Splash Mountain re-theme announced

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thomas998

Well-Known Member
Iger seems to be a nice guy but unfortunately he is just too woke for me. I really wish Disney would take the politics out of their operations. You would have thought they learned their lesson with that sinking ship ESPN. People stopped watching once it got too political.
Don't expect them to learn anything until the entire company is gutted and on life support. The one thing I've learned about bad management is that it is never willing to change direction of anything because that would indicate they made a mistake. I'm seeing some signs of that at Disney and I don't expect it to change anytime soon.
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
But didn't they cut ties with him based on now proven false allegations?

From what I understand- The allegations are false (Cheers to all you* bandwagon-cancel-crew, once again) ... he will be in the upcoming movie, but as a small role.. the main character is a female.
This is another lazy slap-on-for-soical consciousnesses move by Disney.. as rah-rah-female as I am, leave Pirates alone.. Johnny Depp belongs in the lead role. Create a completely new movie with a female lead, not Pirates of the Caribbean. Stop replacing things to prove how modern you are, it stinks of trying too hard, just create a new story instead.

*the “you” was directed at you, speaking to those who the term applies
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
What about Casey Jr Circus area? Circuses are known for animal cruelty. Chalk that one up for offensive material.

In terms of re-theming SM, I had a thought of another possible tie in. What about Lone Ranger? It would totally fit in with Frontierland. Honestly, haven't seen the movie so no idea if there's anything in it that could be deemed racist or offensive.
The circus tents in the Dumbo film were pitched by black slaves. It has as much basis to be rethemed as Splash does based on the argument that the source material is offensive, and it’s presence in the parks “reminds” people of the offensive source material.
 

Matt_Black

Well-Known Member
Even ignoring the slavery/ Reconstruction portions, the movie isn't even ABOUT Uncle Remus. His main narrative focus in the film is to make a little white kid feel better about himself. He doesn't have any goals of his own. That's a continuing trope in American fiction that has been often criticized.
 

Dizknee_Phreek

Well-Known Member
From what I understand- The allegations are false (Cheers to all you* bandwagon-cancel-crew, once again) ... he will be in the upcoming movie, but as a small role.. the main character is a female.
This is another lazy slap-on-for-soical consciousnesses move by Disney.. as rah-rah-female as I am, leave Pirates alone.. Johnny Depp belongs in the lead role. Create a completely new movie with a female lead, not Pirates of the Caribbean. Stop replacing things to prove how modern you are, it stinks of trying too hard, just create a new story instead.

*the “you” was directed at you, speaking to those who the term applies
With you 100%! I loved PotC (well, the first 3). And I'm all girl power, feminism as well...but leave Pirates well enough alone. They've made, what, 5 films? Let it rest...find another story to tell about something else.
 

SilentWindODoom

Well-Known Member
I have long since accepted Disney’s stereotypical portrayal of women.. The rub with Princess and the Frog was that they set it up as a “we’re finally acknowledging that women can be independent”, only to then have her give up all of her ambitions to become a frog. 😂🤦‍♀️ Finally with Elsa they got it almost right, and then Moana was perfect, imo.
It took many decades for Disney to get there, but they finally did.

All of that said, I don’t begrudge Disney their former stereotypes.. most of them were a product of their time (even though they should have known better by the time of Ariel and Tiana). I understand the long road though, which is why I don’t call for their demise. Same with CoP. I love that attraction, even while it makes my stomach churn a bit while watching it.. It’s a weird feeling, but I love it because the song is great, and the attraction reminds me that progress has been made.

Jeez. This thread moves fast.

Tiana did both. She got all that she wanted and became a well-rounded person. She only gave up when all was lost, and found what was good about the current situation. She reached her ambitions and got more.

I am curious as to how Elsa wasn't quite right and the stomach churning parts of Carousel.

I can’t share your sentiments here, as I don’t have such a low opinion of black people, sorry.

*sigh* People are people. That's what I believe. I don't have a low opinion on anyone. But the South in the early 1900's was not a kind place and people weren't treated equally. A lot of people suffered injustice, and acknowledging that, which they did, is authentic to the experience. And most of that was to counter the argument that Tiana's journey had absolutely no depth besides hijinks and magical misadventures, not that she's not a real black princess.

Guess I'm odd because I found Splash Mountain to be perfectly placed!

It kinda fits because it's rustic, but Frontierland is meant to be based on the Westward expansion of America. Splash Mountain is set in the Southeast, in a region settled before the Revolution. It's distinctly East of the Mississippi.

Look up the very detailed theming that went into the creation of Frontierland and Liberty Square in Magic Kingdom. It's really cool. The Mansion is New York. The Hall of Presidents is Philadelphia. The Golden Horseshoe is the last vestige of the East in St. Louis. A notable underground waterway is the Mississippi. And then it goes West from there to the Southwest Pecos Bill's. The addresses of each building also are the year the building would have been build, the styles becoming more and more modern as you go.
 

Matt_Black

Well-Known Member
From what I understand- The allegations are false (Cheers to all you* bandwagon-cancel-crew, once again) ... he will be in the upcoming movie, but as a small role.. the main character is a female.
This is another lazy slap-on-for-soical consciousnesses move by Disney.. as rah-rah-female as I am, leave Pirates alone.. Johnny Depp belongs in the lead role. Create a completely new movie with a female lead, not Pirates of the Caribbean. Stop replacing things to prove how modern you are, it stinks of trying too hard, just create a new story instead.

*the “you” was directed at you, speaking to those who the term applies

I have absolutely no problem with Johnny Depp having a smaller role. Each subsequent movie has had more and more Jack Sparrow, and the Law Of Diminishing Returns have kicked in, with each movie getting less money and less positive reviews. We need a movie that's a bit of a sorbet, to cleanse the palate, so we might fully appreciate MORE Depp in a future film.
 

thomas998

Well-Known Member
Just found this beauty on an Instagram post...View attachment 479945
Yet another ignorant rant by a clueless woke warrior that clearly has no clue about the movie or even the history of California. The movie wasn't set during slavery so clearly Mr. Baskett wasn't playing a slave in the movie since there were no slaves in it. Of course it also begs the question as to how the ride is slavery themed when it is connected to a movie set after slavery had ended. As for not being able to use the bathroom when he got his award, well segregation had ended by the time Mr. Baskett got his award so once again the woke warrior fails. While unclear from the rambling rant what the race of the writer is it has the air of a non-black author, which then begs the question as to how someone that isn't black knows so much about how a black person feels about the ride... does this woke warrior have ESP?
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
Yeah! A real black princess would probably face racism and economical inequality while watching her white contemporaries luxuriate in privilege. She would suffer for her dreams, leading her to get into a mindset of focus on work and forgoing recreation, camaraderie, and even love.

Unfortunately, Princess and the Frog lacked any such depth and Tiana just turned into a frog.



The reasoning isn't "Let's throw a Black girl on it to prove we're woke." Splash Mountain takes place in the American South and features a cast of singing animals. Princess and the Frog takes place in the American South and a huge chunk of the cast is, for at least a portion of the film, animals. Double whammy for it taking place in New Orleans given the Disneyland placement. The fact of the matter is that the Magic Kingdom placement of Splash Mountain has NEVER made sense and threw off the initial theming thread of going old-moden and East-West from the Mansion to Pecos Bill's. I think that Tiana being black is gravy in their minds because even if she was white the property would have been the switch that made the most sense.
Splash still fits the time period. It’s 1800s African American folklore. And they made modifications to the music and the setpieces to make it fit the land.

None of that will be in the retheme. The bluegrass style of music will be gone. It will be jazz in both places. The ride will forever stick out like a sore thumb in Frontierland, until they decide to replace it, or change the land.
 

celluloid

Well-Known Member
Even ignoring the slavery/ Reconstruction portions, the movie isn't even ABOUT Uncle Remus. His main narrative focus in the film is to make a little white kid feel better about himself. He doesn't have any goals of his own. That's a continuing trope in American fiction that has been often criticized.

It shows while even the wealthy and born free can be more miserable than other who do not have each other. this emphasized at the start where Johnny's family drops him off and they are having family troubles and Johnny cannot understand while those people including Remus can be so happy, even, even while having very little. Johnny wants to run away from his problems and presumes that is the right way and learns you can't run from trouble, there ain't no place that far.
 

Matt_Black

Well-Known Member
It shows while even the wealthy and born free can be more miserable than other who do not have each other. this emphasized at the start where Johnny's family drops him off and they are having family troubles and Johnny cannot understand while those people including Remus can be so happy, even, even while having very little. The boy wants to run away from his problems and presumes that is the right way and learns you can't run from trouble, there ain't no place that far.

That's great. What's the character arc for Uncle Remus?
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
With you 100%! I loved PotC (well, the first 3). And I'm all girl power, feminism as well...but leave Pirates well enough alone. They've made, what, 5 films? Let it rest...find another story to tell about something else.

They think that we want to replace men.. which is almost as bad as thinking we need to be saved by men. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

They think this way, because so many of the Woke Folks think replacement equals “winning”. They’re too shallow to see that replacement shouldn’t be the goal.. we are not so simple minded that we can’t enjoy things that still have male leads, or stories of a time when men were dominant. Most of us aren’t that weak.. all I want is for not all stories not to be of male dominance.. which I think has happened in many areas. Disney is just still struggling on how to do that, with many of their previous stereotypes.. if they weren’t struggling with that, then they wouldn’t feel the need to replace things with a ‘look we it took it away and gave it to you!’
 

manmythlegend

Well-Known Member
I have a genuine question. Other than the ties to the film, which says it’s in Georgia, does Magic Kingdom’s Splash Mountain seem like it could take place in the American frontier? I thought I read that they changed the music style, colors, etc for it to fit at MK and if they went through lengths to change the setting for the ride, then the film setting shouldn’t matter.

I mean is it supposed to be taken literally? I can't imagine seeing bears doing a hoe-down in the frontier either. Splash is just a log ride down a mountain which seems it could have happened in the frontier despite the location being Georgia.
 

Matt_Black

Well-Known Member
Narrators rarely have a story arch. He was a wise man who in the books is literally the narrator. That does not make it racist. That is a storytelling critique.
Remus is the one character in the film considered morally right, so he doesn’t have much of a character growth arc. The other characters grow because of him and his actions.

And if that sort of thing were confined to just this movie, that would be an acceptable answer. Except we keep seeing movies where some white person needs advice, and oh, there's a friendly African-American there to dispense some sage wisdom! The Legend Of Bagger Vance and The Green Mile being two notable relatively recent examples.
 

Musical Mermaid

Well-Known Member
I mean is it supposed to be taken literally? I can't imagine seeing bears doing a hoe-down in the frontier either. Splash is just a log ride down a mountain which seems it could have happened in the frontier despite the location being Georgia.
Well, that was my point, that there’s nothing in the ride that says that it’s in Georgia. People jump to that conclusion based off of the movie, but developers worked to make the location fit more with the Frontierland scheme. They’re a bunch of fictional animals, so they could have lived there. And Brer Roadrunner? I don’t have time to analyze all the animals, there may be some eastern ones too, but he was one that stood out to me as a sign of being in the west.
 
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