Disney World Closes Splash Mountain Ride to Remove Racist Themes

The movie follows a young boy at a Georgia plantation during the Reconstruction era. The film has been criticized for using racist stereotypes and glorifying plantation life.

The ride, beloved by some Disneygoers, won’t be gone forever. Disney said it would reopen the log-flume ride in Florida next year as “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.” 

Tiana is the central character in the 2009 movie, “The Princess and the Frog.” Disney said the ride would follow Princess Tiana, a New Orleans waitress-turned-restaurateur, as she prepares for a Mardi Gras party. It is the only original Disney film starring a Black princess. 

Disney didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.

In 2020, Disney said it was planning to redesign its Splash Mountain rides following Black Lives Matter protests. The company said at the time that it had already been preparing the changes for more than a year.

Passengers on the ride meander past frogs and other animals singing tracks like “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” from “Song of the South.” Then riders plummet five stories down and leave drenched in water. 

Robert Iger,

Disney’s chief executive, has said the movie isn’t appropriate in today’s world. The film isn’t available to stream on Disney+ or to purchase on home video.

“Song of the South” has largely been erased from Disney’s catalog but the film has loomed for decades over the company’s parks. In Florida, Splash Mountain’s wooden spire has towered over Magic Kingdom Park since 1992. Disneyland’s version of the ride opened in 1989.

Disneyland’s Splash Mountain ride in Anaheim, Calif., is set to close this year, but Disney hasn’t specified a date. The company has said it planned to reopen the ride late next year also with a Princess Tiana theme.

Japanese riders have also taken a spin on Splash Mountain at Tokyo Disney Resort. Disney hasn’t said if it is going to redesign the ride there.

This isn’t the first time Disney has redesigned an attraction with a controversial theme. In 2018, the company removed a “wench auction” from a “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride.

Some Disney fans are mourning Splash Mountain. Crowds lined up for hours on Sunday to take one last plunge down the mountain, social-media posts show. Dozens of people outside the ride that night counted down the seconds until it closed. Containers of water from the ride were listed on

eBay Inc.

this week for as much as $5,000.

Write to Alyssa Lukpat at alyssa.lukpat@wsj.com

The movie follows a young boy at a Georgia plantation during the Reconstruction era. The film has been criticized for using racist stereotypes and glorifying plantation life.

The ride, beloved by some Disneygoers, won’t be gone forever. Disney said it would reopen the log-flume ride in Florida next year as “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.” 

Tiana is the central character in the 2009 movie, “The Princess and the Frog.” Disney said the ride would follow Princess Tiana, a New Orleans waitress-turned-restaurateur, as she prepares for a Mardi Gras party. It is the only original Disney film starring a Black princess. 

Disney didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.

In 2020, Disney said it was planning to redesign its Splash Mountain rides following Black Lives Matter protests. The company said at the time that it had already been preparing the changes for more than a year.

Passengers on the ride meander past frogs and other animals singing tracks like “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” from “Song of the South.” Then riders plummet five stories down and leave drenched in water. 

Robert Iger,

Disney’s chief executive, has said the movie isn’t appropriate in today’s world. The film isn’t available to stream on Disney+ or to purchase on home video.

“Song of the South” has largely been erased from Disney’s catalog but the film has loomed for decades over the company’s parks. In Florida, Splash Mountain’s wooden spire has towered over Magic Kingdom Park since 1992. Disneyland’s version of the ride opened in 1989.

Disneyland’s Splash Mountain ride in Anaheim, Calif., is set to close this year, but Disney hasn’t specified a date. The company has said it planned to reopen the ride late next year also with a Princess Tiana theme.

Japanese riders have also taken a spin on Splash Mountain at Tokyo Disney Resort. Disney hasn’t said if it is going to redesign the ride there.

This isn’t the first time Disney has redesigned an attraction with a controversial theme. In 2018, the company removed a “wench auction” from a “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride.

Some Disney fans are mourning Splash Mountain. Crowds lined up for hours on Sunday to take one last plunge down the mountain, social-media posts show. Dozens of people outside the ride that night counted down the seconds until it closed. Containers of water from the ride were listed on

eBay Inc.

this week for as much as $5,000.

Write to Alyssa Lukpat at alyssa.lukpat@wsj.com