film

Centered on characters from the 2009 animated film “The Princess and the Frog,” Tiana’s Bayou Adventure makes the argument that thrill rides can enchant rather than frighten us.

If we can agree that Disneyland is, unlike a film or a television series, a living environment — a place born of one era but striving to be welcoming to subsequent generations — then it stands to reason that its attractions must change with the times.

Though Splash Mountain aimed to skirt any controversy associated with “Song of the South,” a work long decried as racist for its idyllic view of slavery and the Reconstruction era, it could never divorce itself from the film.

Yet it was a tricky line to walk, and, in hindsight, perhaps even naive to believe the attraction could stand apart from a film that has long been out of circulation.

Imagineering’s Carter recalled during a media presentation the release of the film about 15 years ago.