Splash Mountain re-theme announced

[getdislove]

I wish it were a new attraction built on an expansion pad. This replaces a ride full of animals, not people of any color. And if she’s a frog for most of the ride...

No, it replaces a ride with animals and racial undertones. As a child, I googled where splash originated from and found out what SOTS was that way. That’s when I found out the movie had racial undertones. It was a sad day for me. I was a CHILD. I loved Disney. Finding that out hurt, but I settled on that because I knew that representation did not really matter to Disney, and a lot of these other huge corporations who suddenly care and see us now.

So I googled Splash after visiting Disney, imagine how many other Black kids did the same.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

This is the thread you're looking for. Warning: it was moved to the Politics section....

Disney Launches Internal Attractions Diversity and Values Review Team

Multiple sources have reached out to me today to inform of a new review board being assembled to look at Disney Parks shows and attractions for elements that do not align with as of yet not public principles. My sources do not know if the review board has been filled or by whom. They do both...

forums.wdwmagic.com

I'm quite a ways skimming through that thread, and so far all i see is political discussion. I'm looking for details about what sort of scenery the ride will use (how dense the sets will be, physical vs projections) and whether the ride will still retain a similar quantity and quality of animatronic figures. Is any of this addressed by insiders in the thread?

 

[MisterPenguin]

I wish it were a new attraction built on an expansion pad. This replaces a ride full of animals, not people of any color. And if she’s a frog for most of the ride...

The purpose of the retheme is to retire any references to Song of the South. It's not about finding a place for Tiana.

And as the Disney Parks Blog says about this, the ride's story takes place after the movie ends, so, Tiana shouldn't be in frog form.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Well the movie was condemned by the NAACP when it opened in 1946. It has never been released on home video because Disney was aware of its issues and was last released in theaters in 1986. The ride opened in 1989 years after Michael Eisner announced it had been permanently banished to the Disney vault.

It was released on VHS and laserdisc in Japan, the UK and South America. Every few years or so, someone manages to get the full length movie up onto YouTube.

 

[lebeau]

Must have been weird cashing checks when dead. Estate I guess.

By the way, Joel Chandler Harris was an advocate for Black Rights, when the country was in much rougher shape directly relating to race. A human with flaws, but an awesome dude. An original ally before that was a common tossed around phrase without any risk because our country is not majority racist.

I'm responding to all the comments that The Song of the South was an adaptation of folklore. Close. It's actually an adaptation of the appropriation of folklore.

 

[Figurehead]

Breaking news: Disney properties to go vegan after AK safari animals demonstrate by dumping Dole Whip in Bay Lake.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Now that the decision has been made, what does this mean for the larger refresh of the Fronterlands and specifically Magic Kingdom at WDW? Not that Splash Mountain 1.0 fit perfectly (it didn't) but I'm very intrigued about how WDI will handle land transitions and thematic shifts in and around Adventureland/Frontierland/Liberty Square now that P&F has entered the scene. Critter Country to Cajun Country? Will MK get a New Orleans square? Will Splash Mountain 2.no be a part of Adventureland now? Frontierland with a retheme?

Or are we just expecting a P&F refresh to the rides and that's that!?

 

[celluloid]

I'm responding to all the comments that The Song of the South was an adaptation of folklore. Close. It's actually an adaptation of the appropriation of folklore.

Yeah, he was a terrible man for giving a voice to people who did not have one and choosing his success to do what is right even if not popular. If that is approrpation great. He used his wealth for good. Quit demonizing. At least read a wiki article you are going to link.

 

[RoysCabin]

There's nothing racist about the "tar baby" story; unless you're uncomfortable with the fact that black people exist, having black skin.

Once again, the answer on that is "it's complicated".

The origins of tar as a signifier goes back to the days in which, as described by Frederick Douglass in his autobiography, some slave masters would put tar walls around their private gardens. Given their often unfulfilling diets, many slaves, eager to eat the fruit from the garden, would try to get past the tar wall to take an apple or orange for themselves, but the tar appearing on their skin marked them as guilty, leading to them being whipped for insubordination. The tar became a symbol of fear: risk the tar, risk the lash.

In fairness, as originally constructed the tar baby story is meant to depict Brer Rabbit's quick wits and survival skills when confronted with a similar trap. Unfortunately, the term evolved in usage over time, taking on more negative meanings as it was used derisively and insultingly, usually towards black children. More details here: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesal...-rights-rooted-in-the-inequalities-of-slavery

As for ebonics, I think it's pretty clear that people most often take issue with it when it's non-black people depicting the dialect; slave dialect used to be referred to as Pidgin (among numerous other names), and unfortunately when used by non-black writers it usually was meant to depict African Americans as simple, "happy go lucky", or lacking a "formal" education. Again, it wasn't always used maliciously, as in the original Uncle Remus tales or in the way those who transcribed Sojourner Truth's life story used it to try and elicit sympathy for her and thus for the wider abolitionist project, but it doesn't change that it has a history of being used to infantilize others when used by those outside the community that speaks the dialect.

 

[lebeau]

It was released on VHS and laserdisc in Japan, the UK and South America. Every few years or so, someone manages to get the full length movie up onto YouTube.

True. But the point was that Disney was aware of the issues long before the ride opened.

 

[Yankee Dale]

Hello,

Black Disney Parks fan here. I have been reading/lurking these forums since I was 12 years old (now i’m 23) so maybe I can put things into perspective here.

I have stanned Disney Parks for my ENTIRE life and I have visited every year but I have always felt overlooked as a black person in the disney community. I’ve always loved the ride design, seeing walt’s visions come to life, etc but never in my life have I thought that Disney would make a decision that felt near and dear to my heart as a Black person. All I am saying is that representation matters.

Splash mountain was absolutely one of my favorite rides, but I am open to this change. I’ve never watched PatF, partly because it was offensive imo that they made the first Black princess an animal for half of the movie, but I think this change had to be made. It was always in the back of my mind that Splash came from a movie with racist undertones but it never sat right with me, but I took the ride for what it was and dealt with it because for me, it felt like Disney had never seen or heard their Black park visitors, so I pretty much settled and took Disney for what it was.

Hearing about this news yesterday actually made me cry tears of joy because I never expected a change like that to happen at Disney, but seeing the comments in here from Twitter made me upset, especially seeing some of my favorite fonts show their true colors. I felt visible to Disney Parks FINALLY as a Black woman. I didn’t even know that there were black imagineers....I didn’t know it was possible. I have been in predominantly white spaces my entire life, so I had no idea a change like this at Disney would be possible. It took me growing up to realize that representation is super important, especially in theme parks. It’s great to see that representation starting from a young age.


Imagine loving a theme park so much, but when you visit, you never see people who look like you being represented in the attractions. It’s actually insulting.

Great Post.
Before marrying my wife and having our daughter my white privilege never let me see how important representation is.
PATF is my daughter's favorite movie (has seen it atleast 100 times) and Tiana her favorite princess. Can't wait for her to experience the new ride.

It's long overdue for Disney to feature a person of color in a major ride.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I'm quite a ways skimming through that thread, and so far all i see is political discussion. I'm looking for details about what sort of scenery the ride will use (how dense the sets will be, physical vs projections) and whether the ride will still retain a similar quantity and quality of animatronic figures. Is any of this addressed by insiders in the thread?

No insider has revealed more about the ride than what has been revealed in the Disney Parks Blog blurb.

 

[lebeau]

Yeah, he was a terrible man for giving a voice to people who did not have one and choosing his success to do what is right even if not popular. If that is approrpation great. He used his wealth for good. Quit demonizing. At least read a wiki article you are going to link.

Please stop putting words in my mouth. I didn't say a thing about Joel Chandler Harris. I was merely pointing out that Song of the South was based on the writings of a white author. His writings were based on folklore. Some people here are ignoring or unaware there was a middleman.

 

[Tha Realest]

No single film deserves its own land.

Then why did they build an entire land around THE LAST JEDI?

 

[WDW Pro]

Only yourself and others here flailing in their arguments are claiming the “woke” garbage. By accounts of insiders, they knew the problematic elements of the ride for years, hence having artwork and a loose plan in place. It was fast tracked due to recent events.

Of course they care about money; they’re a business. I wouldn’t expect less.

As a business that holds these IPs, they can decided to change what and when they want. In this instance, they chose Splash. As mentioned, it’s likely other changes will come. That is their right.

There are no insiders saying what you've stated. It's a provable lie. Splash mountain literally just had a new track installed that will have to be adjusted yet again because it wasn't designed for the incoming alterations.

 

[hokielutz]

Well the movie was condemned by the NAACP when it opened in 1946. It has never been released on home video because Disney was aware of its issues and was last released in theaters in 1986. The ride opened in 1989 years after Michael Eisner announced it had been permanently banished to the Disney vault.

Yet three years after the final release of the film... they opened the ride. How does this say they knew the ride had problematic elements?? They knew continuing to release the movie was not what they wanted to do... yet they came up with a ride with theming and elements that focused on morals.
What is outrageous is this was a hastily thrown together and announced plan shortly after an online petition to retheme it was picked up in the news a few weeks ago. There was far more fervor & demand for Disney to act recently on issues such as letting the Yeti rot in one position without a fix, yet a small number of bandwagon petition signers and fears of opening day bad press shift the Mouse redesign two existing rides??

 

[Speedy71]

Look up the “magical negro” trope.

 

[celluloid]

Please stop putting words in my mouth. I didn't say a thing about Joel Chandler Harris. I was merely pointing out that Song of the South was based on the writings of a white author. His writings were based on folklore. Some people here are ignoring or unaware there was a middleman.

You said who cashed the checks, which was an odd comment considering Joel was dead by the time Walt was 7 years old, and you linked to the wiki article with an image showing he was a white man, as if that matters. He did the work to write and compose the stories. Your words and false arugments are plenty published here. No words are added. By definition, folklore is full of middlemen. There are many published versions of folkstories done in many ways. It would be like saying there is a valid reason to show that Walt was not a native european of the countries that had the fairy tales he adapted. You don't need to presume everyone is an idiot just because they do not agree with you.

 

[MickeyMouse10]

I don't know why Song of the South gets so much heat, while others remain unscathed. No one is clamoring to get rid of the Dumbo or Peter Pan rides. Despite the racism it shows towards African and Native Americans in their movies.

 

[hokielutz]

I'm quite a ways skimming through that thread, and so far all i see is political discussion. I'm looking for details about what sort of scenery the ride will use (how dense the sets will be, physical vs projections) and whether the ride will still retain a similar quantity and quality of animatronic figures. Is any of this addressed by insiders in the thread?

No because this has not made it that far along the planning process. If it was, SM would not re-open or already have a close date on the calendar.