Disney shocks the Dooky Chase family at their New Orleans restaurant. Here's the big news. (2024)

The Chases are going to Disney World.

In a Wednesday afternoon filled with surprises and pixie dust, representatives of Walt Disney Imagineering — accompanied by a certain pants-wearing mouse — crashed a Chase family meeting at Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans to invite an estimated 50 family members to be among the first to experience the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction when it opens this summer.

“We have had so many magical moments in this city, and this family has been a part of so many of them,” said Imagineer Charita Carter, executive producer of the attraction and part of a Disney team that made repeated research visits to New Orleans during its development. “So, thank you.”

The rethemed log flume ride, which will replace Splash Mountain at Disney World this summer and at Disneyland later in the year, is inspired partly by the life of New Orleans culinary icon Leah Chase, who died in 2019.

In her absence, daughter Stella Chase Reese and other members of the family have served as advisers to Carter and her Imagineering team in their efforts to reflect New Orleans culture as authentically as possible.

“Keeping (Leah’s) legacy alive and sharing it with our Disney guests, it’s a real honor and a real privilege,” Carter said.

Mouse ears for all

Wednesday’s surprise announcement was greeted with unbridled joy from the Chase family members in attendance. There was cheering. There was hugging. There was singing. There were mouse ears.

By the time Mickey Mouse emerged for photos from a back room, dressed for the occasion in his tuxedo and yellow tie, all official family business was effectively over for the day.

The “we’re-going-to-Disney-World” moment was easily the most exciting of the afternoon’s announcements, but it wasn’t the only one.

In addition to presenting Reese with a framed Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction poster, ordinarily reserved for use in the company’s theme parks, the Disney team also officially declared her an honorary Imagineer, a gesture that came with a personalized Imagineering hard hat.

It would not leave her head for the remainder of the evening.

“It has been quite a journey,” an elated Reese said. “It’s just an unbelievable journey for me. I didn’t expect to be on this journey. Disney took me in and all of a sudden, I’m an honorary Imagineer, I’m going on all the research trips. I’m feeling a part of this. And I am just feeling ecstatic.”

Leah Chase, the singer

As part of Wednesday’s event, Disney announced that Reese’s musical sister, also named Leah Chase, recorded a rendition of “Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?” to be included in a faux radio show that will play for guests waiting in line to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

A framed photo from that recording session, produced by Grammy-winning composer and musician Terence Blanchard, was presented to her Wednesday.

“You know what’s interesting about this? I haven’t been able to sing since that day,” the younger Leah Chase said. “It was as if that day, the heavens opened up and allowed me to do whatever it is you said I did — because I haven’t heard it yet.”

She will soon. The Chase family’s trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando will take place as part of an attraction preview for media and other invited guests scheduled for mid-June. The attraction will open to the public later in the summer, although an exact date has yet to be announced.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, inspired by 2009’s animated “The Princess and the Frog,” was announced in June 2020 as a replacement for Splash Mountain, which was based on the racially problematic 1946 Disney film “Song of the South.”

Love letter to NOLA

It will re-purpose the same ride track used in Splash Mountain, but every storytelling element — the props, the figures, the scenery — has been stripped out and replaced to create an all-new, Louisiana-flavored experience.

Featuring Disney’s most advanced Audio Animatronics figures, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will pick up where the movie left off, with Tiana — now a successful New Orleans entrepreneur — enlisting guests to help her gather the last ingredient needed for a community-wide Mardi Gras celebration.

Imagineers have described the ride as a love letter to New Orleans, with a raft of local musicians and artisans brought aboard to help set the scene. That will start with the scent of beignets wafting through the ride queue and culminate with the attraction’s famous guest-drenching plunge, in this case, from the top of a salt dome.

It being a New Orleans story, Louisiana music of various genres — some from the movie soundtrack, some written specifically for the ride — will be a central feature. The hope, Imagineers have said, is to create a ride that is modern, fun and welcoming to all guests.

“My mother, she would be overwhelmed,” Reese said Wednesday. “My mother was a humble person, and she would be saying, ‘All this? You mean all this is about me?’”

The prospect of seeing the final product with her extended family was what Reese called “a dream come true.”

“This is something we love, being together with each other,” she said. “But can you imagine, being together in this magical place? All of us together? Watch out, Disney!”

Mike Scott can be reached at moviegoermike@gmail.com.