Do I think Disney will do it any time soon? No. Do I care that much? Not really, and Splash is still one of my favorite rides. But if you’re interested in learning a little about the subject, here’s my cliffs notes/thoughts on it:
Splash definitely does a great job of distancing itself from Song of the South, but the characters and stories exist outside of the movie. Joel Chandler Harris wrote the Uncle Remus stories of Br’er Rabbit after his experience as a plantation apprentice. He took the oral stories he heard from slaves and transcribed them, also writing in their speaking style (this is where we get the “br’er” pronunciation of “brother” for the characters). As you can imagine, there has been some criticism of Harris over the years.
And then there’s the matter of Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah. Which, it’s “happy slave” context in Song of the South is inherently problematic. But even if Disney has distanced the song enough from the movie (which they have pretty successfully done), there’s another issue with song. It’s very heavily influenced by a pre-Civil War song “Zip Coon”, which has a long history in minstrel blackface, as “Zip Coon” is a very common caricature in minstrel shows. So the Uncle Remus stereotype makes a lot of sense when you realize his song is traced back to a blackface character.
So, no there’s nothing explicitly racist about Splash Mountain. But the whole project was kinda born out of racism lol. Harris told (and profited from) stories that weren’t his, creating the Uncle Remus caricature that Disney would ultimately put up on screen. And as much as we like to think the animated characters (or the song!) are separate and the “not racist” parts that’s... not necessarily true. They’re still black stories, told by white men, and ingrained with stereotypes because of it. As far as Splash Mountain has been removed from Song of the South, that doesn’t quite solve Disney’s problem lol.
And with that, I offer the only re-theme concept I will accept:
And if anybody wants to learn more about Song of the South, I highly suggest this 6-part podcast from “You Must Remember This”. It’s by far the most comprehensive discussion I’ve seen, and gives a ton of context on what Hollywood was like at the time: