The exterior transformation of the old Splash Mountain ride into Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom took a major step forward as a landmark "Tiana's Foods" water tower was installed.
The Splash Mountain ride, deemed racially problematic because of its connection to the movie Song of the South, is being re-themed for the movie The Princess and the Frog. While Song of the South depicted blacks as cheerfully subservient, with exaggerated dialect, The Princess and the Frog provides positive black role models. The hero of that movie is the only Disney princess who is African American, and also the only one who is career-driven (as opposed to prince-driven).
It will be interesting to see how the ride will be transformed to tell the story of Tiana, a New Orleans girl who dreams of owning a restaurant. The "mountain" of the former ride is apparently being recast as a Louisiana salt dome, which the now-successful restaurateur Tiana has purchased as the center of her new food cooperative, Tiana's Foods.
Maybe the villain in the ride is an evil governor who tries to shut the whole thing down for being too woke.
Photos posted with permission of Disney Parks Public Relations
