Splash Mountain re-theme announced

[The_Jobu]

give them glorification through something like this ride.

But that's exactly what needs to be debated. Is it glorifying the film by standing completely on its own? Do the princesses glorify the violence, sexism and racism in their source material? How many people who love the ride have even seen the film?

Why is Disney spending so much money to change the theme of a beloved ride solely in response to a twenty thousand signature petition?

Public displays of virtue are very lucrative in this climate.

 

[Phil12]

It’s also nowhere to be found in Splash Mountain. If the “Magical Negro” trope were featured in the attraction, I’d be the first to demand the ride be changed.

Uncle Remus is in Splash Mountain. His famous lines from the stories appear on the walls of the queue and the exit area. Also Br'er Frog replaces Uncle Remus as the story teller at the start of the ride as he begins to tell the tale of Br'er Rabbit:

But TWDC knows it made mistakes here and they're in the process of a re-theme to remove the offensive material. So, it's all good!

 

[The_Jobu]

Mario has certainly not changed. I still play Mario games to this day. The voice is there. The pasta jokes still come up.

Pfft. Mario? Have you ever seen Stromboli from Pinocchio? Now that's some good offensive material!

 

[21stamps]

I couldn't care less either. I'm sure someone has said this already but the ride's theme and characters are so old as to be completely irrelevant to current guests. I never did understand what's so lovable about the ride. People go on Splash Mountain for the flume ride - not the theme. That's why wait times are so long. Disney isn't going to cater to a bunch of old people resistant to change even if they just wanted to update the ride for the heck of it. Add a reason like the one given and it's no contest.

I have a flume ride less than 10 minutes from my house, at Kings Island. While we do enjoy it, I don’t spend the money to go to Disney because of their rides, I have better ‘rides’ here.. we go to Disney for the theming in the rides.

 

[Bleed0range]

Mario has certainly not changed. I still play Mario games to this day. The voice is there. The pasta jokes still come up.

Okay, I would say Mario is a bad example that you’ve given either way. Because I haven’t actually seen too many people get offended by that. It’s a bad example because black people and slavery has a deep root in America which has affected the culture. And there’s a fight to move away from it. This really has to do with racism in America not so much every other issue that people could be offended by.

 

[Parker in NYC]

Pfft. Mario? Have you ever seen Stromboli from Pinocchio? Now that's some good offensive material!

Great, now I REALLY miss going into Manhattan. Not the greatest but with history to spare.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Uncle Remus is in Splash Mountain. His famous lines from the stories appear on the walls of the queue and the exit area. Also Br'er Frog replaces Uncle Remus as the story teller at the start of the ride as he begins to tell the tale of Br'er Rabbit:

View attachment 479572

But TWDC knows it made mistakes here and they're in the process of a re-theme to remove the offensive material. So, it's all good!

If Frogs are offensive, why are we replacing it with The Princess and the FROG???
Seems like that was a bit of an oversight

 

[_caleb]

That line at the bottom is interesting, were the parks really “not for all to enjoy”?

I thought they were, but some are saying they aren't. I want the parks to be for all to enjoy, so I support any effort towards that end- even if it means changes to something that I enjoy.

 

[erasure fan1]

This project has to blow people out of the water to get so many to love it or be happy with the replacement.... This cannot be done on the cheap it has to set a new level of design and project for people to forget one of the best rides of all time...

100% agree. As much as I stick up for Maelstrom and think it should have stayed. The fact that the frozen overlay is meh at best isn't really that big of a deal because I understand Maelstrom wasn't a premium attraction overall. Now Splash on the otherhand. It is widely considered one of the best attractions in the world. It's by no means some 2nd rate attraction that has a cult following. The expectations will be through the roof. I LOVE PatF but I have serious doubts that this can surpass mediocre.

 

[Chi84]

I have a flume ride less than 10 minutes from my house, at Kings Island. While we do enjoy it, I don’t spend the money to go to Disney because of their rides, I have better ‘rides’ here.. we go to Disney for the theming in the rides.

True, but specific theming? Do you think it's going to matter to most people whether the theme is the current one or a new one?

 

[Bleed0range]

But that's exactly what needs to be debated. Is it glorifying the film by standing completely on its own? Do the princesses glorify the violence, sexism and racism in their source material? How many people who love the ride have even seen the film?



Public displays of virtue are very lucrative in this climate.

As I stated before, people need to get away from making this about every issue or stereotype that exists because it really has to do with American culture and how racism and slavery have affected it. Even as recently as when both my grandparents and parents were alive. It has not really been generationally long enough to say we’ve moved past it. I believe they won’t change the ride in other countries because it doesn’t have the same impact culturally as it has in America.

 

[brb1006]

You can still do this via Youtube. Also, the ride will still be there in a slightly different format.

You can explain it to the next generations

Watching videos on Youtube of past attractions won't recapture the feeling of seeing them in person.

 

[Chi84]

To say everyone goes on the ride for the flume and not the theme is crazy generalization though. You have no way of knowing that only a small number of people on this website are the only people that cherish the theme. It's just as dismissive to say the ride doesn't bother anyone except a small number of people on twitter.

Well if most people are going for the current theme, then there will be significantly less demand when the ride re-opens as Princess and the Frog. That's a good thing - one less FastPass to worry about.

 

[_caleb]

Especially since I assume the majority of their park goers leans more to the conservative side.

I was assuming the opposite! I'm not sure why I would assume that, though. I could be wrong.

 

[orlandogal22]

Didn’t you already post this once?

At some point change has to occur. It hasn’t been enough to make small changes to deal with our past. America has a pretty rocky history and things like SOTS are obviously of their time (even inappropriate for their time really), but that doesn’t mean we have to give them glorification through something like this ride.

SOTS belongs in the past and as much as you may like the animated segments they are forever tainted by the movie as a whole.

Mickey has changed over the years as has Mario so their stereotypes don’t reflect who they are now. SOTS is frozen in time. It hasn’t changed while the world around it has. There’s no progress that has been made with the media or it’s characters.

I would suspect everyone in America will have to get used to more and more change occurring as we try to move past the racist history we created for ourselves. Segregation was not even a full lifetime ago. 60 years ago in fact, in Walt’s lifetime.

People may not like it, but that’s the history America made for itself. We fought each other in the civil war over this and we’re fighting each other now. I know it’s silly to think of it this way but all those white people screaming at black kids during segregation are not that far off from the people screaming over these smaller issue now. Change comes hard. Don’t be on the wrong side.

Face facts that we don’t need to have a ride about SOTS. We don’t need confederate statues. Etc., etc.

A few counterpoints, playing devil's advocate -

a. I wasn't informed the animated segments were "forever tainted" until I was told they were. I surmise most parkgoers on any given day are the same way as I was when I first rode that ride. The average parkgoer - international included - just knows it as a fun ride.

b. Why would everything need to evolve - or progress - notably in a heavily themed theme park with distinct lands that are just that - "frozen in time" - or, better yet, a snapshot of a particular era of Americana. Should Haunted Mansion evolve too? Should we modernize it?

c. Removing a theme park ride and replacing it with another will not help to move past any racist history our country - or any country has. It will not solve any issue. As long as there is free will and free thought, there will be racists in the world. (note - I said world; we are not exempt; no race is exempt). Sad to say, but it's the truth. Taking that into perspective, if everything is deemed racist in some capacity, nothing is racist.

 

[thomas998]

Disney (and really Apple) is building their brand to appeal to a very specific type of customer. They need a younger generation to start filling their parks and are going to err on the side of that generation. They are happy to have any customer's money, but they won't cater to them. I am sure that for years Disney has known the film (and attraction) could be problematic and have been throwing around ideas. Splash Mountain is my favorite ride, but even my teenage daughter was questioning how it is still appropriate given what is going on today.

I said it earlier and I will repeat it, if you don't like it, don't go. Corporations don't owe you anything and you don't owe them anything. The Disney corporation of even the 1990s is long gone. It is never coming back. It is up to you to decide to embrace this new company or reject it.

The world is changing. What was acceptable even 15 years ago isn't acceptable now. Like it or not, that is just how it is.

The only real problem is a small insignificant minority has started screaming like banshees and the dolts in charge of corporations are too stupid to understand that just because they see 15 tweets that are negative that it doesn't mean the overwhelming majority are in the least bit bothered. However until corporations stop believing that a facebook rant has some real significance this type of craziness will continue. A part of me thinks it might be fun to start some vocal complaint about something completely harmless just to see if making a big stick over nothing can get corporations to do stupid things. This really ranks right up their with the removal of the woman in red in the Pirates Ride, were lots of people upset? No, only a few that for all intents and purposes seem to go around trying to find things to be offended from, but Disney caved and result was a bigger push by the professional victims to take issue with Splash Mountain. It is only a matter of time until they will have to go through Small World and eliminate half the animatronics because they are portraying a stereotype...After that they'll have to move on to Dumbo, the crows in the movie were clearly created a blacks and not in a flattering way so maybe they will be next... Then let's not give Walt a pass we've all heard the rumors so we might as well eliminate the name Walt Disney from the parks as well. Maybe eventually we can just refer to the parks as Woke World where nothing offends anyone.

 

[Parker in NYC]

I was assuming the opposite! I'm not sure why I would assume that, though. I could be wrong.

Not evident from social media, at any rate. It seems very skewed. And I also assumed the opposite!

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

In Florida, watch for CBJ to be replaced with Toy Story and for the riverboat to be docked (under the decision to bring on Tiana's restaurant) so that Tom Sawyer Island and more land can be accessed. Mark my words. This has been a possibility for years and now the door is open for big change.

 

[brb1006]

I hadn't seen a thread this active since the annoucement and backlash of Mission Breakout from the Disneyland sub-forum.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Why is Disney spending so much money to change the theme of a beloved ride solely in response to a twenty thousand signature petition?

Because they are not, your post outlines the absurdity of this "narrative" that Disney caved.

They have clearly been brainstorming and working on plans to change out Splash for some time, it was inevitable. Bob Iger has spoken out about SotS and not releasing it, did we really think this wasn't going to have an IP change? If so, that's just naivety at its finest (not saying you are naive, just in general).

Disney has no history of taking petitions into account, except maybe the Save Disney movement back in 2003/2004.

Splash Mountain had the writing on the wall, and Disney KNEW it would cause major push back. I assume they would have normally waited until most the planning was done so they could just announce and get going ASAP (Like Guardians Tower), but with the movement happening right now, it presented an opportune moment to announce. People can be angry, but the media will mostly favor the change/story, as will everyone protesting and marching. It comes across as good corporate citizenship. They may have had several variations of plan in the blue sky stage, and saw the current momentum, which made PatF the #1 choice. We won't ever know.

But this wasn't due to a petition.

And reminder, apart from Disney boards/fan accounts, most the Social Media chatter I find praise the change. And TBH, other Disney or Theme Park boards I look at are far more favorable of this change then the WDWMagic crowd.