http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/2001/09/05/FFXVCR1L6RC.html
First they took away the wench-chasing pirates. Now, they've stopped shooting the hippos.
Disneyland officials, who say they're only keeping up with today's sensibilities, have quietly disarmed the skippers of the Jungle Cruise, raising eyebrows among fans of one of the park's oldest, most cherished attractions.
No more do the wisecracking skippers reach for their Smith&Wessons and fire a few blanks at hippopotamuses emerging from the river bottom. These days, they don't even try to scare the mechanical creatures with a few haphazard gunshots towards the sky.
The guns were yanked at the Anaheim park earlier this year and now the hippos are just another passing attraction during an African-themed cruise. "It's sad to see the tradition go," said former skipper Mike DeForest, who once spent his summer breaks from college guiding visitors through the jungle. "What's next, disarming the Pirates of the Caribbean?"
The hippos may have a second lease on life, but the cruise is still filled with plenty of politically incorrect characters, like the "natives" with painted faces preparing to attack the tourists.
Disneyland has always struggled to strike a balance between fantasy and political reality. Controversy about guns, the treatment of animals, racial and gender stereotypes have prompted Disneyland to tweak attractions.
Indeed, after the fatal shootings of 14 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado, park officials removed violent video games.
This year, they stopped peddling muskets and antique-style guns - once a Frontierland store staple. They also removed the rifles from Tom Sawyer Island. And, in a much-publicised rehabilitation of Pirates of the Caribbean in 1997, the ride's famous "chase" scenes now depict swashbucklers pursuing trays of food rather than frightened maidens.
For Disneyland officials, it's all part of the attractions' evolving story lines. Although there were no protests outside the park by animal rights and gun activists, Disney still wanted to be progressive.
"The fact of the matter is, we have to be responsive to what our guests tell us," a spokesman said. "At the end of the day, they come here to experience what they want to experience, not stuff they might find out of place or out of date ... Anecdotes, jokes and actions that were funny or exciting then may not resonate now."
At Walt Disney World in Florida, the guns disappeared about the same time its newest park, Animal Kingdom, opened in 1998. Officials decided it didn't seem right to have one park promoting wildlife and at the same time have employees at another shooting a wild animal.
Jamie O'Boyle, a cultural analyst from Philadelphia who has studied Disneyland, said the changes are more about becoming mainstream than political correctness.
"As society's views change, the social message changes," Mr O'Boyle said. "New generations grow up with new ideas. This is the way society evolves its norms, and Disney has to reflect that."
Haven't heard if Disney has/is going to cave on this one too.
