Splash Mountain re-theme announced

[brb1006]

July 11 is going to be a very interesting day for the Magic Kingdom.

 

[comics101]

I just don’t understand if the last public showings were in 1986 and then the ride was built in 1992, why did they decide to use this controversial theme to begin with? Honestly just curious!

They had a bunch of decommissioned animal animatronics laying around after Disneyland closed the show America Sings. Imagineer Tony Baxter proposed taking those animatronics and building a log flume attraction (then called The Zip a Dee River Run) around the music of Song of the South—while the movie was controversial, Zip a Dee Doo Dah has always been a hit among the public. Michael Eisner brought his son, Breck, to work one day and when Breck came across the Splash Mountain model, he loved it. The rest as the say is history.

^^At least, that’s the legend behind the ride, anyway. @marni1971 can correct the record if I’m wrong.

 

[_caleb]

Anything and everything is "racist" if that's what you're consumed with.

I’m not consumed with race or racism. I am more focused on it in the last few months, though.

 

[WDWmazprty]

I mean, not for nothing, but do you think there's a reason we don't tend to get films made depicting happy people singing with animated birds, but set in Third Reich Germany?

I guess The Sound of Music shows a mostly happy world, but much of its dramatic tension, particularly in its second act, is at least built around acknowledging and confronting the very real dangers and terrors of that era. Given that the NAACP even criticized SotS upon its initial release, these are not new criticisms.

EDIT: I also keep seeing people saying that Disney "gave into the mob" or "the outrage" or whatever, but can we actually see evidence of widespread, mainstream calls for the removal of the Brer Rabbit story from Splash that got any traction? As of now I don't see a reason to doubt that Disney had this planned back in 2019, given the detail in the concept art, so I'm not sure where people are getting that from.

Well, every movie won't ACKNOWLEDGE everything. Or at least what some people consider acknowledgment. Again, I already knew about the history....there were plenty other movies and have been many more that have acknowledged reality fully when it comes to slavery, Reconstruction, or any other controversial, sad, or turbulent subject or time in history. This movie wasn't that. OK. So.
I guess people will just have their opinions on the matter and I respect yours and anyone else's
I can only say that this change of the ride, at least for me, was completely unnecessary.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Main Street USA is highly offensive as it depicts the very era in which the US Army burned down our villages, developed a pistol specifically designed to kill my ancestors, and interred my great uncle as a POW for fighting against a really shady imperialistic invasion..... is something I've never, ever pondered while enjoying Main Street USA, and never will.

Cool story, bro.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

It's a Small World is likely to receive changes, but Carousel of Progress will soon be given the Stitch Treatment. That's the word I've got from someone connected to the committee working on these changes. If you want to enjoy CoP, you'd better ride it soon, because just like Br'er Rabbit, there might not be a great big beautiful tomorrow much longer.

I want to know who exactly is on these committees. What kind of idiot would close CoP and CBJ? What are they gonna do to AA? Make it into an America hating show? Same with Lincoln and HoP? Is our country so divided we can’t be patriotic anymore? Walt must be rolling in his grave.

 

[TJinSF]

Reconstructon or not, slavery or at least the attitude toward it, was still around. And, being a movie that was from Disney, I'm sure the point of the movie wasn't to show the grim reality of slavery, Reconstruction, or whatever..... the setting of the movie was about that. Once again, being a DISNEY movie, the focus was on positivity, life lessons, characters, and songs. Oh, and it is a MOVIE. At the end of the day you have to remember that. That's with ANY movie. It's not always about reality.
When I saw this movie I already knew about how things were in those times from school and my parents. I knew it was bad times and unjust. But it sure was nice to see a movie, even set in those turbulent times, bring out a little positivity and memorable characters.

The privilege to whitewash the history of this period, presenting it as a happy-go-lucky time when we all got along and yearned for the old days, has everything to do with why some feel the movie, and by extension the ride, are racist.

As to the rest of your post, I understand exactly what you mean. Of course a fictional movie is not "about reality." I don't think all "problematic" art should just be washed away, and I actually think Disney could've avoided a lot of this trouble had SotS been "out of the vault" and demystified over the years. I've watched dozens of movies from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50, 60s, etc. I understand that they're in part expressions of values we no longer hold. I believe that they have considerable value beyond that. I wish, genuinely, that I could show the world some of these films and talk about them. I think they're amazing, both at the surface and unpacked, in different ways.

However, the cat having been let out of the bag, as it were, perhaps you can understand why many feel a theme park is not an appropriate catalyst for some of these discussions, that bad feelings would out in too many cases, etc. I truthfully wouldn't have made any change myself. If anything, I would've preferred a small contextualization of some kind, like the one I understand HBO is inserting at the beginning of "Gone with the Wind," in a small sign form. That could have been fair middle ground to please most people, since the ride is pretty divorced from the film, but perhaps Disney was thinking of threads like this when they considered the potential for extreme reactions on either side to any change or acknowledgment.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

You do know we are discussing a log flume ride?

if that were really true, we wouldn’t have over 75 pages of discussion in under 5 hours...

 

[DisneyOutsider]

So why are you on a Disney forum, why like Disney?? If you do, you apparently support a brand that has allowed racism to exist in a park attraction for 30 years plus. Or are you a closet racist?

I'm talking about the film.. shame on anyone who denies the insensitivities present in Song of the South.

 

[Beacon Joe]

Cool story, bro.

Point flew right over your head, didn't it. Were you too busy searching the world for things to be offended about?

 

[The_Jobu]

CoP needs a rewrite terribly. Not even for PC reasons, it's just extremely outdated.

re-write is one thing, inserting Stitch is another

 

[MisterPenguin]

Political undertones aside.... how does this "fit" Frontier Land?

It's been mentioned in this thread several times. You should read it, it's fascinating!

 

[SoFloMagic]

wait, yall wrote 79 pages in one day?

 

[Cesar R M]

Erasing history will only make things worse.
and I'm still wondering why this retheme suddenly became a political thing.

 

[ppete1975]

Now I'm a troll? Okay...

Yes. over time, rides should be changed. Everyone agrees Epcot was in need of serious updating...

splash mountain does not equal innoventions

 

[RoysCabin]

Anything and everything is "racist" if that's what you're consumed with.

Well, yeah: again, the bulk of America's wealth was built on a race-based labor system and genocide of the native population. So yeah, racism seeps through the pores of the entire culture.

That said, there's a world of difference between simply existing as part of a complicated legacy and being something that comes across as almost celebrating the negative aspects of that history. I don't think Walt had malicious intent in mind when he and the company made Song of the South, but it doesn't change that the depiction of sharecropping and Reconstruction are heavily skewed towards that "Lost Cause" mythology that warped a lot of writing about the era during that point in American history, so it was shaped by racist forces.

Again, whether that's enough for me to want to see the ride changed is another discussion, but it's not an unreasonable criticism, so long as we're not trying to divide everything into overly simplistic dichotomies.

 

[Beacon Joe]

wait, yall wrote 79 pages in one day?

Pretty fast. Maybe even faster than the gator thread?

 

[Walt d]

Ugh. I'm not surprised Disney is doing this what with how incredibly cowardly they are, but I'm still angry. I like The Princess and the Frog, but the ride was fine as is and I'm already cringing at the thought of all those animatronics getting trashed like the ones from Universe of Energy and The Great Movie Ride.

And mark my words, once this opens all of the people who claimed Splash Mountain was problematic will be complaining that The Princess and the Frog is problematic too.

If you dont ride it and give it good numbers, its gone..

Ugh. I'm not surprised Disney is doing this what with how incredibly cowardly they are, but I'm still angry. I like The Princess and the Frog, but the ride was fine as is and I'm already cringing at the thought of all those animatronics getting trashed like the ones from Universe of Energy and The Great Movie Ride.

And mark my words, once this opens all of the people who claimed Splash Mountain was problematic will be complaining that The Princess and the Frog is problematic too.

if you dont ride it and give it good Numbers it’s gone to

 

[Figments Friend]

Also Tony Baxter must be seriously ****ed off right now.

Short answer -

More likely saddened.



I share his sentiment.


-

 

[comics101]

Right, but people are acting like a few strongly worded emails and calls could somehow make Disney change their mind. It won't.

...because a very small (relatively speaking) group of twitter users who signed a change.org petition are likely the ones who inspired this decision. The hope is that if there are more people who want Splash Mountain to stick around, Disney may reverse course.
Obviously it isn’t likely, but that doesn’t mean it’s unprecedented or shouldn’t be done.