LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
Why are we mincing our words by using “workers” instead of “enslaved people”?
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Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion
- Thread starter Californian Elitist
- Start date
Tony the Tigger
Well-Known Member
This is a gross oversimplification of the issue.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
Thank you for continuing to inject some reality into this topic; I’m sorry you keep having to do so. Hopefully once the new ride opens people will move on.
BrerFoxesBayouAdventure
Well-Known Member
No where because I doubt anyone cared to look beyond "Song of the South" for anything featuring the stories and characters.
I have to. I feel inclined to do so, especially because I’m pretty sure I’m one of just two black people continuously posting in this thread that is concerns topics related to black people.
Lots of delusion going on.
I could have missed something, but I'm under the impression that she's still the owner of her restaurant, but the produce company is co-op. A co-op involves people pooling their resources, not someone divvying up their property and giving out shares freely to others.
Correct. No one cared then and people really don’t care now.
BrerFoxesBayouAdventure
Well-Known Member
A darn shame. They're good fun.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I don't know anyone who did that.
I've said this a million times now in this forum over the past 20 years, but for the first five years I didn't even know Splash Mountain had a plotline until I rode the slower and better-paced WDW version around 1994. Once you understand the plotline from the better paced WDW or Tokyo versions, or do 5 minutes of Googling on Song of the South, Splash Mountain at Disneyland makes more sense as some of the blank spots get filled in by Google or other parks.
Going on Disneyland's version circa 1989 to 1993 and Pre-Internet, and with no known viewing of Song of the South in my memory banks to draw from, I honestly just thought it was a ride about singing animals and a rabbit jumping down a mountain into the briar patch to escape the bad guy fox and his bumbling bear assistant. Exit to your left, photos available for purchase.
Now, in 2023, with Google giving us all the info we ever need to draw from, it's easy to say that we feel one way or another about a log ride with singing chickens. But in 1990? Nope. I can confidently say that 98% of us had no idea what was going on, we only knew that Disneyland had a new log ride that was way better than Knott's Berry Farm.
Which ones? The appropriated ones or the authentic ones?
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Does it even matter, to be honest? Both versions of those stories are now memory-holed into the dustbin of history, never to be spoken about again. They even closed a theme park log ride with singing robot chickens because of it.
The stories and their authors are gone, erased. No one knows what it is any more, or is allowed to discuss it really.
BrerFoxesBayouAdventure
Well-Known Member
DL version is severely hampered by its reuse of America Sings animatronics. I hope I'm not the only one who thinks that.
Also your description of the ride's events made me realize how genuinely stupid Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear are. Not only do they see a mailbox with Br'er Rabbit's name on it outside the briar patch, the rabbit also sings about living in it.
Yes, it absolutely does matter.
The rest of your post is completely wrong. As I stated before, I studied the Uncle Remus Tales in graduate school in my American Literature course. That was 2019.
The stories have not been erased and people are not forbidden from discussing them.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I would have to imagine that the number of Americans, much less the number of Disneyland visitors, that have studied the Uncle Remus stories in some sort of college course is very, very small. Miniscule really, when you compare it to 330 Million people in this country.
Likely not much larger than the percentage of Louisianans in the 1930 Census who were Chinese. Or 0.02% of the population.
But hey, if you can add a tiny number of Chinese folks into a ride about vintage New Orleans and a sax playing alligator, go for it! It will continue the tradition of that log ride not making much sense to most people, so that will kind of be nice actually.
What does the number of people who’ve studied it in college matter? You made an exaggerated and ridiculously wild claim that the stories have been erased. They obviously haven’t.
The rest of your post has nothing to do with the current topic at hand, so I won’t address it.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I don't think the vast majority of Americans know who Uncle Remus is. He wasn't even in the log ride at Disneyland that just closed.
Is there some college class on American lit that uses his books for a bit of the curriculum? I'm sure. But that's a very tiny minority of Americans who could even describe Uncle Remus, let alone speak about his work knowledgeably for 5 minutes.
I think you just did.
But it was not big deal, just a reminder that WDI has now included the 422 people, or 0.02% of the popultion, who were of Chinese descent who lived in Louisiana in 1930 into the story of Princess Tiana's log ride. Because apparently Tiana isn't interesting enough all on her own and her story needs a little help with some zing and some excitement. Also Filipinos and Mexicans. Tiana is kind of dull all on her own, I guess? They needed some oomph for her backstory? https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1932/dec/1930a-vol-03-population.html
Rich T
Well-Known Member
My interpretation of the whole thing:
1) Disney wants to disassociate themselves completely from Song of the South, a mediocre film that has aged so poorly into realms of jaw-dropping offensiveness that it has become Disney’s social media PR kryptonite. They are locking it, and any references to it, away in their lead-lined vault and will henceforth pretend it never existed.
2) Of all their IPs on hand, The Princess and the Frog was the one that checked the most boxes toward being a perfect candidate for their flume ride retheme: New Orleans, a diverse and appealing cast of characters, swamps, water travel, singing animals, magic, catchy tunes and a general atmosphere of joy, celebration and optimism.
3) This is today’s bloated Walt Disney Company handling this, so it is absolutely no surprise that they have taken what seemed to be an opportunity for a logical, straightforward installation of the perfect new IP and disappointed fans by implying they removed all the cool, scary elements of TpatF and introduced new backstory edutainment details I’m certain someone in a committee thought would be well-received and awesome.
4) And now we wait and hope they make it work.
1) Disney wants to disassociate themselves completely from Song of the South, a mediocre film that has aged so poorly into realms of jaw-dropping offensiveness that it has become Disney’s social media PR kryptonite. They are locking it, and any references to it, away in their lead-lined vault and will henceforth pretend it never existed.
2) Of all their IPs on hand, The Princess and the Frog was the one that checked the most boxes toward being a perfect candidate for their flume ride retheme: New Orleans, a diverse and appealing cast of characters, swamps, water travel, singing animals, magic, catchy tunes and a general atmosphere of joy, celebration and optimism.
3) This is today’s bloated Walt Disney Company handling this, so it is absolutely no surprise that they have taken what seemed to be an opportunity for a logical, straightforward installation of the perfect new IP and disappointed fans by implying they removed all the cool, scary elements of TpatF and introduced new backstory edutainment details I’m certain someone in a committee thought would be well-received and awesome.
4) And now we wait and hope they make it work.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
A good summary
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Professortango1
Well-Known Member
Her background is as a person of limited means. Her family is poor.
Once again, the movie focuses on wealth and power disparity free from any racial issues. If other themes of race were present, I'd support your interpretation, however Disney chose to not have any characters' racial identity inform their actions and character nor the way the other characters and society interacted with them. If this indeed is the Fenners being racist, it is the sole moment in the entire film. OR, its another moment that plays into the very present themes of perception of wealth and power.
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
I've addressed this scene. Based upon the film and the themes it presents and the lack of racial themes, I don't think this can be viewed as evidence of racial discrimination but rather is a scene depicting how people without money are treated. The movie plays off of the perception of wealth and race never informs how characters treat one another. The people of New Orleans clearly do not discriminate against Naveen, a person of color.