The hollowed-out transportation vehicles eventually reach the second lift hill, which is enclosed in an old barn structure near a vintage waterwheel. The interior of the barn ties in well with the rest of the attraction. Shelves hold old tools, buckets, plants, barrels, and various sacks (no doubt full of more wheat and oats). To the left, across from the cast member stairwell, sits an old iron stove and a checkerboard atop a barrel.
The sights and sounds of falling logs and screaming guests on the immediate right of the ride vehicle, combined with a second steep lift hill, again leads first-time riders to think that this could be the big drop…but it is another splash fake-out.
At this point in the attraction, you are treated to a gentle outdoor float along the rear of the mountain in what may be the most relaxing portion of any Disney World attraction, with an instrumental version of the song “How Do You Do” adding to the country atmosphere. If you examine the landscape closely, you might be able to spot speakers themed as rocks or hidden behind bushes.
One of the best attraction props on Disney property is an elaborate “Critter Elixir” wagon, which promises to cure “fleas, flat feet, and fur balls.” Past that is a hollowed-out tree that is the home of an unnamed resident of Chick-a-Pin Hill. Beside this rustic abode is an outdoor garden with carrots, turnips, cabbage, and lettuce. To the right you’ll see clothes hanging on a line to be dried, with a washing board and barrel sitting together with a crate of “Critter-a-Lene Br’er Soap” close by.
Be on the lookout for the “Muskrat Moonshine” still that sits atop several pieces of firewood. Barrels labeled “XXX” surround the still, and a box labeled “Fussel Springs” sits beside the still. (I wonder how many blueberries are being used in that concoction.) To the left is a rugged tree with three more large bird houses similar to those seen earlier in the queue.
As the logs float back around to the front of the mountain, you get a great view of the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and other Frontierland sites, with Br’er Bear’s house coming up on the right. Notice the empty milk bottles on his front porch. Also make sure to listen…and you may hear him snoring.
Past Br’er Bear’s house, there is indeed a fall. The sign clarifies that this drop is called “Slippin Falls.” It takes you to the first indoor show scene for Splash Mountain, the Fishin’ Place.
Fishin’ Place
As you enter the “Fishin’ Place,” you will see a sign warning “No Fishin’,” and then geese and frogs fishing…it is the Fishin’ Place after all. The vocalized version of “How Do You Do” is played for the first time, setting an upbeat, whimsical tone.
Straight ahead is Br’er Fox sitting on the shoulders of Br’er Bear, sneakily eavesdropping on Br’er Rabbit. Br’er Fox seems confident, claiming that he is going to catch Br’er Rabbit this time “for sho”! Br’er Rabbit explains to Mr. Bluebird that “it’s time to be moving along.”
Br’er Porcupine and Br’er Raccoon
The next indoor scene features Br’er Porcupine playing drums (a turtle’s back), and Br’er Raccoon playing the harmonica. They warn Br’er Rabbit that, although he may think he is leaving his troubles behind, even more problems are sure to follow.
A Foiled Trap
Br’er Fox and Br’er Rabbit set a rope snare trap to catch Br’er Rabbit, but Br’er Bear proceeds to get trapped himself. A book titled How to Catch a Rabbit lies on the ground next to the hijinks. On the opposite side of the water, Br’er Rabbit tosses a few barbs (no need to get “hung up” over Br’er Bear) and mentions his “laughin’ place.”
In the next series of scenes, you see Br’er Frog again, this time perched atop Br’er Gator, as well as Br’er Roadrunner, who wants to see “this here laughin’ place” that Br’er Rabbit is talking about. Three cute possums hang from a tree.
Br’er Rabbit has written “To the Laughin’ Place” on a hollowed-out tree, and in another hilarious ride scene, we see Br’er Bear standing on Br’er Fox’s shoulders. Bear’s rear end is in the air with his other half stuck in the tree. With a cracking sound, the tree breaks under Bear’s immense weight, crashing into a cave below. This is the fourth drop of the attraction. Poor Br’er Bear is seen on his back with a beehive stuck to his nose, and bees swarming about. An unsympathetic Br’er Rabbit is laughing hysterically on the floor, and says “I didn’t say this was your laughin’ place. I said it was my laughin’ place.” Arrogance gets the better of our hero, as Br’er Fox is standing right beside Br’er Rabbit with a beehive in hand. guests then get yet another flume drop (the fifth if you are counting), this time into the Laughin’ Place!
Laughin’ Place
After the drop, the logs arrive smack-dab in the middle of Br’er Rabbit’s Laughin’ Place, which is actually a flooded mine. The mine is an upbeat place with water jumping into the air and over guests’ heads, and frogs and water-surfing turtles amongst the critters having fun.
One of the many “hidden treasures” is the weasel that pops its head out of the ceiling and shouts (allegedly) “FSU!” as an honor to an Imagineer with a Florida State University connection. Some, however, contend that the weasel is sneezing: “Ah ah choo!” I can’t tell what the weasel is saying (it sounds like both to me), so you’ll have to figure this one out for yourself.
A Darker Tone and a Long-Awaited Drop
The music suddenly changes from an upbeat tone, to a sinister, darker dirge. Br’er Fox has indeed trapped Br’er Rabbit using the beehive and honey from the previous scene. (Honey was used as opposed to tar from the famous “tar baby” tale of the Uncle Remus stories and the Song of the South movie.)
The logs slowly climb the final lift hill, with guests’ hearts pounding, knuckles clinching, and brows sweating. Two creepy top-hat wearing buzzards are perched above. They arrogantly gloat, “If you’ve finally found your laughing place, how come you’re not laughing?” At the crest of the lift hill, Br’er Rabbit has been tied to a stick and is ready to be cooked, but the fast-thinking rabbit uses reverse psychology and says, “Hangs me if you gotta,” but “please don’t fling me into that briar patch!”
At the top of the hill, we’re treated to a beautiful view of the Magic Kingdom, especially Cinderella Castle. It is an even better experience at night. But what follows is a fifty-two-and-a-half-foot drop, at a forty-five degree angle, and reaching speeds of forty miles per hour. It is one of the most heart-pounding and exhilarating experiences in all of Disney World.
As the log hits the briar patch, a huge splash goes up in front of the boat, and water cannons occasionally help the splash effect by blasting bystanders on the nearby bridge.
The Finale
Even with ten minutes of great entertainment and a huge drop already completed, the Splash Mountain attraction is still not over! The logs wind around the briar patch and back toward Chick-a-Pin Hill. If you’re seated on the right-hand side of the log, keep a close eye out for the mini-waterfall that cascades down the mountain’s edge.
As the logs travel back inside the mountain for the attraction finale, a loud, boisterous rendition of “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” is being sung by Br’er Rabbit’s friends aboard a massive riverboat prop, the Zipp-A-Dee Lady. A large banner hangs from the ceiling reads: “Welcome Home Br’er Rabbit!” At thirty-six feet wide and twenty-two feet tall, the Zipp-A-Dee Lady is one of the largest props in any Disney World attraction. Look up and you will see windows where the Walt Disney World Railroad passes through the interior of the mountain.
The villains, of course, never learn, as Br’er Bear is now stuck in the briar patch, with Br’er Fox one step away from becoming supper for Br’er Gator. Freed from their clutches, Br’er Rabbit sings along with his friend Mr. Bluebird. The motto, according to Br’er Rabbit, is “Home Sweet Home is the Lesson Today.”
The logs finally circle back into the interior courtyard of the attraction for disembarkation.
The Music
Music plays a huge part of many Walt Disney World attractions, and Splash Mountain is no exce
ption. In fact, Splash Mountain is unique in that it actually features not just one, but four songs that help tell the story of Br’er Rabbit and his foes:
“How Do You Do?” In this upbeat song you can hear Br’er Rabbit’s voice included in the Magic Kingdom version.
“Ev’rybody’s Got a Laughin’ Place.” The second song played in the attraction, in the Laughin’ Place scene.
“Burrrow’s Lament.” An instrumental song played during the climactic final ascent up Chick-a-Pin Hill. It is less upbeat and enjoyable than the other three songs.
“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.” The final and most popular song in Splash Mountain, it won an Academy Award for best song, and symbolizes the exuberant joy of Walt Disney World.
Each of these songs is also used in Disneyland’s Splash Mountain. However, the Magic Kingdom versions are much different. In Disneyland, the songs have more of a “big band” feel due to the proximity of the attraction to New Orleans Square. Since Orlando’s version of Splash Mountain is located in Frontierland, so the songs are played using banjos and harmonicas to give them a bluegrass feel that fits better with the setting.
More Splash Mountain Magical Secrets
Gguests journey about half a mile on Splash Mountain.
The water runoff from Splash Mountain flows into the adjacent Rivers of America.
Splash Mountain features sixty-eight audio-animatronic characters, which is significantly less than the one hundred and five present in the Disneyland version.
Thurl Ravenscroft, who provided his voice talents to Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, voices the bullfrogs in the Fishin’ Place scene.
A sign hanging above the fireplace in the adjacent Briar Patch gift shop reads: “Briar Sweet Briar.”
Real History
Tony Baxter, America Sings, and Disneyland
The first Disney park to receive a Splash Mountain attraction was Disneyland. It was the brainchild of Imaginer Tony Baxter. As legend has it, Baxter came up with the idea for Splash Mountain in the summer of 1983 while stuck in a traffic jam during his daily commute from Anaheim Hills to the Glendale office of WED Enterprises (the predecessor to Walt Disney Imagineering). During this particular traffic jam, Baxter was wrestling with the problem of dwindling guest attendance in two separate sections of Disneyland: Bear County and Tomorrowland.
Although the Country Bear Jamboree was a mega-hit when it first opened in Walt Disney World in 1971, it did not receive a similar reaction in California. Even worse, the Disneyland version of Country Bear Jamboree included not just one, but two separate theatres. As a result, Bear Country suffered from low guest attendance.
Across the park in Tomorrowland, another attraction was experiencing a similar decline in popularity. America Sings was a patriotic celebration created to coincide with America’s bicentennial, and featured over one hundred audio-animatronic birds, frogs, and other critters. By 1983, America Sings was playing to half-full theatres on its good days.
In addition to attendance issues with Bear Country and America Sings, a third ingredient in creating Splash Mountain came from the president of Walt Disney attractions, Dick Nunis. Nunis had pressed Imagineers for years to add a water-flume attraction in Disneyland. His reasons were two-fold. First, a log flume would be extremely popular with guests, especially during the brutal heat of California’s summer months. Second, every other theme park had one. The Imagineers argued that Disneyland was not just any other theme park, obviously associating a “cheap” connotation to water-flume attractions.
In trying to develop a solution for all three of these problems, Baxter thought about one of his favorite Disney films, and one that did not currently have an attraction tie-in for the parks: Song of the South. He believed that Song of the South provided the three critical ingredients needed to create a classic Disney attraction: beloved characters, fun geographic settings, and award-winning music. His solution to the Bear County, America Sings, and Nunis problems was to create an attraction based on Song of the South that would be constructed in the Bear Country section of Disneyland. Even better, the audio-animatronic characters from America Sings would fit in perfectly with a Song of the South attraction, thereby reducing construction costs for the project by using existing resources.
Baxter, along with Imagineers Bruce Gordon and John Stone, worked feverishly to develop an attraction concept called “Zip-a-Dee River Run” (alternatively called “Song of the South Log Flume Ride”). In essence, the attraction would have been a combination indoor dark ride and water flume experience that would culminate in the world’s longest water-flume drop.
In The Disney Mountains: Imagineering at Its Peak (2007), Jason Surrell described the storytelling aspect of the project as follows:
Rather than attempt a straight-ahead retelling of one of the Br’er Rabbit tales from the film, often referred to by the Imagineers as a “book report,” Tony…chose to create a composite of all the stories, with its own distinct beginning, middle, and end. The story was told primarily through music, using a number of classic songs from the film, including “How Do You Do” and, of course, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.”
Then Disney CEO Michael Eisner loved the concept, but did have two suggested changes to Baxter’s plan. First, he did not like the proposed name for the attraction. At the same time, Eisner wanted to promote the recently released Touchstone film Splash starring Tom Hanks and Darryl Hannah. He suggested changing the name of the attraction from “Zip-a-Dee River Run” to “Splash Mountain.” Eisner also wanted to incorporate an actual mermaid into the attraction. Fortunately, the Imagineers were able to talk him out of the mermaid, as it would be a complete thematic contradiction to the setting and story of the attraction. The new name, however, stuck.
The Splash Mountain project was approved by Disney executives in 1986, and the attraction officially opened in Disneyland on July 17, 1989, at an estimated cost of $75 million. It was an instant success, and it did not take long for Eisner to give the go-ahead for Imagineers to create a Magic Kingdom version.
Splash Mountain Comes to Florida
Splash Mountain was built in the Frontierland section of the Magic Kingdom near Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Construction began in 1991, with the initial work involving tearing down the existing Frontierland train station. An interesting note here is that, during this time, the Magic Kingdom railroad only travelled between Main Street, U.S.A. and Mickey’s Starland (the predecessor to Mickey’s Toon Town, U.S.A., which was closed to make way for the New Fantasyland addition to the Magic Kingdom). As a result, it had to travel backwards half of the time!
One of the issues Imagineers faced in designing Splash Mountain for Walt Disney World was that of the conflicting geography presented by the American Southwest portrayed in many parts of Frontierland (particularly Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) and the Old South theme of Splash Mountain. In addressing this contrast in themes, the Imagineers used different color shades in the Magic Kingdom version of Splash Mountain that emphasized reds and magentas. This helped tie the mountain into the surrounding Frontierland landscape.
Splash Mountain opened in the Magic Kingdom on October 2, 1992 (though the attraction was in operation for soft openings as early as July 17, 1992). As was the case with the Disneyland version, Walt Disney World’s Splash Mountain became an instant success and continues to be one of the most popular attractions in the Magic Kingdom today.
chapter twelve
Country Bear Jamboree
My woman ain’t purty, but she don’t swear none.
—Liver Lips McGrowl, Country Bear Jamboree
The Country Bear Jamboree is a rip-roaring, knee-slapping audio-animatronic musical revue located in the Frontierland section of the Magic Kingdom. The attraction consists of a variety of laughable bears (and several other funny audio-animatronic animals) singing country-western tunes with a Disney twist, resulting in an “unbearably” fun Disney experience. Although the Country Bear Jamboree has entertained guests for more than
forty years, most are unaware of the detailed backstories that Disney Imagineers created for each of the hilarious bears who perform in the show. Perhaps even more surprising than the existence of those backstories is the true story behind the attracion, which involves one of the most controversial Disney projects that never came to be and a bitter legal battle between the United States government and the Sierra Club.
Backstory
The Disney company provided a nice overview of the Country Bear Jamboree’s backstory, along with the design elements inspired by that backstory, in The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom (2005):
The storyline written during the development of the show tells us the idea was concocted by one Ursus H. Bear after an especially inspiring hibernation session. Ursus then rounded up his musically inclined friends and kinfolk and got to putting on a show. Story treatments like this become the basis for our character designs, influencing the scenic treatment, and determining the specific show content. In many cases in this show, a song was chosen, the lyrics were rewritten, and then the bear who would perform it was designed to match the tune.
Imagineers also took the extra creative step of creating, in addition to a backstory for the Country Bear Jamboree as a whole, detailed backstories for the individual characters featured in that attraction. Most Country Bear fans are unaware that Disney released an Official Soundtrack of Walt Disney World’s Country Bear Jamboree in 1972 that included songs inspired by the Magic Kingdom attraction. But even more interesting to hardcore Disney fans is the fact that the album included a “magnificent full-colored illustrated book” that provided both artistic renderings and very detailed descriptions of the backstories for each bear in the Country Bear Jamboree.
The Backstories and Magical Secrets of Walt Disney World Page 23
