History Erased: Disney Reaches Critical Point in Splash Mountain Retheme

It’s been a while since Disney closed Splash Mountain, so what exactly has changed?

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Over the years, we’ve seen countless new experiences join the Disney theme parks. From California to Florida, guests can expect to find and cover dozens of incredible rides, attractions, and magical moments when they’re at a Disney theme park. A big part of this magic comes from the new attractions that Disney is always creating. Some of the newest attractions to open at the Disney parks are Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT, and TRON Lightcycle / Run at Magic Kingdom.

However, to make way for new experiences, old ones must close. This is an unfortunate truth about theme parks, no matter if you’re at Disney, Universal, Six Flags, Dollywood, or SeaWorld, and one of the biggest closures to ever occur at the Disney theme parks happened earlier this year.

Splash Mountain is a log flume ride that was once found at three different Disney theme parks: Disneyland Park, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The ride permanently closed at two of the three locations, with Tokyo Disneyland’s version of the ride being the last remaining version.

Disney announced that Splash Mountain would be closing permanently at its American theme parks several years ago, revealing its plans to transform the legendary log flume ride into an attraction based on Disney’s 2009 animated film The Princess and the Frog. This announcement and decision came after decades of backlash regarding Splash Mountain and the film that inspired it, Song of the South (1946). The film has received near-universal criticism, with many taking issues with its portrayal of African Americans. Because of the backlash, Disney effectively wiped the film from its catalog and did not issue an official store copy for many years. The film is also not streaming on Disney’s Disney+ streaming platform, indicating The Walt Disney Company would much prefer to leave it in the dust.

However, the largest problem regarding the film actually revolved around Splash Mountain itself, with Disney looking quite silly, going to great lengths to erase a film, all the while still operating three entire theme park attractions based on the film.

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Eventually, Disney would reveal that both Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s versions of the ride would close permanently. For a while, guests were left in the dark as to when the ride would close, but exactly one year ago today, Disney finally revealed when Magic Kingdom’s version would close.

On December 2, 2022, we learned that Splash Mountain’s final day of operation at Frontierland in the Magic Kingdom would be January 23, 2023. Work quickly began on the ride shortly after it closed, with the entire structure now being covered with scaffolding and scrim.

The new ride, officially called Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, is a fresh new take on the classic Splash Mountain adventure, with the new ride utilizing the same ride vehicles and track layout. We’ve seen Disney do this before, where they reskin a ride, giving it a whole new personality and aesthetic while retaining the original ride systems. One of the more controversial examples of this is Frozen Ever After at EPCOT. This dark ride took over the spot of Maelstrom, the former dark ride that used to occupy the same space in the Norway Pavilion in World Showcase.

So far, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure looks pretty similar to Splash Mountain, though we expect the inside portion of the ride to take on a whole new aesthetic and vibe.

Recent pictures show that the tree at the top of the once-famous mountain is now gone, with the entire perimeter being wall-off to guests.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure does not have a specific opening date but is listed to open sometime in 2024 on the official Walt Disney World website. While it’s sad to see such a legendary ride go, we’re super excited about what’s in store for the future of this attraction with Taian’s Bayou Adventure.

Are you excited about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure? 

This post is originally appeared on Inside the Magic.