The lead up to the drop is missing tension, and having the “Shadow Man” at the top with a bunch of chanting masks would have been a spectacular build up.
They probably considered it but then just decided to keep it light.
Also…
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It would be nice if they moved away from rides directly based on movies. I visited Disneyland once a long time ago and while they had plenty of movie stuff like Star Tours or the various dark rides based on their fairy tale movie adaptations, there were also “generic” rides like Space Mountain, the submarine ride (arguably based on the film version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but I don’t recall it actually featuring any of the specific characters), the train around the park that randomly takes you back to the time of the dinosaurs just for fun, the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.
It feels like almost everything has been remodeled or altered since then to wedge in merchandising opportunities. The submarine is now Finding Nemo themed, Pirates of the Caribbean has characters from the movie added, the Haunted Mansion is overhauled to be Nightmare Before Christmas themed part of the year… there’s pretty much nothing left for someone who isn’t already a huge Disney consumer who knows all their movies by heart.
None of which is a complaint about this Splash Mountain overhaul, however. Redoing a ride already based on the most controversial, racially charged Disney movie to instead feature a Black protagonist from a movie with (I assume) positive representation is a no-brainer. Good for them.
I don’t think that’s so much about merchandising. Thinking of a few of the larger E-ticket “generic” rides at WDW:
- Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom isn’t based on a disney property but they sell tons and tons of “expedition” swag there
- EPCOT’s “Soarin’” and “Spaceship earth” both have gift shops where you can buy swag based on the rides
For three quick examples. Pirates, Haunted Mansion and Jungle cruise didn’t start as being based on movies, but of course all three have movie adaptations now, which is sort of the opposite of what you’re saying.
Disney’s “Parks & Experiences” division is fully one half of their revenue, which is nuts if you consider that their Marvel and Star wars movies, their own Disney Studios/Animation and Pixar films only add up to about a third of their business by revenue. The parks drive everything else there, and I once heard someone opine that Disney bought Star Wars and Marvel to specifcally drive people to the parks, not for the media!
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I have fond memories of those rides with their own themes as well. My family went to Disney World to see characters walking around while these stand-alone attractions entertained us with their own worlds and wiggled their songs into our ears. (My dad and I would sing The Pirates of the Caribbean song to the family far longer than necessary after getting off the ride.) I suspect over time, thanks to just how much popular content Disney has created, it was the minority of attendees who wanted novel attractions and the majority who wanted the rides to connect them to the Disney content they already know and love. It kind of makes sense, I guess.
Which unfortunately taints the change to Splash Mountain because while it is absolutely a socially conscientious change, it is also a solid and pragmatic business decision. Sure, they went from one movie to another, but they also went from a (purposely) obscure film to a well known one. Growing up I didn’t even know that Splash Mountain was based on anything because by then parts of the movie were separated into their own things. “Zipity-Doo-Da” had simply become its own music video. If I looked hard enough I could find a picture book of the bre’r characters. But to me as a kid (and I’m sure generations following mine), it might as well have just been Splash Mountain and Splash Mountain alone.
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