While it’s one of Disney’s most catchy tunes, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” comes from one of the entertainment company’s most embarrassing movies, “Song of the South.”
Following a national reckoning following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, Disneyland announced plans to reimagine Splash Mountain, a popular attraction using imagery and themes from the 1946 racist film, reminiscent of the song’s days in the Disney world. works were counted.
Now the twice-daily Magic Happens parade, which reopened on Feb. 24 after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, has quietly changed to remove the “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” tune and instead features a number of ‘Peter Pan’.
Disneyland officials confirmed that a lyric from the song had been removed from the parade soundtrack, but declined to comment further.
“Song of the South,” which Disney chairman Bob Iger told shareholders in 2020 was “just not appropriate in today’s world,” used racist tropes and painted a rosy picture of race relations in the antebellum South.
The film was based on a series of short stories by Joel Chandler Harris that centered on Uncle Remus, a black man in the Reconstruction era who spoke of “long ago” when “everything was wildly satisfying.”
Presumably speaking of the days before the Civil War – and the liberation of slaves – Remus says, “If you’ll excuse me, it was better all around.”
This isn’t the first time the park has redesigned an attraction to be more inclusive. Until 2018, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride had an auction block of women for sale under the sign, “Auction, take a wench for a bride.”
The sign was changed to “Auction, enter your loot”, which is not how an auction works. And a female character in the ride, formerly shown as the prize of the auction, is now depicted as a member of the gang of pirates who run the auction.
The park also overhauled the Jungle Cruise attraction in 2021 to remove racist depictions of indigenous peoples.
While Splash Mountain remains operational at Disneyland, it closed at Disney World in January. Both rides are planned to be overhauled with images, characters and themes from “The Princess and the Frog,” a 2009 movie that featured Disney’s first black princess.
