Disneylanders finally have a date to mark on their calendars for the last chance to ride Splash Mountain before the Critter Country attraction closes for a yearlong transformation to a new Princess Tiana theme.
Disneyland will close Splash Mountain on May 7 to begin the transformation of the classic log flume ride into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, according to the Disneyland website.
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That means May 6 will be the final day for fans of the 1989 attraction to float through Br’er Rabbit’s Laughing Place and sing along to “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.”
Splash Mountain will reopen at Disneyland and Walt Disney World in 2024 with a “Princess and the Frog” theme based on the 2009 Disney animated film.
The Splash Mountain attraction at Walt Disney World closed in January. Disneyland’s Splash Mountain underwent a seasonal winter refurbishment in January that was unrelated to the planned “Princess and the Frog” makeover.
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The reimagining of the Splash Mountain rides will remove thematic elements related to “Song of the South” — the controversial 1940s animated film criticized for perpetuating racist stereotypes that has been disowned by Disney.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will tell an extension of the “Princess and the Frog” story that picks up after the final kiss between Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. The new backstory for Splash Mountain will follow Tiana and Louis the trumpet-playing alligator as they prepare for their first Mardi Gras performance.
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Tiana’s takeover of New Orleans Square and nearby Critter Country has already begun.
In February, Disneyland began transforming the French Market restaurant in New Orleans Square into Tiana’s Palace — the New Orleans restaurant run by Tiana in the “Princess and the Frog” animated film.
Eudora’s Chic Boutique retail store opened in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square in September. The Tiana-themed store is named for the seamstress mother of the animated Disney princess.
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The Princess Tiana makeover of Splash Mountain has been years in the making.
Walt Disney Imagineering has been developing a “Princess and the Frog” backstory for Splash Mountain since 2019 and settled on many of the concepts for the reimagined attraction in summer 2019.
Disney announced in summer 2020 the Splash Mountain log flume rides at Disneyland in Anaheim and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida will be transformed by Imagineering with a new theme based on “The Princess and the Frog” animated movie.
SEE ALSO: Disneyland Splash Mountain makeover is going to take some time
The move by Disney in 2020 to announce changes to the rides followed a flurry of social media buzz calling for the parks to update Splash Mountain’s controversial backstory amid social justice protests across the United States sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.
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Splash Mountain features characters and songs from Disney’s 1946 “Song of the South” film based on the “Uncle Remus” stories — a collection of folktales from the Southern plantation era compiled by Joel Chandler Harris and published in the 1880s — that have been criticized for perpetuating racist stereotypes. Disney shelved the controversial live-action/animated musical film in the 1980s and the company’s CEO Bob Iger said the movie will not appear on the Disney+ streaming service.
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“Princess and the Frog” was celebrated as Disney’s first animated depiction of an African-American princess. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature and received two nods in the best original song category for “Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans.”