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Should Splash Mountain have been rethemed?

Zeock

Zeock

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Is Wastelands Penitentiary (Tulleys Shocktober Fest) a ride? If not, my favourite ride is Nemesis.
Many people already miss the original theme of this classic, which is being rethemed because of the source material.
What do you think? I trust that things won't get too flared up.
 
Burbs said:
Why not start the discussion? What do you think?
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It is a very hard one, but I believe no. It was beloved by many, and there was (as far as I know) nothing racist in the ride itself, just in the source material.
 
I think we shouldn't turn a blind eye to racism.

On the other hand most people wouldn't know what the ride was themed to even after riding.

I think the new theme makes a lot of sense for Disney land as it matches the area well. I think they should have come up with a different theme for Disney world. Would have been nice to have different versions.

Tiana is a much more popular character and I think a lot of visitors will enjoy a ride themed to princess and the frog. I think it's a good move.

Disney has lots of classics, I don't think it's such a big deal to lose one.
 
The biggest loss will be the incredible soundtrack, of course taken from Song of the South.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay; My, oh, my, what a wonderful day!
 
A key part of the discussion is hard to really get given our position over the Atlantic (plus Brits cannot exactly be high and mighty on the whole racism thing).

End of the day it's based on a film Disney have attempted to erase from their history for decades. In addition to this, the times have changed considerably since it first opened. Was the ride itself inherently racist? No. However the content of the film it directly related to was (there's a reason they used a honey trap in the ride version after all), and therein lies the problem.

Whilst not glorifying it, standing by and ignoring the issue is just as bad (see also many other issues today). Warner Brothers acknowledged their racial caricatures in recent years in their cartoons. Disney have kind of, but only through removing certain films from the kids profile on Disney+.

In America the situation is still very publicly on-going. Disney removing this attraction to make way for their black princess is easy PR. Those who are bemoaning it's removal as a Disney iconic ride are often ignoring what their revered icon Walt once said. The kind of people who think Disney fan is enough of a personality to get through in life aren't the problem really.

End of the day the ride would always have THAT association with it. Much like how now anything Potter related is tainted by Queen of the TERFs. Changing it gets Disney out of THAT situation, unfortunately enthusiasts seem to over react to any changes these days. Just have to look at the Duel and Nemesis threads on here.

Disney fans though are next level over-reacters.
 
The detachment to the movie, which will not have been seen by pretty much any riders anyway what with it being unavailable everywhere for decades, means to me it doesn't seem necessary. You'd have had to go through some leaps to be offended by it, the material used in the context it was simply was not racist.

But then as a theme it wasn't really relevant to the known Disney universe either, so making it over to a modern and relevant IP of theirs certainly makes sense and gives an opportunity to improve and update the whole ride. If that removes something some people found problematic I suppose it's a bit of a win win.
 
It can also be looked at from the point of view that the parks should change more. Universal Studios Orlando opened around the same time as Splash Mountain, but there is only one original opening ride left still operating at Universal, ET. The park has changed significantly in 34 years. Why shouldn’t the Disney parks also not change.
 
Disney fans are far too precious over these attractions in my humble opinion. It's almost cult like.

It's been a great attraction that's been ridden by millions but so what? The hardware isn't changing so the ride experience isn't likely to change one iota. And now the theme won't be based on a very outdated story with slavery undertones either.

I honestly don't see how this has caused such a big fuss. Now if they had said they were knocking the whole thing down completely.......fair enough get your pitch forks.
 
Honestly if the controversy was the only reason for the retheme I think Disney would have done it a decade ago.

Fact is there is a small but vocal group who dislike it’s association with Songs of the south but Disney also want to get some of their later IP’s in the park, from their perspective it’s win-win.

Im sad Splash mountain is going as I did love it but I can see the logic of the retheme.
 
It’s a difficult one, as I can see where both sides of the argument are coming from, but I personally think that yes, Disney are right to change Splash Mountain.

Yes, I get that Splash Mountain is a classic. I get that nostalgia is a large part of the Disney experience and appeal compared to other parks, and removing Splash Mountain goes against that. I get that Splash Mountain in itself was not an inherently racist ride if taken at face value.

However, the links to Song of the South are still there, no matter how tenuous they may be. The ride is ultimately based around the film, and when you take the ride’s songs and change the context to fit the film about slavery that they were taken from, the undertone of the ride does become more sinister, and certainly less befitting of the modern day and the multicultural world we now live in.

Besides, Walt Disney always said that Disneyland will never be truly finished as long as there is still creativity in the world. Surely this Splash Mountain retheme is just embodying that spirit?

Also, I’d argue that this retheme could really enhance the ride. Disney’s new animatronics are stellar, and technology has moved on so much since Splash Mountain was first built!
 
Disney nowadays want to be able to cross market things, so they've got rides at the parks people can then watch films or TV shows about at home. Or watch films/tv shows, then ride them.

They've even made (and are making) films based on what were the generic IPs they'd designed solely as rides originally.

Splash Mountain stands out as people will go on the ride, then find they can't watch any ancillary media.
 
Is the ride going to be any less enjoyable though? The drops and thrills won't be changing and I imagine the new scenes they add for the Princess and the Frog theme will pull on new technology which can only be a good thing.

As I said...... Disney fans complain when there's nothing new and complain when they change things that have been around for years. They just like to complain really.
 
Matt N said:
It’s a difficult one, as I can see where both sides of the argument are coming from, but I personally think that yes, Disney are right to change Splash Mountain.

Yes, I get that Splash Mountain is a classic. I get that nostalgia is a large part of the Disney experience and appeal compared to other parks, and removing Splash Mountain goes against that. I get that Splash Mountain in itself was not an inherently racist ride if taken at face value.

However, the links to Song of the South are still there, no matter how tenuous they may be. The ride is ultimately based around the film, and when you take the ride’s songs and change the context to fit the film about slavery that they were taken from, the undertone of the ride does become more sinister, and certainly less befitting of the modern day and the multicultural world we now live in.

Besides, Walt Disney always said that Disneyland will never be truly finished as long as there is still creativity in the world. Surely this Splash Mountain retheme is just embodying that spirit?

Also, I’d argue that this retheme could really enhance the ride. Disney’s new animatronics are stellar, and technology has moved on so much since Splash Mountain was first built!
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I get the racism argument, which makes sense.
I'm sure when Walt Disney said that Disneyland would never be finished, he was want whatever ride that was being built or rethemed to be good. This isn't an argument because Tiana's Bayou Adventure isn't finished.
Animatronics have definitely improved since 1989, and the Splash Mountain ones are nothing special, except the 'Million Dollar' jumping rabbit animatronic. It depends on the budget of the retheme for what animatronics we get. The A1000 animatronics are amazing, but even in 2022, there are rides whose new animatronics are terrible. Take the Iron Man animatronic in Avengers Assemble: Flight Force, which opened last year.
 
As a side note, if anyone does want to learn more about Song of the South then I can strongly recommend the book Who's Afraid of the Song of the South by the excellent Jim Korkis (available on Amazon).
 
Benjsh said:
Is the ride going to be any less enjoyable though? The drops and thrills won't be changing and I imagine the new scenes they add for the Princess and the Frog theme will pull on new technology which can only be a good thing.

As I said...... Disney fans complain when there's nothing new and complain when they change things that have been around for years. They just like to complain really.
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It'll have black characters though. Which for some people is too far.

The sort who believe that woke is a valid argument and something to be shamed of.
 
Benjsh said:
Is the ride going to be any less enjoyable though? The drops and thrills won't be changing and I imagine the new scenes they add for the Princess and the Frog theme will pull on new technology which can only be a good thing.
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Its plausible that the scenes may not be as detailed, or they might use projected backdrops rather than as many physical props. But like all the discussion about Duel changing to the The Curse, we don't know exactly what the new sets will look like.

But the original Splash Mountain at Disneyland re-used animatronics from America Sings, it was designed as low-budget as possible using a lot of second hand animatronics from the old attraction. I think this was covered in an episode of The Imagineering Story.
 
Although I still think Splash Mountain shouldn't have been rethemed, at least the best version according to most, the one at Tokyo Disneyland, is staying. As long as one Splash Mountain stays, I can forgive the removal of the other two.
 
Even if the original theme wasn't racist - which it was - it was time for a retheme. What kids these days are going to know anything about Brer Rabbit?

The Princess and the Frog theme makes a lot of sense both from a diversity perspective and just in terms of moving with the times - a Disney movie that today's kids might actually have seen before they visit the park.

I really don't get all the hate, it baffles me. In some quarters (not necessarily here) it seems to have become the centrepoint of an anti-wokeness crusade. It's clearly not even about Disney anymore.
 
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