Splash Mountain re-theme announced

[dizneeboy]

Not a lot of mountains in the bayou.

and a bayou/Orleans based ride in frontierland? Fits well in Disneyland but will be interesting to see how they squeeze that theme in.

 

[MisterPenguin]

It would be awesome but the ride is taking place after the movie so Facilier would have already died

Maleficent parades down Main Street every day despite her deadedness.

 

[Father Robinson]

Well thought out response. Good for you.

 

[MrMcDuck]

If you're arguing that Song of the South isn't racist, you don't belong in this community.

If you're arguing that this is because of "race-pushing Marxists" like @Sundown, you don't belong in this community.

If you're going to sell your DVC contract over this like @Dan deesnee, then so long, you don't belong in this community.

If your reaction to a decision in favor of diversity and inclusion is "to throw up" like @Captain Barbossa, then you don't belong in this community.

You board members that are acting like petulant children over this should take a good hard look at yourselves and your priorities. Because my guess is these beliefs go a lot deeper than a theme park ride.

A shameful day for this board. Absolutely shameful.

We'll be sticking around. You do not control "this community."

 

[MisterPenguin]

and a bayou/Orleans based ride in frontierland? Fits well in Disneyland but will be interesting to see how they squeeze that theme in.

Read the thread. Frontierland is already not all "The Frontier" including Song of the South.

 

[Yert3]

for show.

Exactly. Doubt he’s happy about it . Just when they got Rohde on video to say how great GotG taking over ToT was. Probably at gunpoint by the cameraman.

 

[Bairstow]

It would be awesome but the ride is taking place after the movie so Facilier would have already died

You really think death can stop him?

 

[BigDlover]

Open your minds a bit... I’m excited at the thought of “Friends on the other side” being the scary musical cue into the drop. It makes perfect sense and works with you coming out on the “other side” of the drop. It could have some pretty wicked projection effects and the song is quite good!

I've always wanted a Princess/Frog ride bc there are so many great visuals in the movie! From the voodoo scenes to the fireflies in the bayou!

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

Pocahontas is has its own controversies that probably wouldn't sit right with people though.

I am sure if one digs deeply enough... every Disney Movie will offend somebody or some group.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

Anything offensive is worth a conversation to change it.

Everything is offensive to someone. Just remember there's thousands of more signatures to save splash than to retheme it on change.org. I suppose pandering to the minority is the better idea?

 

[Magic Feather]

This post is probably going to be strongly disagreed with and lost in the barrage of posts on this issue, but I feel its worth sharing and explaining a few aspects regarding my opinions on this.

You should be able to look back on my post history and see that I was pretty strongly against most attraction rethemes: from Frozenstrom to Guardians. Out of the recent string of ride rethemes that Disney has done, I can genuinely say that this one bohers me the least by a pretty sizable margin. Enough to the point where I'm not just tolerating it, but supporting it. So... why? This seems like something that, based on my track record, I should be strongly opposed to. To make this a little easier, I'm going to compare it to another operating attraction at MK with some in poor taste cultural depictions and talk about how that could/should change and how that does and does not apply to Splash Mountain's case.

For the sake of this post, I will be comparing Splash Mountain with the Jungle Cruise. For starters, Jungle Cruise has a more clearly problematic portrayal of African people in the attraction, as seen in the head hunters section, where stereotypical "savage" images are used as a threat to comedic effect. Thankfully, this could easily be corrected by removing this one section and replacing it with another gimmick, maybe bring in the pirañas from DL or something. Regardless, it is one part of a larger attraction.

Splash Mountain is clearly different, in that its racist moments are not at all explicitly found in the attraction; in fact, the attraction even tries to hastily cover up some of the problematic moments ported over from the films. As one of many examples, Brer Rabbit's capture with the beehive honey is intended to replicate his capture with the "tar baby" (the name alone should throw up about five red flags). Or there is the way that Brer Rabbit is meant to evoke the mannerisms and actions of a slave (African-American Vernacular and all) while Brer Fox is effectively a white slave owner of the time. Finally, one of the most unknown offenders is the iconic song itself "Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah" which is derived from blackface performances intended to actively mock the African-American population. The ties to racism is so intertwined with the attraction that it would be impossible to modify in the same way as Jungle Cruise. For JC you just get a new scene' for Splash Mountain, take away the way the Brers are presented, some of the tropes from the film, and the song, and you barely have a ride left. At that point, if you remove that, there has to be a conscious effort to keep Song of the South involved, which I can guarantee there is next to no desire to do.

As for "why Princess and the Frog?" it's really the only IP that could easily slip into both mountains. Sure it's a stretch in Frontierland, but so was Song of the South. As for the "yes, but why not keep Splash Mountain and give Tiana her own ride?" crowd: Splash Mountain was on borrowed time due to its irremovable ties to racist symbols, and (at least at DLR) there wasn't really a good spot to give Tiana her own ride. Really this kills two birds with one stone (and we don't have to see some god-awful visuals of Splash being demolished Horizons-style.

I know Splash is a sentimental favorite for many, but if we want a better future we need to account for past mistakes. Letting a ride that has inherent ties to racist portrayals of African-Americans would not let that happen.


As kind of a P.S., I've seen a lot of people suggest that Tony Baxter was forced into being involved with this. I have had it confirmed by different people that he wasn't, and that he was asked and he elected to be involved with this.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Exactly. Doubt he’s happy about it at. Just when they got Rohde on video to say how great GotG taking over ToT was. Probably at gunpoint by the cameraman.

Impugning someone's character without any proof that they acted with bad intent is repugnant and despicable.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Last time I watched Impressions de France, the cast member host before the show told the audience to “try and not to fall asleep.” No joke. Quite weird hearing a cast member say that.

Cast members are equally sarcastic for Country Bear Jamboree... The difference is, CBJ is so corny (on purpose) that it works. IDF is meant to be "beautiful." Sadly, that's not something most people come to theme parks for.

Hence why a sloppy sing-along has done better in the past.

 

[BigDlover]

Well thought out response. Good for you.

Actually I edited my response before I saw this but you can stay mad

 

[WDW1995]

Done with Disney. I will never be setting foot on the property again.

 

[Bleed0range]

It would be awesome but the ride is taking place after the movie so Facilier would have already died

I feel like they’d have to find a way to make such a good bad guy fit into the attraction somehow... :/. There has to be an element of fear before the drop.

 

[CJR]

I'm curious if they're planning to continue calling the ride "Splash Mountain".

The way they worded it makes me believe that the name will be staying as opposed to Maelstrom turning into "Frozen Ever After".

 

[Father Robinson]

Actually I edited my response before I saw this but you can stay mad

Thank you.

 

[BigDlover]

Done with Disney. I will never be setting foot on the property again.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Read the thread. Frontierland is already not all "The Frontier" including Song of the South.

I'm pretty sure the general public has deemed anything where the music style resembles strings on a guitar-looking instrument as "Frontier" enough for Frontierland.

There is a gray area between "Frontier" and "Adventure" when it comes to Ukeleles though.