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Splash Mountain will open at Disneyland in 2024 with ‘Princess and the Frog’ theme

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The controversial Splash Mountain rides at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will reopen in 2024 with a new theme based on “The Princess and the Frog,” according to the voice actress who played the starring role in the 2009 Disney animated film.

Tony Award-winning actress Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Princess Tiana in the movie, announced on “Live with Ryan and Kelly” on Thursday, June 2 that the rethemed Splash Mountain attractions at the Disney theme parks in Anaheim and Florida will debut in 2024.

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SEE ALSO: What to expect when Disneyland rethemes Splash Mountain

Rose was asked about the Splash Mountain rides coming to the Disney theme parks by “Live” host Ryan Seacrest.

“They are making a ride,” Rose said on the Disney-owned ABC daytime talk show. “It’ll be out in 2024.”

Rose offered no further details on the seemingly accidental announcement of a reopening date for the rides other than to say she would get in trouble if she revealed any additional information.

“I’ve been involved in the beginning, just talking about how we want it to be, what we want it to do,” Rose said on the show. “But if I were to tell you anything else, I would be sucked into the ground and you’d never see me again.”

Disneyland and Disney World have not yet announced closing dates for the classic log flume rides on both coasts. Timing has not yet been determined for the reopening of the Splash Mountain rides, a Disney spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly.

While timing has not been determined for the reopening of the Splash Mountain attractions, Disney looks forward to sharing more details during the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans in July, according to a Disney spokesperson.

Further details about the twin makeovers of the Splash Mountain rides are expected to be revealed during the D23 Expo in September at the Anaheim Convention Center.

SEE ALSO: Meet the Disneyland cast member who spurred the change to Splash Mountain’s story

Disney announced in June 2020 the Splash Mountain log flume rides at Disneyland in Anaheim and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida will be transformed by Walt Disney Imagineering with a new theme based on “The Princess and the Frog” animated movie.

The reimagining of the rides will remove thematic elements related to “Song of the South” — a controversial 1940s film criticized for perpetuating racist stereotypes that has been disowned by Disney.

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Imagineering has been developing a “Princess and the Frog” backstory for Splash Mountain since 2019 and settled on many of the concepts for the reimagined attraction in summer 2019.

The move by Disney in 2020 to announce changes to the rides followed a flurry of social media buzz calling for the parks to update Splash Mountain’s controversial backstory amid social justice protests across the United States sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.

Splash Mountain features characters and songs from Disney’s 1946 “Song of the South” film based on the “Uncle Remus” stories — a collection of folktales from the Southern plantation era compiled by Joel Chandler Harris and published in the 1880s — that have been criticized for perpetuating racist stereotypes. Disney shelved the controversial live-action/animated musical film in the 1980s and the company’s former CEO Bob Iger said the movie would not appear on the Disney+ streaming service.

The 2009 “Princess and the Frog” was celebrated as Disney’s first animated depiction of an African-American princess. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature and received two nods in the best original song category for “Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans.”

The reimagined Splash Mountain rides will tell an extension of the “Princess and the Frog” story that picks up after the final kiss between Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. The new backstory for Splash Mountain will follow Tiana and Louis the trumpet-playing alligator as they prepare for their first Mardi Gras performance.

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