Splash Mountain At 30: A Theme Park Masterpiece Based On A Movie Disney Never Wants You To See
By Josh Spiegel/July 17, 2019 7:00 am EST
(Welcome to The Disney Discourse, a recurring feature where Josh Spiegel discusses the latest in Disney news. He goes deep on everything from the animated classics to the theme parks to live-action franchises.)More than 18 million people visited Disneyland in 2018. The park averages somewhere around 45,000 to 50,000 people a day, though its maximum capacity is nearly twice that number. The attractions that serve as the foundation of Disneyland Park are, by and large, those that arrived in Anaheim well after the park opened 64 years ago, on July 17, 1955. Space Mountain arrived in the mid-1970s, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad showed up in 1979, and of course, the biggest inclusion of all, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, is barely two months old. But the most curious case among Disneyland’s E-Ticket attractions celebrates its 30th anniversary today. It’s a ride that has been consistently popular for its three decades, at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Like the best of Disney theme-park Imagineering, it’s an attraction that serves as a mix of styles, blended together to create a thrilling headliner. Like Galaxy’s Edge, it’s an attraction inspired by a film. The only difference is you probably haven’t ever seen the film on which Splash Mountain is based. And that’s just how Disney wants it.
You Can’t Run That Far
The origins for Splash Mountain came from legendary Imagineer Tony Baxter, who wanted to come up with a ride that would drive more guests towards the Bear Country section of Disneyland back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. (That section—now that Country Bear Jamboree, its prior linchpin, has gone away—is called Critter Country today.) Park executives wanted a log flume ride, which felt too ordinary for Baxter and his fellow Imagineers. It was Baxter, though, who thought of using Song of the South as inspiration for the overall attraction. Coupled with the ability to use some Audio-Animatronics from the defunct stage show America Sings! (which featured a lot of talking-animal characters who you can see now in the showboat scene at the end of Splash Mountain), Baxter was on his way.Song of the South was never free from controversy, of course, even as it could inspire Disney’s team to create a new attraction. Before the advent of home media, though, the film was still one of many to get the re-release treatment from Disney. Despite having been scandalous enough back in the 1940s to draw the understandable ire of the NAACP, the film made a mild profit in its initial release, and got re-released five times over the next forty years. In fact, twice in the 1980s, the film got pushed back into theaters, most recently in the fall of 1986. (Construction on Splash Mountain began in the spring of 1987, notably.) Its 1980 re-release, in conjunction with celebrating the 100th anniversary of the stories written by Joel Chandler Harris that inspired the film, was barely outgrossed by, among other films, John Carpenter’s The Fog and Fame at the box office. The 1986 release was outgrossed in its opening weekend by just $1 million by Don Bluth’s An American Tail. Though it wasn’t a huge success in either re-release, it was also not an outright flop. (The 1980 re-release outgrossed the re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so it was no slouch.)The uproar surrounding Song of the South is what has kept it from getting an official home-media release, in spite of the film serving as the foundation for Splash Mountain. To talk about the attraction is to truly talk about what Disney doesn’t want to ever talk about: a film that they’ve treated so poorly that you have to buy a bootleg copy to watch it. (Depending on the time of year, you can also see if someone’s uploaded it to YouTube. You never know.) Splash Mountain steers away from the elements of the film that have garnered it so much controversy over time. The infamous “tar baby” sequence of the 1946 film, in which Br’er Rabbit attacks a doll covered in tar (invoking a slur against black people), is nowhere to be found. The humans are nowhere to be found either.
Where It Is For One, Mightn’t Be For Another
And of course, neither is the film itself. You could argue — as I have in book form — that Disney treats Song of the South in a disproportionate way to other films they’ve released with racially insensitive material. (To note, this argument can be made separate of a discussion of the film’s quality. Song of the South is technically remarkable and has a number of memorable songs, but is a mawkish, overly sappy story that’s dull even before you consider its racism.) Why does Song of the South get shunted to the side, but Dumbo and Peter Pan get Blu-ray releases? The unique challenge with Splash Mountain isn’t that it’s a great attraction inspired by a film that has wince-inducing content. The two aforementioned animated features are the foundation for great rides, even as they invoke African American and Native American stereotypes for no good reason. It’s that in an ideal world, Disney wouldn’t have you be aware that there’s even source material. In some ways, Splash Mountain transcends the current operating principle that a theme-park ride cannot survive without intellectual property lifting it up. As a fusion of thrill and dark ride, of Adventureland and Fantasyland, Splash Mountain is a one-of-a-kind marvel. It could only exist because of intellectual property. But its success lies with the fact that you’re really better off, in Disney’s estimation, thinking that it’s a true original.An earlier version of this article incorrectly implied that Disneyland was celebrating its 30th anniversary today. That error has been corrected.
Splash Mountain At 30: A Theme Park Masterpiece Based On A Movie Disney Never Wants You To See
By Josh Spiegel/July 17, 2019 7:00 am EST
(Welcome to The Disney Discourse, a recurring feature where Josh Spiegel discusses the latest in Disney news. He goes deep on everything from the animated classics to the theme parks to live-action franchises.)More than 18 million people visited Disneyland in 2018. The park averages somewhere around 45,000 to 50,000 people a day, though its maximum capacity is nearly twice that number. The attractions that serve as the foundation of Disneyland Park are, by and large, those that arrived in Anaheim well after the park opened 64 years ago, on July 17, 1955. Space Mountain arrived in the mid-1970s, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad showed up in 1979, and of course, the biggest inclusion of all, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, is barely two months old. But the most curious case among Disneyland’s E-Ticket attractions celebrates its 30th anniversary today. It’s a ride that has been consistently popular for its three decades, at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Like the best of Disney theme-park Imagineering, it’s an attraction that serves as a mix of styles, blended together to create a thrilling headliner. Like Galaxy’s Edge, it’s an attraction inspired by a film. The only difference is you probably haven’t ever seen the film on which Splash Mountain is based. And that’s just how Disney wants it.
A Laughin’ Place
The Absence of Man
You Can’t Run That Far
The origins for Splash Mountain came from legendary Imagineer Tony Baxter, who wanted to come up with a ride that would drive more guests towards the Bear Country section of Disneyland back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. (That section—now that Country Bear Jamboree, its prior linchpin, has gone away—is called Critter Country today.) Park executives wanted a log flume ride, which felt too ordinary for Baxter and his fellow Imagineers. It was Baxter, though, who thought of using Song of the South as inspiration for the overall attraction. Coupled with the ability to use some Audio-Animatronics from the defunct stage show America Sings! (which featured a lot of talking-animal characters who you can see now in the showboat scene at the end of Splash Mountain), Baxter was on his way.Song of the South was never free from controversy, of course, even as it could inspire Disney’s team to create a new attraction. Before the advent of home media, though, the film was still one of many to get the re-release treatment from Disney. Despite having been scandalous enough back in the 1940s to draw the understandable ire of the NAACP, the film made a mild profit in its initial release, and got re-released five times over the next forty years. In fact, twice in the 1980s, the film got pushed back into theaters, most recently in the fall of 1986. (Construction on Splash Mountain began in the spring of 1987, notably.) Its 1980 re-release, in conjunction with celebrating the 100th anniversary of the stories written by Joel Chandler Harris that inspired the film, was barely outgrossed by, among other films, John Carpenter’s The Fog and Fame at the box office. The 1986 release was outgrossed in its opening weekend by just $1 million by Don Bluth’s An American Tail. Though it wasn’t a huge success in either re-release, it was also not an outright flop. (The 1980 re-release outgrossed the re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so it was no slouch.)The uproar surrounding Song of the South is what has kept it from getting an official home-media release, in spite of the film serving as the foundation for Splash Mountain. To talk about the attraction is to truly talk about what Disney doesn’t want to ever talk about: a film that they’ve treated so poorly that you have to buy a bootleg copy to watch it. (Depending on the time of year, you can also see if someone’s uploaded it to YouTube. You never know.) Splash Mountain steers away from the elements of the film that have garnered it so much controversy over time. The infamous “tar baby” sequence of the 1946 film, in which Br’er Rabbit attacks a doll covered in tar (invoking a slur against black people), is nowhere to be found. The humans are nowhere to be found either.
Where It Is For One, Mightn’t Be For Another
And of course, neither is the film itself. You could argue — as I have in book form — that Disney treats Song of the South in a disproportionate way to other films they’ve released with racially insensitive material. (To note, this argument can be made separate of a discussion of the film’s quality. Song of the South is technically remarkable and has a number of memorable songs, but is a mawkish, overly sappy story that’s dull even before you consider its racism.) Why does Song of the South get shunted to the side, but Dumbo and Peter Pan get Blu-ray releases? The unique challenge with Splash Mountain isn’t that it’s a great attraction inspired by a film that has wince-inducing content. The two aforementioned animated features are the foundation for great rides, even as they invoke African American and Native American stereotypes for no good reason. It’s that in an ideal world, Disney wouldn’t have you be aware that there’s even source material. In some ways, Splash Mountain transcends the current operating principle that a theme-park ride cannot survive without intellectual property lifting it up. As a fusion of thrill and dark ride, of Adventureland and Fantasyland, Splash Mountain is a one-of-a-kind marvel. It could only exist because of intellectual property. But its success lies with the fact that you’re really better off, in Disney’s estimation, thinking that it’s a true original.An earlier version of this article incorrectly implied that Disneyland was celebrating its 30th anniversary today. That error has been corrected.
