Disney has spent a whopping $142 million on woke replacements for some of its most beloved themed attractions, after the company decided to cut them at the height of the George Floyd protests.
In 2020, the company ordered the demolition of the Splash Mountain water slide attractions, saying their references to the 1946 film Song of the South were “inappropriate in today’s world.”
But its replacement with attractions based on 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, featuring a black princess for the first time, has struggled to draw visitors and unite fans of both horror films.
Business magazine Forbes charted the cost of renovations in Florida and California after a loose-lipped Disney design manager revealed how much money the company was spending on Disneyland Paris.
And the backlash from Disney fans has analysts fearing the entertainment giant will never see a return on its investment.
“The reputational damage from this failure is incalculable and that alone could make it one of the most expensive attractions in Disney history,” the magazine wrote.
Disney’s Splash Mountain was one of the most popular attractions at its Florida and California resorts, but was deemed “inappropriate” in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement
The $142 million replacement ‘Tiana’s Bayou Adventure’ was plagued by mechanical failures and was criticized by Disney fans as a “disaster of epic proportions”
Splash Mountain quickly became one of Disneyland’s most popular attractions when it opened in 1989. It combined a thrilling log flume ride with an immersive cartoon experience about the adventures of Br’er Rabbit.
The 1946 film on which it is based featured the Oscar-winning song Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, but was criticized by Black Lives Matter activists for its “racist” depiction of life after the Civil War.
In 2020, Disney CEO Bob Iger banned the film from the Disney+ platform. According to him, “Song of the South, even with a disclaimer, was simply no longer appropriate for today’s world.”
He also announced that the attractions would be replaced by ‘Tiana’s Bayou Adventure’, designed by the ‘Imagineering’ team and based on Disney’s 2009 version of The Princess and the Frog.
But it wasn’t just traditionalists who were shocked when Disney unveiled its new attraction with a ride video in May.
“Did you really replace an iconic attraction with this?” wrote one of the thousands of dissatisfied customers.
“This was the most boring thing I’ve ever seen,” added another. “No story, no exciting moments and no fun, unlike its much more fun and successful predecessor.”
The new attraction opened last month at the Florida resort by Disney World President Jeff Vahle
It is based on Disney’s 2009 version of The Princess and the Frog, featuring the company’s first black princess
In 2020, Disney CEO Bob Iger insisted that Splash Mountain had to go because the 1946 version of Song of the South on which it was based “just didn’t fit in today’s world anymore”
Actors dressed as Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen from The Princess and the Frog perform on a float during the Festival of Fantasy Parade
“This is a slap in the face to Tiana and the African American community,” said a third. “Tiana deserved her own new ride…not a tired Wish version of a ride!”
“This attraction is a reflection of everything that is wrong with modern Disney,” added a fourth.
And things haven’t gotten any better since the attraction opened to the public in June, with ongoing mechanical problems forcing it to close again and again.
Disney has already warned of a decline in the number of visitors to its theme parks in the second quarter, blaming this on a “global decline in post-COVID travel.”
WDWMagic reported that wait times were even down to less than an hour on July 4, compared to the usual four hours.
“The number of spectators is definitely much lower than before during the Fourth Festival,” ThatParkPlace reported.
Disney typically keeps few secrets about its investments, declining to confirm how much money went into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
But an indiscreet and short-lived LinkedIn post from Imagineer design manager David Jaraudias shed light on the staggering cost of a major renovation of the attractions.
He revealed that the Avengers Campus at Disneyland Paris cost exactly $404.1 million to build by 2022.
He also confirmed that the overhaul of ‘Star Tours’, the resort’s Star Wars simulator, cost $71 million, making the business magazine to estimate the cost of the labor-intensive replacement of Splash Mountain at $142 million.
It’s not the first time the company has undertaken a costly rewrite of its 101-year history.
In 2021, Disney announced that it would revamp Jungle Cruise, one of the original Disney parks attractions. The attraction had been criticized in the past for its racist nature, as the animatronic indigenous population was depicted as savages or headhunters.
Three years earlier, Disney had removed a scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction that was considered offensive because it showed women queuing for an auction.
The film still comes under fire for featuring the crow characters from the 1941 film Dumbo and the character of King Louie from the 1967 The Jungle Book. These characters are often criticized as caricatures of African Americans.
The portrayal of Native Americans in the 1953 film Peter Pan and the Siamese cats – often seen as Asian stereotypes – in the 1955 film Lady and the Tramp have also been ridiculed.
The reaction to the new attraction has been devastating from Disney fans across the board
But it’s the poor quality of Splash Mountain’s replacement that’s most angering Disney fans, according to reviews on the company’s YouTube page.
“Disney spent so much money on the animatronics that they forgot to spend money on developing a good story,” one person wrote.
“I’m not even going to comment on how you ruined one of the best rides in all the parks, but if you were going to do Princess and the Frog, this was the best you could do?” added another.
‘There is no story, half the ride consists of dark parts with the same repeating screens with fireflies, songs with singing in the background but no one sings, and painful dialogues.’
“The imagination has lost its creativity and narrative power,” wrote a third.
“This is a disaster of epic proportions.”