With the upcoming changes to Splash Mountain both at Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida more and more traces of the iconic ride are being removed as the upcoming Princess and the Frog re-theme is preparing its eventually takeover.

Now the Br’er Rabbit statue in the hub area around Cinderella Castle has been removed. Disney will likely be removing all the statues to replace them with the 50th Anniversary ones. They will probably use this opportunity to changes around the park all while saying it’s for the anniversary celebration. Then he likely will not return and they hope people will simply forget.

PHOTOS: Br’er Rabbit Bronze Statue Removed From Hub at the Magic Kingdomhttps://t.co/iE36rPuc98

— WDW News Today (@WDWNT) September 2, 2021

The Splash Mountain ride is considered by many to be classic. It’s a ride where you see many fun animals and sing cheerful and uplifting songs, all based on the classic film Song of the South. The film is about a young boy being told stories about Br’er Rabbit and the clever ways he gets out of trouble with lessons taught in each story. The character, Uncle Remus, is an old African American man who has a heart of gold and kind words for the young boy. The actor, James Baskett, who portrayed Uncle Remus, was the very first African American Actor to be given an Academy Award for his performance. 

But not everyone thinks the story is acceptable.

Splash Mountain is being changed due to two major reasons:

First is Disney’s reaction to a group of people who claim the ride is offensive. Many have likely not even seen the film.

Actress Whoopi Goldberg, upon becoming a Disney Legend, asked for Song of the South to finally be released on Home Video.  Disney has yet to comply, and since the re-theme announcement many have voiced their objections to the ride change, even more in number than those who want the change.

Second is possibly Disney wanting to sell more Disney Princess merchandise. They love the Disney Princess Brand and whenever they can have a princess somewhere they’ll put it there. The last time this happened was in EPCOT when Frozen replaced the classic Maelstrom ride in the Norway Pavilion. 

It is sad to see all mentions of the once prominent attraction being erased from existence, at least in North America, as Tokyo Disneyland stated that they will not re-theme the attraction, and Song of the South is actually Public Domain in Japan.

This ride is my father’s favorite Disney ride, and in our recent visit to Disney World this past April he road that ride countless times as his way of saying goodbye, and says he will never ride the replacement. 

We will see how the reception to the new ride is when it debuts within the next couple years. But I will never forget the ride and I will continue to watch my bootleg DVD copy of Song of the South and So Dear To My Heart.

Source: WDW News Today