Disney on Friday revealed the name and opening year of the long-awaited Splash Mountain revamp. The update comes about two years after Disney first committed to removing the ride’s longtime theming, which took music, characters and scenery from the 1946 film Song of the South.
The new attraction will center on Disney’s 2009 film The Princess and the Frog and will be renamed as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Guests visiting Disneyland Park in California and Magic Kingdom Park in Florida will be able to enjoy the revamped attraction in late 2024.
The new opening year and name were unveiled during an event at Essence Fest in New Orleans.
In a blog post, Disney described the ride as “picking up where the film left off,” adding that “guests will join Princess Tiana, Naveen, and jazz-loving alligator Louis on an adventure through the bayou as they prepare to host a one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras Celebration where everyone is welcome.”
Walt Disney Imagineering executives Ted Robledo and Charita Carter heaped praise on the new attraction at the event today, with Carter calling it a “love letter to New Orleans.”
Splash Mountain became the target of petitions on Change.org amid the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. The attraction, which opened in 1989 at Disneyland, included elements from Song of the South, a live-action film combined with an animated musical. The movie is set on a Southern plantation after the Civil War and has been criticized for glorifying slavery and promoting racist stereotypes.
