The story is on Wikipedia so it must be true
. The [3] footnote references a book called the "E" ticket. Man, there is no shortage of books about Disney parks.
The idea for Splash Mountain was originally conceived in the summer of 1983 by Imagineer
Tony Baxter while stuck in rush hour traffic on his way to work. He wanted to attract guests to the often-empty Bear Country land and make use of the
Audio-Animatronics from
America Sings, which was also receiving poor attendance. It was Dick Nunis who insisted that the Imagineers create a log flume for Disneyland, but the Imagineers were initially unenthusiastic about it, insisting that log flumes were too ordinary a theme park attraction to include in a park like Disneyland. While trying to solve the problems of including a log flume, bringing people into Bear Country and reusing the America Sings characters, Baxter then thought of
Song of the South.
At the time it was built, Splash Mountain was one of the most expensive projects created by
Walt Disney Imagineering at a cost of $75 million. According to
Alice Davis (wife of the late
Marc Davis), when America Sings closed in April 1988, production of Disneyland's Splash Mountain had gone far over budget. The only way to recover was to close down America Sings and use the characters from that attraction.
[2]
Baxter and his team developed the concept of
Zip-a-Dee River Run, which would incorporate scenes from
Song of the South. The name was later changed to
Splash Mountain after then-CEO
Michael Eisner's mostly-ignored suggestion that the attraction be used to help market the film
Splash.
[3] The characters from America Sings were used in many scenes, though all of the main characters were specifically designed for Splash Mountain.
