Magic Kingdom fans revisit Disney's biggest ride changes, from Splash Mountain to Peter Pan's Flight
Disney's inclusion-driven ride updates reshaped Splash Mountain, Peter Pan's Flight, Jungle Cruise and more at Magic Kingdom.
Disney park fandom has had this argument more than once: when a classic Magic Kingdom ride changes, is Disney preserving the magic or rewriting it? A new look back at five major attraction overhauls puts that debate front and center, linking some of the park's biggest updates to Disney's push for inclusion.
One recent example is Peter Pan's Flight.
pic.twitter.com/Wn4S2lOgyk
In August 2024, Imagineering updated the Never Land scene at Magic Kingdom, replacing caricatured Native American imagery with a new depiction of Tiger Lily and her community. In the revised scene, Tiger Lily performs the Fancy Shawl Butterfly Dance near a tribal elder by a fire, while another member plays a drum.
That update joins a longer list of changes to legacy attractions. Splash Mountain, one of Frontierland's best known rides for more than 30 years, had been built around characters and songs from Song of the South, the 1946 film criticized by historians and civil rights groups for romanticizing the Reconstruction-era South and downplaying slavery. Disney announced in June 2020 that the attraction would be retired. At Magic Kingdom, Splash Mountain closed permanently in January 2023 and reopened in 2024 as Tiana's Bayou Adventure, shifting the ride toward New Orleans culture and Tiana, Disney's first Black princess.
Jungle Cruise also received a substantial revision in 2021. The original version leaned on colonial-era stereotypes, including depictions of indigenous people and Trader Sam as a caricatured "head merchant." Imagineering replaced the trapped safari party with a more diverse group of international explorers, swapped the attack scene for mischievous chimpanzees, and reintroduced Trader Sam as the manager of the Jungle Cruise Lost and Found.
Pirates of the Caribbean changed in 2018 when Disney removed the Bride Auction scene, which had shown pirates selling local women as brides. The updated sequence now uses a "Surrender Your Loot" banner and turns the Redhead into Redd, a pirate captain auctioning stolen goods and livestock.
pic.twitter.com/ZpiqDh1Re6
Disney has also moved away from older frontier imagery tied to Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America. Earlier versions across Disney resorts included burning settler cabins and caricatured attacks by "hostile Indian" figures. Those elements were removed over time, and Disney has announced plans to replace Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat with a Cars-themed expansion centered on the American wilderness.
For Magic Kingdom guests, that means several of the park's most familiar attractions have already changed, and another major area is still set to do the same.
