Walt Disney Imagineering is teasing some of the new critter characters created for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, opening this year at Disney’s US resorts.
Set after the events of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 2009 film The Princess and the Frog, the new attraction replaces the former Splash Mountain log flume ride.
Riders on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will take a musical adventure through the bayou with Tiana, Naveen and Louis. They will also encounter a band of audio-animatronic animals playing songs from the film, including ‘Gonna Take You There’.
“This raucous Zydeco musical recipe of fiddle, accordion, washboard, and other instrument voices will have you singing along as you float down the river under dancing fireflies,” Ted Robledo, executive creative director at Disney Imagineering, wrote in a new blog post.
The critter club includes Byhalia the beaver, who builds musical instruments using natural materials from the bayou. She is joined by washboard player Gritty the rabbit, and Beau the opossum on the double bass.
Apollo the raccoon plays the squeezebox, Rufus the turtle is on his harmonica, and Timoléon the otter plays the fiddle.
“We chose a group of animals that are commonly found in the Louisiana bayou,” said Laura West, a lead concept designer with Disney Imagineering, and the creator of the critters, in a new video.
New attraction opens this year
“In choosing names for all these characters, we really researched what names were common throughout all of the different traditions in the area.”
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens at Walt Disney World this summer, and later this year at Disneyland. Of course, Disney is turning some of its new critter characters into plush toys.
In more news, Disneyland is set to open two new shops inspired by The Princess and the Frog – Ray’s Berets and Louis’ Critter Club.
