Splash Mountain: From Laughing Place to the Bayou

Big news from Disney! Besides the fact that they are pushing back Disneyland’s scheduled reopening on July 17th (and honestly, they should also push back Walt Disney World’s looking at the numbers coming out of Florida). Splash Mountain is getting reimagined, going from its current Song of the South theme to a Princess and the Frog theme.


You can read about it on the Disney Parks Blog.


Usually, I’m one of those Disney fans who doesn’t like when they change things. I still am not over the fact they took out Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. And I would love to know who I have to blackmail to get the original Journey into Imagination ride restored.

(Splash Mountain in Walt Disney World)

But this change? I’m good with it.


It’s still mind-boggling that back in 1989, when the ride got the green light, that they decided to use Song of the South as that ride’s theme. Disney had already agreed that its portrayal of Black men and women in the Reconstruction South was racist and locked it up tightly in the vault. It will never come out of the vault. No one really knew who these characters were.


And maybe Disney hoped that Splash Mountain could “rehab” these characters. Let them stand on their own outside of Song of the South. But it didn’t work. No one really knew them outside of the theme parks and they were never really incorporated with the other characters. Maybe it was a lack of interest or maybe it was the rise of the internet, allowing people to learn about Song of the South.


Maybe it was all of the above. And I think it shows some privilege and misunderstanding of racism to think that by taking out the incredibly problematic live-action parts, everything would just be hunky-dory. That they failed to realize that since the ultimate source material (the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris) was also inherently racist, they would never really be able to separate it. Especially when keeping a speaking pattern that was used by “Black” characters in Vaudeville and then later the movies. It perpetuated the myth that African-Americans in particular did not speak proper English and we are still dealing with the ingrained bias that poor English means uneducated.


But I am looking forward to this retheme. And I want to stress that it is a retheming. Many people online are saying that Splash Mountain is going away. It is not. It will still be your basic flume ride on Disney magic. It’s just now going to be a story about the characters of Princess and the Frog (it’s been confirmed the ride will take place after the events of the movie and involve Mardi Gras) instead of the characters of Song of the South. It sounds like most of the cast is already on board as Anika Noni Rose (Tiana), Michael-Leon Wooley (Louis) and Jenifer Lewis (Mama Odie) had statements included in the release from Disney. And I hope that they include the music! I love the music from the film.


(I still hold it was such a missed opportunity that when the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl, they did not use “Down in New Orleans” for the requisite post-Super Bowl Disney commercial. “Dreams do come true in New Orleans” would’ve been perfect!)

(Artist rendition of the new Splash Mountain theme)

I’ve read some of the comments on Twitter about the redesign – both positive and negative. And there are appear to be a lot of people who don’t understand how different the Magic Kingdom is between Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Especially with some people wondering how the retheme will still fit in with the fact that in WDW/Orlando the ride is firmly in Frontierland. It is literally next to the Frontierland train station. Others were quick to “correct” that Splash Mountain is in Critter Country, which is true in California but that land does not exist in Florida. Then others pointed out that New Orleans Square is right next to it, which is once again true in California but in Florida, it is Liberty Square.

(And because I saw someone mention that Haunted Mansion probably doesn’t fit Liberty Square – it’s not a Southern manor house in Florida either. It’s a Georgian mansion, similar to historical house that I would see in the Hudson River Valley where I went to school. They made it fit).

(Haunted Mansion in Disneyland)

(Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World)

(Then again, Southern manor houses existed at the time of the Revolution. The Disneyland design wouldn’t be too unbelievable but the rest of Liberty Square is designed more in the Northeast style of New York, Boston and Philadelphia so it did make sense to redesign it).

(Sorry. I’ll stop with the asides now).

Anyway, I’m excited to see the new design! And return to Disney World when it’s safe enough to be around that many people!