Tiana’s Bayou Adventure uses the same trails as Splash Mountain, and riders continue to ride in vehicles made to look like hollowed-out logs. But everything else has been redesigned. Instead of a suspenseful story that sees Br’er Rabbit thrown into a field of brambles, the new attraction focuses on a Mardi Gras party: Tiana and her friend Louis, a trumpet-playing alligator, are on a quest to creatures to form a gang with.
Midway through the film, the cheerful Mama Odie, a voodoo queen in “The Princess and the Frog” and now a “fairy godmother of the bayou,” casts a spell, supposedly shrinking the knights to the size of fireflies.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure also has a new slogan: “Everyone is welcome.”
While walking Tiana’s Bayou Adventure with a reporter during an opening test phase, Ted Robledo, the attraction’s executive creative director, pointed out numerous inclusive touches: decorative objects in Spanish and French, reflecting New Orleans’ multicultural history; a variety of music (jazz, zydeco, blues) played in the sound system.
“This is an homage to the indigenous people of the region,” Robledo said, referring to a Choctaw stickball paddle in a diorama near the ride’s entrance.
