Splash Mountain: The Final Attraction of a Lost Imagineering Era
On January 22nd, 2023, guests lined up for hours to say goodbye to one of Disney’s greatest rides ever.
As someone who has written about Disney for many years, I’ve previously listed Splash Mountain as having the best music and being the most fun of any Disney attraction.
Photo: Disney
Like almost all of you, I consider the wet ride a classic and hated to see it go.
In many ways, Splash Mountain stood as the final attraction of a lost Imagineering era.
Photo: Disneyland
As we await the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, let’s take this opportunity to remember why we loved Splash Mountain.
The Traffic Epiphany
Credit: Disney
In 1965, a Cal Poly Pomona student grabbed the attention of Disney executives. His college portfolio illustrated his ideas for Disney attractions.
Management recognized that the teen’s ideas surpassed the ones that Disney was building in its parks.
Photo: Disney
Technically, Disney couldn’t hire Tony Baxter full-time until after he graduated, but he started with the company in 1965, the same year that Walt Disney died.
I’ve always thought of Baxter, a Disney Legend, as a spiritual successor to Uncle Walt in that both viewed theme park entertainment similarly.
Photo: Disney Parks
Baxter possessed that rare gift of imagining something that didn’t exist and being able to bring it to life.
Perhaps the best example occurred while Baxter found himself stuck in the notoriously terrible Southern California traffic.
Credit: D23
At the time, Disney struggled with a failed attraction, America Sings. The worst part for the company was that it wasted resources on many Audio-Animatronics (AAs) for that Carousel of Progress-style ride.
During the 1970s, this technology was still new and extremely expensive.
Photo: Disney
Disney had built an experience that opened in 1974 and proved an immediate failure.
The attraction also suffered a high-profile tragedy during its early days, which may have kept families away.
Photo: Disney
So, Disney found itself with more than 100 (!) expensive AA props from an attraction nobody attended.
Thankfully, Baxter constructively used his downtime on the freeway.
Splash Mountain
The Imagineer came up with a new idea for an attraction, one that married a Disney story with a still-new kind of ride.
During that bumper-to-bumper traffic, unbeknownst to everyone honking their horns around Baxter, the Imagineer invented Disney’s next great ride.
All Aboard the Log Flume!
Credit: Disney
Baxter repurposed dozens of Audio-Animatronics to fit the theme of a film from the Disney library, the now-denounced Song of the South.
Obviously, society thought much differently 50 years ago, which speaks to the progress we’ve all made.
At the time, Baxter merely knew the film as a singalong from his youth that he’d enjoyed, and it featured some memorable characters.
Where others saw those unpopular American Sings animatronics, Baxter envisioned Brer Bear, Brer Fox, and Brer Rabbit.
Well, that’s a half-truth. Many of the America Sings Audio-Animatronics were shamelessly recycled into the new attraction.
The Song of the South characters were the new ones that infused Splash Mountain with kinetic energy and familiar music.
Baxter and his team plotted a new kind of boat ride, one that would use log flumes to carry guests down a set path.
Throughout the ride, Splash Mountain would tease guests with false finishes, hinting at the drop at the end but not delivering it yet.
The measured approach demonstrated Disney Imagineers’ knowing confidence.
You were riding to get to the splashdown at the end, but you weren’t quite sure when it was coming. And Disney preyed on your lack of knowledge.
Baxter thought of everything, including the post-splashdown celebration. It involved a raucous cast of characters.
All of them sang and danced to the classic tune, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.
Photo: https://splashpic.blogspot.com/2019/06/splash-mountain-zip-dee-doo-dah.html
That tune proved integral to the process, as Disney had named the project Zip-a-Dee River Run during its early days.
Not coincidentally, the connection between the song and the ride remains in fans’ heads even after all this time.
The Joys of Splash Mountain
Photo: Disney
Baxter wasn’t a cartoonist by trade, which is a vital distinction.
Many of the earliest workers at WED Enterprises had transitioned from Disney’s storytelling teams.
D23
Since they could turn a blank page into a moving picture, Uncle Walt trusted them to build rides that told stories as well.
Baxter could achieve the same goal while sitting in traffic. His rare blend of creativity allowed him to substitute one entire ride setting for another.
That fully formed thought proved itself in myriad ways on Splash Mountain.
I’ve already mentioned the teases about the splashdown, but they weren’t the only ones.
Before guests got dripping wet, they learned of The Laughing Place, which is actually the name of the story that inspired Song of the South.
Let’s just say that events demonstrate that not everyone finds The Laughing Place funny.
Image Credit: Disney
Splash Mountain started with a charming tale about the residents of a seemingly happy forest by the river.
Then, the story turned dark, as Brer Fox aspired to eat Brer Rabbit.
Ultimately, Brer Rabbit outsmarted his fox and bear friends. And once guests survived the rabbit’s harrowing moments of peril, we gained our reward.
Splash Mountain finally positioned us at the top of a hill before thrusting us down 52 feet at a steep incline and then depositing us in the awaiting waters.
Photo: https://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/
Our log flume’s design guaranteed that we’d hit the water at the proper angle and velocity to soak us and thereby evoke a feeling of euphoria.
From its start to finish, Splash Mountain was impeccably designed to tell a story via the characters as well as the ride itself.
Photo: Disney
I’m in awe of modern Imagineering, but I cannot think of any recent attraction as carefully considered from start to finish.
The End of Splash Mountain
Look, I think that on some level, we all know that Splash Mountain had to change.
Its connection to an unwelcome story defeated the purpose of Disney.
So, celebrating the now-defunct ride feels a bit…odd. But the purpose here isn’t to praise any of the unseemly elements connected to Splash Mountain.
Instead, I’d like us all to take a moment to admire the breathtaking brilliance of Tony Baxter.
I don’t know about you, but when I sit in traffic, I’m generally just sulking and hurling expletives at the people in surrounding cars.
This Disney Legend managed his time better than I ever could. He refused to accept that Disney would stick dozens of Audio-Animatronics in storage.
Photo: Disney
Instead, Baxter invented a remarkable way of repurposing these critters to breathe new life into them.
That idea paved the way for one of Disney’s most iconic attractions ever, and its infrastructure will remain in its replacement.
Credit: Disney
Disney won’t reinvent the wheel with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, instead embracing all the best parts of Splash Mountain while eliminating the negatives.
Still, the one thing I’ll miss the most from Splash Mountain – and I say this as a superfan of The Princess and the Frog’s soundtrack – is the music.
I love How Do You Do, and there’s something about the word “satisfactual” that will always amuse me.
These are the things we’ve lost, as well as the unmistakable fingerprints of Imagineering icon Tony Baxter throughout Splash Mountain.
This ride was the final monument from a Lost Imagineering era, the one that linked the original Imagineers to modern ride designers.
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Feature Photo: Disney
