Closing Splash Mountain

After  killing of George Floyd, fans of Disneyland’s Splash Mountain were put on notice.in the summer of 2020, during  the cultural reassessment and nationwide protests

The 1989 ride, popular for its five-story drop would close. Disney said at the time it wanted a more inclusive concept, one free of association with the racist 1946 film “Song of the South” and its white-centered depiction of slavery and stereotypes.

Disneyland fans gathered in Critter Country to mark the closure of Splash Mountain, On Tuesday. Some cheered as log-shaped cars dropped from the top of the Disney-constructed mountain known as Chickapin Hill, while others, wearing fan-made T-shirts commemorating the day, clutched plushies of the Splash Mountain characters for the ride’s mid-fall photo. Most were hopeful for what’s to come, an attraction themed to “The Princess and the Frog,” the 2009 fairy tale that stars the company’s first Black princess. Some, however, were sorrowful that a piece of their childhood would be lost.

 Closing Splash Mountain 

Stefanie Re, 39 said “I didn’t get to go to Disneyland until I was in my teens, and this was one of the first rides I ever rode,” said , who lives near Portland, Ore. Re had come to the Disneyland Resort with custom-made Mickey Mouse ears that referenced the ride and film’s song  “It’s just a big memory for me. It’s something I wanted to achieve as a kid — watching the commercials and getting the picture. It’s nostalgia. A happy memory.”

Re was optimistic that “The Princess and the Frog” makeover, known as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and scheduled to open at Walt Disney World in 2024, would be “something better.” While not everyone shared Re’s opinion — some wished the ride wasn’t changing — Splash Mountain’s three-year goodbye can’t help but feel overdue.

Splash Mountain was doomed from the start.

Times articles from the late 1980s cited Disney spokespersons already trying to justify the attraction, noting that it would skirt controversy by focusing solely on animated scenes and would avoid any references to the Reconstruction-era South. But even at the time of the ride’s opening, “Song of the South” was in the Disney vault, kept out of movie theaters and, eventually, off of streaming platforms. Hindsight criticism is always easy, but Splash Mountain will go down in history as a significant miscalculation from Walt Disney Imagineering, the arm of the company devoted to theme park experiences.

Disney representatives were declining to commit on future releases for “Song of the South.” By 2003, In 2020 Chief Executive Bob Iger called the movie “not appropriate in today’s world.”

Splash Mountain is still a ride in which the most popular song, “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” has connections to minstrel shows. The two cannot be completely divorced, and the words “Song of the South” are emblazoned on the large, critter-adorned ferry boat in the ride’s finale. Splash Mountain was born of another cultural era, its themes chosen in part due to its location in Disneyland —, which in the late ’80s was known as Bear Country — and as a way to reuse audio-animatronics from the patriotic America Sings.

Ending that era felt relatively subdued Tuesday. Waits around lunchtime hit three hours, but for most of the morning the 65-minute posted queue was more like 25 minutes. Disney in the past has attempted to turn ride closures into something of a party, complete with celebratory merchandise, but there were no Splash Mountain trinkets, save for a commemorative coin from a penny-press machine. Although trolls accused Disney of being “woke,” the scene Tuesday was quiet except for fan sites setting up live streaming stations.

Working in underway in nearby New Orleans Square to welcome Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. New Orleans Square’s French Market Cafe is being remade into Tiana’s Place. The quick-service dining location, boasting New Orleans staples, will open later this year.

one that Disney promises will celebrate New Orleans with a tinge of fantasy, courtesy, likely, of Mama Odie, the 200-year-old bayou fairy godmother from the film. The ride will feature a robust number of audio-animatronics — Disney has said “dozens,” many likely repurposed from “Splash Mountain” — to culminate in a giant Mardi Gras mu

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.Sarah H

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