Walt Disney Imagineering has pulled back the curtain on advanced new audio-animatronics of Prince Naveen, Mama Odie, Louis the alligator and others planned for the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attractions coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Imagineering’s most advanced animatronic figures will play starring roles in the “Princess and the Frog” attractions taking over the former Splash Mountain rides on both coasts.
The 48 new cutting-edge animatronics have already been installed at Florida’s Magic Kingdom – where Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is set to officially open on Friday, June 28 following a series of previews.
Many of the Disneyland animatronics are still undergoing testing at Imagineering’s campus in Glendale ahead of a planned opening of the Anaheim ride later this year.
Imagineering showed off four versions of the “Tiana-matronics” that will appear in a series of outfits throughout the ride. Tiana directs a bayou critter band in one scene and presides over a Mardi Gras musical celebration in another.
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Louis the alligator will also make multiple appearances in the ride. Imagineering showed off the Louis animatronics in various stages of completion with the underlying mechanics visible.
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Voodoo priestess Mama Odie also shows up more than once in the attraction. Juju, Odie’s forked-tongue seeing-eye snake, bounces near a plate of beignets in one scene.
Imagineering also showed off animatronic versions of Tiana’s mother Eudora, Tiana’s friend Charlotte La Bouff, banjo-plucking Prince Naveen, Naveen’s younger brother and aspiring drummer Prince Ralphie and Zydeco percussionist Byhalia the beaver.
Throughout the new ride, a whole swampful of friendly critters will play Zydeco, Rara-style and Afro-Cuban music on makeshift instruments made from natural materials found in the bayou.
The reimagining of the Splash Mountain rides will remove thematic elements related to “Song of the South” — the controversial 1940s animated film criticized for perpetuating racist stereotypes that has been disowned by Disney.
The twin Tiana’s Bayou Adventure 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. The new backstory for Splash Mountain will follow Tiana and Louis the trumpet-playing alligator as they prepare for their first Mardi Gras performance.