News Splash Mountain retheme to Princess and the Frog - Tiana's Bayou Adventure

[EagleScout610]

I saved a screen cap from someone's Instagram stories this morning, but cropped out their name for their privacy.

here we go:
View attachment 601504
Also, the sword and the stone characters are there now (unsure if they were before, but at least it means Tiana isn't completely isolated from other human characters, and Toad was moved instead of being replaced.

Uh oh, King Louie is still there. Time to burn it at the stake /s

 

[Dear Prudence]

You may be surprised to find that I am not in favor of this retheme despite being politically left. 1. If these stories are indeed oral traditional stories told by enslaved African people, You are indeed snuffing them out with a very European origin story despite the racial swap of characters. I always saw Song of the South as misinterpreted. Yes It was about a sharecropper (not a slave) telling stories to rich white kids, but he was a good guy, Like It's not like they portrayed him as being stupid or ignorant. He was the one telling the fables with the morals. I think a lot of people who criticize it have not seen it, and I've seen it three times and still can't figure out why it's blown up to be this big huge scary thing. This is a piece of African American History, collected by Harris and thus allowing it to survive, regaurdless of who he really was (I don't know a lot about his actual character personally) Why would you want to bury it all?

And I can just see this retheme be another Ride with drops that has no conflict. If a ride has drops......It means there's danger!!! Go with it!!! It's not dancing around the snow!!! FROZEN EVER AFTER I'm looking at you!!

This has been gone over several times throughout these threads, but it boils down largely to greed. I know, I know, the "corporations, corporate America, blah blah blah" comments (always pointed out like we aren't keenly aware of this? ). BIPOC in both of the Splash threads (myself included) have expressed mostly sadness--that our culture and oral literature can be cheapened and ruined beyond repair by misuse, and then thrown away when they're done for it, for their next lucrative shiny. Using BIPOC pain for one's own clout points on the internet is, by far, the absolute strangest and creepiest Not Like Other Girls energy that has come out of the last year and a half, and it doesn't come from an authentic place (and it's painfully obvious).

I am not for or against anything, because what a mega-corporation does with its own parks isn't really any of my business, but I will say that neither SOTS nor PATF were made with anything but a certain lens that has nothing to do with the protagonists of their films. I think they're going to have to deal with that the closer we get to the retheme's opening, because the contemporary criticism of 2009 is going to come back with a 2021-2022 vision that's finally catching up, and I think it's going to show that bandaid solutions don't actually solve problems.

 

[UNCgolf]

I saved a screen cap from someone's Instagram stories this morning, but cropped out their name for their privacy.

here we go:
View attachment 601504
Also, the sword and the stone characters are there now (unsure if they were before, but at least it means Tiana isn't completely isolated from other human characters, and Toad was moved instead of being replaced.

The fact that it's a unique (I assume) piece of art for sale makes the repainting far more questionable than if it was a permanent installation on Disney property.

If the artist wanted the opportunity to repaint it, that's one thing, but if Disney demanded it, I'm much less comfortable with that (under these specific circumstances -- again, it would be different if this was permanently installed somewhere on Disney property). Let artists decide what to do with their art.

 

[Kirby86]

I'm more offended that Winnie the Pooh isn't in that painting. Anyway in the touch-up Tiana would have been better if she was up by Aladdin and the other 90s characters. But since they were just added to cover up the Brer characters what can you do?

 

[LittleBuford]

I saved a screen cap from someone's Instagram stories this morning, but cropped out their name for their privacy.

here we go:
View attachment 601504
Also, the sword and the stone characters are there now (unsure if they were before, but at least it means Tiana isn't completely isolated from other human characters, and Toad was moved instead of being replaced.

Thanks. Given that it’s a commercial art piece, it may well have been the artist themselves who decided to modify it (I can’t make out their signature to determine their identity).

 

[LittleBuford]

did you see it

Yes. Multiple times. I owned a copy of it on video as a child (I’m from the UK).

Why do you ask?

 

[Dear Prudence]

The fact that it's a unique (I assume) piece of art for sale makes the repainting far more questionable than if it was a permanent installation on Disney property.

If the artist wanted the opportunity to repaint it, that's one thing, but if Disney demanded it, I'm much less comfortable with that (under these specific circumstances -- again, it would be different if this was permanently installed somewhere on Disney property). Let artists decide what to do with their art.

If I can be honest, and this is no shade towards the artist and their abilities, but this piece is just awkward, period. I think think it's as executed as well as I think it's supposed to--the concept is there, but it just...doesn't land. It's too similar to those magic-eye picture books of the 90's for my tastes. The original artist re-signed it. Nothing about this really makes that much sense, but nothing that Disney has done in regards to the Splash changes has been anything but floundering and blundering haplessly. The rides are still open on both coasts and they sell things with the characters on them. It's just the most bizarre gaslighting.

 

[LittleBuford]

If I can be honest, and this is no shade towards the artist and their abilities, but this piece is just awkward, period. I think think it's as executed as well as I think it's supposed to--the concept is there, but it just...doesn't land. It's too similar to those magic-eye picture books of the 90's for my tastes. The original artist re-signed it. Nothing about this really makes that much sense, but nothing that Disney has done in regards to the Splash changes has been anything but floundering and blundering haplessly. The rides are still open on both coasts and they sell things with the characters on them. It's just the most bizarre gaslighting.

Do you know who the artist is? I can’t read the signature or label in the image you shared.

 

[DCBaker]

Do you know who the artist is? I can’t read the signature or label in the image you shared.

Kenny Yamada.

 

[Dear Prudence]

Do you know who the artist is? I can’t read the signature or label in the image you shared.

Through some very serious sleuthing (and using one of those 3rd party apps to download the Instagram story image at a higher resolution that isn't just a screencap, the painting is called 'Mickey Floral' by K3nny Y@m@d@ ( I've written the name stylized so it doesn't come up in Google searches) and retails for about $300. You can find copies of the original version of the painting in print form on Poshmark and eBay, and they're 18 x 14 inches. The original piece is from 2020.

I just don't know at what point in 2020. :/

 

[LittleBuford]

Kenny Yamada.

Through some very serious sleuthing (and using one of those 3rd party apps to download the Instagram story image at a higher resolution that isn't just a screencap, the painting is called 'Mickey Floral' by K3nny Y@m@d@ ( I've written the name stylized so it doesn't come up in Google searches) and retails for about $300. You can find copies of the original version of the painting in print form on Poshmark and eBay, and they're 18 x 14 inches. The original piece is from 2020.

I just don't know at what point in 2020. :/

Thank you both!

 

[Dear Prudence]

Thanks. Given that it’s a commercial art piece, it may well have been the artist themselves who decided to modify it (I can’t make out their signature to determine their identity).

It looks like the artist has made a bunch of art with the Brer Characters/ Splash Mountain themed. I also cannot imagine that those who do formal art for Disney like that have very much control over their own work in that regard.

 

[owlsandcoffee]

did you see it

I have also seen it; it's not the massively evil thing some people seem to think it is, but it is racist.

 

[LittleBuford]

It looks like the artist has made a bunch of art with the Brer Characters/ Splash Mountain themed. I also cannot imagine that those who do formal art for Disney like that have very much control over their own work in that regard.

If he’s essentially being commissioned by Disney to produce things according to their specifications, then it’s really their call to make.

 

[Dear Prudence]

If he’s essentially being commissioned by Disney to produce things according to their specifications, then it’s really their call to make.

From my understanding, they basically own everything that you make (which, on the one hand, makes sense, since it's their IPs, but also sort of vindicates the overlord jokes. I just don't understand editing a painting that has prints that already exist out in the wild, and just paying him out for the original and commissioning him to do an entirely new one..but, you know, that actually makes sense....

 

[ImperfectPixie]

It does when making something new for the sake of adding inclusivity costs additional money. Reimaginings. POTC, Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion (too soon?) etc.

No...that's a choice made prior to design/fabrication by people who aren't designers. Designing/fabricating a project doesn't cost more or less based on whether it's inclusive.

 

[Kirby86]

From my understanding, they basically own everything that you make (which, on the one hand, makes sense, since it's their IPs, but also sort of vindicates the overlord jokes. I just don't understand editing a painting that has prints that already exist out in the wild, and just paying him out for the original and commissioning him to do an entirely new one..but, you know, that actually makes sense....

Yeah they don't want Brer Rabbit and company on an obscure piece of artwork that you not only have to know about but be willing to pay 300 dollars for to get but Brer Bear is on the anniversary Magic Bands. Nothing about how they're handling this makes sense.

 

[LittleBuford]

From my understanding, they basically own everything that you make (which, on the one hand, makes sense, since it's their IPs, but also sort of vindicates the overlord jokes. I just don't understand editing a painting that has prints that already exist out in the wild, and just paying him out for the original and commissioning him to do an entirely new one..but, you know, that actually makes sense....

For all we know, it was the artist's own decision. I follow the channel of a Disney YouTuber (a fan with no official ties to the company) who used to use "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" as her theme music. After Disney announced their plans for Splash Mountain, she changed her music and explained that she was doing so because she was now more aware of the problematic nature of Song of the South. Whatever one thinks of her choice, it was hers and hers alone, with no pressure whatsoever from Disney itself.

 

[Dear Prudence]

For all we know, it was the artist's own decision. I follow the channel of a Disney YouTuber (a fan with no official ties to the company) who used to use "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" as her theme music. After Disney announced their plans for Splash Mountain, she changed her music and explained that she was doing so because she was now more aware of the problematic nature of Song of the South. Whatever one thinks of her choice, it was hers and hers alone, with no pressure whatsoever from Disney itself.

What did she change it to?

 

[dig311dug]

What did she change it to?

Laughin’ Place