Splash Mountain
Attraction Type: Water flume log ride with drops and Audio-Animatronic scenes.
Location: The entrance is through the barn in the back of the land, across from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, but the queue can often begin near The Haunted Mansion. If you see a long line in front of the Splash Mountain drop, it’s for this ride.
General Description: Based upon Walt Disney’s “Song of the South,” accompany Brer Rabbit as he tries to find his “Laughing Place.” Beware, however, when you and Brer Rabbit are kidnapped and thrown five stories down the mountain into the briar patch!
Will’s Review: One of my personal favorites, Splash Mountain is one of those fun, all-immersive attractions that helps to set Disneyland apart from the rest. Combining classic storytelling, technology, large sets, and a good helping of thrills – the “Disney magic” is decidedly evident here. Before the arrival of Splash Mountain, this area of the park debuted in the 1970’s under the moniker “Bear Country”, and existed along the western side of the Rivers of America for the express purpose of housing Disney’s new Audio-Animatronic musical “Country Bear Jamboree.” A small hill existed just to the north of New Orleans Square’s Haunted Mansion to help aesthetically separate the theme of the Crescent City from the wild American wilderness. To help with the transition, the hill was the home to a perpetually hibernating bear named Rufus, whose snores could be heard emitting from the cave clear to The Country Bear Playhouse.
Alas, much has changed in the last fifteen years in this formerly quiet corner of the park; the eviction of Rufus happened in the late 1980’s and in his place a large tangle of steel and mesh wire webbing began rising. After a lengthy reworking of this portion of the park, one of the (at the time) most expensive Disney attractions ever to be created opened in July 1989. Clocking in at over nine minutes, it’s a rare modern-day full-blown Disney attraction, considering the ride length and the overtly abundant use of Audio-Animatronics.
The story of the Audio-Animatronics in this attraction is a story in Disney folklore unto itself. Popular rumor at the time had stated that Splash Mountain’s construction budget had over escalated to the point that the company could not afford to build all of the new robotic animations needed to fulfill the design; this caused Disney to shutter Tomorrowland’s popular and heavily-robotic America Sings attraction, and strip the characters from this show to populate the new thrill ride. While the attraction was over budget, and does reuse America Sings Audio-Animatronics, that story is completely fictional. The true story is of between two famous Disney Imagineers: Marc Davis and Tony Baxter. Davis was an Imagineering legend when up-and-comer Baxter first came to the organization. At the time, Davis was finalizing the designs for a massive new Walt Disney World attraction called Western River Expedition. Set to be the eastern seaboard’s answer to Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean in scope and size, Western River would have been just one of several attractions housed in the new Thunder Mesa; a complex, multi-attraction structure that would have also housed an outdoor runaway mine train. When visitors to Disney’s Florida park began demanding their own replica of the famous Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in California, the immediate budget was re-assigned to shoe-horning this attraction into The Magic Kingdom rather than building Thunder Mesa. Baxter, eager to impress, came up with the concept of building the Thunder Mesa runaway mine ride separate from the larger show building containing Western River – this idea was approved and came to light as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The downfall, however, was that this segregation of Davis’ grand opus design effectively killed the chances of his Western River Expedition from ever being built. Legend abounds that Davis took this personally and that the issue strained the relationship between the two Imagineers. Knowing that Marc Davis’ America Sings attraction at Disneyland was already slated to be closed in 1990, and that Davis’ unique Audio-Animatronic creations would be lost forever, Baxter used his influence to have the attraction closed early (by only a few months) for the express purpose of reusing these creations in Baxter’s new Splash Mountain. This was done as a tribute to Davis and his contribution to Disney theme parks, and as a way to make up for the Thunder Mesa incident. So while America Sings’ closure did relate to Splash Mountain, it was for a positive reason rather than a mere stripping of a classic attraction.
The Splash Mountain experience today takes guests in the queue deep inside an old Southern barn that winds around the inside of Chickapin Hill – the ‘real’ name of the mountain. Seven-passenger logs float along a lazy river, and through other barns and outside portions as two lift hills take the logs half-way up the mountain. After a small dip, guests begin to see the world through the eyes of Brer Rabbit – and get to travel right alongside to his “Laughing Place.” However, the world turns dark and sinister when Brer Bear and Brer Fox kidnap Brer Rabbit and begin the trek to throw him – and you – into a pot of stew. However, the crafty rabbit convinces the evil pair not to cook him, but to throw him into the Briar Patch instead. So up and up you and Brer Rabbit go, before “falling” over 50 feet into the Briar Patch below! With a mighty splashdown, it isn’t long before you and all of Brer Rabbit’s friends gather together for a “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” festival in the swamp!
Touring Tips: Most crowded mid-day when temperatures are at their peak, try to visit in the morning or at night. The lines will be almost non-existent during performances of Fantasmic!, if you can get to that side of the park, that is.
Warning: This attraction is not recommended for guests with heart, back, or neck problems, or other conditions that could be aggravated by such an adventure. Expectant mothers are also cautioned not to ride.
Family Info: If they don’t get scared of the drop out front, there is very little about this attraction that everyone in your party won’t love – it’s truly a Disney adventure at it’s best. Please note that guests must be at least 40” in height to ride.
Variations: This ride exists in near-identical form to the Anaheim original, with minor variances, at The Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland.
Splash Mountain - Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes - The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
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