Any chance this Splash Mountain retheme is cancelled?

[Brer Panther]

Maybe whether or not it happens depends on how long the parks are closed?

I mean, for all we know Disney World's reopening might get delayed. Disneyland's might be too. Maybe if they keep delaying the reopening, by the time the parks reopen the "controversy" regarding Splash Mountain will be over so they'll think it's safe to cancel the idea or rework it into a Princess and the Frog ride that doesn't replace Splash Mountain.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Maybe whether or not it happens depends on how long the parks are closed?

I mean, for all we know Disney World's reopening might get delayed. Disneyland's might be too. Maybe if they keep delaying the reopening, by the time the parks reopen the "controversy" regarding Splash Mountain will be over so they'll think it's safe to cancel the idea or rework it into a Princess and the Frog ride that doesn't replace Splash Mountain.

Splash as we know it WILL be dead sooner rather than later.

As much as there is backlash about the changes, it will be even greater if they walk it back.

They have put themselves in a situation where they have no choice but to make the changes. There's no reversing this.

They'd sooner shrink the budget to less than nothing than cancel it.

 

[Screamface]

The thing that puts me off the most with the current IP obsession is the tendency toward huge swathes of the park being dedicated to single IPs to which I don't feel any great connection.

The main issue was putting GE at Disneyland. These IP themed lands work better in the other parks. GE is perfect for a satellite park at Disneyworld. I don't think they put any clear thought into the decisions around GE.

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

The main issue was putting GE at Disneyland.

You do know Galaxy's Edge was designed specifically for Disneyland right and then later re-worked to fit in Hollywood Studios right?

 

[Screamface]

You do know Galaxy's Edge was designed specifically for Disneyland right and then later re-worked to fit in Hollywood Studios right?

I honestly can't remember if I knew that or not. I have tried to block out most of Disney's involvement with that IP as it's quite heartbreaking. Walking through GE at Disneyland was like walking through a cheap knock off, off-brand of Star Wars. Although I do want to go back for ROTR.

 

[BuzzedPotatoHead89]

Splash as we know it WILL be dead sooner rather than later.

As much as there is backlash about the changes, it will be even greater if they walk it back.

They have put themselves in a situation where they have no choice but to make the changes. There's no reversing this.

They'd sooner shrink the budget to less than nothing than cancel it.

True. My greatest fear with this as a supporter of this concept is the Bobs will see the online reaction to this (combined with the COVID impact on revenue streams) and decide to slash this budget to nothing. Maybe one or two new AAs and a bunch of screens throughout the ride. Total slap in the face the fans, but right out of the Chapek/Iger playbook.

Disney is clearly overextending themselves with all this proposed CapEx spending in the pipeline across their parks as it is, so I hope if this is treated as a priory budgets can be shifted. I’ll hold out hope and final judgment until I see a final product, but it seems like The Mouse has an appetite for aged Gruyere on a Craft American Singles budget, and I’m not naive to the fact that this could all end poorly.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Splash as we know it WILL be dead sooner rather than later.

As much as there is backlash about the changes, it will be even greater if they walk it back.

They have put themselves in a situation where they have no choice but to make the changes. There's no reversing this.

They'd sooner shrink the budget to less than nothing than cancel it.

I agree this redo is far more likely than not, but I do think there are scenarios in which it doesn't happen. So much is uncertain at this time.

We don't know when DL is going to reopen, and there are all sorts of questions around WDW reopening amidst rising cases in Florida. We also don't know what the economy will be like in the coming years. If finances get complicated for the parks and the pandemic/recession drags on, they can't leave Tron, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ratatouille sitting unfinished forever nor can the centre of Epcot remain a giant construction site indefinitely. Over in Paris they have a whole new Avengers area half-built, another Marvel area almost finished in DCA, and projects going in HKDL and Shanghai that have to be completed. They can, though, drag their feet on this redo. Particularly if they realise they can't do it on a modest budget in a way that will satisfy anyone.

I also think the heat will go out of this announcement to the point that there will be only minor ripples if the project is quietly put on hold in a year or so. It's not like this is a cause championed by BLM and Disney fans are split if not more hostile than enthusiastic about this announcement. If the parks are still struggling to operate at full capacity and/or Disney more broadly is having difficulty staying profitable amidst an economic downturn in a year or two, are people really going to make a fuss about them not dropping hundreds of millions of dollars on this? There's likely never going to be a moment when they announce it isn't happening, either way.

Again, I don't think it is likely that this will be abandoned nor should anyone should get their hopes up. However, I find it hard to take anything announced right now as a definite certainty.

 

[Phroobar]

It's a weird time for such an announcement from a stockholder point of view. Why are they willing to spend money on a completely unnecessary overlay when they have to shut down mostly completed projects to stay profitable? Someone at Disney isn't thinking. This announcement doesn't nothing good for the stock price except give a little free positive PR on the social issue front that will be forgotten about in six months.

 

[mickEblu]

It's a weird time for such an announcement from a stockholder point of view. Why are they willing to spend money on a completely unnecessary overlay when they have to shut down mostly completed projects to stay profitable? Someone at Disney isn't thinking. This announcement doesn't nothing good for the stock price except give a little free positive PR on the social issue front that will be forgotten about in six months.

More like 6 days from the people "for" this change. Much longer for the people against it however.

 

[Phroobar]

I think it is more likely they will close the mountain and throw away the key like they did to the subs. They could sight reduced capacity for not needing the ride when they never start construction.

 

[choco choco]

I think it was the way that the Disney came up with evocative themed lands that played on our ideas about particular concepts that most grabbed me about the parks when I became a fan. There are few IPs that can match this; maybe Star Wars is one as I feel some warmth to it despite not being a super fan, but I can understand others feeling the same about GE as I do about Carsland. Surely you'll appeal to more people by appealing to broader ideas in the culture rather than specific franchises when constructing themed lands? I must be in the minority on this, though, because plenty of people seem thrilled to buy merchandise branded to an Avatarland.

"Appealing to broader ideas in culture" was the original meaning for the "theme" in themed lands. Nowadays it refers to a specific type of look, art style, or decoration (pretend, say, art nouveau) rather than an abstract concept ("adventure"). People have forgotten and it sucks and the theme park industry consciously moved away from the latter in order to condition people to expect the former and it has severely limited the potential of the art form. There's a reason almost any property could still find their way into Disneyland and other castle parks simply by grouping it into one of its several abstract themes (Fantasy! Frontier! Tomorrow!) but very hard to fit anything into any of the other parks.

It also makes for very boring themed environments. Where before there was excitement in shoving disparate styles into one themed area (I love Magic Kingdom's Adventureland for putting a thatch pagoda next to a tented bazaar all overlooked by a marooned treehouse in a giant tree), nowadays the fealty to "thematic integrity" actually makes for more boring environments. Arguments of, "doesn't fit the story," negates what should actually be driving the design of a land - how it makes the guest feel - and instead elevates the drive for "plot logic." A weird thing to emphasize because it's the clash of different stories occupying the same space (an ancient Grimm fair tale Snow White across from Peter Pan, two stories separated by hundreds of years) but sharing the same themes that makes lands so exciting.

As for the topic of this thread, I could see this getting pushed further and further off into the future and quietly being ditched if they can't get a decent proposal together for a reasonable budget as the parks struggle back toward profitability. They never said when they're going to do it, so they can feasibly keep claiming they're working on it for quite a while until the heat goes out of the issue and then quietly drop their plans. It does seem there has been an internal push against Splash, unfortunately, which points to it happening come hell or high water.

I believe Disney when they say they have been working on a Splash Mountain redo for at least a year now. They had to do something, simply because as a piece of equipment - a machine meant to churn people through in a specific fashion - Splash Mountain hasn't worked reliably or as designed for years now and was basically a money pit even to patch it up through duct tape and aluminum foil.

So money must have been set aside to meaningfully re-engineer the darn thing. I speculate that only very, very recently did they make the decision to re-theme it to a different IP. If they work through that re-theming and find they have to drop it for whatever reason (it either doesn't work or the budget becomes more than the company's current financials can support or there's no more heat from the social movement) I still hope they at least follow through with the engineering changes. The ride felt like it was on its last legs, technology-wise

 

[Demarke]

I agree with the folks that think Disney has backed themselves into a corner on this one, plus, I think the internal political pressure is strong enough within the California office that it’s not likely to slink into the background either.

Prediction: Fast forward to 20 years from now, the current Twitter mob will be shouted down and called racist by future 20 year olds (with their holophones and Space Twitter accounts ). The new generation will blindly take the position that Dr. Facilier is a racist, voodoo witch doctor stereotype and that the townspeople are portrayed as too easily swindled by black magic. They will call them names for defending a ride from their youth that is based on European folklore rather than traditional African fables like, ahem, one about a rabbit outsmarting a fox that predated Disney by hundreds of years and could have potential to be presented in such a way as to be both educational and fun. They will dismiss the context and intent of the people in 2020 creating a ride for the first African American princess and focus their outrage on elements that may not even be present in the ride. And, if they are presented with arguments in favor of keeping the PatF ride as-is, they will call them creepy (and whatever the future equivalent of “ok, boomer” is) for being people in their 40’s that care so much about a ride they’ve liked since they were young. The current Twitter mob (twenty years from now in 2040) will not pick up on the irony.

 

[John park hopper]

20 years from now the USA will not exist

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

IP lands mostly suck because Disney doesn't know how to make them cozy and charming anymore. There are exceptions, or perhaps I should say exceptional elements. Pandora and Cars Land arguably turned out the best. Disney seems to think that movie attractions need to either be a "Single Largest Expansion" land trying to rip off the Harry Potter World or slapped into an existing classic ride. Marvel Land at DCA already looks like a disaster and the 2020 Summer of Love struck it down before it could even welcome the first Disney Vloggers and Instagram Posers. It's a sign.

Concept Art:

"This could be good."

Actual Product:

This, over and over again. Maybe I'm just not hip with the kids these days, but this isn't anywhere I would want to go. What a colossal waste of money.

"I love the attention to detail! Oh, those Imagineers!"

Jeez. Can we have that 80s Star Tours flight attendant with the silly hair back?

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Unfortunately when Disney decided to charge parking for those staying at the onsite resorts after 40+ years of that being a "perk" there was an outcry and many people contacted Disney and in true Disney fashion they went ahead and did it any way --the guest be damned was heir attitude.

I know you are probably right, but it will make me feel like I am doing something, I guess. Who knows, if there is enough negative backlash with this maybe they will rethink it!

 

[Phroobar]

IP lands mostly suck because Disney doesn't know how to make them cozy and charming anymore. There are exceptions, or perhaps I should say exceptional elements. Pandora and Cars Land arguably turned out the best. Disney seems to think that movie attractions need to either be a "Single Largest Expansion" land trying to rip off the Harry Potter World or slapped into an existing classic ride. Marvel Land at DCA already looks like a disaster and the 2020 Summer of Love struck it down before it could even welcome the first Disney Vloggers and Instagram Posers. It's a sign.

Concept Art:

View attachment 480514
"This could be good."

Actual Product:

View attachment 480515
This, over and over again. Maybe I'm just not hip with the kids these days, but this isn't anywhere I would want to go. What a colossal waste of money.

View attachment 480516
"I love the attention to detail! Oh, those Imagineers!"

Jeez. Can we have that 80s Star Tours flight attendant with the silly hair back?

The lack of greenery really takes away from the environment. The removal of multiple levels and a static world really hurts here. All of those droids should be moving or making sounds. Why isn't there music? Every other land has music. How hard is it to play an MP3 on loop?

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

It's not immersive enough.

 

[chadwpalm]

The main issue was putting GE at Disneyland. These IP themed lands work better in the other parks. GE is perfect for a satellite park at Disneyworld. I don't think they put any clear thought into the decisions around GE.

I disagree. I remember watching the panels and hearing all the cool ideas that they had for this land, and as George pointed out there was some good concept art too. It was the bean counters that slashed the land to high hell. I don't have a problem with the design and think it fits in Disneyland well, but all the budget cuts somehow removed the life from it. No streetmosphere or entertainment. No interactivity. These were things the imagineers wanted. These are things the bean counters didn't want.

 

[denyuntilcaught]

I honestly can't remember if I knew that or not. I have tried to block out most of Disney's involvement with that IP as it's quite heartbreaking. Walking through GE at Disneyland was like walking through a cheap knock off, off-brand of Star Wars. Although I do want to go back for ROTR.

I have a lot of negative feelings about GE, but none are regarding the land feeling like a cheap knock-off. It's clearly elaborate and intricate and far from cheap. It's just the elaborate and intricate version of Star Wars that no one asked for.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Don't they have any colors other than beige in the outer rim?