A few years ago, Disney Parks announced that the iconic attraction, Splash Mountain, located at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, would shut down permanently and be rethemed into a “Princess and the Frog” ride.
Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World took its final splash as it closed to Guests on January 23, 2023. However, Disneyland’s version of the ride remains open — for now.
Although the ride does not permanently close until the end of the month, it seems the animatronics have already given up; on a recent trip to the Briar Patch, all the animatronics stopped working.
Splash Mountain Animatronics Break Down
On a recent trip to Disneyland, Guests were hoping to take one final plunge down the 50-foot drop as they said goodbye to Splash Mountain. However, for some, their last ride was not what they expected as the attraction experienced technical difficulties.
“splash mountain said… we’re done.✌🏼 (all of the animatronics shut off and stopped working during our last ride EVER on splash mountain 😂),” they captioned the video, which shows none of the animatronics moving.
Typically, the animatronics in the video move their bodies as they “sing” and dance along to the iconic song, “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” but it seems the robots were having issues as none of them were seen moving at all.
Splash Mountain is in its final days of operation as Disney announced a few weeks ago that Splash Mountain at Disneyland Park would be closed starting May 31, 2023, so the Parks can begin the next development phase for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
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The attraction is based on the film “Song of the South,” which is highly controversial as many deem it racist. The movie mixes live-action and animation and features an older African-American plantation laborer named Uncle Remus, who tells stories to a young white boy. Groups, including the NAACP, protested the film’s initial release.
Within Splash Mountain, Guests can spot many of the characters from Song of the South, including Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear.
What Is Tiana’s Bayou Adventure?
As the Walt Disney Company pushed for more inclusion, they decided to close down Splash Mountain and turn it into a “Princess and the Frog” attraction called Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
The news came a few years ago after a petition made its rounds on the internet asking Disney to retheme Splash Mountain into a “Princess and the Frog” themed ride. The petition seemed to have made an impact on the company as a few months after the viral petition, Disney Parks announced it had plans to permanently close the classic theme park attraction Splash Mountain — which opened in the late ’80s and early ’90s at the California and Florida theme parks — and open a new ride based on the 2009 Disney Princess animated movie.
According to Disney, the story for the new attraction will pick up after the final kiss in the movie as Guests join Princess Tiana and Louis on a musical adventure “featuring some of the powerful music from the film – as they prepare for their first-ever Mardi Gras performance.”
“Walt Disney Imagineering is creating an original, next chapter story for Tiana,” Disney Parks previously reported. “Within the attraction queue, guests will discover that she continues to grow her business with Tiana’s Foods – an employee-owned cooperative. Combining her talents with those of the local community, Tiana has transformed an aging salt mine and built a beloved brand.”
The new ride, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, will open at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California sometime in 2024.
