Disney is closing Splash Mountain. Hear why some fans aren’t happy about it

Disney has closed Splash Mountain, one of its long-running attractions in the Magic Kingdom theme park, as the company plans to reimagine the ride to remove any ties from the controversial film "Song of the South." Some fans have filed a petition to keep the ride the same. CNN's Audie Cornish discusses on "CNN This Morning." #CNN #News

53 comments

    1. ​@Connie Lee Truly, why do kids have Disney World as a Make A Wish Foundation option? So I have to literally be dying to see Mickey and Minnie if my family can’t afford the astronomical tickets to the Disney theme park? Hmm… just disappointing. 🤔🤔

    1. @The Maestro You are over analyzing a bunch of stuffed animals singing academy award winning songs (that 95% of everyone loves, as the polls show,) as offensive. That makes you a fringe loon.

    2. @The Maestro They can’t even use colored M&M’s as mascots anymore because of people like you. People like you have no joy, and you ruin things for people who actually do.

  1. History is messy, there’s no two ways about it. I’m so tired of the culture wars that SOME on the right want to engage in. What makes these people so afraid of change? What came after the civil war? Segregation. What came after slavery? Sharecropping. We need to no shy away from our history, learn from it and vow to be better.

  2. It took them 30 F**KING YEARS for someone at Disney to say, “We might have a problem here.” In my 43 years of living, I don’t remember one time about felt offended by the ride and EVERYONE I KNEW, was aware of it’s connection to Song of the South and they still LOVED the ride. Their admission prices are what people need to be offended by.

    1. @Unknownuser The movie apparently glamorized the Slavery/Reconstruction eras and had former slaves like Uncle Remus reminiscing fondly

    2. @JustJoseph • 101y ago it takes place 10 years after civil war but he wasn’t a slave in the movie but you never know what he was

  3. “Song of the South” does not exist on VHS format, only on the VHS Sing-A-Long video titled Zippity-Do-Dah. The film was never released in the United States on VHS out of fear of generating social backlash, something that is now occurring. It was released in Europe and exists in the PAL format. I heard there were prints on film reels for projectors sent to schools by Disney back in the day as well. That I want. Any other random knowledge on prints / releases out there?

    1. @Wongwongwong 1000 It is too socially dated, but the song is very uplifting either way! The Disney VHS Sing a Long is the only thing I really have print wise for this want to find out more.

    2. @L01 J It isn’t racist. It’s actually a treasure of African American folk culture. The stories that it are based on are one of the few that survive from the slavery era. Also the black guy is the only one who has both oars in the water.

    3. @L01 J The only portions of the movie I enjoyed were the animated portions as those were the portions in the ride….

  4. They should be talking about Aretha Franklin’s Natural Woman and how it’s upsetting people. Now THAT is insane.

  5. I personally think Disney is doing this more because Song of the South is a movie that was released almost 80 years ago in theaters and never released on home movie in the US. We’re at a point where most casual Disney fans probably aren’t overly familiar with the movie so it makes sense to re-theam the ride around a much more recent and recognizable IP.

    1. @Linda C
      On VHS outside the U.S. Anything released on home media in the U.S. had Uncle Remus removed. I saw the movie in its ’70s release at theatres. I also had a 45 of _”Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.”_

    2. But they shouldnt be doing to please a certain crowd or a certain race. THey should do it because it s time to change something and change is usually good. Gives people something to look forward to. THey should not be changing due to pressure out side cultural influences and signatures.

  6. Disney’s latest decisions are out of The Onion parodies. 🥴 🤦🏽‍♂️ I loved that ride and I never been offended or even knew about movie connection. And that I know about, I’m offended that someone is being offended andake such BS decision.

    1. Even on Zorkon 6 in the Zorkon star system where they just opened their newest theme park? There’s already a dust up there about them portraying the Grech as being subservient to the Horblau. They just can’t seem to keep their noses clan… or snorkel tubes as the case may be.

  7. I loved that movie. Watched it loads as a kid. I never once thought of racism, I was too young and just enjoyed the music and story

    1. As a you boy in Fayetteville NC in the early 80s, terms such as “n*****” “tar baby” and “Uncle Tom.” Were normal. Then I moved to MD and went to schools where being white I was a minority and had to learn how to get along with ppl of a different color of skin. I now realize why my father got so made at the word n****. It dehumanizes whole groups of human beings. But it was for many ppl, normal. I used to read Song of the South. Until one day I realized it’s true meaning. It had been a birthday gift from neighbors in NC. The day I understood, my father and I together burned it in our fireplace. See, my folks didn’t believe in hiding the ugliness of life from us, but rather hoped to use it to teach us to think for ourselves and then come to our own truth.

  8. I like Audie Cornish. We need to turn our attention to things that matter. If we keep fighting over 50 year old disney stories we are going to miss out on making the big changes. We will all be too exhausted to care.

  9. “Song of the South” was released in 1946. Splash Mountain opened in 1984. Disney the corporation wanted to save money by recycling the animatronics after the America Sings attraction closed. “Song of the South” was their best fit. They knew better in 1984. No matter your opinion on Walt Disney’s fictional depiction of race, he recognized black families would have difficulty traveling to Disneyland when it first opened. Legalized segregation and sun-down towns still existed, so he made they would be safe and be served across the US. He even built a hotel because all of the others were whites only.

  10. I’m surprised to see that these otherwise serious journalists did not do their homework and tried to laugh off what is really a serious cultural issue about the legacy of African-American folk tales and their place in popular culture. While Uncle Remus is a fictional construct created by Joel Chandler Harris, a white man, Br’er Rabbit and the other Uncle Remus tales are based on actual folk tales collected by Harris from Black Americans. It should also be noted that even though it is true that “The Song of the South” does indeed romanticize the post Civil War South, all the white adult characters in the movie are, without exception, fools. Their little boy turns to Uncle Remus, who is wise, warm and caring, and his family for the support and guidance he is not getting from his own family. The stories Uncle Remus tells to the boy teach him — and the children in the movie audience — important lessons about life and how to survive in a dangerous world with wit and humor. The black characters in “The Song of the South” may be, on the surface, socially subservient but are, in every way, morally and intellectually superior to the white characters. This is not merely a story about a theme park ride, but part of a larger story of how important positive role models are to Black children, whether they be wise old men or spunky future princesses. But unless you go straight to the source of the story, your reporting will only be a reaction to people reacting to something they only know about through other people’s reactions. And what you get from that is not journalism, but gossip.

  11. They’re trying to explain how it’s offensive without even knowing what it is. Is that not what racism is? Judging a book by its cover?

  12. The characters on Splash Mountain are from Disney park vintage attraction called America Sings which was a very entertaining and missed attraction. So, having the chance to still see the animals from that show on Splash Mountain is special. So I had hoped they would leave it alone.

  13. “Splash around, that’s not a hill you want to die on”, sometimes CNN and Fox have legit guests who speak truth, not far left, not far right, just rational. Great segment.

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