While the Disney theme parks spent a large portion of 2020 closed, there was no lack of conversation around them as the popular Splash Mountain attraction became a hot topic of debate. A fan campaign asked Disney to replace the Song of the South themed attraction with one focused on The Princess and the Frog. And then, a quite remarkable thing happened when Disney Parks revealed that both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of Splash Mountain would see exactly that change. However, there's now a new fan petition asking Disney to make a different change, and turn Splash Mountain into a Black Panther ride.
The petition on Change.org is titled "Redesign Splash Mountain to Black Panther in honor of Chadwick Boseman" and it currently has an excess of 3,000 signatures. The petition itself doesn't have a lot of detail to it, stating simply that Splash Mountain should be changed to a Black Panther attraction in order to honor Chadwick Boseman. The majority of the signatures are similarly focused. People who want to see Chadwick Boseman honored in the Disney Parks are seemingly in favor of this change.
It's an interesting idea, to say the least. While many people are probably in favor of some sort of Black Panther attraction inside the Disney Parks as a way to honor Chadwick Boseman, Splash Mountain is likely only being singled out because it's the attraction that we already know is scheduled for a redesign. If one were to pick any ride to redesign in honor of Chadwick Boseman, Splash Mountain probably wouldn't be it.
Putting a Black Panther attraction inside Critter Country at Disneyland or Frontierland at Magic Kingdom would seem like a somewhat odd fit, though there's an argument that, at least in the case of Magic Kingdom, The Princess and the Frog is an equally odd fit. And a water-based ride doesn't really fit with anything we see in Black Panther, there is a river and a waterfall in the Marvel film, so I suppose you could end the ride with a trial by combat scene, as the two we see in the film take place at a waterfall.
Of course, since the Splash Mountain plan has already been announced, and one assumes there are people at Walt Disney Imagineering designing it as we speak, that makes a change right now pretty unlikely. Still, if we see enough people interested in a Black Panther attraction to honor Chadwick Boseman, perhaps we could see that honor take place somewhere else in the parks. I happen to have my own idea for that if anybody is interested. It's right here.
Would you like to see Splash Mountain redesigned for Black Panther? Let us know in the poll below.
This poll is no longer available.
