Well, it would seem that everyone missed the point of my post.
Princess and the Frog - grossed $104M domestic, $267M worldwide (more than doubled it's budget by the way), imdb rating of 7.1, and was the first and only black princess in disney history. This movie meant a lot to a lot of people, please stop trying to downplay that as if it was some meaningless movie release and a horrible flop. Like Black Panther, this movie was important because there are little black children around the world who want to see themselves portrayed on screen (and at disney world) as a princess, hero or even a background character.
Hey, I like
The Princess and the Frog. My annoyance with the retheme has nothing to do with whether or not I like the movie. But Disney did indeed brush it off as a flop. It wasn't a bomb, but it didn't make as much money as they were hoping (likely because it was up against films like
AVATAR and the second
Alvin and the Chipmunks movie), and that somehow convinced them that hand-drawn animated films were dangerous. If it weren't for the fact that Tiana is included in the Disney Princess line, Disney likely wouldn't have acknowledged the film at all throughout the 2010s. And now they're going to retheme a popular ride to it? Seems very suspicious.
You clearly understand that the current ride theme is problematic, you said so yourself.
No, I understand that
Song of the South is problematic. The ride and the movie are not the same thing.
why someone would call re-theming a problematic ride to be sleazy and self-serving?
Modern Disney can be, and has been, a very sleazy company. They filmed a movie near a concentration camp. They blacklisted Steve Whitmire, the former puppeteer of Kermit the Frog, because he constantly disagreed with the direction they were taking the Muppets in. They shut down Blue Sky Studios, putting millions of people out of work, and yet continue to profit off their productions by making sequels to them without their involvement or approval (basically on par with their plans to do sequels to PIXAR movies without PIXAR's involvement or approval in the 2000s). Wasn't there something from 2020 or 2021 about them not crediting an author or something? I'm not going to immediately assume they're doing this out of the kindness of their hearts.
Is it because imagineering is taking credit for a twitter idea that anyone could have come up with?
Yes. That is it. Anyone can think they're only doing this because people demanded it
anti-black ride to black princess ride
Splash Mountain was never intended to be an anti-black ride. And while
Song of the South is indeed racist, I don't think the movie was intended to be "anti-black" either.
- Disney had already come up with the idea to retheme Splash Mountain before that kid posted about it on Twitter.
Proof, please. And no, Disney's claim does not qualify as solid proof.
- The kid on Twitter engaged in armchair imagineering. People do this all the time
Yes, but very rarely do those ideas that other armchair imagineers come up with gain an insane amount of publicity and spark petitions to get them built.
- Twitter is not real life. What you see there is not an accurate picture of Disney's audience.
- This site is also not real life. What you see here is not an accurate picture of Disney's audience.
You mean people who believe Splash Mountain is the embodiment of racism and that Disney should be lauded for retheming it to a movie that's suddenly being considered the anti-
Song of the South? That IS the audience Disney is aiming for with the retheme, isn't it?
- Disney does not decide what they're going to do based on online petitions.
They likely do if it'll benefit them and their image in any way. The Splash Mountain retheme does. Something like, say, bringing back Dreamfinder does not.
- There is no coincidence or conspiracy about this.
I thought the fact that Frederick Chambers just so happened to have the same idea as the Disney imagineers WAS a coincidence. And how do you KNOW there's no conspiracy?
- The Princess and the Frog was not a flop. It failed to inspire a renaissance of hand-drawn animation, as some had hoped.
As I said before, Disney saw it as a flop. That doesn't automatically mean it WAS a flop, but in Disney's eyes it was.
- TPatF is extremely important to an important fanbase because of its African American protagonist.
True. But I doubt Disney cares about how big a fanbase Tiana has. If they cared about how large a fanbase a character has, they'd have brought Dreamfinder back by now.
- You can try to separate the characters from Song of the South, as Disney tried to do when they built Splash Mountain. But Disney doesn't think that approach is viable anymore.
They've barely tried outside of Splash Mountain, which opened DECADES AGO. The only other noteworthy appearance of the Brers in anything since then is
Kinect Disneyland Adventures.
- Disney is trying to see theme park tickets, digital content, and merchandise. They are not subject to mob rule, but they are trying to build their brand around certain values that they believe will best position them to make money near- and long-term.
Yes, and they think bowing to the mob will best position them to make money near- and long-term. Like I said, the retheme makes Disney look good. That doesn't automatically mean they have good intentions.
And you people do realize Chambers isn't even doing anything to deny that he's responsible for this mess getting started, right? He's letting people do interviews with him over his idea and mocks Splash Mountain fans on Twitter.
