It’s not a stretch to say that many Disney guests who rode Splash Mountain in its over 30 years of operation never saw the film it was based on, . The movie studio removed it from circulation in 1986, after all. Fewer still have read the stories that the film drew from, Joel Chandler Harris’ tales.
For some, Splash Mountain represented nothing more than a ride with a fun soundtrack and a chance to get wet under the sun in Florida or Southern California. But for those who understood the ride’s deep roots, extending back before Disney even existed as a company, it represented something much more troubling: a racist whitewashing of American history. Disney’s 2020 that it planned to turn the ride into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure became a not just among die-hard Disney fans but also among the country at large.
It embodied a struggle Americans face on a daily basis—the realization that many of us have not only participated in experiences that have racist ties, but that we may even have enjoyed them; that we may be unwittingly participating in perpetuating racism simply by taking part in what on the surface seem like harmless everyday activities. That’s a lot of baggage to put on a theme park attraction. But that’s exactly what made the ride’s change so controversial, and exactly why what the new attraction shows us about how Disney is interpreting American society today matters.
A park known as the “Happiest Place on Earth” can understandably struggle to factually.
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