‘Woke’ Disney lost a king’s ramson in value last year as far-left ideology overtook sound business decision-making in terms of films and other offerings, but even after Bob Iger has returned to right the entertainment company’s ship, those hard financial lessons appear not to have made a difference.
Despite the fact that several movies with gay, lesbian, and other ‘woke’ themes bombed; even though the company’s stock lost a great deal of its value; and although several of its executives were discovered on video pledging allegiance to ‘wokeness’ over everything else — nothing much has changed, apparently, as evidenced by a decision to go ahead and shut down the “Splash Mountain” ride at Walt Disney World in Orlando over allegations of “racist” themes.
“It closed Sunday, and by Tuesday, the TikTok hashtag #goodbyesplashmountain had attracted 1.6 million views. Somber tribute videos to the ride set to the song ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah’ — some of which claimed to show visitors’ last times riding its log boats over its waterfall with a 45-degree drop — had thousands of likes,” NBC News reported.
One video posted to social media claimed there was a two-hour wait for a final ride, the outlet noted, adding:
The closing of the 30-year-old ride — which Princess Diana visited in 1993 — follows years of calls for change because it features several characters from Disney’s 1946 film “Song of the South,” which featured racist stereotypes.
The film, set on a plantation, features an elderly Black man known as Uncle Remus who tells traditional African American folk tales to white children cared for by Black servants.
Walter White, the former executive secretary of the NAACP, said the film “helps to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery.”
In 2020, before his short-lived retirement, Iger said the film wouldn’t be available on Disney+ streaming service, adding it is “not appropriate in today’s world,” Deadline reported.
But here’s the irony: While ‘racism’ allegedly caused the demise of Splash Mountain, the ride reimaged is based solely on race.
In June 2020, “Disney announced Splash Mountain would be ‘reimagined’ as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, based on Disney’s first Black princess, featured in the 2009 film ‘The Princess and the Frog.’ Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open at Magic Kingdom and Disneyland Park, in Anaheim, California, in 2024. (It was not immediately clear when Splash Mountain at Disneyland Park closed.)”
At the time, Disney claimed that the reimaged ride was “inclusive.”
“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,” Disney said.
