By the D23 Team
We can’t help but sing “Almost There” when we think of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, opening at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Park in 2024. Today, our friends at the Disney Parks Blog shared more than half a dozen new details about the highly anticipated attraction.
First, the Disney Parks Blog shared that Mama Odie will reprise her role in the upcoming attraction! Check out the newly released rendering above for a first look at her role, where Mama Odie will joke with guests following a special display of her magic. The 200-year-old Bayou Fairy Godmother, with her eccentric belongings and “seeing eye snake” Juju, is comically eccentric, yet wise and all knowing, throughout the adventure. Jenifer Lewis, who voiced Mama Odie in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ The Princess and the Frog, is once again returning to her role for the attraction.
To help inspire the Imagineers’ creations, New Orleans artist and YAYA Arts Center alumna Sharika Mahdi has created the next installment in a four-part commissioned series: a tribute to our wise and whimsical keeper of the bayou. Along with The Princess and the Frog film, the Imagineering team continues to use Mahdi’s latest piece as inspiration for how Mama Odie will appear throughout the attraction. Guests may see evidence of this in the resemblance of the image below depicting Mama Odie.
Mama Odie isn’t the only familiar face joining the jamboree on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Disney Parks has revealed even more new details about the highly-anticipated attraction, such as:
- A brand-new cast of original Disney characters with distinct names and personalities
- Dozens of entirely new Audio-Animatronics® figures
- Adorable critters with incredible talent, bringing the diverse flavors of musical gumbo found in New Orleans
- New, original music alongside favorite tunes from the film
- The alluring scent of beignets being prepared for the party in the attraction queue
- Familiar faces from the film such as Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen, Mama Odie, Louis, Eudora, Charlotte, “Big Daddy,” the King and Queen of Maldonia, and Prince Ralphie
- Additional talent voices from the film reprising their roles, including Bruno Campos as Prince Naveen, Michael Leon Wooley as Louis, and the one and only Disney Legend Anika Noni Rose as Princess Tiana
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure builds on the story of Princess Tiana, a character whose pride and perseverance reminds us of a universal truth: within us lies the potential to make our dreams come true. This all-new adventure will bring Disney Parks guests into Princess Tiana’s world like never before when the attraction opens in Disneyland park at Disneyland Resort and Magic Kingdom park at Walt Disney World Resort in 2024.
To make room for this new magic, Splash Mountain at Disneyland park will be closed starting May 31, 2023, to begin the next phase of development for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.