Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion

[DanielBB8]

The satire is clear, maybe it went over your head

Not since Michael Jackson has racism been so whitewashed. Enjoy the satire.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Not since Michael Jackson has racism been so whitewashed. Enjoy the satire.

Why aren’t you pressed about my orangutan comment? They’re offended and find anyone who likes King Louie to be racist against orangutans. Unless you disagree with them and low-key hate orangutans and you’re racist against them.

#racist
#racism
#orangutanhater

 

[BuzzedPotatoHead89]

You're right! We TOTALLY FIXED all of these problems here in the good ol' US of A and so have carte blanche to demonize other countries without being the slightest bit hypocritical!!!1!1!!!1

To be clear I don’t disagree this either but it is also uniquely American ethnocentric way of thinking for Disney to promote this new “diversity and inclusion” message to a domestic audience for the online stans to feel good about themselves while simultaneously continuing to proactively support policies that I’ll generously refer to as “anti-inclusive” abroad.

Not to say this is entirely different than any other multinational U.S. domiciled company or the American public’s narrow (“America first”) perception of it’s how government should act and/or function as reflected in real life. But at least in this case (for purposes of a Disney discussion board where discussions are strictly limited to the company), it does nonetheless still warrant calling out the hypocrisy in this one (but far from only) instance.

The two fundamental truths here are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Brer Panther]

I just get a kick out of these companies (Nike as well) that pretend they care, all while using actual slave labor.

Disney for example took the word "Slave" out of Boba Fett's ship, while using slave labor.

The fact that Disney is using slave labor should be a pretty good indicator as to whether or not they're retheming Splash Mountain because they genuinely care about somebody actually being uncomfortable with its existence.

 

[Little Green Men]

It's completely on topic. This is a thread bout Disney changing stuff up in the name of "Inclusion", with quotes from Disney execs and now (rather pandering) Instagram videos about how Disney is erasing/editing/removing decades-old entertainment like theme park log rides from 1988 or cartoon orangutangs from 1967 from its roster. And because Splash Mountain is years away from even beginning actual work on this, we have nothing to talk about but Disney's own blather about "Inclusion".

And yet, right now today, Communist China is enslaving over a million Uighurs and banning the use of obvious LGBT people by any entertainment company that wants to do business in China. Burbank pays a small batallion of executives big salaries to be "Diversity Directors", and they don't say a word about China.

So, just wondering what your opinion is of the Communist Chinese deciding they now need to police entertainment to remove "sissy idols" and "effeminate men" from movies, TV and media. (Their words, not mine.)

You constantly weigh in with little emoticons on nearly everything, but on this one you are silent?

So I think we have our answer. Here's an emoticon I have for that.

I speak up on blatant racism and xenophobia on these post because its ridiculous. As for China, I agree with what @raven24 said

 

[Professortango1]

In fairness to the PaTF overlay; it isn’t complete yet so we do not know to what extent the facade or interior of the attraction will be altered. The concept art they released for the exterior attempts to minimize the feeling of the size of the mountain with trees to make it feel smaller and more tucked away amongst all the new foliage. -and even if I were to admit that current Splash doesn’t try to utilize any perspective tricks to make you feel like a Critter, that doesn’t mean we don’t know that the PaTF overlay won’t. I’ve always felt the tree stump atop Splash was exaggerated/overly large for what it’s actually supposed to be. In that sense it’s always made me feel small by comparison.

But, we just don’t know yet. The execution remains to be seen. I certainly hope that it comes out looking good. I think if Disney were to really fill the opening pool (where you swing around the briar patch at the beginning of the ride) with large Bayou trees (as seen in the concept art), it could make the mountain feel smaller by comparison and thus, more at home in a traditional Bayou setting. Who knows what they’ll do.

I can safely assume that Disney isn't going to want to obscure the weenie nor make the mountain appear smaller by surrounding it with trees. They want the mountain to appear large. Its a selling point. It makes the drop seem more thrilling. It is why the tree of Chickapin Hill extends beyond the drop because it draws your eyes upward.

 

[PiratesMansion]

The two fundamental truths here are not mutually exclusive.

And ultimately you are correct.

I just grow tired of a handful of people on this board being so quick to demonize other countries for a number of issues, societal ills, and problems that they are, by contrast, more than content to ignore, discredit, or minimize in their own country if it hasn't happened directly to them.

Again and again, thread after thread.

 

[Californian Elitist]

And ultimately you are correct.

I just grow tired of a handful of people on this board being so quick to demonize other countries for a number of issues, societal ills, and problems that they are, by contrast, more than content to ignore, discredit, or minimize in their own country if it hasn't happened directly to them.

Again and again, thread after thread.

For real. All the talk about communist China (they do have some awful things going on for them) while being an American living in America is funny.

 

[TP2000]

You're right! We TOTALLY FIXED all of these problems here in the good ol' US of A and so have carte blanche to demonize other countries without being the slightest bit hypocritical!!!1!1!!!1

I never said that the USA was perfect. No country on earth has ever been perfect, and no country likely ever will be so long as humans are involved.

What I said was that the silence from Burbank on Communist China's awful human rights abuses today is deafening.

Flip this script just slightly out of Communist China and back to the USA. Heck, Bob Iger and other virtue signalers in Burbank already gave us their lines for this new script.

Disney C.E.O. Warns Georgia Abortion Law Would Make it ‘Very Difficult’ to Film in the State (Published 2019)

The company’s chief executive, Bob Iger, said it would be “very difficult” to continue filming in the state if the law was carried out.

www.nytimes.com

“I rather doubt we will” continue filming in the state, Iger said. “I think many people who work for us will not want to work there, and we will have to heed their wishes in that regard.”

That was due to democratically elected representatives in Georgia carrying through on their campaign promises they gave to the people who voted for them. Hollywood was incensed, and immediately called for boycotts of Georgia. While China goes the opposite direction in 2021 and literally forces abortions on minority populations it does not like.

Uyghur exiles describe forced abortions, torture in Xinjiang

Three Uyghurs who fled from China to Turkey have described forced abortions and torture by Chinese authorities in China’s far western Xinjiang region.

apnews.com

Now let's flip this current script and choose Texas, the state everyone loves to hate. Imagine that in 2021.....

• The Texas legislature votes into law a bill that would ban any tax rebates or any state business with any media or tech company who employs "sissy idols" on their TV shows or pop music, or uses "effeminate men" in their movies or TV shows.
• Governor Abbot then signs an executive order that suddenly removes the ability for LGBT student groups to organize on Texas public college campuses, and he instructs the Texas Department of Education to immediately suspend the Internet accounts of those LGBT groups and erases all past messaging/websites they had offered the past few years.

Whaddya think the reaction would be in Burbank (and all of Hollywood) to such an anti-gay move by Texas legislators??? You think no one in Hollywood would care? Do you think the Diversity Directors in Burbank would keep quiet on that? You think you could still find reruns of Walker: Texas Ranger on TV the next day? You think Warner Brothers would still go out to San Antonio to shoot their next romantic comedy?

And yet Communist China has just done exactly that in 2021, and Burbank is silent. Just as silent as they've been since a Million Uighurs were making Nike shoes and Disney Store pajama sets as forced labor in Chinese re-education camps. Not a word. Shhh!

 

[TP2000]

And ultimately you are correct.

I just grow tired of a handful of people on this board being so quick to demonize other countries for a number of issues, societal ills, and problems that they are, by contrast, more than content to ignore, discredit, or minimize in their own country if it hasn't happened directly to them.

Again and again, thread after thread.

I don't know that we're talking about Communist China in any other threads. What state do we have concentration camps in now for a million religious minorities? Ohio? Wisconsin? Do they have visiting hours?

But Communist China in 2021 is such a gleaming, shining example of the deep hypocrisy in Burbank and Hollywood today that how can we not mention it when we discuss Disney's Inclusion? Especially after Disney released that pandering Instagram video cancelling an orangutang from 1967, or all the back-patting Tweets from Burbank about how they've got to rid the parks of that racist singing chicken log ride.

How is it that you can completely ignore that there are over 1 Million slaves of minority religion (Uighurs) forced into re-education camps and subject to forced labor, forced abortions, torture, and religious persecution? How do you equate that to any law on the books in the USA currently?

'Their goal is to destroy everyone': Uighur camp detainees allege systematic rape

In new testimony, former detainees of China's detention camps describe systematic rape and torture.

www.bbc.com

 

[TP2000]

Yeah, but Disney’s been doing business with China for many years. Since that time, I’m sure you’ve given Disney your money at some point.

I have. But I have conciously tried to stop buying Chinese made stuff, and I will even tell shopclerks that now and they're happy to help. Although, I imagine @GrandCanyonConcourse would consider my anti-Chinese buying practices to be "xenophobic", which boggles the mind.

I mentioned the hilarious pomposity of the 1980's UofW faculty lounge earlier. (It was actually called the Faculty Club, and it was a lovely hillside facility ruined by a lot of hot air)....

You probably weren't born yet in the mid 1980's, but on college campuses at that time it was extremely fashionable to boycott Coca-Cola because they were still selling soft drinks in Apartheid South Africa back then. It was a cause that made a lot of sense, but the Boycott Coca-Cola crowd was loud and unrelenting about it, no matter if you were a big corporate chain or a little mom-n-pop burger stand on the corner. The Faculty Club and all dining halls on campus had to abandon their Coke contracts, and the popular burger stand near campus, Herfy's, was subject to marches and boycotts because they sold Coke instead of Pepsi.

You weren't allowed to be seen with a bottle of Coke in your hand in Seattle circa 1984 because Coke sold soda in South Africa.

That type of moral high ground and unified outrage by the Left is entirely missing on Communist China. It appears as though people on the political left can't find a Uighur concentraction camp they don't like, or an "effeminate man" in China that doesn't deserve to lose his job, or an LGBT campus group that deserves an Internet connection. Don't poke China. Shhhh!

The hypocrisy is monumental, and the silence is deafening. I don't think it can go on much longer, but in 2021 it continues from Burbank. They are making fools of themselves, quite frankly, and weakening their other political positions greatly.

 

[TP2000]

Thanks for the information. The whole 60s era seems so great. The line up of attractions is incredible by this point.

In fact I'd say a massive portion of Disneyland nostalgia that is still sold to customers is all from this era.

That Disneyland after dark video is great and I love Walt showing and representing other cultures. It's a Small World is a great example of this. If you watch the episode of Disneyland with its reveal he has children from all over the world representing their countries.

Disneyland in that decade was just a happy place where everyone was welcome. Walt didn't need to pay Diversity Directors to come up with that, he just created the culture that way from the start. Heck, he even put it on a plaque!

Didn't know Disney used to treat gays that way but suppose they werent the only ones (not that it was ever OK for them to be treated poorly).

Disneyland's Security team was notorious, and got some bad press over it in the 1980's, for evicting any male-male couple off the park dancefloors. Girls could dance together, as that was socially acceptable. But two men could not.

That said, this was not exclusive to Disneyland. It goes back to my point about Disney changing its own culture as America also changed. Two gay men couldn't have gone in to the Cattleman's Wharf cocktail lounge on Ball Road in 1982 and expected to be welcomed and allowed to boogie on the dancefloor. Nor could they do that at the nearby Grand Hotel night club or Cowboy Boogie dance hall at that same time.

Disneyland got bad press for it even in the 1980's mostly because they were Disneyland. That's probably a good thing.

 

[TP2000]

I agree that the choice of franchise feels out of place for WDW’s park layout. Works great in my mind for DL but maybe WDW could have had a reimagined Western River Expedition of some kind be overlayed onto Splash? Would give both parks something a little different to experience even if the bones of the attraction are nearly the same. Heck, it worked for Indy/Dinosaur.

No kidding. Those two mountains sitting next to each other are an artistic nightmare out there at WDW.

Turning one of them into Tiana's bayou, while the other remains desert Utah, is not going to help.

 

[TP2000]

I actually feel quite the opposite. With Splash not being a part of New Orleans, but rather the backwoods of the American South, it felt like its own land. A forested place where animals talk and interact with whimsy. I know some had issues with Pooh given the British origins, but nothing about Disney's modern take on Pooh feels distinctly British, so their 100 Acre Woods being a part of Critter Country still worked. It was still a non-specific rustic area focused on cartoon critters.

Now, with PATF, its too closely tied to New Orleans Square. But Critter Country doesn't feel like New Orleans. Pooh fits in worse in a New Orleans setting than a vague rustic forest. Before we had this continuation. We had a Western Frontier with Frontierland. We had the city on the edge of the frontier with NOS, and we had the Southern Frontier with TSI and Critter Country. 3 different flavors tied together by the Rivers of America. With Splash being located now in a New Orleans setting, we lose that other aspect of the Southern Frontier and backwoods which flows directly into GE and ROA.

As for the mountain issue. Its not a perspective trick. They aren't building oversized trees and shrubs to make it appear as if we're 6 inches tall and SM is just a small mound of earth. They are taking an area famous for flat wooded marshlands devoid of hills where much of the earth is below sea level and representing it with a mountain made of boulders and clay with grass and shrubs rather than heavily wooded. The mountain doesn't evoke New Orleans feelings in the slightest. It would be like trying to turn Big Thunder into a Sleepy Hollow attraction. Even if you put up a few trees and a covered bridge, the landscape doesn't feel like Upstate NY.

As for creative liberties with Splash's design. Sure, its not a 1:1 representation of the film. But the film is also not available, so people can't really compare the properties. And the hill in the film is about the same size as our mountain, just not as steep. The facade still does feel like the landscape and setting of SOTS.

View attachment 584610

This is all very nicely said.

It really was Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harris' cheap and idiotic decision to cram Pooh into Critter Country that blew it all apart. It's a mess now. It makes no sense.

It would be great if they could come up with some new theme for Pooh. A Tall Tales of American folklore dark ride maybe? (Who am I kidding, that won't sell any t-shirts). But they can and should reskin the Pooh dark ride into something, anything, that isn't a famously British bear.

At least we can be happy that it's not as messy as Tiana's bayou sitting right next to Thunder Mountain. But still, Pooh just needs to go. Cynthia Harriss got fired um... left immediately to spend more time with her family 18 years ago now, so what's the holdup?

 

[TP2000]

Why aren’t you pressed about my orangutan comment? They’re offended and find anyone who likes King Louie to be racist against orangutans. Unless you disagree with them and low-key hate orangutans and you’re racist against them.

#racist
#racism
#orangutanhater

We've covered a lot of territory in this thread lately as we discuss Disney's Inclusion, but I need to share this funny story.

Orangutang, or Orangutan? I've always spelled and pronounced it as orangutang, but all the kids here are calling them orangutans. I had to Google it. It's a word that actually changed in the English language over the past few decades. In the 20th century English speakers used the 'tang' form of the word, but in the late 20th century biologists and scholars began using the Malaysian pronunciation of the word that has the long a and soft n sound at the end, and the Malay pronunciation quickly took over.

I tried it out. I stood in the kitchen making lunch recently and kept saying "orangutang" aloud followed by a hipper sounding "orangutahn". But I just couldn't swing it, no pun intended. I have to be true to myself and keep using the pronunciation of the 20th century on this one. But it was a funny way to make some lunch.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

“There are things about America I don’t like so you can’t criticize China” is one of the laziest takes I’ve seen on here.

Have some perspective.

 

[SplashGhost]

I've greatly reduced how often I go. From monthly to yearly 1 day visits. We buy barely any merchandise.

Not saying I'm perfect or above anyone.

I'm certainly not a saint myself. I couldn't imagine the headache of trying to buy everyday products that are made without 3rd world country labor. I don't even know where to start. It's unfortunate and I acknowledge I'm part of the problem.

I just get a kick out of these companies (Nike as well) that pretend they care, all while using actual slave labor.

Disney for example took the word "Slave" out of Boba Fett's ship, while using slave labor.

I feel much the same way, I know I am not perfect and I enjoy and purchase products made by corporations who I morally disagree with. I don't think any publicly traded company can truly be "woke" or "progressive" since their priority is always to make as much money as possible regardless of how many immoral things they have to do in the process.

Having a company like Disney who ultimately has no interest in doing the morally right thing going so far out of their way to pretend they are "woke" and "socially conscious" just makes me uncomfortable. Also seeing people on Twitter praising Disney for their "wokeness" and genuinely believing Disney cares about doing the right thing just feels wrong. I just wish more people could realize that companies like Disney are "woke for profit" and could care less about all their issues that they lecture people on. I don't want Disney telling me about how racist a log ride about a talking rabbit is while they are using actual slave labor. If Disney was so socially conscious they wouldn't bend over backwards for China.

Anyway, this meme I made sums how modern Disney operates.

 

[DanielBB8]

“There are things about America I don’t like so you can’t criticize China” is one of the laziest takes I’ve seen on here.

Have some perspective.

Or if you buy anything from China, you’re a hypocrite so you must support China since you already do.

 

[Californian Elitist]

“There are things about America I don’t like so you can’t criticize China” is one of the laziest takes I’ve seen on here.

Have some perspective.

I wonder who here said that? Because I can’t seem to find people who’ve said that.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I have. But I have conciously tried to stop buying Chinese made stuff, and I will even tell shopclerks that now and they're happy to help. Although, I imagine @GrandCanyonConcourse would consider my anti-Chinese buying practices to be "xenophobic", which boggles the mind.

You had me until that last sentence. What? Not sure why you always insist on making comments like that.

I recognize that Disney is hypocritical. I’ve said it plenty of times that they’re not genuine about their diversity and inclusivity efforts.