Splash Mountain
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Splash Mountain is a combination log flume and dark ride attraction at three Walt Disney Parks, based on the controversial 1946 Disney film Song of the South. Each Splash Mountain features a peaceful introductory section of floating through outdoor scenery with short indoor dark ride segments, leading up to a climactic steep drop into the "Briar Patch" and splashdown into a pond, followed by a dark ride segment finale with large cast of audio-animatronic figures singing portions of the motion picture's soundtrack.
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[edit] Stories
The ride presents scenes taken from the animated segments of Song of the South. It tells the story of the adventures of Br'er Rabbit, a mischievous rabbit who leaves his home at the Briar Patch to look for his laughing place. Unfortunately for him, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear, the antagonists of this story, are determined to catch him. The stories are similar but not identical in each of the installations at different parks.
[edit] Disneyland version
Passengers are seated in a log that holds six riders in single file, each rider sits straddling a bench in the center and has their own rear seat back. The surfaces are padded, rubberized, and usually wet from the splash after the final drop. The log departs the loading area, winding peacefully through scenery designed to evoke the feeling of a river in the South of the USA. Models of small riverside shacks and aged equipment are incorporated into the landscape, along with music emanating from hidden speakers along the waterway. There are several lifts that raise the log up to higher levels on the mountain, using friction on rubber-like conveyor belts to lift the logs.
After an initial drop you find yourself inside the mountain, where the dark ride segment begins. The geese and other critters start to sing "How Do You Do?". Soon you find yourself at the next drop, the drop goes down into the caverns of Chick-A-Pin Hill where Br'er Rabbit is seen laughing at Br'er Bears misfortune. The critters then begin to sing "Ev'rybody's Got a Laughing Place". Br'er Fox then manages to trap Br'er Rabbit in a bee hive (originally planned, as in the original stories, as a depiction of the Tar Baby sequence, and altered to avoid the negative connotations associated with the image) After this, a family of Rabbits and Moles sing "Burrows Lament" just before heading up the final lift. The scene is rather dark, minus the light coming from the exit of the cave, and just before that you see Br'er Rabbit about to be cooked into a stew, or one of Br'er Foxes other bright ideas. A scene combined from the "Laughin Place" story and "The Tar Baby" story in Song of the South.
[edit] Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland versions
These two versions are almost one and the same. Passengers board a log that seats four rows of two abreast. The story starts off with an intro from Br'er Frog (replacing Uncle Remus), who warns of the troubles ahead. Br'er Rabbit outsmarts the two a few times, but in the end, they manage to catch him and take him to Br'er Fox's cave at "Chickapin Hill". The transition into the Laughing Place takes place in the dark and the log is taken out of the water and onto steel beams like a roller coaster. Br'er Rabbit outfoxes them one final time, by tricking them into throwing him into his home, the Briar Patch.
[edit] Log drop and pond splashdown
In all three parks, riders are next sent down the big drop into the Briar Patch, into a large pool splashing variable amounts of water onto the riders. Before the riders drop, for anyone entering Frontierland to see, the log vehicle is lead onto a track that it follows until the drop has been completed. This means that during the drop itself, the ride vehicle never touches the water that is falling down the hill. Just beyond the top of the 52 1/2 foot plummet, as the riders realize they are picking up speed into the splash-pond, an on-ride camera takes pictures of the guests in their log. Photos can be purchased after disembarking.
The log drop ends with a splashdown into the pond in the Briar Patch, returning the log to the flume that carries it through the ride. The size of the splash and the amount of water that enters the log wetting the riders is highly variable. When the log is full of riders, especially adults or heavier riders, the splash can be quite large, resulting in riders being soaked. When the log seats are not all filled, or when the log contains mostly children or lightweight adults, the log does not ride as deep and the splash is smaller.
The riders at the very front of the log usually get soaked the most, although the water patterns are unpredictable, so sometimes, though rarely, even riders in the back can get soaked while riders in front stay dry. Usually, the soaking is only moderate, leading riders to a false sense of confidence that can result in a big surprise if they happen to get fully soaked one time.
[edit] Dark ride segment
After the splash into the pond, the log floats peacefully through the landscape of the mountain scenery and enters a tunnel, into an indoor dark ride segment, featuring a large cast of audio-animatronic characters singing a medley of songs from the film Song of the South; finally passing a Mississippi River style showboat with a lot of critters singing the ride's main theme song, "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah", to celebrate Br'er Rabbit's safe return.
[edit] Production
At the time it was built, Splash Mountain was one of the most expensive projects created by Walt Disney Imagineering ($75 million). The Splash Mountain project was not originally approved, due to the cost. The Imagineers on the team mounted an internal publicity campaign, taking turns carrying large (4' x 6') artistic drawings of the project around the Imagineering offices and pitching the project (and its technical details) to anyone who would listen. This grass roots campaign succeeded in educating all of Imagineering, and most of the Disney executives, on the project.
According to an Imagineer familiar with the project, the original design for the logs included a scooped front nose intended to move the water in front of the log, and to assist in slowing the log down during the final drop. During final testing of the ride, Disney president and CEO Michael Eisner convinced the Imagineers to let him and his son on the ride (over the Imagineers' collective objections). The scoop design had the side effect of throwing large amounts of water up in the air and onto the riders, and Eisner and his son came off the ride soaked. Michael commented to the Imagineers "Great ride, but you have to do something about the water". The log design was changed shortly afterwards.
The audio-animatronic characters were adapted from the America Sings attraction in Disneyland Park's Tomorrowland that had run from 1974 through 1988, having replaced the Carousel of Progress after that show was moved to the Magic Kingdom Park at the Walt Disney World Resort in 1973.
When America Sings closed in April 1988, according to Alice Davis, wife of the late Marc Davis, production of Disneyland's Splash Mountain had gone way over budget and the only way to recover was to close down America Sings and use the characters from that attraction.[1] The characters from America Sings were used in most parts of Splash Mountain, but some audio-animatronic figures in the earlier ride segments were specifically designed for the Splash Mountain ride story.
When the ride was first put together, nearly all the animatronics were wired and put in place. 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.
Originally the show scene "Sticky Situation," which portrays Br'er Rabbit stuck in honey, was planned to be the infamous Tar Baby scene from Song of the South. The scene was changed to avoid the same notorious racial controversies that have plagued the film.[citation needed]
Like a number of Disney attractions, much of Splash Mountain takes place outside of park boundaries. Guests are kept oblivious to the transition between the visible Chickapin Hill and the warehouse-like show building that houses most of the experience, and clever landscaping within the park prevents guests from glimpsing the behind-the-scenes structures.
In the Walt Disney World version, there is a "Hidden Mickey" during the show boat scene toward the end of the ride. Mickey can be seen lying on his back in the clouds. Also, there is a Hidden Mickey in the room with jumping water, the hole in which Chickapin Hill flows is a side profile of Mickey's head and there is a bird house with an icon cut out of it in the garden scene. Furthermore, there is one near Br'er Frog when he is fishing on the alligator, visible as you pass him, and one composed of three barrels half-way up the second crankhill. There is also a hidden Dumbo in the first part of the cave.
[edit] Soundtrack
The ride features many variations on the now-classic soundtrack of the film.
- "How Do You Do?"
- "Ev'rybody Has a Laughing Place"
- "Burrow's Lament"
- "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"
[edit] Variations
The soundtrack for Disneyland's Splash Mountain is unique, while the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland Splash Mountain have the same music score. The soundtrack for Disneyland is rather orchestra-like and somewhat more formal, and also rather playful (rather sounding like the soundtrack for Song of the South). Florida's and Japan's soundtracks feature a country-western flavor (carried principally by banjos, fiddles and harmonicas). Dialog is Japanese for "How Do You Do?" and "Zip a-dee doo dah", but not for "Laughin' Place" at Tokyo Disneyland (in English). "Burrow's Lament" is heard, but is not sung at Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland (since the scene where it is sung is absent of audio-animatronics in both rides), but is sung at Disneyland by a mother mole and mother rabbit animatronic.
[edit] Releases
- The Official Album of Disneyland and Walt Disney World (1991 CD): "Ev'rybody Has a Laughing Place" & "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"
- Disneyland/Walt Disney World: The Official Album (1997 CD): "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" & "Ev'rybody Has a Laughing Place"
- Walt Disney World Resort: The Official Album (1999 CD): "Ev'rybody Has a Laughing Place"
- Walt Disney World Resort: Official Album (2000 CD): 8 minute version of the Magic Kingdom soundtrack
- Official Album: Walt Disney World Resort Celebrating 100 Years of Magic (2001 CD): 8 minute version of the Magic Kingdom soundtrack
- Disneyland Park: The Official Album (2001 CD): 8 minute version of the Disneyland soundtrack
- A Musical History of Disneyland (2005): 12 minute version of the Disneyland soundtrack
- Disney's Happiest Celebration on Earth (2005): 8 minute version of the Disneyland soundtrack
[edit] In popular culture
In the sing along songs video Disneyland Fun, during "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", Splash Mountain was one of the rides the kids rode on. In 1989, Ernest Goes to Camp aired during The Magical World of Disney. Prior to the movie a special called "Ernest at Splash Mountain" aired in it Ernest was seen training for, and finally riding, the newly opened Splash Mountain. The end result had Ernest bewildered and collapsing to the ground, leaving guests to step on him while boarding the attraction.
Roger Rabbit's animated short Trail Mix Up makes several visual references to Splash Mountain. At one point the log Roger and Baby Herman are riding has a bumper sticker that reads "We Visited Splash Mountain".
Despite Disney's great attention to detail and audience management, the monitoring represented by both security cameras and the strobe cameras have not proven wholly successful at eliminating one of the most salacious phenomena of the "Splash Mountain" experience. Hoping to make illicit use of the in-ride photographs that Disney later sells to ride patrons, some riders briefly expose themselves (e.g., a woman baring her breasts) during a particular descent.[[1]] Collected on a website called "Flash Mountain" in the mid to late 1990s, the shots continue to circulate online.
[edit] See also
- List of current Disneyland attractions
- Magic Kingdom attraction and entertainment history
- Tokyo Disneyland attraction and entertainment history
[edit] External links
- Disneyland Park - Splash Mountain
- Walt Disney World Resort - Splash Mountain
- Splash Mountain at the Internet Movie Database
- L.A. Times article about "Flash Mountain"
- The Unofficial Song of the South website: Splash Mountain page
- Walt Disney World Magic
- Amusement ride for traveling down a water chute with reduced splash - Patent #5,613,443. US Patent & Trademark Office. Retrieved on November 17, 2005. - Patent for reduced splash logs used in Tokyo.
- Disneyland Splash Mountain construction photos
[edit] References
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