BAY LAKE, Fla. — Disney said Thursday that it will rebrand its classic Splash Mountain ride as a “The Princess and the Frog” ride at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
The new ride will “pick up after the final kiss, and join Princess Tiana and Louis on a musical adventure – featuring some of the powerful music from the film – as they prepare for their first-ever Mardi Gras performance,” according to a release.
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Imagineers said they have been working on the project since last year.
There have been several Change.org petitions calling for Disney to retheme Splash Mountain, changing it from “Song of the South” to “The Princess and the Frog” film.
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Splash Mountain was based on the controversial 1946 film “Song of the South,” which in itself was based on the “Uncle Remus” tales written by Joel Chandler Harris.
The film is set on an antebellum plantation where presumed former slaves still work.
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The grandson of the owner becomes friends with the elderly Uncle Remus who shares morality tales with the child using the characters of Br’er Bear and Br’er Fox as they try to catch Br’er Rabbit, in place of people.
The film, despite being set post-Civil War, still shows the relationship between the white owners and the African American workers as that of owner and slave, according to Cinema Blend.
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The rebranding for the ride is still in development and conceptual design work is well underway, officials said.
They are still determining a timeline for when the transformation can start to take shape.
Natalie Dreier, of the Cox Media Group National Content Desk, contributed to this report.
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