Disney has been making lots of changes small and large to attractions in the parks in recent years. The redhead in Pirates of the Caribbean was recast as a pirate herself. Jungle Cruise replaced its natives with silly simians. Splash Mountain is trading Song of the South for Princess and the Frog. But the changes don’t stop there.
We recently learned that Jessica Rabbit would be covered up in ToonTown’s classic Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin ride. Instead of a buxom bombshell, she’ll now be a trench-coat-wearing private eye.
Disney released an image explaining Jessica’s new role as a Private Eye keeping Toontown safe from the weasels. Get this:
“citing the recent return of the Toon Patrol Weasels as the main driver behind the recent sharp rise in crime statistics throughout Mickey’s ToonTown, Jessica Rabbit has determined it is past time for her to throw her fedora in the ring by starting her own private investigation service…”
It’s quite a stretch that Jessica Rabbit, noted in Disney’s graphic below for her “fabled acting career,” would turn to being a private detective. But why would a well-known starlet suddenly change careers? For Disney, the change has two real goals, covering up Jessica’s large chest with a trench coat and removing her from the trunk of a car.
“Watch out weasels, your reign of terror is over.”
The shadow of Jessica in the queue has also been updated. Here’s how it was before:
And here’s how it looks now with her crime fighting hat:
The ride previously depicted Jessica Rabbit tied up in the trunk of the weasel’s car. The scene has now been deemed problematic, which in isolation, makes sense. But the changes here arguably forget the rest of the ride where Jessica comes out triumphant, knocking weasels over the head with a giant mallet by the end of the ride. Instead of noting that Jessica always came out on top in this ride, Disney is instead layering on more complicated backstory.
Now, barrels of DIP have replaced Jessica.
The ride remains open while these changes are being made by Imagineers at night.
UPDATE: On December 8th, a new Jessica figure was added to the ride, as well as a poster of that complicated new backstory. Jessica now appears throughout the ride in a trench coat, the iconic figure of her with a giant mallet (“This is going to hurt you a lot more than it’s going to hurt me”) is now clothed in a trench coat and in such darkness that we at first thought it had been removed.
By the morning of 12/09 it had been better lit:
We’re speechless… But we have a feeling you won’t be. At this point it might be better for Disney to just retheme the ride entirely. Especially since the whole rest of ToonToon is moving away from the Roger Rabbit film tie-in and more toward the Disney characters.
We don’t know if there are more changes yet to come to this ride. But the entire land is set to close for a year for a massive transformation. So, it’s possible Roger Rabbit may get even more revisions.
UPDATED: 12/9/21
We have some video for you from @TheInsiders for you of the new Jessica as a crime fighter version of the ride:
What do you think?
Is this change worthwhile or is it a case of Disney going too far? If Disney were to retheme the attraction entirely, what would you like to see go here? Are there other attractions you think may get the change/replace treatment in the near future at Disneyland? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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