Current Status of Splash Mountain
Splash Mountain, the log-flume ride based on the 1946 film "Song of the South," still exists in two Disney parks, but its theme and name have changed. The most significant transformation occurred at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, where the ride closed in January 2023 for a complete overhaul. It reopened in late 2023 as "Tiana's Bayou Adventure," inspired by Disney's 2009 animated film "The Princess and the Frog." The Magic Kingdom version at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, closed in January 2023 as well and reopened in June 2024 under the same new name. The original ride, which opened at Disneyland in 1989, was one of the most popular attractions at the parks for decades, drawing millions of riders annually with its 52.5-foot drop and animatronic characters. The decision to retheme was driven by long-standing criticism of the original ride's association with racially insensitive stereotypes and a broader corporate reassessment of Disney's legacy intellectual properties. The retheming project was a massive undertaking, requiring the construction of new scenes, audio-animatronics, and a new storyline centered on Tiana, the first Black Disney princess. Despite the changes, the core ride system and layout remain largely the same, meaning the physical structure that guests associate with Splash Mountain still stands, just with a completely new narrative and theming.
The financial impact of the retheming was significant, with Disney spending an estimated $1 billion or more on the Disneyland version alone, a figure that includes construction, theming, and the opportunity cost of the ride being closed for over a year. For investors tracking The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), the Splash Mountain retheming is part of a larger strategy to refresh classic attractions and align the parks with modern social values, a move that has been both praised and criticized by the public. The company's theme park segment, which generated $7.4 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending in September 2023, remains a critical driver of growth, and the retheming is seen as an effort to sustain attendance and per-guest spending. The success of Tiana's Bayou Adventure is being closely watched by analysts and competitors like Universal Destinations & Experiences, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal, which operates rival parks in Orlando and Hollywood. The retheming also highlights Disney's willingness to make large capital expenditures to update legacy IP, a trend that parallels its approach to other classic characters and stories in its vast entertainment portfolio.
Why Splash Mountain Was Rethemed
The "Song of the South" Controversy
The original Splash Mountain was based on the 1946 film "Song of the South," a live-action/animated musical produced by Walt Disney Productions and based on the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The film and its source material have been widely criticized for their romanticized depiction of the antebellum South and the portrayal of Black characters through stereotypical and minstrel-like tropes. The ride's scenes, which included characters from the film singing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," became a focal point for activists, media commentators, and social media campaigns calling for its removal long before the 2020 racial justice protests brought renewed attention to the issue. The ride's association with a film that has never been officially released on home video in the United States due to its controversial content made it an outlier among Disney's classic attractions. In the years leading up to the closure, Disney faced increasing pressure from advocacy groups and the public to address the problematic origins of the ride, with the hashtag #SplashMountainReflect trending on social media platforms.
Disney's Broader Corporate Strategy
The retheming of Splash Mountain fits into a broader corporate strategy by The Walt Disney Company to modernize its image and align its parks