Disney shares new details on the music of Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Jun 01, 2023 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

Posted: Thursday June 1, 2023 11:10am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has announced today that Walt Disney Imagineering is collaborating with award-winning artists PJ Morton and Terence Blanchard on the music guests will hear as part of Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

Disney's Carmen Smith said, "Both natives of New Orleans, PJ and Terence will help score a lyrical love letter to the region that first inspired our endeavor with Princess Tiana. We’ll have more to share down the road as our teams make progress on a new original song composed by PJ Morton and new renditions of fan favorite music from the Walt Disney Animation Studios hit film, 'The Princess and the Frog.'"

PJ Morton is writing, arranging and producing the original song for the attraction. He is performing on and producing the sessions in New Orleans of all-new arrangements of the song, as well as songs from “The Princess and the Frog” within the attraction. 

Terence Blanchard is helming music arrangement for the attraction’s queue. Terence is working to select songs from “The Princess and the Frog,” as well as iconic themes from New Orleans.

The music will borrow from several musical styles that either originated or took up permanent residence in New Orleans. Some brand-new Audio-Animatronics figures will bring the invigorating sounds of New Orleans to life. Take this new rendering of Prince Naveen’s brother, Ralphie, for example. It’s a scene you commonly see in New Orleans: the joie de vivre influencing his every movement as he jams to the beat of his songful soul. Or this band of friendly critters playing joyful Zydeco-style music. Ralphie will be one of 17 new audio-animatronics in the attraction.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure attraction is coming to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in late 2024.

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HauntedPirate5 hours ago

I'd opine that they chose to leave the significant gaps, but that's just me.

networkpro5 hours ago

The scenery and props were designed for the Disneyland space so they had to leave significant gaps for Disneyworlds longer flume.

Incomudro9 hours ago

Yes, there is little implied motion in any of these figures, or steps of figure. It's bad storyboarding.

EagleScout61020 hours ago

The other issue I have with the animatronics on Bayou is that everyone is just standing/sitting firmly on the ground. There's no dynamic or interesting poses that allow for interesting animation. Splash had Br'er Rabbit jumping along the fence, Br'er Bear in the tree and thrashing around on his back, Br’er Fox springing up from the background, the Possum babies above the river hanging by their tails, turtles being lifted by geysers, the entire riverboat rocking back and forth... Everything on Bayou just looks so static in comparison. Edit - Forgot about Rufus the Turtle who bobs back and forth slightly. But it's still a very simple animation loop.

networkpro20 hours ago

Curious enough I met Troy Landry at the Poly in 2020 while it was open just for DVC and diners. Nice fellow.

Animaniac93-9821 hours ago

They also don't interact much with each other and are very self contained vignettes that don't build to anything. Think of the geese who's fishing line has nabbed another's hat, or the fish that jumps through the empty net. Think of the vultures looking at each other and finishing the other's sentence. Think of the rabbits commenting on the Brers chasing each other while a projection effect plays in the background. All of that is gone...and the heavier reliance of screens makes the new scenes look physically flat. The ride's soundtrack is doing the heavy lifting of giving life to the scenes, not their staging or animation.

JoeCamel22 hours ago

Shelby would run them over with his boat so we escape over the falls!

Brer Panther23 hours ago

Yes, this. Both of this. I dunno if they really qualified as "evil", but yes, the film dig have frog hunters. It still would've been a major downgrade from Brer Fox, though... I don't think you could make those frog hunters threatening at all. I suppose they could've made up a brand new villain, but they probably couldn't be bothered (or they knew people would still be complaining that we got this new character instead of Facilier).

networkpro1 day ago

Louis wasn't made of wood. Bruce is one to be wary of.

JoeCamel1 day ago

They could of had this guy going after Louis...

PizzaPlanet1 day ago

Didn’t the movie have evil frog hunters or something like that? They could’ve introduced conflict with those guys going after the critters if they didn’t want to go the voodoo route. Could’ve been similar to Brer Fox or the witch from Snow White.

Bocabear1 day ago

no, I guess I didn't...there was nothing memorable about them to me... I was really focused on trying to figure out what sort of entrepreneurial enterprise Tiana would get into after she got her prince and her dream of opening the restaurant...you know, the focus of the entire movie...lol

Brer Oswald1 day ago

They would have saved a ton of goodwill with fans of the original ride.

EagleScout6101 day ago

In the weird way, Naveen became the blink and you'll miss him character