Disneyland’s ‘Racist’ Ride, Splash Mountain, To Close May 31, Upsetting Some Fans, and Will be Replaced by Princess Tiana Ride

Disneyland’s infamous five-story-drop ride, Splash Mountain, will close next month, following years of racism controversies due to its ties to the notorious 1946 Disney film “Song of the South.” The ride will be “reimagined” and reopened next year as a more “inclusive” attraction. The 34-year-old ride, known for the classic Disney ditty “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” will close on May 31 after years of being criticized for its roots in “Song of the South,” which has been largely removed from the Disney canon after coming under criticism for racist tropes and glorification of the Reconstruction-era Old South.Disneyland announced this week that the ride will reopen next year as “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure,” featuring Disney’s first Black Princess from its 2009 straight-to-video film “The Princess and the Frog,” which is set in Roaring ’20s New Orleans.Disneyland’s official blog announced Wednesday that the new ride will welcome a cast of original Disney characters, including familiar faces such as Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen, and Mama Odie, and an original soundtrack playlist. Yet, “to make room for this new magic,” the article says, Splash Mountain will close May 31 “so we can begin the next phase of development for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.”Upset “Splash Mountain” fans have already set up makeshift memorials at the foot of the doomed ride, consisting of piles of stuffed animals of Disney characters. Some social media commentators have described the memorials as “embarrassing.”Since Disney inaugurated Splash Mountain in 1989, it has been criticized for its ties to “Song of the South,” a film based on the Uncle Remus tales of author Joel Chandler Harries that has received backlash for romanticizing the Old South and portraying racist stereotypes.Set on a plantation in Georgia during Reconstruction, “Song of the South” relates the friendship of a white boy named Johnny with an older Black man named Uncle Remus, an ex-slave who works on the plantation. The film won several Oscars at the time, including one for the song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” which inspired the naming of Splash Mountain, originally titled “Zip-a-Dee River Run.”Legendary actor James Baskett, who played Uncle Remus in his final role, received a honorary Oscar for his work in the film in 1948, a few months before he died from complications related to diabetes. He was the first Black male actor to receive an Academy Award.Despite its success and Baskett’s historic achievement, Disney removed “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from the “Magic Happens” parade at its California location this year. In 2022, the park banned the song from the “Festival of Fantasy” parade of Magic Kingdom. In March 2020, Disney’s boss, Bob Iger, announced that “Song of the South” would not appear on the streaming service Disney+, even with an “outdated cultural depictions” disclaimer, as it is “not appropriate in today’s world” (other Disney films from that era such as “Dumbo,” also criticized for racist tropes, still made the cut with edits and disclaimers). Disney no longer sells DVDs or streaming versions of “Song of the South,” leaving fans relegated to buying used VHS tapes of the film on eBay. Later in 2020, Disney announced that Splash Mountain “will soon be completely reimagined.” The change represents a significant evolution for Disneyland, the senior vice president of creative development at Disney, Carmen Smith, said at the D23 Expo in 2022. Disney wants to ensure that it is “telling stories” that every person who walks into the park can identify with.“This is an opportunity to expand our reach and showcase that all stories matter, everyone’s stories matter,” Ms. Smith said. “I look at this as just the beginning of more stories we’ll tell that represent the world we live in.”In the mid-1980s, Disney was forced to seek inspiration from old films, a creative who oversaw Splash Mountain’s creation and is a creative advisor for the upcoming project, Tony Baxter, told Los Angeles Times. He added that the new attraction gave him a “great sense of reassurance” and will be “one to be proud of.”

Disneyland’s ‘Racist’ Ride, Splash Mountain, To Close May 31, Upsetting Some Fans, and Will be Replaced by Princess Tiana Ride

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