Friends of Disney: really hate that timer. But I wanted to start off with like more of a funny intro ⁓ and was gonna be like, sugarpaw sweeties, how do you like a gumbo tonight? I like it spicy please. That's so cringy. It could brilliant and cringy. was not brilliant and I was trying to figure out something on the whim because I was like gumbo. Gumbo. Obviously movie has a lot of New Orleans ⁓ culture and man. We're on Princess and the Frawl there. Okay and the why I wanted to go gumbo was just how much she referenced gumbo. Have you ever actually had gumbo? Yes, in New Orleans. I know, right? Uh-huh, uh-huh. That exact face. got such clutch on us right now. She's got the brains on this one tonight. Why'd you have me start? I had gumbo. I've had jambalaya. ⁓ from New Orleans Square in Disneyland. Dude, Jumpli is fucking good. I know. It's so good. I get stuck with grits and corn. Yee-haw. Get me some buttermilk biscuits and some fried chicken. had to say it like that with this episode. ⁓ are my southern roots. Shut up. Doesn't that I'm sick too. So it just comes off even weirder. ⁓ Welcome to the comedian tonight, your host. on Princess and the Frog as we continue our series through the Disney Princesses. Because was a repetitive thing that Sean just said again, I'm going to repeat, subscribe, like, comment, whatever you do, follow our podcast, Prince of Disney. Check it out. All right. that we got all the advertisement stuff and the silly stuff, let's actually get into Princess and the Frog. I don't even know where to begin. have a lot of different thoughts around this movie for you, which are not about the content of the movie yet. I love the movie, actually. I love the movie too. The funny thing is, when I first started ⁓ watching movie again and I came across Tiana, I just started thinking of when I went back to Disney World with my grandma. and we were going to go see Cinderella in Snow White because on the other side of the room, it was Tiana and Rapunzel. See? I said no when I chose Cinderella in Snow White, but that's because we know ⁓ had to choose Cinderella. Yeah, duh. I love that bitch. Hardcore the core. I like the idea of like Rapunzel and Tiana as like ⁓ besties. You know, that's fair. Well, OK. And the funny thing about that is that I think this movie falls into about the it's 2009, right? 2008, it was so this was right at the Rapunzel Rapunzel came out after this movie. So they came out right after each other. was like, so this was before Rapunzel. This is before Rapunzel. And it's the last to the animation from Disney. This was one of the good animations before we start getting the change of Disney. feel like we should divide. Like, I feel like at this moment, kind of how we've been talking about Disney over the past few years, ⁓ it's just been COVID is the moment that defined Disney as changing to woke society. I'll list in my head. COVID was the defining factor. Like that. There was a clear shift from when the pandemic happened. you have when they got when with Princess and the Frog, they stopped the 2D animation. then I would say right after Rapunzel was because is one of those timeless princesses ⁓ again, good princess. OK, I know. There is shit talk about me on live action Little Mermaid and I get that. But Tiana is so good. It's so good, but it's different. it's different in all the best ways because I think we talked about it a little bit in the Lady and the Tramp episode because it's a classic story in a modern age. ⁓ Exactly. Like it's New Orleans, the princess and the frog in New Orleans did not exist at the same time. Well, okay. And then this is also a movie that gets brought up a lot in like, I mean, obviously our podcasts, but also in interviews and things like that, because this is a black princess, know, and people are ⁓ defining this as a little girl who a black little girl's moment of, you this is her relatable princess. But it really just had me sitting and thinking back on all of these great 2D animations. Why is Disney? Because this is like the one moment where I felt again with a great authentic character. And, you know, yes, they played into the culture, which, you know, I think having a black character fits into that culture. Essentially, I am trying to say that Why is Disney not making ⁓ animations that involve like characters of Black stories of that time, you know, and them more of these classical pieces, more of like originating authentic ⁓ that just to not be purposely pushing an agenda? Because Tiana has her She doesn't have an agenda to change the world. She has the agenda to purchase a restaurant. She's pursuing that American dream. Yeah, but it's not the agenda of trying to change the world. You're not wrong on the 2D animation aspect that comes down to money. I was your money on that one. It's a simple story and. they gave it a classical character for the simple story. was a... also like the other way around, it's a classic story because we've all heard of like the princess and the frog. The prince. Yeah. Yeah. know? Even if we haven't heard like the exact like word per word. We know about the princess who kisses the frog and the frog becomes the prince. Yep. ⁓ Yep. But this one just happens to be a different... version of it. Yeah. It's like I said, it's like Cinderella. was like, it is the Cinderella. But that's what Disney is good at. Disney is good at Disney fiying stories. They took an existing story and Disney fiied it. I think but they did a good job at it because they added an existing time period in a like in a different existing type of story within a story, you know? Like they created a separate story for the fairy tale to fit into. I'm trying to like re-say what Jo'Nel's saying. Well, like they really like played with it because like obviously like it's a little meta but they literally heard the princess and the frog story in the movie and like the fact that like Tiana saw Navina as a frog was like, I you want me to kiss you or whatever. And she eventually does kiss him and what happens? He turned up. No, he did not turn into a prince. That book lied to me. This is why you don't trust books. No. like, it's different because it's not taking the same exact story that has already been Disneyfied and trying to re Disneyfied the same Disneyfied story. No, they haven't done a Princess and the Frog at all prior to this. Exactly. ⁓ So is a new ⁓ Disney Same with Rapunzel, though. But the nice part with this was that like, feel like every other iteration of like a classic fairy tale, they put it in that context. Like Snow White was set in a medieval time, castle, princess, woods, whatever. Same thing with Cinderella. Same thing with Sleeping Beauty. Until we reach Belle. Even same thing with Belle. was from the revolution. like the line of action where it was less... apparent like it was set like after the bubonic plague they set the live action after the bubonic plague but but it's like kind of like well she went to a manor like she went to a manor castle it was a full castle yeah yeah so it's like less so it's more vague than the animated counterpart part I was more of like kind of referring to her not being born into royal blood. ⁓ I wasn't. Well, I wasn't referencing the boy into royal blood part. I was referencing time period, medieval castles, medieval castles, French provincial town, medieval castle. It's all like that same kingdom vibe. And then you have New Orleans. Yeah. you have never been to New Orleans, go to New Orleans. ⁓ I to go to New Orleans so bad. Yeah, sorry. No, definitely keep going on that because I definitely know what I want to talk about next. So we all live in good old United States of America. Good old Washington. I have so many thoughts, but my mom. We didn't agree on a lot of things, but ⁓ really wanted to imbue like the travel bug in us. And before we went out of the country, besides Canada in Mexico. she took us to New Orleans because it is one of the most different places you've ever been. It's beautiful and wonderful and fascinating and can be somewhat terrifying, but it's great. If you want to travel to a place unlike any other, go to New Orleans. Alright, continue. I just wanted to hop back into what you were talking about for a second of just kind of these castles and things when you think about that because In a sense, with turning it into a modern society, you do tend to see this type of societal king structural type of stuff in New Orleans because generally those prohibition eras where you have people who own the clubs and it is very secretive. ⁓ you were going to bring up the Voodoo Queen because the Voodoo Queen is a real thing. Queen? Voodoo Queen. Yeah. I was just gonna say that how this then relates to Vampire Diaries and how Vampire Diaries has an origin in New Orleans and I love that whole series. moment you realize anything to anytime something is based in New Orleans it has such a high chance of being really good because I think about the Haunted Mansion episode that's also based in New Orleans. Well you think this is why I was going back into the castle trout because you think of Okay, there's a hierarchy with castles. We're intrigued by the structure. We want to know how they function because we are humans who like to watch systems and like to know how systems work so we can run them ourselves. But also you look at castles and you're like, dude, that's huge and it's pretty and I want to live in it. But you also have to then find out about the system. Anyway, ⁓ where my brain goes on a tangent with that. When you look at New Orleans ⁓ and look at ⁓ other the mafia and things like that. And you look in Mexico with the drug cartel, ⁓ that type of societal king structure. But it's just not with the castle. Well, I find it interesting that like, do you see what I'm saying, Megan? I feel like you're a little confused. ⁓ I know what you're saying. I what you're I also have a sneeze that's like on the tip of my nose. ⁓ no, I definitely get that. And so I look super confused when I have to sneeze because I'm like trying to not scratch my face, but it makes me like... See, I find it weird that you're bringing up that like hierarchical structure with New Orleans. But see, when I watch this movie, that's kinda what I think about because it makes me think about every other movie that has an origin in New Orleans because... Yes, Princess and the Frog does it differently. Yes, there is a physical prince who actually does come there. there's a King of Mardi Gras. Sorry, continue. Yeah, and he actually does become the frog. But most of the time when you are watching something in New Orleans, generally it is a mafia or it is a drug cartel. Or it's about Hurricane Katrina. Or it's witches. They have a lot of... these things are not like the other. One of these There's a lot of like spiritualism with... embedded with Orleans. It's true. ⁓ much so that like, I we going to get into a topic of voodoo at some point because of Mama Odie versus Dr. Facilier who both practice voodoo. ⁓ Yeah. like, so like I did, I tend, okay, not I did, I attempted to do ⁓ like research into like voodoo and stuff so I could actually like know things for the episode. And see, when I think of voodoo, I just think of Vampire Diaries, which has a whole different season, like set off series. That's all in New Orleans. And they also do voodoo magic and it's great. But the thing with voodoo is that one is funky. Voodoo is funky. It is kind of funky. Yeah. But like funky in a good way. There's also like different classes of voodoo. voodoo that gets talked about in like New Orleans is specifically Louisiana voodoo. Yes, sir. Because there's also Haitian voodoo from Haiti. which came from Voodoo from Africa. Yes, sir. Through the North American slave trade. I love New Orleans. Does Voodoo fall into the same type of cultural beliefs of essentially worshiping to the god deities? So they're- Of like the ancient Greeks. So they're- They do have deities. We say as white people who don't practice voodoo. Providing offerings. This is just from my basic research. tried to get, ⁓ stuff from as dumbed down as possible. So I apologize if I butcher. And please correct us in the comments below and a comment ending in a respectful way. Thank you. And what's common voodoo practice? But so have ⁓ like, there's like gods, but there's even, even a of Louisiana voodoo is actually bringing in Catholicism, because it was very influenced by Catholicism. so a part of it has to do with believing that everything has a spirit ⁓ that spirits are watching over us and on. You wanted to go on to Catholics and Protestants and think of the graveyard, huh? Yes. Okay. So, I don't know how many times I've mentioned this, but I was going to become a pastor. That was like my life goal until a few years ago. And my family, like I said, went to Louisiana to the one and only New Orleans. And what you need to know about New Orleans is one, it is a port city, port town. So it is below sea level, which is crazy because the ground is literally below the sea, which will come up and be really important. Two, It has very big French culture and then Protestant culture and three Spanish culture. And so all of those things make specifically New Orleans. And that's why they have a big Mardi Gras thing, which is a huge thing in the movie, which means that Tuesday for all those who do not speak French. this comes into Catholicism. This is the day before Lent when it's like a belief that like on Ash Wednesday, like you start, hold on, processing, processing, here we go. So, Lent is a time between Ash Wednesday and Easter where people give up something. So someone at work I know is giving up like sugar for Lent. It's like time to- It's for 40 days. It's for 40 days. how it's been described to me, I have never participated, is that you're supposed to give up- Something that means a lot to you that you can still live without. Like one year, my mom gave up caffeine. Was it hard? Yes. But did she learn a lot? Yes. She... to do this. Ash already happened. It happened like actually a couple of weeks ago. Yes. But like the whole- We got next year. ⁓ The idea is like, you're supposed to live without something that you love. So you can basically learn how to appreciate it. Is what my understanding is. I love that. I need that. Well, and it's also rooted in how it's practiced with Christianity is like Jesus was in the wilderness for like 40 days and such. It's all supposed to start, kick off the Easter season, which will lead to Holy Week. You also have Ash Wednesday itself, which is the Ash cross on the forehead to like... like, mourn, sin, repent, sin, and also acknowledge, like, everyone returns to dust from what we were once created from. Like, it's a whole This doesn't involve New Orleans, I swear. But we need to set this up because there was a... Look, in New Orleans, there was not a war, but ⁓ ⁓ big disagreement between Protestants and Catholics. There always is. Always is, always will be. Welcome to the life. Anyway, was to everything. Like there was the French quarter and then the Protestant-like corner. They were like on two separate sides of the city. And I bring you this information because in the cemetery you can tell the difference of who was Protestant and who wasn't. You see, ⁓ New is really weird. Remember how I mentioned that it was below sea level? Well, it floods a lot in New Orleans and the city is made for that. Well, the Protestants didn't really know this and they have a really traditional thing that most people do everywhere else is where they bury the people below ground. ⁓ ⁓ Orleans floods, they could hear the Protestant bodies banging on the casket lids. so ⁓ I this was told to me many, many, years ago, but they made this joke about like how the Protestants would like would come back and like Attack of the Catholics. Meanwhile, if you're like, what happened to the caskets? There's these things called mausoleums, which I did a little research before. Basically, they're tombs above ground, where basically what happens is you put a body inside and it's supposed to decompose for a year. And there's some that are family tombs, some that were community tombs, and so on and so forth. The body decomposes and then you put it with like think of like a giant ashtray full of like all who've like died before and they like put the rest of those ashes in there so the next body can be put in and that's what happened to the Catholics so they didn't really go against the grave if you know yeah so they weren't like the Catholic the protestants and so there is like I'm going to tell this quick story of like three sentences I swear where ⁓ my family and I went to visit one of the most famous cemeteries, in fact, the one you see in the movie, and there is a mausoleum to Nicolas Cage, who is very much alive, by the way. He a mausoleum. ⁓ And like, ⁓ cool, great. But it's really weird to have a grave when you're alive, especially since people give offerings to this mausoleum to Nicolas Cage, who is still alive. And they like kiss the grave to this man who was still alive and are like, I want to be a good actor. Please help me. I just remember. ⁓ say it's pretty normal to have like the headstone ahead of time with your name in. like while you're waiting to die, your your plot is already there. ⁓ seen some people like old ladies still like pick out and earn. ⁓ So they can say, I picked this one. I'm not trusting my family with my final cup. I mean, like, I get it. I mean, that's what my grandma's done. Like, and it feels pretty sad to, like, go over to where I know she's going to be buried and see, you know. get it. But Nicholas K. was young at the time. Like, was in your death store, man. He was not now. He's not now. He was like young and thriving. And our tour guide was like, I've never seen. someone. do think it's weird that they were like kissing his tombstone and giving him gifts. saw this woman literally weeping like at the foot of this and it looked like a pyramid from Egypt. It was a very funky. But yeah. Can I continue to go into I mean, I'd like to continue with the movie. Yes, I swear. This is more. This is more trivia. This is more trivia. That's really important. So there's I mean, I'm having a great time in this. So okay, this is the like the last information, will say ⁓ details this. I'm talking to my friends. ⁓ Movie The name of the movie, give me a second. They probably have a lot of restrictions. They do. And it was because this movie called Easy Rider that was the 1960s, it was like this like anti society film that was about like drug use and personal freedom. so before this, people were like, yeah, you can like go film in like the City of the Dead, which is what they called like Because again, they're above ground, they're on the wall. When you go into the cemetery, you're in a cemetery. Cemeteries here in Washington, they're kind of like a meadow. You see little headstones, maybe a stone on the ground, but you can see everywhere else. No, it's literal cities of just graves. But before then, you could go in and film. But Easy Rider had this really trippy acid scene. And one of the actors, so like ⁓ of the parts is like there's these beautiful statues that were built for like the rich of the rich of the rich, you know, ⁓ know, people like to build statues and there was this one of this lady ⁓ so one of the actors like sits on her lap. Well, while they were recording the scene where they were high on acid, he starts like molesting and doing inappropriate things to like the this grave. And this movie came out ⁓ people saw like these actors like having sex in like this like really important very sacred place in New Orleans and one has been allowed to film in there again. But Disney asked them like hey I'm we're not going to actually film inside the cemetery. What we basically want to do is we want to make a big diagram of what it looks like so that way we can reference it. so they were allowed to basically make a diagram of it and get reference photos, but they weren't allowed to film inside. That's one of my favorite things about Disney their research. sorry. ⁓ story. last little tidbit. You're like, okay, but like, there's a scene in the new Haunted Mansion movie where they go to a cemetery in Louisiana. That was actually all done in California. They remade it in a black lot. ⁓ now me wonder about the vampire diaries because they did a few voodoo scenes that were in New Orleans cemeteries. But like, this is, again, this is what I like about Disney, when it comes to like their research and prep for a movie, It's not just researching online, like the peop- when people- I've noticed it with this level of research, it always leads to their best movies because them going to New Orleans to learn about the culture, learn about Voodoo, the cemetery, the music, obviously it paid off to go that level. They also did that with Inconto. They went to Columbia and actually took reference video and experienced them, like the architecture, the colors, the sights, sounds, everything with Inconto. And I feel like time they do that level of research, it always leads to their best movies. Yes. I also feel like it leads to some of the best work because Joe Rody, who is an Imagineer, worked this little thing called the Animal Kingdom. And they went to a lot of places in Africa, a lot of like wildlife preserves, so that way they could like recreate and make like these amazing habitats. Magic Kingdom, it is regarded very very highly by like animal preservationists and like places all around. Animal Kingdom was such was so controversial. I loved going into Animal Kingdom So I've been in it But was so controversial being made though because ⁓ of human humanistic and animalistic issues. Going the zoo though was one of my favorite things like I will say, think Animal Kingdom is by far one of my most favorite parks because one Pandora, that shit's fucking cool. I will go in there any day. I love that movie so much. I will nerd out on everything in there. But besides that, there's a zoo. You get to hang out with the animals. And they had a little area where you just hang out with bats and those bats were friendly. But like, it's like, I don't know, just that level of care and consideration, I don't think ever exists in another company in the way that Disney does. Cause it's not just about their movies. They'll take that research into their parks. Like we just said with Animal Kingdom, they'll go like, oh yeah, we're going to go over there. We're going to take pictures so we can do our stuff accurately. think. Maybe Pokemon does that when they're making a new region. I can see, yes. I think maybe Dreamworks did it when they did Kung Fu Panda. I cannot say for sure because ⁓ it's a one-off you can't say it's your practice. ⁓ but like I agree with what you're saying is like not a lot of other companies like are like okay we're gonna send our creative team to this place to do as much research as humanly possible so we can make this thing even better. We have to at least again like acknowledge they care ton when go down that ⁓ level. we also have to look at the timing of this too because this is pre-COVID Disney. You're not wrong. This is pre-COVID Disney. ⁓ And is I like to Inconto was also post-COVID. Yes. Or coming of COVID. Like they still retain that ability. I have a little anecdote. I want to add that. Like I swear, I swear like ties back to this conversation. It's okay. so family went to Disneyland a long time ago ⁓ and Land was like the new thing. Okay. And my ⁓ brother and ⁓ loved Cars. and so we were walking around. It's like Mickey's. They didn't have do hidden mickeys. They don't have to, but they do it just to be delightful. They don't have to make famed restaurants. They could just be like restaurant. Here, there's a McDonald's. Right? Instead, they did it. And I was like, well, mom, do you notice that like the rocks are all different? Someone built them and had to paint them and like they like all look different and they all look good, even though those aren't real rocks. Those are basically statues. And my mom was like, just like how, again, in terms of like weird amounts of detail. And I know we're supposed to be talking about princess and the frog, but there's a thing with the parks and Tiana I want to talk about in a minute, but their of detail even goes down to their trash cans. Cause their trash are the same feet apart. Yeah. Everywhere. Because that's how long it took Walt Disney to make it, to eat a corn dog. It's supposed to be like every 30 steps because he was like, I don't want this place to be dirty. So he always, like in time took him to eat a corn dog. There would always be a trash can so he could throw something away. I imagine Walt just eating a bunch of corn dogs and just imagineers like walking and like putting like a flag down and then Walt downing another corn dog and they're like following him and putting down another flag and they're like, okay, so a trash can needs to be here and here and here and he just did that. They're at the park. And then when Walt Disney died, They're like, okay, hey, Bob Iger. And then Bob Iger would eat a corn dog and walk. then they just stood there. You're the CEO of Disney. And they're just like, okay. Starting eating corn dogs. Imagine you just walk around like little flies. Like, we need one here. I think that would be so funny as the CEO of Disney's day-to-day job. You go into the park for the first hour eating corn dogs. But at a new land, their job is to walk around eating corndogs and imagineers to follow around with trash cans. That's so funny. That's my name by the cannon. And you can't prove me otherwise until one of the CEOs goes, Megan, I am so sorry that is not my job. And then I'll cry. I would love a job to be so The corndog eater. I love dogs, man. I love the corn dogs. I've been imagining Miss Disney with just his Waltz wife being like, it be something other than corn dogs? He's getting a little chunky and then they're like, no, has to be a corn dog. Oh, poor Lillian. Poor Lillian. Well, so in regards to Tiana, in talking pre-COVID Disney, post-COVID Disney, Tiana got stuck in the middle of that shift the parks because of the closed down Splash Mountain. ⁓ And shifting it over to Tiana's Bayou Adventure. feel like we need to give ⁓ Mountain like 30 seconds of silence. That's too much dead silence, sorry. was willing to commit to it. Commit to it. Sorry, my editing brain is like, yeah, no. I still laughing in my head about just the corn dogs. That's going one of our short clips. It will be. It's the new of shrooms. No, it's never going to get rid of goddess of shrooms. It's the next goddess of shrooms. ⁓ my gosh. But no instead of the corn meme, it's corn It has lots of knobs. It has the juice. It has the juice. the most beautiful thing. What are your guys' thoughts on the shift ⁓ Splash Mountain? Because I think when they shifted Splash Mountain that is honestly the key decision that shifted Disney. Okay Hold on. Let's give a brief history lesson about what the actual ⁓ Hickity-hic is Splash Mountain. Splash Mountain was created because Bear Country was failing. Bear Country was like- Bear Country is in a section of Disneyland. And eventually Disney World. That had country bears jamboree. It was off of Adventure slash Frontierland. And there was Winnie the Pooh in there too. Winnie the Pooh, yeah, it had Winnie the Pooh, country bears jamboree, and then- Splash Mountain as a thrill ride like classic log flume and it was themed after Song of the South. ⁓ a Disney ride, is a Disney movie, sorry, that ⁓ very controversial and Disney said that will never be released because it has some very- The depictions ⁓ are- Very Yeah. Very racist. And so it's been locked in the Disney vault ⁓ and never seen- The light of day. The light of day. a number of years. you're like, okay, so what is actually Splash Mountain? So the song in the South is about like two different storylines. There's like the one with the actual humans, which I don't know much about. And then like the brayer characters. Brayer is how they say brother. Like that's like the accent, how it came out. So there was brayer rabbit, brayer bear, and then brayer fox. And so it was like a series of stories that were told from live action character to child live action character. based off of the Uncle Remus stories. there we go. Uncle Remus. so basically the Splash Mountain was you going through the scenes and like going through that story of those Brer characters. And the whole thing was that Brer Rabbit is trying to find his like laughing place. The laughing place to go. Oh, oh. And stuff, which is like, I think of like your happy place, but it's the laughing place. But. And so. And this soundtrack to Splash Mountain was based around the song Zippity Doo Dah, which Disney has used that song in countless things. I don't think it actually is used much in the parks anymore. Like it used to be. ⁓ a classic. If you haven't ⁓ heard it, ⁓ to it because it's it's delightful. And has no sexist and not sexist or racist undertones. No, bet. No, there is no racist undertones. But because of The that these characters were ⁓ Song of the South movie, which did some racism in it, they decided to change the theme ⁓ of Mountain ⁓ to and they it to Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Yes. Okay, I just want to answer a question I can see in the comments. Megan, would they bring Song of the South to the Disney parks if we're not allowed to watch the movie? The whole thing is, one the Imagineers, can't remember, was tasked with the idea, you need to bring some more people to bear country because ⁓ no going there. And there was this attraction called, like, ⁓ of or something? America something. America Sings? America Sings. that had some animatronics that were now being, ⁓ basically like not used. Retired. That's it. And so he was like, this Imagineer is like, well, this one looks like Brer Rabbit. This one can be reused into Brer Bear. This one can be reused into Brer Fox. Perfect. We can use the characters from America's Saints to make this ride, which would be cost effective and bring stuff to this like of the park. Disney has a strong history of like reusing audio animatronics in a lot of their shows. so, yeah. I was going to say, one of our favorite channels of all time is called TPM Vids. And they show animatronic breakdowns. when, at the end of ride, a lot of the animatronics were really, really old and were constantly breaking down. There was this one ⁓ animatronic of Rabbit that was supposed to be hopping. ⁓ It's known as the million dollar bunny because they spent around at least a million dollars on it by then to like refurbishing and keeping it running. it didn't work half the time anyway. Yeah. It was always breaking down. And so them choosing to re-theme Splash Mountain. One, in the money business sense was a long time coming because the amount of upkeep, but also given its undertones. It just didn't work in today's society anymore. And it needed. And they announced the change shortly after the George Floyd incident in 2020 well. so were like, we're going to change it to a Tiana themed attraction. you know I have thoughts about this. like I am glad that was changed to another representation ⁓ of like ⁓ the American like you imagine if they were like. We're gonna miss it off of Cinderella. Everyone would be like. In Adventureland? In Adventureland? like, something like that where people would be like, why? there would be a whole uproar, but they decided to keep it in the same like, family. And it's the idea that Disney has ever done. ⁓ And ⁓ there a caveat. None of us have written Tionas Bayou Adventure. It actually opened. Like a few days after we left. A few days after we left Disneyland. Which I was cut. had the beignets though and they were delightful. We did have Tiana's beignets. But yeah, they're overall like Tiana choosing Tiana was like a brilliant idea because Splash Mountain is right next to the haunted mansion. And so it really helps to round out New Orleans square to really be like a New Orleans themed area. You also had Pirates of the Caribbean. ⁓ So like overall vibe wise, just so much sense ⁓ the added in like Tiana's restaurant as ⁓ right to it. Like it was like hitting all cross and checking off all boxes across the board. do want ⁓ do just a small criticism. I have a feeling I have. ⁓ it the that you know I'm going to be making? Listen. The splashdown soundtrack is a blop. like I said, I recommend going to listen to it. Splash Mountain soundtrack is so good. It's so good. Love it. Can't live without it. But the soundtrack for Tiana's Bayou Adventure is boring. like, here's the thing with like Splashdown was supposed to be like high energy because there's a drop and there's like... Bray Rabbit was mischievous. He was trying to get out. He was getting in and out of trouble constantly. So like the music had to reflect that. Bayou Adventure is kind of just like... ⁓ has a couple of problems to it. ⁓ is it of made relevant... something, a problem that people notice with Disney rides lately. it's that you have, like most recent Disney rides are conveniently named Tiana's Bayou Adventure, Remy's Ratatouille And I think there's like at least one more adventure ride. we're like, okay, we're Imagineers. We make better like names. ⁓ Like we're talking you instead of like having conversation. just. We know a lot about the parks. I only know of Disney World and I'm like, I've been to Disney World. Big Well, like we also know like a lot more about the history. I think you're enjoying this a little bit. The problem that. So ⁓ in splash when you're, they have a bunch of little drops and towards right before like. finale of the whole ride they have a giant drop because the story that goes behind it is ⁓ so Bear Rabbit's at it again. tricked Bear Fox and Bear Bear. so here's the thing, he's like, whatever you do, do not throw me into the rose bushes, the thorns. Thorns, like that. The thorn bush. ⁓ And like, he's trying to do reverse psychology because he's a rabbit, he's small, he can fit through all the thorns. And so like, whatever you do, don't throw me in. And so they, obviously, cause they're like, ⁓ yeah, he's scared of the thorn bush. throw him in. so it's like the mimic of like you're being thrown into the rose bushes. that's like why there's like, on the soundtrack leading up to it, like it's terrifying. Like they have thunder sounds, everything is dark. ⁓ my gosh, it's so good. Watch it. It really builds the anticipation. I remember seeing so many like ride throughs and listening to the soundtrack. They not keep that same intensity. ⁓ And they created a whole new song for the ride, which is fine and all, but it's like spice ⁓ life or ⁓ with spices. Because like the whole idea is like, you need to get things for like some food for Tiana, which is fine. feel like. It's fine. But if were to listen to it, it's like background music. They could have done like a cute little wrap up of her like tour of New Orleans or something. ⁓ was me, I would have had it be from Dr. Faciliers perspective of him running, like trying to get, or like trying to get like Naveen ⁓ running away from ⁓ friends on the other side, especially with the drop. Can you Imagine going up a dark tunnel and you have the like, bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. you ready? ⁓ you ready? And then you have the crash. ⁓ perfect. It writes itself. I figured out what's wrong with Tiana's By You adventure. Tell me. They a dark ride. Yep. And it would have been perfect for like one of the flying over Neverland. Yeah. Like where it's just like a... Like it's just a little jaunt down memory lane, which is perfect. But the problem with Splash Mountain is there was always stakes. There were three stories with high stakes and so it kept you on your toes. So when the drop comes in Splash Mountain, you're expecting that. When the drop comes in Tiana's Bayou Adventure, you're not because it's just casual. We're just going to go hang out with Mama Ori. We're just going to go see Tiana's Bayou. It's just a little jaunt. It's just a little jaunt. And I feel like if they really wanted to, like, they really needed to amp up the story so that way, like, they fit the actual ride system instead of the other way around. Does that make sense? Like, they had to make a story to fit the ride instead of fitting the ride, like, doing it. Yeah. Trying to make the ride system fit the story. Yeah. They needed to go ride system first, story second, because it was already pre-built. They weren't changing the ride. just rethemed it. So it's the exact same ride system. It looks prettier. Yes. And the animatronics work now, sometimes. Do you have anything you want to talk about? We're on a parks rant. We... mean, it just kind of has me thinking ⁓ like... what things as a adrenaline junkie, like what things I like to look for when it comes to a good roller coaster ride, you know? an adrenaline junkie definitely loves those heightened moments, especially... Okay, so at the Vegas, we all know Vegas is a big... place with a lot of things going on. but the place with the pink globe that I've been to before anyways, while was running and functioning back in the day and it was like a really cool thing where a lot of kids actually hung out at because their parents wanted to go gambling. And so they just threw their kids in there. the circus circus. we go. They have a roller coaster inside the circus circus that does a 90 degree drop inside. And I went on that ride. It was so fun. They just hold you there. And then. also went on another roller coaster ride. ⁓ ⁓ this one and me and a friend in Atlanta, Georgia, when we went to Nationals together, we went on this ride and it was at Six Flags and. It was essentially like you were on a plane and you are about ready to once you get up to the top, you are going to start going down after the person like and just doing a lot of turns like that's supposed to be the feeling. But to get up to the very top, you don't slowly go up the hill. You go ⁓ at a 90 degree angle. Literally just like this going all the way up. That's terrifying. You are staring at the sky until the very last minute. That's terrifying. And then you all of a sudden get a steep drop and then it's smooth sailing from there. And it is so fun. You credit cards are looking so bad now, huh? You guys are like, I hate this. And for me, I am like, I like adrenaline. Don't get me wrong. 90 degrees might be where I draw the line. And I'm also just thinking about like some of the other rides that I've been on when I was at Disney World. I'm like, man, those were so cool, And I like I really love roller coasters. I love theme parks. They are so fun because I really just love those emotions. But I also when I've talked about this ride multiple times, but The log ride for Arendelle when you're going into the castle, it's so fun. I had a thought come to my head while you were talking. That kind of piece of stuff. And I want your thoughts too as my Disney parks expert and thought as an adrenaline junkie and ⁓ fellow Disney expert. Is Disney scared to use fear? I think... Disney fear... ⁓ Disney fear fear? No. I mean, they have two movies about it. It's called Inside Out. Have you not watched it? Funny. ⁓ I say that- Disney's riots are not... Do not have the fear factor anymore? Here's the thing. That's exactly I ask it, because Tower of Terror ⁓ also recently rethemed to Guardians of the Galaxy. in Disneyland. know it still exists in the Disney world. Hang with me. Joe Rodeo helped with the redesign for Guardians of the Galaxy. And he seemed to say, you have a ride that drops. How do we make people enjoy that? And he basically mimicked the ride to be like, help be that same sensation of like when you're a baby and you throw them up in the air and they catch them. to get that same like laughter. you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I think about that. The fall. Them taking out that anticipation up to ⁓ the drop. the recent Disney movies ⁓ that don't normal villains, like we grew with, it makes me feel like Disney is too scared to use fear. Disney is afraid to be original. Disney is afraid of fear. here's the thing. I don't like roller coasters. I have a really... So, Sean and I talk about this a lot. There is ⁓ very fine line between anxiety and adrenaline. I tend to go anxiety panic attack where Jenelle goes, ⁓ my god, this is the best thing ever. We're on two opposite sides. I have rode a lot of Disney coasters though. And the reason is because I can get into the pre-show, which you're like, what the heck is a pre-show? It's like the line. you go to a normal theme park, you just wait there. When you go on a Disney ride, there is usually something to keep you entertained while you're in line. I will say I do ⁓ that experience alone, but ⁓ Studios, I hate to say it, is kind of the best of both worlds. That's fair. That's fair. But like, The Incredicoaster is a really intense Disney ride for Megan. For general, it's probably like the biggest walk in the park. But I got on it and I had a panic attack. But it's fine because you know who I saw? Jack-Jack eating a giant cookie at the end. I saw Edna and it was really fun. And will I go on again? Probably not in the next three years, but it was fun. I do agree that... There's like a line you have to play with fear. it's ⁓ complicated because fear one is like for everyone. It's different. Sean is terrified of spiders. I'm the person in the house who kills the spiders unless it's too high for me to reach. Everyone is afraid of something different. I can't stand taxidermy. Animals can't do it. I don't know why. ⁓ can't do it. I walked into a Cabela's once and had a Hannah Katakabi saw it because I saw Moosehead when I was five. And then we went to Yellowstone National Park. And you know what's there? Every single deer head in existence, I swear, staring at you with his beady eyes, does not phase any of my friends here. To find a universal fear is really difficult because some people just are not scared of like, I mean, the thing is, what has to think of instead of like general audience was general audience afraid of is what is the main character afraid of? Dr. Facilier was terrified of what his friends on the other side could do. He knows they can do really strong magic, but like we see when he loses like Navin as a frog, he's like, ⁓ my God, they're going to literally drag me down to who knows where, but you could see that fear in Facilier. So we were afraid. And I just feel like Disney doesn't want to ask those questions of what are we afraid of because right now there's so much to be afraid of. Like, we just heard today about the president doing something bad and I'm not going to get into much into it. yeah, I didn't know about that until I got home and then I was like, wait, we did what? I talk to my... I work at a childcare. The parents are like, this crazy thing keeps happening. like in the world and I'm afraid how to address it with my child because they're starting to figure out like their parents are scared of XYZ thing and I'm like, fear is gonna be everywhere. You just have to figure out how you're gonna cope with it and teach them how to cope with it. It reminds me of like Lion King when like Simba and Mufasa are talking. Under the stars. Under the stars and Simba's like, I was just trying to be brave like you. You're scared of nothing and he's like. yes I wa-am? What the hell? You- I was terrified of losing you, dude. I feel like Disney right now is trying to give us cotton candy. Light, fluffy, airy, kind of melts in your mouth. You don't have to think. is fine for like ⁓ in a blue moon release. ⁓ what people are craving these days is we want something ⁓ and authentic and that's why Tiana is great because we're like, especially ⁓ in this economy to like do our dream job. my gosh, we have to work three jobs to get eggs. Disney is also publicly traded though, and this is what I really hate about companies today is companies today have a harder time speaking out for this reason because if you're every, lot of companies today are scared. There's a lot of people going chicken now because of the state of the world. it's, ⁓ so annoying because Everyone is playing chicken when really just need to be confident in the things they are not chicken in. I thoughts this. We all went to the same university. What we have on this podcast before is I went to the Pride Club at this school. I was supporting some friends that are there. I was also in the closet at the time. But. It was really interesting because we weren't really allowed to like do specific things like we were at other schools like Eastern has like this pride like a designated room for their pride events We just kind of were pretty anywhere and it was because one of the people were like well, yeah The reason why we couldn't be as bold with this club is literally because the backers for the school, which are a lot of private people, don't agree with the politics of the Pride Club. yes, this is where I was going to go. Disney is a publicly owned company. Its shareholders are ones who own ⁓ Disney So whoever owns majority shares of Disney is going to be the one that is going to be pleased by Disney. Yeah. Yeah. Because they have the money. So what I'm hearing is we just need to start buying shares until we have 51%. is essentially how things could work. Could you imagine? ⁓ You to have the I just threw a giant headache into JoJo's head, I feel like. Yeah. Yeah, you did. I was like, let's not go into it because that'd be a lot of money and I really would not want to own Disney. I'm sorry but anyways this movie movie is so good. It's so ⁓ like I can't get over the music for this movie and as someone who's been to New Orleans Jazz just good too. I feel like America is made on jazz. It's literally place where jazz was performed was in America Not only like it's like the jazz capital of America. It's like the best place for jazz in my opinion, but also as a movie, it's nice because it doesn't what Disney's previous musicals have been. ⁓ that has been musicals, ⁓ full on normal musical numbers that you would see in like a Broadway show. Hold on. Like I hear you, but let me finish my thought. ⁓ But like here they went outside traditional musicals, you know, it was jazz numbers ⁓ it was they were all so different and it was so fun. feel like jazz music though can dance on its own without the needing to dance, you know? Yep. As someone who went to New Orleans, I'm going to bring this up a lot because this is how I relate to the movie when I watch the movie I just think of my time back in New Orleans. Music was everywhere. ⁓ most places where like if someone starts singing you look at them like they're going crazy. Music is just like going on down the street in New Orleans. People are just always singing. ⁓ so this is like one of the only movies where I'm like ⁓ yeah I could totally imagine like Kiana singing for no whatsoever and it doesn't even take me out because I'm like yeah that would actually happen in New Orleans. People know. Tell us in the comments section below. Thank you! like, ⁓ yeah, no, I can't get over the music and like, as And like how well it like really develops certain parts of the movie or like helps move things along. Like the fact they literally called it had a song called rolling down the bayou rolling down the bayou. Like that's perfect. It feels such a good need having a song like you dig a little deeper where it's like the opposite of an I want song. If it's a you need song. my gosh. The song down in New Orleans. I have no notes. It's perfect. like a villain song, like Friends on the Other Side, like it's plays into Dr. Facilier's character because like if you watch him, like his shadow, anywhere his shadow was on the wall, was golden crossbones compared to his actual wallpaper ⁓ how like he would try to like... appear as like a decent guy like, ⁓ just an echo gentleman little thing we have here in Louisiana, a little parlor trick. I'm just this ⁓ shopkeeper guy. I'm no one special. then only to like, now you're a frog. ⁓ ⁓ think it's really funny because all of us use tarot cards. And I can can personally tell you as someone who uses tarot cards, nothing crazy happens with tarot cards. But the way he does it, I just laugh. just laugh. Like, terror cards don't do that, man. I know what you're doing. I just to say... I had a friend growing up, like my best friend growing up loved this movie. And their mom refused to watch it with them because the scene where Rey gets crushed by Dr. Facili made her ugly sob. That gruesome for a movie. For a kids movie? Like again, one of those things that Disney just is too scared to do. off their characters, unless they're parents, then it's totally fine. But like, literally s- There was no question you could be a kid and you knew what happened. think insects for like three years after that. I mean, I still don't kill insects normally, but like I would cry. And then like the whole thing with like him and his Evangeline, like what I find is another funny callback to Lion King, by the way, when Simba, Pumba and Timon are like laying on the grass. like, ⁓ What are those things up in the sky? balls of gas. like, ⁓ think they're balls of gas or ⁓ And like, ⁓ Pumbaa, you, everything's gas. Simba has whole thing about he was told it's the great kings of the past. Timon says they're fireflies. Timon actually said they're fireflies. Caught up in the big blue black thing up there. And I'm like, aw, Evangeline's the second star to the right, Evangeline's how you get to Neverland. my god, can't do this anymore. Is that your attempt at ending the episode? Good dramatic. Oh my god. But seriously, it's getting late. Yeah, you're not wrong. We're over an hour now again. I was like, your cat's starting to get a little pesky over there. Now he always does. sued. Anyways, bye friends. Bye friends. Bye. I feel weird for abruptly ending again, though. Anyways, it's over an hour. You guys should go do something. Yeah.