No threat, no villain, no tension, no danger etc., which are elements most other good Disney rides contain. It’s all very one-note, happy-happy, everyone’s cheerful, etc. from start to finish. It feels like a preschool story with a goal of creating no feelings of suspense that might frighten a toddler. Which is fine for Small World, but odd for a ride that features a 50 foot plunge.
Song of the South's reputation could've been easily cleared up had the company released it with a content warning attached to it, but there's no way they'd do that now.
Years ago back in the 2000s, Disney released a variety of titles under its Walt Disney Treasures collection. Included amongst these were chronological releases containing all of the Mickey, Donald, and Goofy cartoon shorts. All of the racially insensitive cartoons were included as this was an adult-oriented set intended for collectors instead of the general public.
*Ahem* That’s Mickey Mouse CLUB.
Thank you. Fixed. I’ll just…show myself out now…
Its ok you were just hungry at time..... I got your back.
dropofdisney.com
FTFY. Can't make it just Mardi Gras, that's too religious!
No kidding. I don't think we knew how good we had it then, now that we can see what they gave us for Tiana's ride.
Has Mr. Baxter ever spoken about what it was like for him to get to, or perhaps be burdened with, using and re-using the Marc Davis animals from America Sings? He certainly meshed them all into Splash Mountain beautifully, and at the time back then only us Disneyland nerds knew where they came from, or could recognize which Act they performed in on America Sings.
The Swamp Boys perform "Polly Wolly Doodle" in Act II of America Sings, Presented by Del Monte
The Swamp Boys. A riff on The Beach Boys. Get it? WED was hip back then, I tell you!
I agree that the treasures series would have been the right way to release the film. It wouldn't have sold many copies (only about 100,000-250,000 sets were made of each volume and I couldn't see Disney approving creating more than 500,000 copies for SOTS), but it would have put the movie in historic context and diminished its status as a "forbidden" banned Disney movie.
I brought this up in the WDW Tiana thread so I'll quote that post here:
This was something only found out about VERY recently, as an auction site had a listing for Splash Mountain Boys back in March of this year (that's 2024 for you future readers). Additionally, an animated series called Disney's Critter Country was being developed in the 90s for the Disney Afternoon with Br'er Fox as the main villain. There were definitely attempts to distance the characters from their problematic origins.
There was a genuine effort put forth to do both of these, but Iger shot them down. Floyd Norman, Disney’s first black animator, lobbied for something for awhile and kept getting turned away.
Oh, the attempts to create new media with Brer Rabbit would have needed to start in the Eisner era, before the public was aware that the Disney company was trying to actively separate the characters from Song of the South. I think it would have been too awkward for the Disney company to randomly start making new Brer Rabbit cartoons in the mid 2000s, when Iger took over.
It's funny you say that because Eisner was so heavily against putting the film on VHS with a content advisory disclaimer.
Eisner was uneasy about SOTS but he was comfortable enough with it to do a theatrical re-release in 86 and greenlight Splash Mountain. Between him and Iger, Eisner would be more likely to give such a Brer Rabbit spinoff an okay.
Another great picture!
I am pretty sure I recall reading some of Tony’s comments years ago about what it was like to have that responsibility of moving and keeping the ‘America Sings’ figures operational.
He enjoyed that show back when it was running, and he loved those character figures so wanted to do what he could to try to save them.
So they were included in the cast for ‘Splash Mountain’ almost from the start.
Some claim the figures were only saved because ‘Splash Mountain’ was way over budget and it was a desperation move.
They couldn’t afford the time or money for new figures, so reused the recently evicted critters from ‘Sings’.
I don’t buy that story…as I know I have heard Tony say he wanted to save those figures and they were always planned to be included in the ‘Zip-a-Dee River Run’.
The early storyboards and concept works show this to be true.
-
No kidding. I don't think we knew how good we had it then, now that we can see what they gave us for Tiana's ride.
Has Mr. Baxter ever spoken about what it was like for him to get to, or perhaps be burdened with, using and re-using the Marc Davis animals from America Sings? He certainly meshed them all into Splash Mountain beautifully, and at the time back then only us Disneyland nerds knew where they came from, or could recognize which Act they performed in on America Sings.
The Swamp Boys perform "Polly Wolly Doodle" in Act II of America Sings, Presented by Del Monte
The Swamp Boys. A riff on The Beach Boys. Get it? WED was hip back then, I tell you!
