12/24/2022 0 Comments Splash mountainThe old south location of the movie generally fit into Bear Country as well. These characters were already walk-around characters, so they weren’t completely out of place. It was Tony Baxter’s idea to use the Song of the South movie as inspiration but they would remove the controversial elements including Uncle Remus and focus on the characters in Uncle Remus’s stories – Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear. Trying To Avoid ControversyĬritics said that Disney attractions were better than such a simple thrill and wanted story to it. Eisner only gave the “OK” to build it after his son approved the attraction, which would be a log flume ride with one big splash at the end. Imagineers they decided they needed a thrill ride.Įisner was so concerned about this that he brought his own son to the meeting where Walt Disney Imagineering presented the idea for the attraction. They also wanted to attract more teens, a real focus for Michael Eisner, then Disney CEO. Walt Disney Imagineering needed to solve the issue of this dead-end area. While most of the rest of the park was well visited by kids and their families, Bear Country, and it’s only attraction – Country Bear Jamboree, was not. In the 1980s, Disneyland was having some trouble attracting teenagers into the park. It opened on October 2nd, 1992 in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. It opened in Disneyland on July 17th, 1989, three years after Song of the South’s final theater performance. Splash Mountain is Disney’s fourth mountain attraction. Now that we know a bit more about the movie, let’s look at the attractions it inspired. It is not – and probably never will – be on Disney+, Disney’s streaming service. It hasn’t been released in theaters since 1986. To support that statement, Song of the South has never been released on home video in North America. Bob Iger, the former Disney Company CEO, has said that it has no place in the modern company. More recently, the film has received criticism saying that it glorifies plantation life. Interestingly, American Film Institute named Song of the South as one of the Greatest Movie Musicals in their 2006 release of 100 years… 100 songs. James Baskett, who played Uncle Remus, was the first African American man to win any kind of Oscar he earned a special Academy Award “for his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend, and storyteller to children…” The film did earn some acclaim including a 1948 Academy Award for Best Original Song for Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. The underlying idea is that the story warns slaves (Rabbit) that if they run away from their plantation, they’ll be caught by the predators (oppressive whites). While the story seems to explain to Johnny how slaves dealt with the difficulties of living on a plantation, it’s clear that this is a metaphor for slave resistance. Br’er Rabbit is the main character in the attraction. When Johnny befriends Uncle Remus, a worker on the plantation, Remus tells him African American Folktales including “Br’er Rabbit Earns a Dollar a Minute.” The story is about a rabbit who runs away from home – only to change his mind after encountering a fox and a bear, both of which are predators of rabbits. The story follows a seven-year-old boy named Johnny who is visiting his grandmother’s plantation. The movie depicts outdated and stereotypical views of race. Song of the South was released in 1946 and portrays the South during the Reconstruction Era, which was a period of time after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. How did, arguably, the most controversial Disney film become the theme for such an attraction?įirst, we need to start with the movie. Given Disney’s announcement to retheme Splash Mountain to Princess and the Frog, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the history behind Splash Mountain. Few Disney films have been more controversial than Song of the South, which is the foundation for the story of the Splash Mountain attractions in Disney Parks around the world.
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