She reminds us of an immutable truth we can all relate to: ‘if you do your best each and every day, good things are sure to come your way.’ And that’s a melody we can all sing along to!” Princess and the Frog Ride Theme Like the musical city that inspired this attraction, Tiana’s second act is about a community working in harmony to achieve something extraordinary. In many ways, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a love letter to New Orleans. Today, Disney Parks shared footage from a recent research trip to New Orleans that Imagineers embarked on to gather a sense of the tone and style for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure:Ĭharita Carter, executive producer of relevancy activations at Walt Disney Imagineering said of the concept, “Guests are in for a true treat with local flavor when Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens in late 2024. The new backstory for Splash Mountain will follow Tiana and Louis the trumpet-playing alligator as they prepare for their first Mardi Gras performance.Concept art of the Splash Mountain retheme courtesy of Disney The reimagined Splash Mountain rides will tell an extension of the “Princess and the Frog” story that picks up after the final kiss between Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. SEE ALSO: ‘Princess and the Frog’ star Anika Noni Rose wants Disneyland to build Tiana’s Palace restaurant The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature and received two nods in the best original song category for “Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans.”
The 2009 “Princess and the Frog” was celebrated as Disney’s first animated depiction of an African-American princess.
Disney shelved the controversial live-action/animated musical film in the 1980s and the company’s former CEO and current executive chairman Bob Iger said the movie will not appear on the Disney+ streaming service.
Splash Mountain features characters and songs from Disney’s 1946 “Song of the South” film based on the “Uncle Remus” stories - a collection of folktales from the Southern plantation era compiled by Joel Chandler Harris and published in the 1880s - that have been criticized for perpetuating racist stereotypes.
The move by Disney in 2020 followed a flurry of social media buzz calling on the parks to update Splash Mountain’s controversial backstory amid social justice protests across the United States sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. The ride follows Brer Rabbit, who leaves the briar patch. It was inspired by the 1946 animated film called 'Song of the South,' which was based on the Uncle Remus tales that go back to the late 1800s. The creative arm of the company has been developing a “Princess and the Frog” backstory for Splash Mountain since 2019 and settled on many of the concepts for the reimagined attraction in summer 2019. Splash Mountain is Disneyland's water ride: a half-mile trip with five drops ending in a final, 52-foot-tall, 45-degree, 40-mile-per-hour plunge. Walt Disney Imagineering continues to make progress on many aspects of “The Princess and the Frog” experience coming to Splash Mountain, according to Disneyland officials. SEE ALSO: Meet the Disneyland cast member who wants to change Splash Mountain’s story “We’re going to deliver a wonderful attraction that is inspiring and beautiful and worthy of this princess.” “Our guests are going to have to put a bit of trust into us because we promise not to let you down,” Valiquette said on the podcast. “So it’s going to take us a little bit of time to reimagine Splash Mountain.”īehind the scenes work on the music and audio-animatronics for the reimagined attraction has been completed, Valiquette told the Sentinel. “The sequence of these things is that sometimes decisions can be made many, many months, even years before any of that will be seen on stage,” Valiquette said on the Sentinel podcast. Transforming Splash Mountain at the Magic Kingdom will take some time, according to Valiquette.