect by a long shot, but that seems to be eroding outside of major IP projects like Galaxy's Edge. Then again, it makes for good clickable stories. So I see the pull of it. I just wish we could have both. I think most of the newest projects could have been much more successful with a simple story/premise rewrite.

Sir_Cliff53 minutes ago

I tend to think this project is combining a lot of the issues WDI has had in recent years (decades?) in a particularly visible way. On the one hand, there is the inconsistency in quality that we often see from one project from the next. Imagineering is still capable of great work which displays a clear attention to detail, but then they'll turn around and do something like stick a clearly contemporary computer-generated image in the queue of The Jungle Cruise that looks completely out of place. Here, the latter seems very frequently pasted onto the former in a way that makes you wonder whether this project is lacking a clear creative leader to oversee the whole project. The other issue is Disney's quite literal approach to 'story' for new attractions, stores, and theming in general which involves writing an over-complicated story that you'd really have to read for everything to make sense. In some cases (like the "Sweetest Spoon" story incorporated into the renovated Main Street Confectionary), it possibly takes away a little from the theming as it feels clumsy and shoehorned into a space that just has to read as a confectionary store from a period in time but now has all this text and images pasted up that actually don't feel authentic to a confectionary store from that period. In other cases, it probably neither adds nor subtracts much from the attraction. We'll see what happens here, though I feel like the queue is already appearing very heavy-handed with the food co-op story and I hope the attraction leans more on just being fun and entertaining.

MisterPenguin1 hour ago

Don't do it!!

James Alucobond1 hour ago

85-90% of my issues at the moment could be fixed with paint and a pair of scissors.

LittleBuford1 hour ago

I think the exterior is a success overall. Some of the details, mainly pertaining to text and signage, are egregiously bad, but the sum total works better than I expected (at least to judge from the photos). I do hope they eventually redo the weaker elements, though I doubt they will.

Magicart872 hours ago

So as things seem to be wrapping up I feel like I can give a fair enough assessment of the overall aesthetic without having actually visited in person yet. It's clear it's not as cohesive or as unified as one would have hoped. Looking back, I was definitely too harsh on the Tiara Tower critique as it's perhaps the best example of how WDI should have tackled the entire project. It better exemplifies the merging of two mismatch styles into a singular, unified concept. There's a story there. It's a bit of old mixed the right amount of Tiana glam. Unrealistic, but still a proper combining of the two styles as if Tiana took over the old mine and put her personal touches on it. The rest of the overhaul has been incredibly inconsistent with that notion as "things" appear too new and anachronistic. Typeface issues abound. Odd banner choices, etc. It's a rehash of opinions at this point but my hope is that WDI actually looks back on this and does a better job for the DL overhaul. Maybe in time, things will change but as-is, the exterior just isn't very successful. Credit where due, the change from briars to swamp is successful. Though I find it oddly morose and unenchanting during the day.

Ghost932 hours ago

I think when the team did their research trip in New Orleans they got emotionally attached to too many different ideas and were unwilling to let any of them go when actually designing the ride, queue and backstory. That's probably why everything feels overcomplicated.

Epcot82Guy3 hours ago

Yes. A lot of it feels forced. That's a big issue with a lot of WDI projects these days. An odd blend of over thought and overly simplistic.

Drew the Disney Dude3 hours ago

Scaffolding has been removed from the millhouse, as of today.

LittleBuford13 hours ago

This would account for some of the strange decisions they’ve made (the whole salt-dome explanation, for example), but not the issues with the signage, which are the result of not enough thought.

wbostic1213 hours ago

It is almost like they are trying to outthink themselves, but also forget that by trying to fix nonexistent problems, they are creating new blatant and unnecessary ones (which are easily pointed out by everyone watching from the outside).

Drew the Disney Dude13 hours ago

Agreed 100%. The brown and white actually looks great and undoubtedly would've been the better choice. I'm hoping the white isn't painted over with yellow.

Vegas Disney Fan14 hours ago

It’s funny how little choices can make such a huge difference, I love the look of the fence, I wish they’d used this color rather than the yellow, I think the murals would look so much more natural against a simple brown rather than the brightish yellow. . Unfortunately judging by the last photo it looks like more yellow may be coming.