The vast majority of Disney-goers and young people today with any familiarity with this 75-year-old song do not have associations with older American folk musicology. Does that then mean we must eliminate it from existence? I don't think that argument is strong enough. I think wiping it from memory or writing it off as historically racist is wrong.īut what if it is truly historically racist?īefore I delve into my main counter arguments, let's hypothetically agree that the song has racism at its root. This essay is not a defense of Splash Mountain or even of the Song of the South film, both subjects for another time, but of the theme song itself. And it seems Disney has caved to the pressure. Yet the very existence of Song of the South tie-ins and the use of its theme song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" have led to cries that the ride be rebranded as a Princess and the Frog ride. None of the racial overtones ascribed to the film are particularly present in modern usages of the animated characters divorced from the context of the film. But the interior of the ride is modeled on animated characters from Disney's Song of the South, the 1946 feature film that already has a spotty history and presence for the company. First opened in the 1990s, Splash Mountain is a log flume ride most known for its iconic steep drop at the end into water. This has eventually led to the Disney company and it's theme park attraction Splash Mountain. The recent upsets of racial tension in the United States and demands for dismantling of "systemic racism" has led yet again to laser-focused attacks on anything historical that may have racist underpinnings.
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