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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SuddenStorm" data-source="post: 9304892" data-attributes="member: 113610">With all of this talk about Splash Mountain, Song of the South, and recent announcements I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at Splash Mountain the ride- where it came from, why it was built, and the people behind it. This thread isn't intended to discuss 2020 Splash Mountain or Princess Tiana, but is instead a look back at the ride built by Disney in 1989 (I know nothing about the WDW or Tokyo versions) and the joy millions have gotten out of riding it these last 30 or so years. This is also not an all encompassing post, and I'm sure there's going to be errors since a lot of this is going off of memory.Splash Mountain's history is difficult to piece together. Much research has been done on Pirates and Mansion- with whole books being dedicated to those attractions. There's not much available for Splash- just the same regurgitated stories circulated on Disney fan blogs year after year. Usually a reference to Mr. Baxter on the freeway, an American Sings reference, and a reference to Song of the South. There's huge chunks of Splash's creation missing- though there's been a few interviews in recent years that have helped piece together some of those parts. I'm going to try and focus less on the stuff everyone already knows, but instead talk about the more interesting parts of the ride's development.The timeline for the first part of Splash's creative development is a bit hazy- so the next bit isn't necessarily in chronological order.The original idea behind Splash is well known- Dick Nunis wanted a water ride. Bruce Gordon mentioned in a 1987 presentation on the ride that a water thrill attraction was at the top of guest requests at Disneyland.  Baxter wasn't the first person to take a stab at it, in a recent interview Tom Morris talked about a different team that had pitched a 'Hatfield and McCoy' style Bear shootout log flume that Baxter (creative lead for Disneyland) wasn't too thrilled on. The other issue was location- where there would be space in the park to put it that worked thematically. Morris, who did the initial site layout and engineered the track, pitched a few different locations- where the Fantasyland theater currently stands, behind the New Orleans Train Station, where the old Big Thunder Ranch was, and finally where it finally ended up- the entrance of Bear Country. A lot of care was put into designing the ride to be longer, taller, and overall better than the one at Knott's Berry Farm.After Tony's little 'hoorah!' moment on the Santa Ana freeway in 1983, as the story goes, he rushed into Imagineering, got Bruce Gordon (show producer), and worked to assemble storyboards. John Stone became project designer for the attraction- and was largely in charge of the aesthetic elements for the attraction.The project was greenlit during one of Michael Eisner’s initial visits to Imagineering, when his son Breck became enamored with the attraction. Here’s Imagineering’s model for the attraction (designed by John Stone and Chris Tietz)-[ATTACH=full]480458[/ATTACH]In the same 1987 presentation, Bruce Gordon had this to say- "What makes Disneyland special is we put a mythology around our attractions. Pirates has pirates, Mansion has ghosts. If you go to Magic Mountain is just an iron ride. You ride a roller coaster, it's a fun coaster, but it's still just a coaster. Disneyland tries to take it one step further... Once we had the biggest and the best log ride we decided to lay mythology on top of that go back to one of the best Disney has ever appropriated, the Joel Chandler Harris Uncle Remus characters Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Bear, Br'er Fox from the 1946 classic Song of the South. The animation from this the characters, backgrounds, music is some of the best stuff we've ever done. We've never used this stuff in an attraction before. We decided let's take all the characters from Song of the South and follow the adventures of Br'er Rabbit."America Sings had been declining in popularity for years, and they planned to close the attraction and use those figures inside Splash Mountain. This is a point of controversy for the attraction- Alice Davis attributed cost overruns on Splash Mountain as the reason behind the America Sings figures being used. This is false- the initial storyboards from far before the cost overruns show the America Sings figures. In recent years I’ve seen some vloggers perpetuate the idea that Splash Mountain was some kind of apology from Tony to Marc for the whole Western River/Big Thunder drama from 10 years prior- but honestly I’m not sure that’s the case, or at the very least it’s a very expensive apology.Here’s a few of the storyboards-<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_gSlPAgfmhXLdoFFrm2x9hK3xxuNzM0-xlwIuy2988XHVEc2TfjhBKPxGf3Sc_nEi67orZDPvTdyWAlYVpxAwnn_8NEvadsRJhZwHf1ADA1cRcl9HVpnkBDePtxopiILD3WV-BWt" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/N1_wp8N5R1_egL3n6IIy2sWE_PS_aqqY6baLNi0zWJ8tHKr8UCogqvKJ8WsMT8gqEfXjiJEIe3g8-JUlrNw776dIXSm33mwGt_8_Q3DcK_iRzfaWnjiMVNiZLhmtVGzmt1wDHus2" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/3_hxutxRrcmm1nCwbNeOWSO_Exy8hAv_oOnhQ2zU6oF3IXAjs6HIej4ooebgzGUQeMO32UbEmpSQlC7wcTAdttVqJEYYde4PFQemcnOsBYXHz2nDGZ50aeFX-AJMul3-gc2KHa1t" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />In addition to Splash Mountain, Fowler's Harbor was completely rebuilt to add the Harbour Galley and made the area guest accessible, and even brought back the gentleman who designed the original Fowler's Harbor.Construction for the attraction began in 1987 with a planned 1988 opening. The construction was documented by an oldtime Disboard/Micechat poster who shared these photos on their flickr- <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mojave33/sets/">https://www.flickr.com/photos/mojave33/sets/</a>Here’s the site layout for the attraction-[ATTACH=full]480455[/ATTACH]In 1988 the opening was delayed. Though the interior of the mountain appeared finished, two major hiccups prevented the ride from opening. Here’s a late 1988/early 1989 photo of the facade after construction was complete-[ATTACH=full]480457[/ATTACH]The first- the initial log design was poorly done and caused riders to get way too wet. There’s some conflicting reporting regarding the final drop’s angle- which was intended to built at 45 degrees but was built at 47 (this was corrected during the 2018 refurb of the attraction). One historian (I think Jim Hill) claimed that the angle was intentionally changed to cause riders to get less wet and is what attributed to the delayed opening, but I don’t think this was true- since none of the construction photos show the drop getting rebuilt. The original logs can be seen in some TV ads for the attraction.The second issue is a bit more interesting. When designing show scenes creatives often work best with some kind of restraint- for most attractions that’s deciding how many animatronic figures to build and where to place them. Since most of the figures were reused from America Sings, Baxter, Gordon, and the other Imagineers just threw everything wherever- creating a confusing mess of a show with a difficult to understand story. After many figures were installed, Bruce Gordon brought Dave Feiten in to get his advice on how to fix it. Feiten removed some figures and moved others to help fix some of the staging, and I believe was given greater control for the WDW version. I wish there were more photos of the interior of the ride with the initial staging, but this <a href="https://the-disney-elite.tumblr.com/post/161369676968/storyboard-magazine-novdec-1988-cover-story-on">magazine</a> (which I proudly own a copy of) shows some figures in their original spots, as do the storyboards. They also removed some audio tracks. This is the bit of Splash's development I'd love to learn more about- I'd kill to see what the original staging looked like, or to get to ride the ride in its 'messy' iteration.Feiten also programmed the animatronics, and likes to tell the story of him set up in the flume with all his equipment and headphones in… causing him to not hear a warning call that they were filling the flume and having to quickly grab his stuff and get out. Here's Feiten programming the animatronics-[ATTACH=full]480462[/ATTACH]Splash Mountain eventually opened July 17, 1989- a day before Disneyland's birthday. The marketing campaign for the attraction was varied and very '80s- with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4FH5ijZ3iM">rap song</a> and Ernest working to become the first <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATiqSR8JqrA">Splashtranaut</a>.Here's some fun Splash trivia-<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Originally the song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vprwJlrz5So">Sooner or Later</a> was used instead of Burrow's Lament- this change was made prior to the attraction opening.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Imagineer Bob Gurr was brought in to help design the 'Zip a Dee Lady' showboat seen in the attraction's finale.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Actor Nick Stewart voiced Br'er Bear in both the film and the ride, pictured here-</li> </ul>[ATTACH=full]480454[/ATTACH]<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The logs have been redone multiple times, initially they were bench seating like the old Matterhorn sleds before switching to individual seating.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The attraction was initially intended to be called the 'Zip a Dee River Run', but was changed to 'Splash Mountain' after a suggestion by Michael Eisner to help tie the film to the movie Splash, though his suggestion to add a Daryl Hannah animatronic to the end of the ride fell on deaf ears.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The vultures (otherwise known as the Boothill Boys) had top hats in America Sings, but lost them when they moved to Splash Mountain despite the attraction poster depicting them with the hats. I suspect there wasn't enough ceiling clearance in Disneyland. For some reason, the WDW vultures ended up with hats.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This <a href="http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/2010/7/3/america-sings.html">blog post</a> shows the America Sings figures both in America Sings, and in their Splash Mountain home.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The snoring heard in the cave just before you enter the interior portion of the attraction was originally attributed to Rufus on the attraction, though it was changed to Br'er Bear within a couple years.</li> </ul>[ATTACH=full]480452[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]480453[/ATTACH]Not many changes were made to Disneyland's version of the ride- what's seen now is quite similar to what opened in '89, though Br'er rabbit has had a few redesigns over the years (the older photo is 1992)-[ATTACH=full]480459[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]480460[/ATTACH]If anyone has any Splash stories they've heard, or has any photos, or anything to add at all, feel free to share.</blockquote>

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