Splash Mountain re-theme announced

[Por-Favor-Manténgase]

Watch out Animal Kingdom, Harambe is probably next on the chopping block.

 

[wm49rs]

I get being upset about this. I'm going through lots of mixed emotions. But this take? This ain't it.

The irony of arguably the largest entertainment company on the planet being dictated to by “Marxists” is fairly laughable.

And I’ve heard worse ideas from TWDC....

 

[lebeau]

Didn't need fixing... (to me)

I can do this all day.

 

[Tony Perkis]

Yes you should. Seeing the iconic boat above the drop has convinced me they did the research. Likely will include Dr Facilier also. Fan favorite whenever Disney villains gather.

I'm very optimistic.

I missed that entire era of Disney animation - Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Home on the Range, Winnie the Pooh.

All I know, based on legacy, is that Princess and the Frog is widely considered the cream of the crop.

 

[MrPromey]

The frozen retheme turned out pretty good. So did Mickey & Minnie Runaway Railway. So why would this not turn out to be as good?

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on the idea that those were successes...

In my opinion, Frozen should have been built with greater capacity in a place where the theme was appropriate and without some of the compromises that had to be made as a result of attempting to fit the new attraction's themes into the old attraction's space.

Runaway Railway, is a fun ride that uses screens (some well done, some famously not) which are cheap to install and maintain while replacing animatronics that were considerably more elaborate in a footprint that uses a fraction of the space of it's predecessor (now wasted space) to provide a new attraction with a considerably shorter running time.

I would consider neither of these a rousing success specifically due to the nature of them being rethemes... Frozen should have been developed as a ground-up attraction in a place that it fit and Runaway Railway will, I think work out better in DL simply because it will have a space built specifically for it.

A more successful "retheme" would be Star Wars Land where they completely leveled what was there and didn't cut corners with how to make the new theme work in the existing space... even if they did apparently cut corners in other respects. That seems to be the trend with all new projects under current management these days though, regardless of something being a replacement or expansion.

It just hurts a lot more when it's a replacement because taking away something people love and giving them something that's been budget-optimized just adds insult to injury in most cases. That's what I believe many are afraid (and honestly, expect) will happen here.

 

[M:SpilotISTC12]

Boy Scouts of the Caribbean had nothing on this.

Your biscuit is in the mail for this comment. You win best comment of the day.

 

[Tavernacle12]

SO when do they reconsider World Showcase or most of Animal Kingdom?

How is a heavily detailed representation of real African and Asian villages, each with deep backstories, problematic?

Or, like, anything in World Showcase?

Compared to a ride based on a film Disney has been so embarrassed by they haven’t shown it in 30+ years.

 

[lightningtap347]

Can we call Imagination racist so they'll make a new one with help from Tony Baxter?

 

[kurtk]

I am sure they will do as good a job with this retheming as the changes they did to the Imagination Pavilion;-)

 

[M:SpilotISTC12]

Watch out Animal Kingdom, Harambe is probably next on the chopping block.

RIP Harambe for two reasons.

 

[Tony Perkis]

Maybe your opinion is just one opinion.

 

[gmajew]

Right on. We all complain about how Disney is a business. People need to stop looking at this change as bending of will to anyone, Disney doesn't do that, they operate like a machine, they look at the data, the numbers and they looked at this and said, "wait, we can build around a Princess a movie people can actually see? Ka-Ching.
Want to protest something folks? Protest the dang Dessert Parties(oh they will come back some day) that keep taking up more of the prime space for fireworks views, or forcing you to buy a crappy meal to get good seats at Fantasmic. Protest hard ticket nights to be at the park till 12AM, something that USED to be consistently free! Don't let the company changing a ride to cut itself from a movie they are embarrassed about be what you rally around.

They 100% bend to the media and change for those reasons.... This is for sure a result of the potential of negative press.... No other reason to change a ride that is considered the best of the best in Disney.

 

[LF85]

Well I am, they are hilariously predictable. It's almost full deja-vu from Guardian tower days. I saw this announcement and could see the foam forming a mile away.

And that it why I said it was an ignorant post.

Well I am, they are hilariously predictable. It's almost full deja-vu from Guardian tower days. I saw this announcement and could see the foam forming a mile away.

Ahh.. So people shouldn’t be upset about it. You think it is funny to watch people get mad about something they like or care about.

 

[phillip9698]

Im honestly surprised they are spending the money to do this.

It probably would have been cheaper if Disney just created an updated film with the Br'er Rabbit stories but by someone from todays time, then threw it on Disney+. Then just come out with some PR saying they felt like the stories were historically important enough to keep alive but the setting originally attached to them was problematic.

 

[Tony Perkis]

They 100% bend to the media and change for those reasons.... This is for sure a result of the potential of negative press.... No other reason to change a ride that is considered the best of the best in Disney.

Stop talking about Alien Encounter.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Wait til they yank George, Tom, Abe, and Donny out of HoP. It'll be renamed to: "Hall of a few of the Presidents"

 

[_caleb]

@mdktf @marni1971 @tirian @wdwmagic

Is there any hope of stopping this? Are there emails I can send? Phone numbers I can call? I've signed a change.org petition but I just don't see that as being enough. I cannot imagine visiting MK or DL without riding Splash--This is actually a turning point for me. This is serious enough for me to begin winding down visits to Disney properties and exploring new resort and vacation destinations. I am beyond saddened by this knee-jerk and silly decision.

You can ask to speak to a manager.

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

FWIW, on the LinkedIn post announcing this change, an engineer named Rod Kurihara who worked on Splash initially said that he welcomes it and that it's "time".

Edited to add: Also, all but I believe one comment is in support of the change; further evidence that the Disney fan community isn't exactly a barometer for public opinion.

 

[Hockey89]

They 100% bend to the media and change for those reasons.... This is for sure a result of the potential of negative press.... No other reason to change a ride that is considered the best of the best in Disney.

It is not even a question... That people think otherwise, is amazing.... They will ruin one of the best rides on property to make the woke mob happy....

 

[Horizons1]

Can we call Imagination racist so they'll make a new one with help from Tony Baxter?

Sure. It’s easy nowadays. Everything and anything is racist if we claim it to be. Like the number 24, that’s now racist. Let’s burn it down because it hurt my feelings.