There are political opinions and then there are loco screeds that make regular folks take notice that a celebrity is deranged. The voice of Mama Odie, Jennifer Lewis, dug a little deeper and made sure the world believes she’s bonkers.
That Park Place is not a political website. The following article is solely related to the optics Disney now faces with an actress who is tied to a new ride and a controversy they might not be able to control.
Model of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure: Courtesy Walt Disney Imagineering
Splash Mountain is gone and Disney is preparing to open Tiana’s Bayou Adventure instead. The racially-based changes to the most beloved attraction in any park in the world (based on polling) now face a an even bigger controversy than were already brought to the table. With the character Mama Odie being a significant part of the “new” ride, it’s probably not helpful that a clip of the voice actress, Jennifer Lewis, has taken off online with her claiming that the former President of the United States, and Republican candidate for the next President of the United States is Hitler. But perhaps more damaging even would be the delivery of her diatribe in which she declares that she understands mental illness.
The following video clip is NOT SAFE FOR WORK nor around children:
"This motherf*cker is HitIer!"
Hollywood actress Jenifer Lewis has a total meltdown and predicts what will happen if Trump wins: pic.twitter.com/W8Ixzg7zY9
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 7, 2024
Jennifer Lewis is no small part of the campaign to make Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (as well as a new Tiana show on Disney+) successful. She’s recently been a key feature of Disney Imagineering on Instagram:
View this post on Instagram
Regardless of your political viewpoints, it’s a horrendous situation for The Walt Disney Company when a key component of marketing a ride already marked with controversy is someone with these sorts of heinous positions on Republicans. After all, there’s really no way to say that Donald Trump is who she says, — and will do what she says he will do — without also concluding that his supporters must be vile reprobates of the same sort. That might not go well in Florida with Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
So, again, politics aside, this is about as badly as things could go for Disney in the lead-up to their new attraction. For a Disney CEO in Bob Iger who has said repeatedly that he wants to “lower the noise” on culture war and political issues, here is yet another situation where his silence is advocation for a level of political hatred or psychosis that is likely to damage the Disney brand severely. There was a time when Disney and its associates were apolitical — and that was a much better time for the company.
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