Where Splash Mountain Came From
Imagineer Tony Baxter came up with the original idea for Splash Mountain while plans were underway to place Star Tours where Innoventions now sits. At the time, a 1974 attraction called America Sings was located there, filled with wonderful audio-animatronics® characters and other equipment. The characters were of the proper style to compliment the characters from Song of the South, a Disney classic that had stories that could be adapted to a log ride, especially one near New Orleans Square. The figures could be saved by being placed into Splash Mountain, and in turn, Disney would have a new audio-animatronics®-rich attraction without having to build many new figures.

By the time it was determined that Star Tours would be replacing Adventure Thru Inner Space, not America Sings, plans for Splash Mountain were moving ahead. In 1988, America Sings had its final show, closing down the "carousel theater" that has housed Carousel of Progress before it was shipped to the Walt Disney World Resort.

Notice that Song of the South was released in the mid 1940s. "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" won Allie Wribel and Ray Gilbert the Oscar® for Best Original Song in 1947. More than forty years later, and even with no recent video release (in the U.S., anyway), the characters, settings, and songs were still incorporated into a fun, elaborate, popular attraction that was subsequently redesigned and rebuilt in two other Disney parks.

That gives me hope that if I can live until 2030, I could very well see a ride-through attraction at Disneyland Park inspired by The Little Mermaid, and after that, ones based on Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, and well, you get the picture. Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Random Splash Mountain Trivia I Didn't Fit Into this Column:

• Did you know that Disney conducted focus groups to see which elements of Song of the South would pass the racial sensitivity test? That's why certain things from the movie are used and certain things aren't.
    

• Rufus, from the County Bear Jamboree, used to be heard snoring in a cave at the entrance of Bear Country. When Splash Mountain was built, Rufus was evicted from his cave and the name of the neighborhood was changed to Critter County. Rufus was given a home again for a while in Splash Mountain, only to be kicked out by Brer Bear, whose snoring sounds oddly like that of Rufus.
    

• Splash Mountain at Disneyland Park officially has five drops. Drop one is right after you pass by the snoring Brer Bear. Drop two is small - it is right before the 'gator asking you to take him along. Drop three is the one in total darkness. Drop four is the small one that takes you into the Laughing Place. Drop five is the final, highly visible one that gets as steep as 47 degrees and is 52.5 feet long.
    

• Originally, the last song heard before the final lift was a more upbeat version of "Sooner or Later". It was changed to the more ominous warning song that is there now.
   

• Chick-a-Pin Hill is what drop five slides down.
   

• The logs sometimes catch a wee little bit of air as they rumble down drop five.
   

• At the bottom of drop five, there is a sign that says "Drop in again."
   

• Nick Stewart reprised his role as the voice of Brer Bear for the attraction.

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-- Ken Pellman

-- Posted March 29, 2002