Splash Mountain Closes At Disney World, TikTok Reacts

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Walt Disney World’s Splash Mountain closed down on Sunday ahead of its rebranding under a Princess and the Frog theme, drawing huge lines and an outpouring of mournful posts from Disney adults on social media.

On Sunday, Thrill Data, which records wait times for a variety of amusement parks, said the Splash Mountain line reached 220 minutes — more than three hours, an all-time record. Video from the park showed a sea of people waiting to get on.

Sellers on eBay are trying to cash in on the nostalgia, with one listing a jar of water from the ride for $25. Another seller is selling some water for only $5. There’s also an expired FastPass card for Splash Mountain going for $5,000.

In a TikTok that’s been viewed more than 1 million times, a mother named Kara shares her sadness that the ride is closing and reveals that she named her baby after it.

The comments are full of jokes, suggesting the baby is named everything from Zippidy Doo Dah to Baby Splashe Mountinne or even Splashton Mountleigh. In a follow-up TikTok, Kara reveals the baby’s name is Briar, which she says she saw on a list of baby names and chose because it reminded her of the ride’s briar patch.

She didn’t immediately respond to questions from BuzzFeed News, but she also clarifies in the TikTok that she has never seen Song of the South, the Disney movie Splash Mountain is based on.

“I know it’s very controversial and terrible, but the ride itself, I really like,” she says.

For years, Splash Mountain has faced backlash because of its link to Song of the South, a 1946 Disney movie that relies heavily on racist stereotypes. Even though the movie takes place after the Civil War — and was made 80 years later — it still depicts Black characters as subservient and romanticizes plantation life. The movie has been criticized for decades; Disney has famously never released it on home video or streaming.

With that history, other people on social media side-eyed the grief over its closure.

Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/paigeskinner/splash-mountain-closes-disney-world

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