News Round Up 2020

[tlmadden73]

Here is Disney Parks Blog story on it:
https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...ng-to-disneyland-park-and-magic-kingdom-park/

Thanks for sharing.

I agree that Tiana needed some love in the parks. Such a fun story. It fits as an "extension" of Frontierland since the riverboat is supposed to be showing the Mississippi river -- which is somewhat from that era of time/place . .just further south.

Shows how ahead of the game Disney is ..it appears they have been planning this for a while and not just pulling some gut reaction change to current events. (Which probably did help get it green lit). They are making the change to "plus" an attraction and tell a new story they feel needs to be told, the change just so happens to be relevant to today. They aren't saying they feel Splash Mountain is "racist" . .they are just saying they want to plus an old attraction. And I think that is a great way to approach it.

I'll miss Splash Mountain and the song, for sure .. I never went on it enough (due to it being closed, or too cold, or line too long, or having little kids).. and hope I can go on it sometime before it closes with the family (that are tall enough).

Though I'd think that during this economic downturn, retheming an attraction would be very low on the priority list. So who knows when they will actually start that work. I guess they just felt this was a good time (due to the current events) to make it official (since rumors were floating around anyway).

 

[rteetz]

Are they changing the name?

No word on that. They could keep it. Splash Mountain had nothing to do with song of the south.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Interview with Imagineer Bob Weis about the reimagining of Splash Mountain

https://d23.com/exclusive-walt-disn...ng-splash-mountain-for-tiana-and-her-friends/

 

[Mal6586]

I might actually ride it now that I won't have to hear "The Laughing Place" ever again!

 

[FatBambi]

Oof. My favorite ride - gone. It does make sense though.

On a side note, I'm really happy they announced it today to give Disney some good PR distraction in the media.

 

[rteetz]

Interview with Imagineer Bob Weis about the reimagining of Splash Mountain

https://d23.com/exclusive-walt-disn...ng-splash-mountain-for-tiana-and-her-friends/

Note towards the end they say projects like Avengers campus will continue. Tron and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway will be picked up n stages. Other long term projects (presumably Epcot) will be assessed.

 

[tlmadden73]

Not to go too far down that rabbit hole, but that song is problematic too as it references Zip Coon, a minstrel show performance featuring black face. So Disney has tried to associate the song with other things as well but it's not just a fun song with no context

True. Just the fact it is associated with Song of the South is problematic.
I don't want to go down the rabbit hole either, but every song or monument or flag or person has a past. (good or bad) and that context CAN change over time (and with changes in culture). To some today the Star-Spangled banner is not a patriotic song, and thus they kneel for it .. even though that's how it was originally written.

But in today's context .. Zip-a-dee-doo-da is associated (to anyone who doesn't dig down into it's dark history) with a happy-go-lucky song on a fun Disney attraction with a bunch of animated animals. That doesn't mean we need to go digging into it's past to destroy that innocence. To me (and most) . .I hope the song is remembered as ahappy go-lucky song.

 

[tlmadden73]

Interview with Imagineer Bob Weis about the reimagining of Splash Mountain

https://d23.com/exclusive-walt-disn...ng-splash-mountain-for-tiana-and-her-friends/

I wonder what "picked back up in stages" means for Tron? Delays I assume? Certain crews/materials aren't available to continue on with the next part? Just budgetary reasons it can't surge forward (they don't have the contract/cash to pay the next contractor yet?)

 

[J-BOY]

It isn't too big of a stretch to fit it in that area ... Liberty Sq through Frotneirland are meshed together into one journey

You go East to West from Upstate NY to Philly to the mid west frontier and then Western frontier with BTMRR (with Splash sort of in the middle being in the South - I guess bit west from the starting point)

Where in Liberty Square is Upstate NY? I'm from the area and have never even realized this, lol.

Note towards the end they say projects like Avengers campus will continue. Tron and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway will be picked up n stages. Other long term projects (presumably Epcot) will be assessed.

Makes sense. Avengers Campus basically uprooted an entire land, and DCA was suffering for it before the parks closed. One of its major e-tickets was essentially shoved into a corner, and the only way to get to any other area in the park from there was to go back to the central hub.

 

[dlavender]

Wow...

Part of me is sad as Splash was one of my favorite rides and I just adore the music.

However, I've ridden it a 1000 times, so a retheme will be cool. As long as they are committed to it I think it will be just as good.

Plus my kids, even though they also love Splash, will have more of a connection to the story now that it will be Tiana.

Good for Disney.

 

[Mika02]

Just ducked in to celebrate my favorite Princess getting some love in the Parks. Tiana is so underrated she needs more products for us to spend money on too lol. Princess and the Frog is my family's favorite. My 13 year old son regularly puts it on Netflix to watch. I'm so excited. Truthfully haven't ridden Splash Mountain in years but will definitely make this a go to when it opens.

 

[The Pho]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1276184049959292929

Well that’s unfortunate news. Hopefully they can break their poor record of ride rethemes. I guess this means the rumors of all the troublesome attractions days are numbered is correct.

So let’s enjoy these while we still have them.
Splash Mountain, American Adventure, Hall of Presidents, Country Bear Jamboree, Hoop De Doo Review, Carousel of Progress, It's a Small World, Dumbo, and Peter Pan's Flight.

 

[J-BOY]

Well that’s unfortunate news. Hopefully they can break their poor record of ride rethemes. I guess this means the rumors of all the troublesome attractions days are numbered is correct.

I think they've got a good team working on it, so I'm relatively optimistic.

I know Mission: Breakout got a lot of hate initially, but I think the loss of ToT was the driving factor for that. I've ridden it a handful of times and feel that they did a pretty great job with it, especially given that the ride mechanism didn't really lend itself to the new theme.

 

[The Pho]

I think they've got a good team working on it, so I'm relatively optimistic.

I know Mission: Breakout got a lot of hate initially, but I think the loss of ToT was the driving factor for that. I've ridden it a handful of times and feel that they did a pretty great job with it, especially given that the ride mechanism didn't really lend itself to the new theme.

Quite frankly I don’t think Disney has improved a single ride with a retheme, even the ones I didn’t care for much to start. And Mission Breakout is really the only one I’d see a real argument for, although I’d strongly disagree, and at least that one is entertaining even with a terrible theme for the surrounding area. I’d strongly have preferred that they announced its demolition. I expect this is the end of any attraction even slightly problematic or not tied to a franchise.

I do hope they have a good plan here, I’m just expecting very little based on previous rethemes.

 

[Firebird060]

im perfectly fine with the retheme, especially since they are announcing this pretty early before they are going to close it. I wonder and hope they keep the riverboat. I love that backdrop.

 

[tlmadden73]

Well that’s unfortunate news. Hopefully they can break their poor record of ride rethemes. I guess this means the rumors of all the troublesome attractions days are numbered is correct.

So let’s enjoy these while we still have them.
Splash Mountain, American Adventure, Hall of Presidents, Country Bear Jamboree, Hoop De Doo Review, Carousel of Progress, It's a Small World, and Peter Pan's Flight.

True .. but it costs money to re-theme things and I doubt Disney will have the spare money to retheme old rides for a while. If it ain't broke - don't fix it.

Probably of all of those, I'd see Country Bears or Carousel of Progress to be the next victims. While classics, neither are really "timeless" like Small World or Peter Pan's Flight.

I do see Disney could just do away with their focus on American history edutainment, and replacing it with pure entertainment .. especially (and unfortunately) in today's political climate -- just how Epcot gradually moved away from "edutainment". So ya . .I could see American Adventure and Hall of President's going away .. but replaced with what? They aren't as easily "rethemed" as a ride.

Quite frankly I don’t think Disney has improved a single ride with a retheme, even the ones I didn’t care for much to start. And Mission Breakout is really the only one I’d see a real argument for, although I’d strongly disagree, and at least that one is entertaining even with a terrible theme for the surrounding area. I’d strongly have preferred that they announced its demolition. I expect this is the end of any attraction even slightly problematic or not tied to a franchise.

I do hope they have a good plan here, I’m just expecting very little based on previous rethemes.

That's a fun topic of discussions (perhaps in another thread) . .what ARE all the re-themes?

 

[dlavender]

Well that’s unfortunate news. Hopefully they can break their poor record of ride rethemes. I guess this means the rumors of all the troublesome attractions days are numbered is correct.

So let’s enjoy these while we still have them.
Splash Mountain, American Adventure, Hall of Presidents, Country Bear Jamboree, Hoop De Doo Review, Carousel of Progress, It's a Small World, and Peter Pan's Flight.

I’m scared to ask, but what’s the problem with CP?

I could see a few small changes in PP that wouldn’t affect much.

Country Bear has been so paired down already but I don’t see many changes happening to it.

I think American Adventure is safe, maybe add in a scene or two?

I’d have to think IASW is safe.

 

[The Pho]

True .. but it costs money to re-theme things and I doubt Disney will have the spare money to retheme old rides for a while. If it ain't broke - don't fix it.

Probably of all of those, I'd see Country Bears or Carousel of Progress to be the next victims. While classics, neither are really "timeless" like Small World or Peter Pan's Flight.

I do see Disney could just do away with their focus on American history edutainment, and replacing it with pure entertainment .. especially (and unfortunately) in today's political climate -- just how Epcot gradually moved away from "edutainment". So ya . .I could see American Adventure and Hall of President's going away .. but replaced with what? They aren't as easily "rethemed" as a ride.


That's a fun topic of discussions (perhaps in another thread) . .what ARE all the re-themes?

The reason I’m extra concerned for the quality of this one is the current financial situation. Without a proper budget, the best team of imagineers can’t produce something worthy, and ultimately that’s what seems to happen to most of the rethemes I can think of. Whereas when they simply reuse a space for a new project, the results seem to be much stronger, due to the larger budgets of a ground up project. I find many of the replacements to be worthy successors when done through this method.

Edutainment seems to be done for the most part. I don’t see replacing Hall of Presidents or American Adventure as all that difficult. They’ve shown recently that thematic coherence isn’t a huge deal for them anymore. They could easily be used as a good sized theater for any type of show.

And that would be an interesting discussion. Perhaps I’m overlooking a few, or didn’t experience a lackluster original that could change my mind. And it would come down to how people define retheme. To me renovations on Spaceship Earth wouldn’t count, but they have definitely improved over previous versions before. And there are certainly a few lateral changes.

 

[J-BOY]

I’m scared to ask, but what’s the problem with CP?

I could see a few small changes in PP that wouldn’t affect much.

Country Bear has been so paired down already but I don’t see many changes happening to it.

I think American Adventure is safe, maybe add in a scene or two?

I’d have to think IASW is safe.

I agree with you here for the most part. Peter Pan can just have a scene removed. Country Bear is pretty likely to go, IMO.

Other than that, I fail to see how any of the others can be considered "problematic" in any way remotely close to Song of the South.

 

[The Pho]

I’m scared to ask, but what’s the problem with CP?

I could see a few small changes in PP that wouldn’t affect much.

Country Bear has been so paired down already but I don’t see many changes happening to it.

I think American Adventure is safe, maybe add in a scene or two?

I’d have to think IASW is safe.

I think the issue with multiple of them is attachment to a film with questionable segments, same as Song of the South has. So Dumbo and Peter Pan are really in the same boat there. But perhaps just reworking the Indians would be enough.

Carousel’s main complaints seem to be focused on inclusion, so easily fixed with a new script. American Adventure and Country Bears, are about the same there, a new script could solve the issues. Maybe add in a third narrator like Frederick Douglas in AA.

Small World kind of needs an overhaul to remove a lot of stereotyping.

The problem is, if you go far enough into it, Disney has a whole lot more that could be deemed problematic.