Splash Mountain to be reimagined to The Princess and the Frog with Princess Tiana and Louis theme

Dan Murphy

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From the Disney Blog......

Today we are thrilled to share a first glimpse of a project Imagineers have been working on since last year. Splash Mountain – at both Disneyland park in California and Magic Kingdom park in Florida – will soon be completely reimagined. The theme is inspired by an all-time favorite animated Disney film, “The Princess and the Frog.” We pick up this story 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.

Tiana is a modern, courageous, and empowered woman, who pursues her dreams and never loses sight of what’s really important. It’s a great story with a strong lead character, set against the backdrop of New Orleans and the Louisiana bayou. In 1966, Walt himself opened New Orleans Square when it became the first new “land” added to Disneyland park, so it feels natural to link the story and the incredible music of “The Princess and the Frog” to our parks.

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The voice of Princess Tiana and Tony Award-winning actress, Anika Noni Rose, shared, “It is really exciting to know that Princess Tiana’s presence in both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom will finally be fully realized! As passionate as I am about what we created, I know the fans are going to be over the moon. The Imagineers are giving us ‘The Princess and the Frog’ Mardi Gras celebration we’ve been waiting for, and I’m here for it!”

The approach to retheming or “plussing” attractions (as Walt Disney referred to it) begins with Imagineers asking the question, how can we build upon or elevate the experience and tell a fresh, relevant story? It’s a continuous process that Imagineers are deeply passionate about. And with this longstanding history of updating attractions and adding new magic, the retheming of Splash Mountain is of particular importance today. The new concept is inclusive – one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by, and it speaks to the diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year.

Charita Carter, the senior creative producer leading the project at Walt Disney Imagineering shared, “Like Princess Tiana, I believe that courage and love are the key ingredients for wonderful adventures. I am delighted to be a part of bringing this fun-filled experience to our guests.”

For Imagineers, change is rooted in a tradition set by Walt Disney who encouraged new innovations, new ideas, new scenes and current storytelling. And the experiences they create can be enjoyed by guests who visit our parks from all over the world.

As part of the creative development process, conceptual design work is well underway and Imagineers will soon be able to conduct preliminary reviews and develop a timeline for when the transformation can start to take shape.
 
My daughter was never into princesses, but she did like The Princess and the Frog. The story and characters and all were nice, but she mostly liked the hand-animation style. I always liked it too.
 
I like the way they say they've been working on it since last fall, as if this isn't a reaction to what's been happening recently. Pull the other leg, it plays "Jingle Bells."
It wouldn't surprise me if they were thinking about this for quite some time. There's been talk about the appropriateness of the theme since Splash Mountain opened in 1989.

He didn't come up with the idea, but I thought it was Michael Eisner's baby. It was the most expensive Disney ride at the time. Anyone remember The Magical World of Disney? Michael Eisner would host it and once it was him introducing Splash Mountain and I believe him going on the ride.
 
I love it.

Being from the region, they picked up on so many local things in the movie.

Can't wait to see the refurbishment happen.

But Splash opened in 1989 with the "Song of the South" behind the story? Yikes! Did not realize that a scene from that movie would have been used on a ride so recent.
 
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I like the way they say they've been working on it since last fall, as if this isn't a reaction to what's been happening recently. Pull the other leg, it plays "Jingle Bells."

I did a quick Google Search and could find conversations as far back as 2017 about making this switch. I believe that they have had the plans for a while, knowing the ride was becoming more of an issue that had to be addressed, but the current situation has pushed the change forward. I don’t think they would have made the change this soon for economic reasons, when there are so many other partially completed projects that will need to be taken care of, but I do think there were solid plans already in place for the switch to occur.

I am curious how they will re-theme the structure itself at WDW. It never really fit the Frontierland theme to begin with, and with the setting of the Princess and the Frog, it will still have a southern theme rather than a western one. It is a better fit thematically for Disneyland and New Orleans Square. I almost hope they don’t do a lot to the actual exterior of the ride building other than removing architectural details that tie it to the brier patch. I think it needs to keep a sort of outdoorsy look to the outside to keep it from distracting from the Frontierland aesthetic.

I am always too nervous about the drop to enjoy the scenes inside the ride, but if they are going to totally re-theme the ride I think this is a good movie to choose. It could have been a lot worse, considering their recent history of just shoving totally unrelated IP where it doesn’t fit. I look forward to seeing the new attraction.
 
I’ve never actually seen The Princess and the Frog (nor some of the newer Disney films from the last decade or so), but I think it’s a great idea!
 
I love it.

Being from the region, they picked up on so many local things in the movie.

Can't wait to see the refurbishment happen.

But Splash opened in 1989 with the "Song of the South" behind the story? Yikes! Did not realize that a scene from that movie would have been used on a ride so recent.

Yeah. Waited over an hour in line in 1989. I fully understood the theme, but they tried to tone it down to avoid anything other than representations of the animated parts of the movie.
 
I did a quick Google Search and could find conversations as far back as 2017 about making this switch. I believe that they have had the plans for a while, knowing the ride was becoming more of an issue that had to be addressed, but the current situation has pushed the change forward. I don’t think they would have made the change this soon for economic reasons, when there are so many other partially completed projects that will need to be taken care of, but I do think there were solid plans already in place for the switch to occur.

I am curious how they will re-theme the structure itself at WDW. It never really fit the Frontierland theme to begin with, and with the setting of the Princess and the Frog, it will still have a southern theme rather than a western one. It is a better fit thematically for Disneyland and New Orleans Square. I almost hope they don’t do a lot to the actual exterior of the ride building other than removing architectural details that tie it to the brier patch. I think it needs to keep a sort of outdoorsy look to the outside to keep it from distracting from the Frontierland aesthetic.

I am always too nervous about the drop to enjoy the scenes inside the ride, but if they are going to totally re-theme the ride I think this is a good movie to choose. It could have been a lot worse, considering their recent history of just shoving totally unrelated IP where it doesn’t fit. I look forward to seeing the new attraction.

Yeah, I'm sure they look at stuff regarding various attractions all the time. We've all heard the rumors about this and other attractions over the years.

My WAG is if all this hadn't happened recently, they wouldn't be making the change. I wish they'd just own that. There are valid reasons for making the change and they shouldn't couch it in PR-speak.
 
I love it.

Being from the region, they picked up on so many local things in the movie.

Can't wait to see the refurbishment happen.

But Splash opened in 1989 with the "Song of the South" behind the story? Yikes! Did not realize that a scene from that movie would have been used on a ride so recent.

The two problems with Song of the South do not appear on the ride. The Tar baby was changed to a honeycomb and the Uncle Remus cover story is completely absent.
Hopefully the new theming will be as well themed as the old because the old is some of the best theming on anything. If it is, I'll be fine with the change. The Disneyland version was particularly good because they had some of the old animatronics from America Sings that they put in.
 
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The two problems with Song of the South do not appear on the ride. The Tar baby was changed to a honeycomb and the Uncle Remus cover story is completely absent.
Hopefully the new theming will be as well themed as the old because the old is some of the best theming on anything.

The original (Disneyland) version of the ride reused a lot of the old America Sings animatronics. It was all animals, so it worked pretty well when repurposed.
 
Re-themes are the lazy way out. Especially when a mountain makes zero sense as a setting for a geographically flat area.
Maybe if they didn't spend so much effort and money on things that aren't even original Disney IP (Avatar and SW I'm talking to you) they could have come up with a great new ride experience for PaTF.
 

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