Splash Mountain is a log flume-style dark ride at
Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and the
Magic Kingdom at the
Walt Disney World Resort, based on the characters, stories, and songs from the 1946
Disney film Song of the South. Although there are variations in the story and features between the three locations, each installation begins with a peaceful outdoor float-through that leads to indoor dark ride segments, with a climactic steep drop into a "briar patch" followed by an indoor finale. The drop is 50 feet (15 m).
The plot behind Splash Mountain is a composite of several
Uncle Remus stories. The different versions of Splash Mountain feature similar stories, albeit with small differences. Each ride presents scenes taken from the animated segments of Song of the South, telling the story of
Br'er Rabbit, a mischievous rabbit who leaves his home in search of adventure.
Br'er Fox and
Br'er Bear, the antagonists of the story, are determined to catch the hero, but are repeatedly tricked into letting him free. The sharp-witted Br'er Rabbit avoids a snare trap (as described in "Br'er Rabbit Earns a
Dollar a
Minute") and uses it to trap Br'er Bear instead. Br'er Rabbit continues on his journey to find his "laughing place". Out of curiosity, his foes follow but only for Br'er Rabbit to lead them into a cavern of bees. Br'er Fox eventually catches Br'er Rabbit in a beehive and threatens to roast him. Br'er Rabbit uses reverse psychology on Br'er Fox, begging the fox not to throw him into the briar patch (as described in "
The Tar Baby").
Naturally, Br'er Fox throws Br'er Rabbit into the briar patch (represented by the ride's picturesque flume drop); Br'er Rabbit escapes uninjured, remarking, "I was born and raised in the briar patch!"
The other animals rejoice to have Br'er Rabbit back home, while Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear are last seen narrowly escaping the jaws of Br'er
Gator.
The idea for Splash Mountain was originally conceived in the summer of
1983 by Imagineer
Tony Baxter while stuck in rush hour traffic on his way to work. He wanted to attract guests to the often-empty
Bear Country land and make use of the Audio-Animatronics from
America Sings, which was also receiving poor attendance. It was
Dick Nunis who insisted that the
Imagineers create a log flume for Disneyland, but the Imagineers were initially unenthusiastic about it, insisting that log flumes were too ordinary a theme park attraction to include in a park like Disneyland. While trying to solve the problems of including a log flume, bringing people into Bear Country and reusing the America Sings characters,
Baxter then thought of Song of the South.
At the time it was built, Splash Mountain was one of the most expensive projects created by
Walt Disney Imagineering at a cost of $75 million. According to
Alice Davis (wife of the late
Marc Davis), when America Sings closed in
April 1988, production of Disneyland's Splash Mountain had gone far over budget. The only way to recover was to close down America Sings and use the characters from that attraction.[2]
Baxter and his team developed the concept of Zip-a-Dee
River Run, which would incorporate scenes from Song of the South. The name was later changed to Splash Mountain after then-CEO
Michael Eisner's mostly-ignored suggestion that the attraction be used to help market the film
Splash.[3] The characters from America Sings were used in many scenes, though all of the main characters were specifically designed for Splash Mountain.
Dave Feiten was then brought in to animate and fix story and staging problems. Feiten then moved nearly all of the animatronics to new locations and then took out 10 animatronic figures and removed them from the ride completely to improve the show.[citation needed] A version of the popular attraction was planned for
Disneyland Paris, but was scrapped due to budget reasons and the cold weather in
Europe.
- published: 14 May 2016
- views: 18