People Want Disney to Change Splash Mountain Since It’s Inspired by ‘Song of the South’
The petition suggests framing the ride around Princess and the Frog.
Many people consider Disney’s Song of the South, released in 1946, the studio’s most racist film.
Disney fans started petitions demanding the Disney parks change the popular ride Splash Mountain since its inspired by the movie.
From CNN:
Splash Mountain stars Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, along with all the ducks & chickens & frogs who share their Southern home, and culminates in a tall drop that sends riders straight through the thorny briar. But the animated characters that appear throughout originated in the 1946 film, “Song of the South,” best known for the song “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.”
The film has long been criticized for its romanticized view of the post-Civil War South. The Guardian’s Scott Tobias wrote in 2019 that the “world and themes of both [the live-action portion and animated segments starring Brer Rabbit] reinforce a nostalgia for a plantation in the Reconstruction era.”
Brer Rabbit’s history is controversial, too.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, he was a figure in African folklore that traveled with slaves to the US. Then, in the mid-19th century, author Joel Chandler Harris took the character and popularized it in stories that adopted the dialect he picked up from slaves.
Harris’ stories were narrated by an old black man named Uncle Remus, who regales the son of a plantation owner with stories about Brer Rabbit and his animal companions. Those stories formed the basis for “Song of the South.”
The petition on Change.org encourages Disney to change Splash Mountain around Princess and the Frog, which showcases Tiana, Disney’s first black princess:
There is a huge need for diversity in the parks and this could help fill that need. Princess and the Frog is a beloved princess movie but has very little representation in the parks. Tiana could be one of the first princesses with a thrill ride, as well as giving her a much deserved place in the parks. The framing of the ride is such that it could be easily changed to tell the story of Tiana while not compromising too much of the ride/costing a fortune in remodeling for Disney. This change could kill two birds with one stone, remove the offensive stereotypical theming the ride currently has and bring a much needed diversity to the parks. As well as a much bigger merchandising opportunity for Princess and the Frog.
Princess and the Frog takes place in New Orleans, which fits the ride’s location. It’s placed in the Critter Country/Frontierland portion of the park, which is near New Orleans Square in Disneyland.
Over 2,000 people have signed the petition.
Disney has acknowledged the backlash of the film. The studio never gave it “a wide at-home release” and did not include it in Disney+.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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This gets me thinking….back in the 90s Chris Rock complained (in a comedy bit…..so it was funny and not serious) that it was no coincidence that the black jelly bean tastes the worst. Is that where we are headed in the 2020s?
Oddly enough I LIKE the black ones.
Yeah, those were the ones I saved for last so that the taste would remain longer.
These people are the modern day book burners.
Literally ANYTHING they don’t like, for ANY REASON, gets thrown in the bonfire.
And not incidentally are exhibit A for why I refuse to buy ANY media digitally.
How long until they try to force Amazon to delete movies like Blazing Saddles, and ‘refund’ you the money for your ‘digital copy?’
It’s Year Zero. Everything shall be created anew, and all that existed before today must be destroyed.
The demand is that all the literature/film/plays/music of the past must meet today’s sensitivity standards. Yet since these works were all a product of their time and place, none can do so.
So, burn them all; we’ll build a utopia out of the ashes!
Or so they say. For once all the histories are destroyed (or at least re-written), who would know what retched hellholes have, in the not so recent past, been created by those who would do this?
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” -George Orwell
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
― George Orwell
’nuff said on that subject.
Welcome to Ayn Rand’s latest novel.
If you have not heard the tar baby story, you have missed something.
The thing is…. I was born in 1975, and I never saw this film. I had a story book as a child that was old when I got it about the movie, and I only vaguely remember that.
My point is that most of the people complaining have NEVER even seen the movie. They have no KNOWLEDGE that it is racist. They only hear about it being so, probably from other people who have never seen the movie. I say release it, let people watch it, and hold honest and open discussions about it.
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh, my, what a wonderful day
Plenty of nonsense headin’ our way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
Stop. Just STOP.
The Maoist Cultural Revolution has comes to the shores of America, and marches on. Where are the American people and why is there no push back?
“People Want Disney to Change Splash Mountain Since Its Inspired by ‘Song of the South’”
Usually I have to correct the misuse of “it’s” as the possessive. Here is a rare example of a misuse case where the apostrophe is actually required!
However, it is an incorrect use of “since”. Since implies time. The correct word be “because”. Because implies reason.
You must be my separated-at-birth twin.
Disney was good once, but now it’s evil all the way. To blazes with it. People are waking up to the cesspool of depravity and destruction that Disney tries to foist on them.
I highly recommend “The Trojan Mouse” – https://amazon.com/Trojan-Mouse-Disney-Winning-Culture/dp/1734257016/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1KZRC76KZMDIL&dchild=1&keywords=the+trojan+mouse+how+disney+is+winning+the+culture+war&qid=1591995755&sprefix=the+trojan+mouse%2Caps%2C230&sr=8-1 It is a great explanation of how Disney (since Walt’s passing) uses the magic of storytelling to advance their progressive narrative.
Keep it up, Disney. The more you pander and try to be “relevant,” the further down the drain you’ll swirl.
Good riddance.
The insanity never ends. What the heck is wrong with people who run around this world looking for things to complain and whine about?
Dear Lord, get over yourselves. These people who do this are the people who probably should have been bullied as kids because they are so insufferable, but never were, so they go on to bully everyone else about everything they don’t like.
This is a move toward totalitarianism, it is all part and parcel of beating you down for everything so you reach a point where you won’t think for yourself, only for the mind dead masses.
“The petition suggests framing the ride around Princess and the Frog.”
Until 5 seconds later when the woke intersectional mob scream about the implicit binary hate aimed at transgender people.
The bloody guillotine basket is never full enough for the mob…
I like to think of them as the Legions of Perpetual Outrage. It fits.
2000 people. Yet millions visit that park. This is a prime example of what’s happening now: the extremely vocal minority is shaming everyone into apologizing for something they didn’t do. I am getting emails from companies cowering and groveling and begging for forgiveness. This is only going to get much, much worse before it gets better.
I thought the pandemic “we’re all in this together” e-mails were bad. Now I’m getting e-mails from Ulta and Zappos to let me know that they value black lives. I have to say I never thought otherwise. To paraphrase Michael Jordan, “Black people buy makeup and shoes, too.”
And with every cowering, groveling, pleading email I scratch another company from my contact list as they obviously are more concerned about the opinions of a minute vocal few than they are about the concerns of their customers.
But They may have something with that petition- 2,000 out of 330 million+ shows HUGE support! /sarc
Except that the lessons to be learned from Brer Rabbit’s misadventure with the Tar Baby and his outsmarting of Brer Fox are timeless and invaluable. Once again, cancel culture murders culture.
Of course, Disney will comply.
How about “The Scorpion and the Frog” instead?
“”This change could kill two birds with one stone, remove the offensive stereotypical theming the ride currently has””
and bring a politically correct stereotypical theme in its place.
https://archive.org/details/SongOfTheSouth_Disney
multiple d/l options/sizes. torrent file contains all of them.
can’t remember who pointed it out to me but I point it out as often as possible.
actually I grabbed this link
https://archive.org/details/song-of-the-south
as it had the mkv in it.
ppost both links usually when I do this just forgot
Frog is a slur against French people, try again a-holes.
Disney should ban Frozen too. Elsa is a white supremacist based on the Snow White character and she probably got the role because of white privilege. We demand a POC Elsa!
Disney himself was a communist and atheist so go to Six Flags if theme parks are your thingy dingy. Jeez can’t we just argue about who makes the best burger?
Brilliant idea! Turn Disneyland, Disneyworld and Epcot into desolated ruins. The perfect vacation destination for people who want to experience urban America. We can call them Disney Chaz I, II, III….. Instead of getting robbed at the entrance, you get robbed, raped, shot and more inside. Utopia! It’s the future!
Most people think of Splash Mountain as a ride at Disneyland/Disney World, that was introduced in the summer of 1989. They assume it was called “Splash Mountain,“ because you get splashed during the ride.
On the other hand, most people under the tender age of 75 have never seen the film “Song of the South,” released in 1946, THE YEAR AFTER WWII ENDED. Therefore, most people are not familiar with the cartoon characters in the movie.
My suggestion to the leftist cancel culture is to build a competing park with only leftist ideas and concepts, pay the workers (no white employees allowed) a living wage, and admit only leftists of color, for free. And tell us how that works out.
They’ve never seen Song of the South, you can’t even buy it on Amazon. I only have a bad dup of a video tape that was smuggled out of Britain because I saw it as a kid.
Saw it when I was a kid in the late 60’s at a drive-in (I think). Yes, the tar baby and the briar patch were once cultural touchstones. “Don’t throw me in that briar patch” and referencing something as a “tar baby” was not uncommon and everyone knew what that meant. “Tar baby” was the first to go, but the whole thing has been verboten for decades. I’m honestly surprised that the ride has survived as it is for this long.
Song of the South is ought to be remade.
There have recently been many “gallows humor” movies about life during World war 2 Jewish life, with the threat of Holocaust Looming. Most are well regarded. So the template for how to do a tasteful movie about folklore during a horrible situation exists.
It wouldn’t be hard for even the hackiest Hollywood hack to rip off the screenplay of One of those Holocaust movies and pitch it to Antoine Fuqua or Jordan Peele.
That slaves had their own culture and own storytelling, independent of white people, is woke and consistent with black power.
“Zip a dee do da” is too catchy to memoryhole.