Intelligibility of Splash Mountain's plot

[_caleb]

In the rides story the mothers are telling their young ones to be careful of the Laughing Place or wondering away from home or Brer Fox will catch you like he did to Brer Rabbit.
The real world explanation they had animatronics leftover from America Sings and they wanted to reuse as much as possible.

I guess I still do not know what the “Laughin’ Place” is. Anyone care to explain (without condescending)?

 

[Kirby86]

I guess I still do not know what the “Laughin’ Place” is. Anyone care to explain (without condescending)?

Sure in the orignal story it's a trick Brer Rabbit uses to escape Brer Fox and Brer Bear. He's about to be eaten and starts laughing and tells them he visited his laughing place. He leads them to a bee hive and Brer Bear and Brer Fox get stung and Brer Rabbit laughs at them. Basically a laughing place is anyplace that makes you laugh or happy.
That's why in the ride Brer Bear has the bee hive on him after the second drop.

 

[_caleb]

He literally sings it at the end "home sweet home is the lesson today" after an entire ride of "time to be moving along" and the porcupine dude singing about how Brer Rabbit should be turning around... lol

On top of this... If for some reason you don't get it... Sometimes that makes the ride re-ridable. But the story is plain as day.

No, I mean didn’t you wonder why, if Br’er Fox wanted to eat Br’er Rabbit and had him literally tied up in the kitchen next to the stew pot, he then threw him over the waterfall?

And how is “home sweet home” a lesson? Maybe it’s “one should always just stay home?”

I promise I’m not trying to be obtuse and I’m not trying to find flaws. I always liked Splash Mountain. The storyline just wasn’t as clear to me (a normal adult person with advanced academic degrees and a lifelong Disney parks attender).

Also, I’m very impressed you were able to hear and understand all the lyrics of the songs. Maybe the ride audio was better balanced than all the times I rode it.

 

[_caleb]

Sure in the orignal story it's a trick Brer Rabbit uses to escape Brer Fox and Brer Bear. He's about to be eaten and starts laughing and tells them he visited his laughing place. He leads them to a bee hive and Brer Bear and Brer Fox get stung and Brer Rabbit laughs at them. Basically a laughing place is anyplace that makes you laugh or happy.
That's why in the ride Brer Bear has the bee hive on him after the second drop.

Thanks! This is what I always thought, but then the bit you mention about mothers warning their children to avoid the Laughin’ Place doesn’t make sense to me.

EDIT: Also, is all of this something others are able to discern upon the first or second ride?

 

[hopemax]

The tar baby was mostly a Disney creation and never appeared in the ride at all.

I didn't say it was on the ride. I said I was familiar with the characters because we had the record/book thing.

 

[Kirby86]

Thanks! This is what I always thought, but then the bit you mention about mothers warning their children to avoid the Laughin’ Place doesn’t make sense to me.

You're welcome. I agree The ride isn't too clear if it's an actual place or not but it works either way. So the mothers warning can be a real stay away from that area or it's a don't go somewhere and start trouble sort of warning. In reality the story of the ride is all 3 shorts from Song of the South mixed together so they had to play a little fast an loose with the setting.

 

[WondersOfLife]

No, I mean didn’t you wonder why, if Br’er Fox wanted to eat Br’er Rabbit and had him literally tied up in the kitchen next to the stew pot, he then threw him over the waterfall?

Because Fox is an A-Hole? lol. He wants to cook him, sure. But he also just hates the rabbit's guts. So when Brer Rabbit says "But WHATEVER you do PLEASE don't throw me into that briar patch!" It's a taunt.

And how is “home sweet home” a lesson? Maybe it’s “one should always just stay home?”

Tell me how your new version fits in time with the rhythm. Lol. You really just need to connect the dots together. This really isn't as complicated as you're making it out to be.

I promise I’m not trying to be obtuse and I’m not trying to find flaws. I always liked Splash Mountain. The storyline just wasn’t as clear to me (a normal adult person with advanced academic degrees and a lifelong Disney parks attender).

Rabbit runs away. Fox and Bear want to hurt him. He taunts them. They fall for taunt. Rabbit decides to stay home. End of story....

Also, I’m very impressed you were able to hear and understand all the lyrics of the songs. Maybe the ride audio was better balanced than all the times I rode it.

I will say that the audio has been blah in the past several years I rode it. I will give you that one.

 

[_caleb]

Because Fox is an A-Hole? lol. He wants to cook him, sure. But he also just hates the rabbit's guts.

How is a rider to know this?

Tell me how your new version fits in time with the rhythm. Lol. You really just need to connect the dots together. This really isn't as complicated as you're making it out to be.

Oh, I wasn’t trying to create a new version or anything. Just trying to understand. Also, I may very well be overly complicating. I just find it interesting.

Rabbit runs away. Fox and Bear want to hurt him. He taunts them. They fall for taunt. Rabbit decides to stay home. End of story....

I know this is the storyline. I’m just not sure how you get all this from the series of scenes presented (without further context).

• Rabbit runs away (the classic kerchief on a stick tells us that). We don’t know why (maybe it doesn’t matter).
• Fox and Bear want to hurt him (I think there’s a “how to catch a rabbit” book in one scene- I guess that’s how we know that?)
• He taunts them (by taking them to beehives?)
• Everyone in the Br’er neighborhood throws a welcome home Br’er Rabbit party (there’s a homemade banner). How long was he gone?

I will say that the audio has been blah in the past several years I rode it. I will give you that one.

Yeah, I just looked at a few YouTube videos and I had to go pretty far back to get one that is well-lit and has clear audio. Funny thing is, the farther back you go, the lower-quality the typical cameras and mics were!

 

[Sir_Cliff]

How is a rider to know this?

That Brer Fox hates Brer Rabbit and is, to quote the original poster, is an a-hole? Well, the first time you see him (I think) he's waiting with a rope and a big grin on his face stating that this time he's going to catch Brer Rabbit for sure. So, there's obviously a history between the two!

He's also just presented in a sinister manner. Look at the big grin on his face as he's about to hit Brer Rabbit over the head with the beehive, for example. A life's work completed!

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Frog: not sure (never understood his dialog, don’t remember seeing him again)

Br'er Frog is supposed to be the Remus of the attraction without actually having Remus. The attraction is supposed to be a story that Br'er Frog is telling, if I remember right there was a shadow projection of him in the WDW queue as well.

This is also reinforced by Br'er Frog being the voice of the ride breakdown spiel.

 

[Tha Realest]

It’s amazing no one started asking these questions until the ride was closed and the head-scratching convoluted nature of Tiana’s expected storyline came up

 

[LittleBuford]

It’s amazing no one started asking these questions until the ride was closed and the head-scratching convoluted nature of Tiana’s expected storyline came up

It actually came up over in the other thread last year before the topic was revived a few days ago. I’d prefer to keep this particular thread free of references to the retheme or anything else controversial.

 

[_caleb]

You're welcome. I agree The ride isn't too clear if it's an actual place or not but it works either way. So the mothers warning can be a real stay away from that area or it's a don't go somewhere and start trouble sort of warning. In reality the story of the ride is all 3 shorts from Song of the South mixed together so they had to play a little fast a loose with the setting.

So now I’ve tumbled down a -um, rabbit hole of watching Splash Mountain ride through videos, and I have new questions:

• If the Laughin’ Place is “any place that makes you laugh (whether real or imagined), why would mothers warn children to stay away?
• I literally just now, after many years of riding Splash Mountain, realized that while all the other Br’er critters are singing “Pretty Good, Sure as you’re born,” it’s only Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Terrapin (according to Google) who sing it, “Time to be movin’ along.
• I was just reminded of how the “hands behind his head” pose they have Br’er Rabbit in for his final scene always bothered me. Something about it just looks contorted!
• When it was lit well, the farmland backdrop of MK’s Splash was much clearer.
• Several short stretches with no show scenes are nice and make for nice pacing.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I think I understood all of it from childhood, because I knew the ins and outs of the characters and stories already, enough to recognize changes that were made such as the substitution of the beehive for the Tar Baby, in the story that famously ends with the tossing of Bre'r Rabbit into the briar patch. Not only did I see Song of the South, but I owned and loved the Disney storybooks and records for "Bre'r Rabbit and the Tar Baby" and "Uncle Remus," and the hardcover book, "Uncle Remus Stories," and at the time I first rode Splash Mountain around age 9, could have recited them all by heart.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

As this ride to me had the clearest storyline Disney had ever created and still caused confusion, I'm kind of curious about what have been Disney's more bewildering attractions.

 

[_caleb]

It’s amazing no one started asking these questions until the ride was closed and the head-scratching convoluted nature of Tiana’s expected storyline came up

I don’t think I ever saw it as a major flaw or anything, just that it wasn’t clear to me when I tried to explain it to my kids. I think this is interesting to discuss now that Splash is closed. I don’t mean to drag anyone down, critique unfairly, or even begin to relate any of this to the new theme.

Also, I agree with those who said that the ride came together in a way that guests could get the basic idea even if some particulars (the reverse-psychology element) weren’t immediately clear on the first ride through.

BTW, I’d be interested in doing this same sort of story/scene analysis on other rides. To me, that’s the best (and most challenging) part of making a themed storytelling attraction!

 

[_caleb]

As this ride to me had the clearest storyline Disney had ever created and still caused confusion, I'm kind of curious about what have been Disney's more bewildering attractions.

I was thinking this as I hit send on my last reply! With most other Disney dark rides, I think I was already familiar with the film/story before riding. But what else have I misunderstood/gotten wrong? Maybe I’m just really bad at understanding rides?

Next, you all are going to tell me that Big Thunder Mountain has a cohesive story.

Wait-does it?!

 

[UNCgolf]

I don’t think I ever saw it as a major flaw or anything, just that it wasn’t clear to me when I tried to explain it to my kids. I think this is interesting to discuss now that Splash is closed. I don’t mean to drag anyone down, critique unfairly, or even begin to relate any of this to the new theme.

Also, I agree with those who said that the ride came together in a way that guests could get the basic idea even if some particulars (the reverse-psychology element) weren’t immediately clear on the first ride through.

BTW, I’d be interested in doing this same sort of story/scene analysis on other rides. To me, that’s the best (and most challenging) part of making a themed storytelling attraction!

I said in the other thread that Splash tells a linear story about as well as any theme park attraction ever could, absent an on-ride narrator explaining it as you go.

I don't think many other Disney World attractions have even tried. Most of the rides that arguably have one are incredibly simple things like "we have to escape!" (and are often mainly explained in a pre-show, like Dinosaur, rather than through the attraction itself). I think Rise of the Resistance falls into that category. Guardians attempts a story -- albeit one that mainly boils down to get something/escape like several other attractions -- but it fails pretty hard in delivery.

Spaceship Earth has a clear progression through history, but not a story, and it has on-ride narration. I think Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Jungle Cruise are all a series of vignettes rather than something with an actual plot, and I think this applies to the Fantasyland style rides too (plus nearly everyone is familiar with those stories anyways). They're not usually trying to actually tell the whole story of the movie from A to Z; they just show some of the main scenes and characters.

Can anyone else think of one that actually tries to tell a story the way Splash Mountain did? It's certainly possible I'm missing something obvious.

 

[BrerFoxesBayouAdventure]

I might be the only one who's put these two together, but it was mentioned in the ride's backstory that Chickapin Hill was flooded because of an exploded moonshine distillery so I always assumed the Laughin' Place was where the critters got drunk and laughed their cares away.

 

[JIMINYCR]

I think that puts you in the "already knew the story, but the plot probably would have been clear to me anyway" camp. Feel free to answer the poll accordingly!

I did answer it as having already known the story. But added that had I had no prior knowledge the attraction provided enough of the story to know the plot. Someone never hearing the story and riding Splash for the first time would not be confused by what Disney was presenting.