Fans Are Trying To Get Disney to Change Splash Mountain to a Moana or Princess and the Frog Ride

[JD]

Yes, there is.

The official announcement indicates that this reskinning plan for Splash Mountain has been in the works for an entire year, and other reporting on the project has indicated that it may have been in the works beginning 3 years ago.

Disney had already been planning to change Splash Mountain's theme long before people started signing a petition asking them to do so, and long before the deaths of George Floyd and others prompted this uptick in protests over racial inequality and race-based controversy.

It's not in the announcement, but I did find an interview on D23, where they talked with a member of the Imagineering team about Splash Mountain and he said that they had been talking about changing it for over a year. So you were right, I apologize.

 

[Sci]

I'm honestly suprised they ever went with Song of the South in the first place. For all the obvious reasons, plus its just not one that is not well remembered, anyway.

It's a combination of three things:

1) Casual racism was more acceptable in the 1980s than today.

2) Song of the South had just been re-released a few years before, and had been re-released on a regular basis, usually once a decade, since its release in the 1940s, so it was better-remembered in the late 1980s than it is today.

3) To be very specific, Splash Mountain is themed around the Bre'er Rabbit animated segments produced for Song of the South. Those segments had been edited out of the film and aired on television periodically for decades as part of package shows like The Wonderful World of Disney, so those animated segments were also better-remembered than the film itself.

 

[Tuskin38]

Yes, there is.

The official announcement indicates that this reskinning plan for Splash Mountain has been in the works for an entire year, and other reporting on the project has indicated that it may have been in the works beginning 3 years ago.

Disney had already been planning to change Splash Mountain's theme long before people started signing a petition asking them to do so, and long before the deaths of George Floyd and others prompted this uptick in protests over racial inequality and race-based controversy.

Yes they were planning on changing it for a while, I never said they weren't. But it's entirely possible they moved the full announcement of the change up to now because of what's going on for brownie points.

 

[Jayson1]

I could care less what they call the ride but I do know the movie itself won't ever be forgotten because of the Streisand effect and it's just something people should expect when you censor stuff. It makes people want to see it even more than they would otherwise. This ride even with a new name will only be known as the one that use to be Splash Mountain since people made such a big deal out of it. They should have taken it down years ago. Put something else up instead of a ride in it's place then build a Princess-and-the-frog-ride in another location on the park.

Jason

 

[DigificWriter]

The name of the ride isn't changing (as far as I know, anyway)... Disney is just reskinning it so that it's themed around The Princess and the Frog instead of Brer Rabbit and company.

Also, only the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom versions are being reskinned; Tokyo Disneyland's version will remain as-is.

 

[suarezguy]

Has anyone in this thread actually seen the movie in the last 30 years? I include myself in that. It seems like the reputation just keeps growing. The impression I get from statement by people who have seen it recently is the issue with the movie boils down to the fact that the black characters, who, I remind you, are not slaves (it's post civil war), are happy and show no ill will towards the plantation owners/white people.

I watched the film in 2011. It does feel, at best, pretty demeaning and very insensitive to Remus, white domination generally ...
It's very easy to think it could be pre-Civil War, there is one point of Remus being able to leave the plantation and that's so brief and exceptional that a viewer (especially children) could think Disney was trying to say relationships and conditions were so good that even slaves could arrange to be transferred.

 

[Jayson1]

I watched the film in 2011. It does feel, at best, pretty demeaning and very insensitive to Remus, white domination generally ...
It's very easy to think it could be pre-Civil War, there is one point of Remus being able to leave the plantation and that's so brief and exceptional that a viewer (especially children) could think Disney was trying to say relationships and conditions were so good that even slaves could arrange to be transferred.

Everything back then is going to be pretty racist and demeaning. It was a different time. Even the non-racist were pretty racist.

Jason

 

[Cyrus]

The impression I get from statement by people who have seen it recently is the issue with the movie boils down to the fact that the black characters, who, I remind you, are not slaves (it's post civil war), are happy and show no ill will towards the plantation owners/white people

At the time I saw it I didn’t think it was racist, just a typical happy Disney movie. But upon reflection I can see how it could be viewed as a racist distortion of history.

 

[tomalak301]

I had a feeling they were going to have to retheme Splash Mountain. I'm a little sad about that from a nostalgic point of view but I hope they do a good job with the re-themeing. I do think it would have been cool if they had gone with the Zootopia route, and then after the drop you have "Try Everything" blasting as you come back to the station. It's an optimistic song and it's a perfect way to end the ride. I do think this news (to put a positive spin on it) might make me go back and revisit Princess and the Frog (And Zootopia). Thank You Disney Plus.