At the Heart of Splash Mountain

Michael Kuo

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Abstract

The paper's topic is how the Walt Disney Company Disney strives to occupy the middle ground of the racial debate. The project will analyze the evolution of Disney’s relationship with race through the two films, the Song of the South and The Princess and the Frog, and Splash

Mountain, which binds the two movies. The paper examines existing secondary literature that engages in the discourse surrounding both the films and the ride and how they engage in racial imagery and subjects. It utilizes the two films to understand how the Walt Disney Company portrayed African American characters in the past and more recently. Splash Mountain, as an entity, is examined to understand how it fits into Disney’s handling of their history. The project also analyzes press releases to understand how Disney framed their works to the public. The paper uses newspaper articles to understand the context for which the films were released and to grasp how the public viewed them. Disney works to present uncontroversial depictions of race that fit within the context of the time of their release. The film the Song of the South failed to remain uncontroversial, which is the reason for the decades of effort by Disney to erase the racist elements of the film. The Princess and the Frog continues the pattern of cultural conformity and

Disney’s efforts to erase Song of the South. These efforts to conform to cultural attitudes regarding race by the Walt Disney Company demonstrate their intention not to displease conservatives and liberals maximize their profits.

Introduction

Splash Mountain opened at Disneyland on Monday, July 17, 1989.1 The log flume ride brings the visitor along on the carefree and clever Brer Rabbit’s journey to the Laughing Place. It

1 "'SPLASH MOUNTAIN' OFFICIAL OPENING DEDICATION CEREMONY,” PR Newswire, July 17, 1989, Monday.

- 2 - begins by showing the guest Brer Rabbit leaving home for the Laughing Place as he seeks to add some excitement and adventure to his life. The ride takes the guest down a drop into a dark cavern where they find Brer Rabbit in the Laughing Place. He finds the excitement he sought but also finds himself tricked and captured by a honey trap set by his two pursuers, Brer Fox and

Brer Bear. The ride then places the visitor in the middle of a scene of despair as animal mothers sing a foreboding song alluding to the imminent demise of Brer Rabbit. However, the guest is relieved to find that Brer Rabbit outwits his captors, and the rider follows along as he falls into the briar patch below. In the end, the visitor finds Brer Rabbit content in his burrow singing along to “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” while his captors struggle to free themselves from the briar patch. Brer Rabbit and the visitor learns the valuable lesson that “you can’t run away from trouble; there ain’t no place that far.”2

The characters depicted in the ride Splash Mountain are from the 1946 Disney film Song of the South based upon the Uncle Remus stories. The film’s story is of a black man named

Uncle Remus, who tells stories to a young white boy named Johnny, who is a member of the family that owns the nearby plantation. Brer Rabbit and his friends are the animated renderings of the stories that Uncle Remus tells Johnny. The animated portions take up 1/3 of the total screen time of Song of the South, yet the make up the ride’s entirety.3 The emphasis on the animated characters is part of Disney’s ongoing effort to reform its image following the initial release of the film.

2 Jason Sperb, "Take a Frown, Turn It Upside Down": Splash Mountain, Walt Disney World, and the Cultural De-rac[e]-ination of Disney's 'Song of the South' (1946),” Journal Of Popular Culture 38, no. 5 (2005): 930. 3 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 933.

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At the heart of Splash Mountain lies a dark past. It is a ride based upon the controversial film Song of the South, yet it declines to acknowledge the characters who occupy 2/3 of the screen time. Now the ride finds itself in a transitional phase as it adapts itself around the film the

Princess and the Frog. The ride embodies the changes happening to the Walt Disney Company as it adapts to the changing American society and is at the heart of how it copes with race. The

Walt Disney Company strives to make its films politically correct to avoid controversies that might take away from its profits. The story of Splash Mountain and the two films attached to it characterize how Disney has handled racial themes and characters in their properties over time.

The Walt Disney Company attempts to remain neutral when it comes to the topic of race. This paper uses the films Song of the South and The Princess and the Frog as well as the ride Splash

Mountain to demonstrate Disney’s efforts to remain neutral. The film Song of the South showcases Disney’s strategy by showing what happens when they fail to remain uncontroversial.

The story begins with the production of the film that began in the mid-1900s.

Background of Song of the South

Walt Disney had long been a fan of Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus stories before he brought them to film. Disney said: “Ever since I had anything to do with the making of motion pictures I have wanted to bring them to the screen.”4 Disney laid the groundwork for the film by securing the rights to the stories from the Harris family in 1939.5 Disney would have to pause the making of the film due to financial constraints and the arrival of World War II. The studio continued to struggle financially following World War II but learned during the war that hybrid

4 M. Thomas Inge, "Walt Disney's Song of the South and the Politics of Animation,” The Journal of American Culture 35, no. 3 (2012): 219. 5 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 220.

- 4 - films that utilized both live-action and animated segments were cheaper to produce.6 Walt

Disney revisited the Uncle Remus stories knowing they would work as a hybrid film.7 Song of the South was the studio’s first feature-length film and was to guide the studio out of the financial instability it found itself.8 However, Disney encountered a significant problem that complicated the production of Song of the South.

The post-World War II United States saw the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movements, and the country was more conscious of racism in society. By the time Disney began to film Song of the South, the Uncle Remus characters and stories were already considered racist by different organizations and activists, including the NAACP.9 Walter White of the NAACP fought since the 1930s to eliminate both stereotyped black characters and romanticized antebellum films from

Hollywood.10 Thanks to White’s work, plantation films filled with “absurd black characters” like

Song of the South fell out of style by the 1940s.11 The target of these activists’ criticism was the main character Uncle Remus. The figure of Uncle Remus sustained the “Uncle Tom” stereotype that had plagued American culture since Harriet Beecher Stowe first put him into print.12 Uncle

Remus is a black male who indulges the white boy Johnny and appears happy with his lower- class standing. Uncle Remus is smiling and cheerful throughout the film and seems at his happiest when he is attending to Johnny’s needs. Despite the withstanding controversies surrounding the Uncle Remus tales, Disney insisted on bringing them to life.

6 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 219. 7 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 219. 8 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 219. 9 Sperb,” Take a Frown,” 930. 10 Thomas Cripps, Making Movies Black: The Hollywood Message Movie from World War II to the Civil Rights Era, (Cary: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1993): 11. 11 Cripps, Making Movies Black, 43. 12 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 221.

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Walt Disney was aware of the potentially controversial nature of an Uncle Remus movie, and that was the reason for choosing the name Song of the South to “distance the film from potential criticism from African-Americans concerned about the use of the of the ‘Uncle Remus’ tales.”13 The stories were well known by the 1940s and already associated with the promotion of the romanticized plantation that Walter White and the NAACP took so many steps to steer

Hollywood away from for over a decade.14 Disney took other steps to reduce the reasons critics may label the film as racist, including hiring a liberal writer Maurice Rapf whom Disney hoped would help steer the film clear from offensive imagery and themes.15 Rapf warned Disney to stay away from the Uncle Remus tales, but Disney insisted that Remus was not a derogatory figure:

“I think Remus is a great character, a strong character. He is the dominant force in the story.

There is no reason for Negroes to take offense.”16 Disney’s assertion that Uncle Remus is an unoffensive character is simply false, and his comments display the fact that he underestimated how far racial politics had changed since 1939. Uncle Remus is not a strong character and is a subordinate to Johnny’s family. Disney also solicited the advice of prominent African American figures, including Alain Locke and Paul Robeson.17 Walt recruited Robeson to play the role of

Uncle Remus, but nothing ever materialized, leaving Disney to settle for James Baskett, a former vaudeville actor.18 Unfortunately for Walt Disney, all of his efforts to avoid any potential criticisms were in vain.

Controversies Surrounding Song of the South

13 Alan Gevinson, Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911 – 1960, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997): 954. 14 Cripps, Making Movies Black, 189. 15 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 221. 16 Maurice Rapf, Back Lot: Growing Up with the Movies, (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 1999): 130. 17 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 222. 18 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 222.

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Song of the South was released on November 1, 1946, and was met immediately with criticisms. Critics targeted the live-action scenes that the character Uncle Remus inhabited as both lackluster and racially insensitive.19 Walter White, the executive secretary of the NAACP, stated: “It [NAACP] regrets, however, that in an effort neither to offend audiences in the North or South, the production helps to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery.”20 Uncle

Remus is a harmful figure who perpetuates negative stereotypes of black people. Uncle Remus is still a character who “suggests that blacks lived in extreme poverty but were nonetheless happy and content alongside their former owners, still faithfully serving the rich whites and their children during the Reconstruction era in the American South.”21 The stereotyped mammy character is another example of a romanticized former slave. Song of the South employs its mammy in Aunt Tempy, who is played by Hattie McDaniel. Aunt Tempy is not the first mammy that McDaniel played as she assumed the same role in Gone with the Wind, a performance that earned her an Oscar only seven years earlier. Demonstrations were held across the country to protest the release of the film. The critics were incorrect in assuming the film took place before emancipation when it took place during Reconstruction, which was something Rapf and Disney failed to make clear to audiences.22 However, critics were correct in pointing out the offensive nature of both the now-infamous “tar baby scene” and the character of Uncle Remus.

Maurice Rapf stated that “the undersized Brer Rabbit was a symbol of the oppressed black man who must use brain rather than brawn to outwit his more powerful masters.”23 This is

19 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 222. 20 Bosley Crowther, "SPANKING DISNEY: WALT IS CHASTISED FOR 'SONG OF THE SOUTH' STRICTLY FROM DIXIE DOUBLE CROSS,” New York Times (1923-Current File), Dec 08, 1946. 21 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 932. 22 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 224. 23 Rapf, Back Lot, 130.

- 7 - the same Brer Rabbit in Song of the South who strikes a “tar baby,” which ultimately leads to

Brer Rabbit becoming trapped by the tar. Brer Fox and Brer Bear utilize the tar baby, a piece of tar they dress up to mimic a person, to enact their revenge on Brer Rabbit for fooling them earlier in the film. Brer Rabbit passes by the tar baby and strikes it simply because it did not show him respect by failing to return his salutation. The tar baby perpetuates the stereotype of black people as rude and contributed to the normalization of violence against black people and eventually led the NAACP to label it as a “racist icon.”24 Despite the outcry from liberals, the film still found some success.

Even with all of the backlash and criticisms from activist groups, the movie still turned in a slight $226,000 profit for Disney.25 The critics proved to be in the minority as the general public still went to see the movie as they believed that there was “nothing obviously objectionable about the film.”26 Supporters ranged from Parents Magazine, which gave the film a medal, to conservatives including Hedda Hopper, who successfully pushed the academy to grant James Baskett an Oscar for his performance.27 Nonetheless, the film would continue to face criticism and prove a complicated property for the Walt Disney Company.

What to do with Song of the South?

The life of Song of the South in the decades that followed its initial release is a complex tale that reflects Disney’s efforts to adapt to a changing society. The company’s handling of the film reflects its struggles to balance its desire for profits with its yearning to appear family friendly and politically correct. Disney should have shelved the film immediately on moral

24 Jason Isaac Mauro, ‘‘Disney’s Splash Mountain: Death Anxiety, the Tar Baby, and the Rituals of Violence,’’ Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 22.3 (1997): 115. 25 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 223. 26 Cripps, Making Movies Black, 192. 27 Cripps, Making Movies Black, 193.

- 8 - grounds. However, the film’s success amongst conservatives encouraged the company to continue to show the film. Disney broke from its standard practice of re-releasing films in theaters every seven years, but they did re-release the film in 1956, 1972, 1980, and 1986.28 The re-releases proved that the support for the film lasted well into the 1980s by generating a profit of $13 million over the four re-releases.29 However, each re-release brought controversies as the

Civil Rights Movement progressed and brought new challenges for the company.

The film continued to be a target for civil rights advocates and became especially problematic for the Walt Disney Company in the 1960s. The company decided not to re-release the film in the 1960s despite the success of the re-release in 1956.30 Song of the South was not alone as other films like Gone with the Wind receiving similar criticisms over their portrayal of

African Americans: “It was only in the 1960s, when civil rights became a major concern of the entire United States, that it became clear that Song of the South and films of that kind would be touching sensitive spots if shown again.”31 Pressure from advocates led the Walt Disney

Company to announce in February of 1970 “that the film was ‘permanently’ withdrawn.’’32

However, the film’s conservative supporters pushed for continued re-releases, including one two years after Disney decided to withdraw the film from circulation.33 Notably, the promotional material for the later re-releases had noticeable differences.

In the lead up to the 1980s re-releases, Disney utilized promotional material that primarily featured the animated characters.34 Uncle Remus is placed off to the side to make room

28 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 229. 29 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 223. 30 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 932. 31 Leonard Maltin, The Disney Films, (New York: Popular Library, 1978): 78. 32 Maltin, The Disney Films, 78. 33 Maltin, The Disney Films, 78. 34 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 933.

- 9 - for Brer Rabbit, who inhabits far less screen time than his live-action counterparts.35 The decision to marginalize the live-action characters in promotional material comes despite being a showcase for technicolor and hybrid film making.36 Promoting the animated characters could be a case of Disney appealing to the target audience of children. However, the effort to effectively hide Uncle Remus in the marketing for the re-releases demonstrates their awareness of the film's racially sensitive nature. The re-releases would be the only way to view the film going forward.

The film's continued controversy led Disney to never release the film on VHS or DVD in the United States.37 The company gave serious consideration to releasing the film to DVD for its

60th anniversary in 2006 but ultimately announced in March of 2007 at their annual shareholder meeting that they would not pursue that option.38 The company’s announcement to forego a revenue source demonstrates its effort to adapt Disney’s image to the changing national consciousness. The decision not to release the film on DVD or VHS is a component of the more considerable effort by the Walt Disney Company to reduce Song of the South's exposure.

The rare reluctance by the Walt Disney Company to not profit off one of their properties demonstrates the broader effort by the company to reform its image amongst the changing national attitudes. The decision to restrict access to the film exhibits how Disney sought to limit how many new moviegoers could watch Song of the South. Even by the 1980s re-releases,

Disney understood that the culture of America was changing. Disney’s decision to withhold the film from further circulation demonstrates that they understood that American society could no

35 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 933. 36 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 935. 37 J.P. Telotte, "Song of the South,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video: ''We Want Our DVDs!'' 27, no. 5 (2010): 392. 38 Earl Ofari Hutchinson, “A Statement from Earl Ofari Hutchinson, President Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable Praising Disney’s Decision Not to Re-Release the Racially Stereotyped Film, Song of the South,” Press Release, May 11, Los Angeles: 2007.

- 10 - longer tolerate it. The Walt Disney Company was willing to forgo future opportunities to profit off the film to not jeopardize the viability of their future films. The disappearance of Uncle

Remus and Song of the South as a whole continues into the present with the introduction of

Disney’s streaming service Disney+.

Disney launched its streaming service Disney+ on November 12, 2019.39 Song of the

South was and still is absent from the site. The decision to withhold the film from the site follows in the same vein as not releasing it to DVD. It comes amongst the fact that Disney does include other films containing harmful representations of people of color, including Dumbo. In Disney’s words regarding Dumbo:

“The crows and musical number pay homage to racist minstrel shows, where white

performers with blackened faces and tattered clothing imitated and ridiculed enslaved

Africans on Southern plantations. The leader of the group in Dumbo is Jim Crow, which

shares the name of laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. In

‘The Song of the Roustabouts,’ faceless Black workers toil away to offensive lyrics like

‘When we get our pay, we throw our money all away.’”40

Disney includes a message shown at the start of Dumbo and similarly controversial films that reads:

“This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures.

These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content,

we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to

39 Mae Anderson, "Beyond Netflix: Disney Plus Joins the Streaming Fray of Big-Time Players,” The Charlotte Post, Nov 14, 2019. 40 “Stories Matter - The Walt Disney Company.” The Walt Disney Company. Accessed November 25, 2020. https://storiesmatter.thewaltdisneycompany.com/.

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create a more inclusive future together. Disney is committed to creating stories with

inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human

experience around the globe. To learn more about how stories have impacted society

visit: www.Disney.com/StoriesMatter."41

In the statement, Disney mentions that they continue to show films with harmful imagery to learn from it. In the same press release from March of 2007, Disney stated that they first contemplated adding “an introductory disclaimer and additional historical commentary” to a DVD release of

Song of the South before ultimately deciding to shelve the property.42 The statement on Disney+ insinuates that other films also receive criticisms over their representation of people of color, but

Disney chose to include them nonetheless. Here, the Walt Disney Company singles out Song of the South because of its longstanding history of controversies that harm Disney’s moderate image. The films Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Song of the South are further connected as they all have a home in Disneyland.

At the Heart of Splash Mountain

Disney broke ground on Splash Mountain in 1987, one year after the final re-release of

Song of the South in theatres.43 The ride would be the most expensive built at Disneyland at the time at $80 million.44 The decision to construct a ride adapted from the controversial film makes sense when viewed as part of Disney’s effort to erase the film’s racist elements. Even though the

“Imagineers” at Disneyland decided to dedicate their most expensive ride to Song of the South, they took steps to dampen any potential criticisms.

41 “Stories Matter - The Walt Disney Company.” 42 Inge, “Walt Disney’s,” 229. 43 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 933. 44 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 933.

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The ride spawned from the same strategy of emphasizing the animated characters and eliminating the live-action characters. Uncle Remus and the children are nowhere on the ride, and there is no acknowledgment of the live-action aspects anywhere other than a few of Uncle

Remus’s quotes.45 Also absent from the ride is the tar baby Brer Rabbit punches for angering him; a beehive filled with honey replaces it.46 By eliminating both the tar baby and Uncle

Remus, Disney effectively deleted the film's racist aspects and presented to visitors a “racially sanitized commercial venture ready for popular consumption.”47 If a rider were unaware of the film before visiting, they would not know what film it is adapting, or at the very least, they would think it is a children-friendly film that follows the story of Brer Rabbit: “Racist undertones may swell beneath Splash Mountain for some, but not for the millions of visitors who walk through Disney’s gates each year without the faintest clue what Song of the South is and was.”48 While Song of the South did face criticisms following its release, they never compared to the same outcry that followed films like Birth of a Nation.49 The lack of widespread public attention allowed Disney to disconnect the ride to the movie. Splash Mountain marks the peak of

Disney’s efforts to erase Uncle Remus and the tar baby from public consciousness. The ride continues the tradition of Disney to avoid discussing the topic of race. The company would continue that strategy as the nation embarced multiculturalism and a “post-racial” society.

A New Age for Disney?

In March of 2007, at the same shareholder meeting where they announced that they would not release Song of the South to DVD, the Walt Disney Company announced its first

45 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 933. 46 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 935. 47 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 935. 48 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 936. 49 Sperb, “Take a Frown,” 936.

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African American princess.50 Disney utilized the announcement of The Princess and the Frog to help the company move on from Song of the South. The centers on Tiana, who is a working-class black woman who dreams of opening up her restaurant. She shared the dream with her father, whom the film described as a hardworking man who died before his dream materialized. Her mother, Eudora, is also a working-class individual who is a seamstress for Eli LaBouff, who is among the white elite in New Orleans. Eudora also serves as a mother figure for Eli LaBouff’s daughter Charlotte. She serves to present the dichotomy between Tiana and Charlotte’s upbringing and as an opportunity for Disney to acknowledge the criticisms of their past princesses. In the story, the prince is Prince Naveen of Maldonia, whose racial ambiguity demonstrates Disney’s struggle to avoid miscegenation.51 The antagonist is Dr. Facilier, a practitioner of voodoo and an embodiment of the old “black trickster” stereotype but fashioned for a new audience. The emphasis on voodoo attaches Dr. Facilier both to the fictionalized mythology of New Orleans and the “centuries-old racist tropes about blacks and black religiosity.”52 Through these characters, Disney presents its most earnest attempt to conform to a changing America.

The announcement's timing comes both amidst their decision to not release Song of the

South to DVD and parallels Barack Obama’s campaign for the United States presidency. Disney released the film in December of 2009, which marked the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency. The Princess and the Frog emerged amidst the heart of the “post-racial” society that

50 CBC Arts, "Disney creates first black animated princess,” CBC News, March 9, 2007 Friday. 51 Ajay Gehlawat, "The Strange Case of ‘The Princess and the Frog:’ Passing and the Elision of Race,” Journal of African American Studies 14, no. 4 (2010): 424. 52 Adam M. McGee, “Haitian Vodou and Voodoo: Imagined Religion and Popular Culture,” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 41, no. 2 (June 2012): 233.

- 14 - characterized Obama’s presidency.53 The belief that race and racism were no longer an issue in the United States with President Obama's ascendency is at the core of the film, The Princess and the Frog.

The marketing for the film The Princess and the Frog stressed that it would feature the first African American princess in the marketing leading up to its release. However, in the actual film, race is mostly absent despite Disney going out of its way to place the film within 1920s

New Orleans, where Jim Crow laws were in full effect.54 The film does not explicitly say that

Tiana is African American. The film instead implies her race through various methods, including highlighting her status as a second-class citizen, having Tiana and Eudora sit in the back of a trolley, and showcasing her dilapidated house. The film never connects her social status to the realities of race relations in the Jim Crow Era South. The closest the film comes to mentioning that she is African American is when the real estate agents she was working with say that “A little woman of your background would have had her hands full trying to run a business like that,” and even then, her race is not an explicit factor keeping her from achieving her dream.55

The effects of racism reveal themselves in different aspects of the film. However, Disney never points out that systemic racism is responsible for Tiana and her family’s harships throughout the film. The effort to disguise race in The Princess and the Frog continues with the main character’s transformation into frogs.

53 Gehlawat, "The Strange Case of,” 429. 54 Sarita McCoy Gregory, "Disney's Second Line: New Orleans, Racial Masquerade, and the Reproduction of Whiteness in "The Princess and the Frog”," Journal of African American Studies 14, no. 4 (2010): 440. 55 Richard M. Breaux, "After 75 Years of Magic: Disney Answers Its Critics, Rewrites African American History, and Cashes In on Its Racist Past,” Journal of African American Studies 14, no. 4 (2010): 405.

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Tiana and Prince Naveen spend 57 of the 97 minutes as frogs.56 Tiana spends the majority of the film as a frog despite Disney touting the fact that she was the first black princess in all of their marketing material. It is a similar strategy to Disney’s handling of Song of the

South. Like in the case of Song of the South, Disney promoted the aspects of The Princess of the

Frog that made up less than half of the screen time. The effect was that people believed the film centered around a black princess when, in reality, the film mostly featured the main character as a frog. Instead of hiding race in their marketing as they did with Song of the South, Disney highlighted race and then made it disappear within the film. The divide between the marketing material and the actual film demonstrates Disney’s efforts to ensure they did not anger potential liberal and conservative moviegoers. Disney touted a film that featured a black princess to satisfy liberals while avoiding the topic of racism in the film to satisfy conservatives. Disney’s strategy to not mention race within the film represents the culmination of the company’s efforts to straddle the political middle ground.

Prior to The Princess and the Frog, Disney released several other films that sought to provide politically correct onscreen representations of people of color. The company’s first attempts were Mulan, Pocahontas, and Aladdin. The films highlight the company’s struggles with handling race in their films amidst a changing political climate. A quote by Eric Goldberg, who was one of the directors who worked on Pocahontas, captures Disney’s struggles handling race in their films: “We’ve gone from being accused of being too white bread to being accused of racism in 'Aladdin' to being accused of being too politically correct in 'Pocahontas.' That's progress to me."57 Films like Mulan and Pocahontas were stepping stones on Disney’s path to

56 Breaux, “After 75 Years,” 405. 57 Betsy Sharkey, “Moving Beyond Teepees and Totem Poles,” The New York Times, June 11, 1995, Section 2, Page 2.

- 16 - creating a formula for portraying people of color in a “post-racial” society. The films mark the

Walt Disney Company’s first attempts to provide onscreen representation for people of color.

They taught Disney the value of being politically correct when portraying people of color. The feedback from these informed the making of the Princess of the Frog.

In the effort to provide an onscreen representative for black girls, Disney relies on multiculturalism to avoid controversies. Prince Naveen acts as the male savior as he helps secure

Tiana her restaurant. Prince Naveen’s role as savior embodies how multiculturalism “portrays neoliberal policy as the key to a postracist world of freedom and opportunity.”58 Multiculturalism is at the heart of all of Disney’s films that star people of color. It allows Disney not to address race when dealing with minority characters. Furthermore, it places Tiana as a symbol of the

“presumed achievement of a multiracial, multicultural democracy in the United States.”59 In the spirit of multiculturalism, Disney created a film about a black princess that was devoid of race.

The Walt Disney Company has made it clear that they had no intention of making a statement about race and racism.

The screenwriter Ron Edwards said, “we didn’t want this story to be one that teaches people about racism. That just doesn’t seem to be the thing to do with a Walt Disney princess movie.”60 The sentiment is repeated by Disney’s Vice President of Global Studio Franchise

Development, Kathy Franklin, who states that they did not “make a conscious decision to say we need an African American princess.”61 The sentiment is understandable since they intended to

58 Jodi Melamed, “The Spirit of Neoliberalism: FROM RACIAL LIBERALISM TO NEOLIBERAL MULTICULTURALISM,” Social Text 89, Vol. 24, No. 4, (1 December 2006): 1. 59 Melamed, “The Spirit of Neoliberalism,” 18. 60 Chris Ayres, “The Princess and the Frog: Disney's black fairytale,” The London Times (2009). 61 Charisse Jones, “Disney Adds African American Princess Tiana to Royal Family,” USA Today, 16 February 2009.

- 17 - make a children’s movie. However, the company took advantage of changing sentiments around race to profit off their first black princess. Disney profited off of the fact that Tiana is black yet deny the opportunity to make a political statement about racism to continue their ongoing effort to conform to the moderate viewpoints surrounding race. Disney took advantage of the politics of the era to profit from race without advocating against racism. Rather than advocate change for

Disney provided a visible moniker of representation that encompasses the lowest level of cultural representation.62 Disney failed to move into the numeric form of cultural representation by employing a crew made up of almost entirely white men.63 The aforementioned Ron Edwards occupying one of the few high-level positions in the production staff Disney failed both onscreen and behind the scenes. The problem becomes complex with the announced changes coming to

Splash Mountain.

In June of 2020, the Walt Disney Company announced that they would change the theme of Splash Mountain from Song of the South to The Princess and the Frog.64 The announcement came amidst the Black Lives Matter Protests that followed the death of George Floyd and after an online petition that called for the change reached over 20,000 signatures.65 The petition states:

“There is a huge need for diversity in the parks and this could help fill that need.”66 The wording of the petition conflicts with the wording of Disney’s announcement, which avoids discussing race and Song of the South and instead focuses on the new ride, which they say will be “one that

62 Maryann Erigha, "Representation and Racial Hierarchy," In The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry, 23-51, (New York: NYU Press, 2019): 25. 63 Erigha, “Representation and Racial Hierarchy,” 26. 64 Frank Pallotta, “Disney Announces Major Change to Splash Mountain Ride after Outcry,” CNN, 26 June 2020. 65 Pallotta, “Disney Announces Major Change.” 66 Pallotta, “Disney Announces Major Change.”

- 18 - all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by.”67 The overwhelming outcry and the changing political landscape of the United States meant that Disney could no longer separate

Splash Mountain from the controversial Song of the South. Even though they did not openly do so, Disney acknowledges that they understood the source material for Splash Mountain is problematic by stating that they had been working on the new ride since last year.68 Even as

Splash Mountain remained a popular ride, Disney underwent plans to alter it as they realized that modern society could not tolerate the existence of Song of the South. The change to The Princess and the Frog seems logical for the Walt Disney Company as the movie is in New Orleans, and the ride is in an area based on the French Quarter. The film also features a black female lead that counters the racist past of Splash Mountain. The decision to change the ride to The Princess and the Frog is Disney’s attempt to restore its reputation and remain moderate. The Princess and the

Frog is a film that does not touch on racism, yet Disney uses it in this context to counter the racist history of Splash Mountain. The decision by the Walt Disney Company to retheme Splash

Mountain does not signal their support of the Black Lives Matter protests. Rather, it is a decision that continues the company’s aim to avoid addressing race. Splash Mountain’s fate is the latest attempt to profit off remaining neutral in the debates surrounding race and racism that continue to happen in the United States.

Conclusion

The two films, Song of the South and The Princess and the Frog, converge within Splash

Mountain. The two films demonstrate the Walt Disney Company’s desire to remain politically correct to maximize their profits. Song of the South strayed too far from the conscious-liberalist

67 Pallotta, “Disney Announces Major Change.” 68 Pallotta, “Disney Announces Major Change.”

- 19 - attitudes that dominated at the time of its. The effort by the Walt Disney Company to bury the racist aspects of Song of the South demonstrates the lengths the company will go to maintain its status as a politically correct company. The Princess and the Frog was Disney’s attempt to provide an onscreen representation of an African American woman. However, Disney embraced multiculturalism by not addressing race and racism within the film. Now, The Princess and the

Frog will be employed to complete Song of the South’s erasure, which began in the latter half of the 20th Century by replacing it in Splash Mountain. A film devoid of race will eliminate one full of it. Disney hopes the retheming of Splash Mountain will allow them to avoid publicly addressing and taking a stand on race and racism. Given the polarized state of the nation today, remaining silent on race satisfies no one. In the current moment, a company as culturally significant as the Walt Disney Company cannot remain silent even if it means jeopardizing their potential earnings.

- 20 -

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Dear Stephanie,

Growing up near Anaheim and belonging to a middle-class family afforded us the privilege of visiting Disneyland often. One of my favorite rides to this day remains Splash Mountain, but it was not until I was in middle school did I wonder what movie the ride is based upon. That curiosity led me to ask our father what movie inspired Splash Mountain. It led to one of our father’s elaborate explanations. He explained to an innocent me about how the ride was based upon the 1946 film Song of the South. The film fascinated me because I was amazed by how well

Disney covered up such a blight upon their history. Disney has been able to maintain the cover- up even with the continued existence of Splash Mountain. This discovery remained within my consciousness and changed how I viewed Disney movies. I began to look at need Disney films within the context of their past handlings with race. Multiple Disney films are problematic from a racial perspective, including Pocahontas, Aladdin, Dumbo, and Mulan. I am curious about how

Disney has and continues to navigate problems in their films involving racism and explore how public perception has changed over time. Most recently, this interest has been reawakened with

Disney’s announcement of changes to Splash Mountain and the recent interview with John

Boyega, where he details his feelings on his role in the most recent Star Wars films. These more recent events highlight how Disney’s problems with race are increasingly entering the public consciousness. I believe that it is now more relevant than ever before to explore Disney’s relationship with race. I want to see how Disney interacted with race in the past and how it has changed. I believe that it has changed with the times, where the works initially employed explicit racism but now employ race to demonstrate their alignment with more progressive ideas. I hold a cynical view of Disney’s employment of racial themes in that I believe they use progressive racial themes to cover up their history. To summarize, I seek to see how Disney films employed race and for what purpose and to look into how public perception of Disney’s handling of race has changed over time. This is a topic that I have had in mind for years, and I am glad that I finally have the opportunity to research and write about it.

Best,

Michael Kuo