Disney Character Keels Over, Motionless in Front of Theme Park Guests

Last month, multiple Disney character animatronics malfunctioned on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, giving Inside the Magic a glimpse at a Walt Disney World Resort attraction in meltdown. A member of our team captured photos and videos of four broken animatronics on the Splash Mountain retheme at Magic Kingdom Park.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opened in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom Park last June. It struggled to function in its first few weeks of operation; multiple Disney cast member and Annual Passholder previews were canceled due to technical issues. Walt Disney Imagineers have hammered out many of the attraction’s more serious issues in recent months–downtime has decreased substantially. (Notably, Disneyland Resort’s version of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure experienced fewer technical problems when it premiered in November.)

Unfortunately, Walt Disney World Resort still struggles to maintain a fully operational version of the Splash Mountain retheme. An Inside the Magic team member rode the attraction on January 23 and found it was running with four animatronics either wholly or partially broken.

The first Princess Tiana animatronic, welcoming guests to the attraction, stood motionless as her dialogue played. Check out the video below:

Inside the attraction, another Princess Tiana animatronic was partially functioning. She moved normally but somehow spoke without moving her mouth!

When guests reached the grand finale, they discovered another partially functional Princess Tiana animatronic.

Princess Tiana’s mouth and head moved as she sang, but her body stood stiff. Her arms remained awkwardly positioned at her side as Louis and Princess Naveen functioned normally.

Unfortunately, the troubles didn’t end with the finale. The final scene of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure features Mama Odie trying to keep Juju, the snake, away from a plate of beignets. Once again, this animatronic stood motionless as her dialogue played on:

At Walt Disney World Resort, guests must obtain a Virtual Queue or Lightning Lane Multi Pass reservation to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, making it more frustrating when the attraction isn’t fully functional. It’s unclear if these four animatronic issues have been repaired since Inside the Magic’s visit last month–though some of the problems could’ve resulted from the historic cold front that hit Central Florida that week.

Do you prefer Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or Splash Mountain? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments!