A Brief and Incomplete History of Splash Mountain

mickEblu

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
SuddenStorm said:
I've been thinking about that. Disneyland relies primarily on emotional/experiential storytelling. At each point of the ride there's a very specific emotion you're supposed to be feeling, that loosely ties into the story of the attraction. This let's your imagination wander and creates a far more satisfying experience than, say, Rise of the Resistance which is a technical marvel but spoon feeds a very linear story.

Just looking at the dip drop- which is a huge surprise for first timers and continuously thrilling on repeat rides into a song that brings a smile to anyone who hears it is absolutely delightful.

But also, most of those figures and the song itself have little to do with the overarching story. I imagine a Disney attraction now would have spent the entirety of that segment showing Br'er Fox sneaking up on Br'er Rabbit, wouldn't have had figures that were completely unrelated to the main story, and would have had screens everywhere. An argument could be made it's weak storytelling to not actually show how Br'er Rabbit got stuck in a beehive- but on Splash it doesn't matter because it feels right.

When kids 'survive' the big drop they've been scared of every time they went to the park for the first time, they're given a solid minute or two to celebrate with their family before going into a room that's a literal celebration- all to the tune of the most iconic Disney song of all time. And Disney didn't come out and say 'this is the finale'. They simply painted everything in fall colors to subliminally show it's the end, and a quick figure or Br'er Fox and Bear caught, and Rabbit celebrating. And it's perfect. In a modern Disney ride that whole scene would have been showing the alligator chasing Br'er Fox and Bear.

Like, if Splash got built today we would have been 'recruits' to help save Br'er Rabbit from Br'er Fox, and would have had a narrator talking to us during the whole exterior of the attraction telling us about our mission and what's going on. We wouldn't have had a diverse cast of creatures populating the Mountain, we would have had one or two amazing Br'er Rabbit, Fox, and Bear figures and the rest would have been screens showing animation, and physical props with projection mapping on them.
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Great post! Here you go making me sad again. Lol.

At the very least let’s hope they don’t do anything to butcher the stuff that doesn’t have to change for PATF. We ll still have the flume layout and pace, the mellow outdoor beginning of the ride (hopefully they don’t add too much here) the drops and the post drop ending you speak of above. We Also have the existing infrastructure which hopefully dictates what direction they go and it sticks as close to Splash in essence as possible. A very tall task I know.

On another note I’m starting to think very few of the old AAs survive this. Being that the characters have to be sized to the scale from PatF how can you have Princess Tiana and a 4 foot tall goose on the same ride? Or real life size Frog Tiana and Br’er Frog. They re gone. They opened up such a can of worms with this whole thing. I mean I guess you can and it comes down to staging but I don’t know if modern Disney will do it.
 
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SuddenStorm

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Something I didn't notice until a few years ago is that the Laughin' Place is completely visible on the dip drop if you look to the right, and during the Laughin' Place segment you can see riders go down the dip drop if you look to the right. Once you know to look it's super obvious... but growing up I could have sworn the dip drop was in complete darkness.
 
BasiltheBatLord

BasiltheBatLord

Well-Known Member
SuddenStorm said:
Something I didn't notice until a few years ago is that the Laughin' Place is completely visible on the dip drop if you look to the right, and during the Laughin' Place segment you can see riders go down the dip drop if you look to the right. Once you know to look it's super obvious... but growing up I could have sworn the dip drop was in complete darkness.
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Yeah you can look straight through and see the gator. I'm assuming that was intentional, but there's a ton of spots in the DL mountain where if you know where to look you can see stuff you're not supposed to. Plenty of places where if you look down you can see straight through the interior of the "mountain".

Also, right before you ascend the lift hill if you turn around and look to your right there's a little aclove with a black curtain. There's a CM who sits here watching a monitor (I guess of the logs going up the lift hill?). The curtain used to not be there, and if you turned around you could plainly see the dark figure of the CM sitting there. I used to always turn around and yell "HI!!!!" really loud. That's probably why they put the curtain in.
 
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SuddenStorm

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
BasiltheBatLord said:
Yeah you can look straight through and see the gator. I'm assuming that was intentional, but there's a ton of spots in the DL mountain where if you know where to look you can see stuff you're not supposed to. Plenty of places where if you look down you can see straight through the interior of the "mountain".

Also, right before you ascend the lift hill if you turn around and look to your right there's a little aclove with a black curtain. There's a CM who sits here watching a monitor (I guess of the logs going up the lift hill?). The curtain used to not be there, and if you turned around you could plainly see the dark figure of the CM sitting there. I used to always turn around and yell "HI!!!!" really loud. That's probably why the put the curtain in.
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I kind of like how you can see pieces of other parts of the ride, it makes it fun to spot things. But that's probably just nostalgia and the 75 times I rode it in 4 months talking...

Waving to the watch guy on the last lift was tradition for me and my family growing up. Good times! That's another small part of the ride I had forgotten.
 
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EagleScout610

EagleScout610

These cats can PLAAAAAYYYYY
Premium Member
BasiltheBatLord said:
Yeah you can look straight through and see the gator. I'm assuming that was intentional, but there's a ton of spots in the DL mountain where if you know where to look you can see stuff you're not supposed to. Plenty of places where if you look down you can see straight through the interior of the "mountain".

Also, right before you ascend the lift hill if you turn around and look to your right there's a little aclove with a black curtain. There's a CM who sits here watching a monitor (I guess of the logs going up the lift hill?). The curtain used to not be there, and if you turned around you could plainly see the dark figure of the CM sitting there. I used to always turn around and yell "HI!!!!" really loud. That's probably why the put the curtain in.
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Never saw the gator from the Laughing Place. Is there a vid that shows it?
 
BasiltheBatLord

BasiltheBatLord

Well-Known Member
EagleScout610 said:
Never saw the gator from the Laughing Place. Is there a vid that shows it?
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It's dark but at 0:17 in this vid:

It's not particularly hidden or anything, it's just not the focus of the scene. There's a piece of wall taken out where you can look to your right and see straight through to the scene with the gator.
 
CHOX

CHOX

Well-Known Member
BasiltheBatLord said:
Yeah you can look straight through and see the gator. I'm assuming that was intentional, but there's a ton of spots in the DL mountain where if you know where to look you can see stuff you're not supposed to. Plenty of places where if you look down you can see straight through the interior of the "mountain".

Also, right before you ascend the lift hill if you turn around and look to your right there's a little aclove with a black curtain. There's a CM who sits here watching a monitor (I guess of the logs going up the lift hill?). The curtain used to not be there, and if you turned around you could plainly see the dark figure of the CM sitting there. I used to always turn around and yell "HI!!!!" really loud. That's probably why they put the curtain in.
Click to expand...

I had the realization today that the show building obviously has a ground floor and it isn’t completely filled with water. They did such a good job theming that it’s hard to imagine you’re in a warehouse.
 
EagleScout610

EagleScout610

These cats can PLAAAAAYYYYY
Premium Member
BasiltheBatLord said:
It's dark but at 0:17 in this vid:

It's not particularly hidden or anything, it's just not the focus of the scene. There's a piece of wall taken out where you can look to your right and see straight through to the scene with the gator.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I've seen that. I thought you meant you could see him from some point actually IN the Laughing Place. Obviously not possible but it's what I thought
 
Figments Friend

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
"The only way out is a long way down...!"

image.jpeg


Art imitates life...



image.jpeg



Life imitates art!

( Note who's seated in the driest seat!)

;)

-
 
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Figments Friend

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
SuddenStorm said:
If 'Splash Mountain' was built today we would have been 'recruits' to help save Br'er Rabbit from Br'er Fox, and would have had a narrator talking to us during the whole exterior of the attraction telling us about our mission and what's going on. We wouldn't have had a diverse cast of creatures populating the Mountain, we would have had one or two amazing Br'er Rabbit, Fox, and Bear figures and the rest would have been screens showing animation, and physical props with projection mapping on them.
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And this may well end up being the forthcoming description of what's to come.

I sincerely hope not....
If this 're-theme' has to happen, let's hope most of what is present remains with only a few nessesarily changes.

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D.Silentu

D.Silentu

Well-Known Member
mickEblu said:
On another note I’m starting to think very few of the old AAs survive this. Being that the characters have to be sized to the scale from PatF how can you have Princess Tiana and a 4 foot tall goose on the same ride? Or real life size Frog Tiana and Br’er Frog. They re gone. They opened up such a can of worms with this whole thing. I mean I guess you can and it comes down to staging but I don’t know if modern Disney will do it.
Click to expand...
Unless we're the ones turned into frogs this time, though that approach still presents some challenges.
 
Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
So according to Jim Hill, this is a major overlay and won't be completed until 2024-2025. There will be a time period in 2022 to say good bye before they start work. The ride is supposed to certain around the alligator losing his trumpet. Dr. Facilier is on the loose again and the lift hill will be "I got friends on the other side" with voodoo masks and dolls everywhere.
 

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