Just last week the Disney Parks made a huge announcement that shook the Disney Fandom to its core. Splash Mountain, which opened in Disneyland in 1989, will be completely reimagined and tell a new story based on the 2009 animated film, “The Princess and the Frog.”
Like most Disney Park refurbishments this was met with mixed reactions. Some praised Disney’s decision to take a bold risk and other’s felt this change was unnecessarily capitalizing on the current political landscape. Whether politics had a hand in the refurbishment or not (Disney claims this project has been in development since last year), it doesn’t take away from the fact that this move is exactly what Walt Disney would have wanted.
Walt Disney didn’t create Disneyland to be a museum, he created it as an escape from the day-to-day world people live in. With that escape comes growth – one of the fundamentals of Disneyland according to Walt. As long as there is imagination left in the world, Disneyland will continue to grow. That was Walt’s vision for his park – a park that accepted anyone and everyone from all walks of life.
Despite the parks being created for people of any race, Splash Mountain happens to be based on the film “Song of the South” which even Disney recognizes today as a very outdated and horribly racist part of their film history. While they did a great job of removing all of the racist aspects when building the attraction and strictly focused the ride’s story on the anthropomorphic animals within the film – it was clearly time for something new.
Unlike other classic Disney films, “Song of the South” has not stood the test of time – in reality, it’s almost impossible to find or watch anywhere. So the fact that Splash Mountain has remained as is for as long as it has is a bit strange. It wasn’t a Disneyland original, and in years past, Disney has never before been afraid to update attractions based on old films with new and more marketable franchises.
A perfect example is Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Walt Disney World. In 1998, Mr. Toad was replaced by The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh simply because the film the ride was based on, “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” was no longer popular with the majority of Disney’s audience. Thus, Winnie the Pooh – one of the most popular Disney franchises of all time, took it’s place and Disney never looked back.
So anyone surprised by this change should really be asking how has it taken Disney this long to change Splash Mountain into something new? They’ve released so many popular films since “Song of the South” and any one of them from “The Jungle Book” to “Tangled” could have taken its place over the course of the ride’s history.
However, instead of jumping on the chance to capitalize on a popular film franchise – it seems as though Disney is sending out a message and a very important one at that. The Disney Parks were built to prepare us for a great, big, beautiful tomorrow and the new tomorrow a majority of us wish to see is one with more diversity, inclusion and heart – the pinnacle of what “The Princess and the Frog” represents.
Although this may not have been their intention, Disney’s decision to reimagine Splash Mountain with a new story led by Disney’s sole Black princess, Tiana, and headed by Senior Creative Producer, Charita Carter, tells us that they want to be on the right side of history and any and all Disney fans who are onboard are welcome to join them on this new adventure.
Frozen Mouse Fever 