Semi coming out of "retirement" to comment on this and long post ahead. My opinion about the IP swap here will be brief because it's actually relatively low on my concerns. That said, it's still sad and disappointing. For the record, while I actually don't find even the movie version of Song of the South racist, I don't like it either. I find all the parts besides animated and Uncle Remus scenes boring. Splash Mountain however is incredible and possibly my favorite ride (among those still operating at least). On the flipside, I REALLY like Princess and the Frog (even a couple of Randy Newman's songs are surprisingly decent). Far moreso than SOTS. And if this were under different circumstances and during a different era for the Disney company (25-30 years ago with the proper budget and creative talent), it would have the potential to be an incredible ride. But a hard no to it replacing Splash Mtn, and an even harder no to the modern Disney company handling it.
I have zero confidence (in fact less) that modern Disney has the desire or capacity to create anything close to Splash Mtn. Even 20+ years ago, it would have taken an enormous budget and truly outstanding imagineering team. Disney were already slashing budgets left and right before this mess. Covid and economic woes will do no favors to whatever paltry budgets have been debated for PATF since last year. I've also come to the unfortunate conclusion that most current imagineers probably lack the necessary creative talent as well.
Disney doesn't create rides like Splash Mtn anymore. This style of E ticket ride are from a bygone era that kicked off in 1967 with Pirates of the Caribbean and finally ended in 2001 with Tokyo's Sinbad. That isn't to say there haven't been other really good Disney rides since. Radiator Springs Racers, Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Mystic Manor are technically impressive ride systems with some nice scenes. And the single mine scene from 7DMT feels like it would be at home within a larger Splash Mtn caliber ride. But there's still nothing that truly matches the E tickets such as POTC, Horizons, SSE, World of Motion, Great Movie Ride, Splash Mtn etc etc. These rides were all notable for their numerous sets of rich densely detailed physical scenery and artistry as well as huge armies of well articulated animatronics. Video elements being kept to a minimum and supplemental role while the physical parts were front and center. They were also lengthy, 10 minutes at least, some 15 or even 20 minutes. At least PATF is likely to retain Splash's length.
My gravest concern is that the ride will be gutted and left as a literal hollow shell of its former self. I fear the imagineers (both lacking the necessary budget/resources AND possibly the creative/artistic talent) will be unable to replicate anything close to the same level of dense physical detail seen in Splash Mtn. I fear that significant amounts of physical scenery will be removed, leaving largely bare walls used for video projection. I also fear most if not all of the current animatronics will be removed and possibly scrapped. Reason being that their proportions are simultaneously too anthropomorphic for most of the movie's animal designs, but also not the right proportions for human characters either. It's also extremely unlikely they will fabricate new AA figures at a similar quantity to the ones being removed. Besides Louis, most animal figures will probably be small non-AA's and only use limited simple motion (or stationary) ala Little Mermaid's figures. There will probably be a couple of new decent human AA's, though likely very sparse in quantity and possibly utilizing the trendy (and more often than not, clumsy and poorly executed) facial projections seen in Frozenstrom. Though the B&TB ride in Tokyo uses physical articulated faces at least, so we'll see. Don't have high hopes for the story or its logic either.
So yeah, i'm not pleased with this news whatsoever. If it was the Disney company of 30 years ago i'd still be upset, but at least there would be hope that the replacement would be of comparable quality. Given the Disney company of today however, I have every reason to expect the literal worst out of this. Comments from
@marni1971 aren't very comforting either. Does anyone else with inside knowledge/details about the ride plans have any comments that can help address some of my stated concerns?
