Splash Mountain has historically been one of the most iconic Disney Parks attractions, at one point appearing at three separate parks and entertaining guests for decades. But, it’s a very different mountain!

It’s the only “mountain” ride that isn’t a roller coaster, and it’s the only one to be based on a movie instead of an original IP. Of course, many modern riders have no idea the ride was actually based on a movie!

Let’s take a look at the bizarre and fascinating history of Disney’s most iconic mountain.

Controversial Beginnings: Song of the South

Splash Mountain is the only “mountain” ride to be based on a film, something many riders might not realize. In recent years, Br’er Rabbit and friends have been associated exclusively with the ride, causing some to mistake them as original characters of the park. All mention of their cinematic origins has been hidden away. You can’t even find the film on Disney+.

Song of the South, the film in which these characters first appeared, was released in 1946, less than a decade after Gone With The Wind inspired a wave of films about the southern United States during the Reconstruction Era. It was a technical marvel, mixing animation and live-action, while also introducing the world to the classic “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.” However, it wasn’t without controversy.

Song of the South was an adaptation of the “Uncle Remus” stories compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, a reporter in Reconstruction Atlanta. Allegedly stories shared among Black Americans at the time, it’s unclear how many of these stories are genuine and how many were modified for a white audience by Harris or his sources. Using the fables as source material, Disney crafted the tale of a young boy who formed a relationship with the “real” Uncle Remus, a wise old former slave who lived on his family’s plantation. The film was released periodically over the decades, most recently in 1986, though television releases have occurred as recently as 2006.

One of the biggest critiques of the film was its romanticization of slavery. While it never states it outright, Uncle Remus and other characters frequently express nostalgia for “the good old days”. As the film takes place shortly after the abolition of slavery, many have read this as Uncle Remus longing to return to bondage. Needless to say, this and other problematic elements have led Disney to quietly lock the film away in the Disney Vault.

However, while the live-action framing story was quietly erased from memory, the characters of Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear remained popular in children’s books and comics. These stories, now divorced from their original context, would eventually become the storyline of Splash Mountain. Readers interested in the history and controversy of Song of the South can listen to You Must Remember This, a podcast by film scholar Karina Longworth, which goes into detail about the history of the film in several episodes, including the eventual creation of Splash Mountain.

Coming to Critter Country

In 1977, Disney opened Bear Country at Disneyland, a four-acre land built around the now-defunct Country Bear Jamboree.  However, this area of the park was often empty, as guests sought out more exciting attractions in other lands. At the same time, America Sings, an animatronic revue featuring singing animals, was playing to empty theaters. Disney was already planning on closing America Sings but needed to find a use for the ride’s many animatronics.

Walt Disney Attractions chairman Dick Nunis insisted Imagineers create a log flume ride for the parks, but many Imagineers were reluctant. Log flumes, a common fixture at many amusement parks, were considered too ordinary for a park like Disneyland. It wasn’t until 1983 that Tony Baxter would have the idea to use the America Sings animatronics in such a ride, using the recently re-released Song of the South as inspiration. Bear Country was renamed Critter Country, after a quote from the film, and work began on its marquee attraction in 1987.

The ride was originally known as Zip-a-Dee River Run, after the Oscar-winning song from the film. However, then-CEO Michael Eisner, who had just risen to his new position, renamed it Splash Mountain to market the live-action movie Splash. Aside from a scene where a character sings Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah, the attraction has nothing to do with the film, and this decision baffles scholars to this day.

The Most Expensive Ride In Disney History (At the Time).

Splash Mountain cost over $80 million to build, an astronomical amount for the time. That is over $182 million in 2020 money, and more than it cost to build the entire park when it first opened! Disney has since blown past this number by an enormous amount (Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, we’re looking at you), but at the time Splash Mountain represented an enormous financial undertaking. Disney would take many of the animatronics from America Sings and install them into the attraction as miscellaneous residents of Critter County. Several other animatronics were transformed into characters from the film, though others were built specifically for the ride.

One of the main reasons for the ride’s high price was due to safety concerns. The drop that serves as the climax of the attraction was initially too intense, at one point decapitating a test dummy and completely soaking early riders. The ride also suffered from staging and technical issues, leading to several extensive redesigns.

One surprising issue? Reprogramming the recycled figures. Animatronics, especially older ones like you see on Splash Mountain, are only designed to perform a set sequence of movements. While modern animatronics have a wider range of movement and can even respond to outside stimuli, the animatronics of America Sings were designed to perform a single show sequence and little else.

To adapt them to the new show, they’d need to be completely rewired and reprogrammed, with new hydraulics installed to ensure their movements looked smooth and realistic. The process took months and was far from perfect. Even now, guests will occasionally notice one or more animatronics on the ride malfunctioning…they occasionally are even removed altogether!

Despite the rough origins, the ride proved extremely popular. Nearly identical versions were opened at Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland in 1992 within one day of each other, to critical acclaim.

The Birth of PhotoPass

Still, despite the elaborate theming and controversial source material that went into making Splash Mountain, the most iconic part of the ride is a little technical innovation that’s been amusing guests for decades!

While Splash Mountain likely didn’t invent the concept of an on-ride photo, it is clearly the most popular example, taking advantage of that spectacular drop to catch a candid (or not-so-candid) photo of guests plummeting into the briar patch!

One reason Splash Mountain’s photos are so iconic? They emerged right before the advent of the internet, allowing guests to share their photos online. This led to the trend of staging humorous or improbable ride photos.

From Splash Mountain, nearly every major ride at the Disney Parks — including The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean — joined in on the action. With the rise of the Memory Maker and PhotoPass services, these iconic photos are now more prevalent than ever…and some might say we’ve got Splash Mountain to thank.

Re-Theming the Ride

In June of 2020, a petition began circulating the internet asking for the ride to be re-themed due to its connections with Song of the South. Later that month, Disney officially announced that the ride would get a The Princess and the Frog makeover, noting that they had already been planning the update before the petition began circulation.

The ride wasn’t given an official closing date, so when Magic Kingdom reopened after the pandemic closure just a few weeks later, guests flooded the Splash Mountain gift shop, forcing Disney to open a virtual queue for the store. Merchandise sold out quickly and was posted on the internet for resale at much higher prices.

Eventually, the panic died down as the ride remained open for several months. Later, in July 2022, Disney announced that Splash Mountain would officially be renamed Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and in December, we learned that Disney World’s Splash Mountain would close its doors forever on January 23rd, 2023.

The Disneyland version of the ride was given a closing date of May 31st, 2023, and construction has already begun at Disney World.

The new attraction’s story will take place after the final kiss in the movie, following Tiana, Naveen, and Louis as they prepare to host a one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras celebration. That big celebration will be the ride’s finale scene, and throughout the ride, you’ll be able to hear original music inspired by the songs in the film.

The story of this new ride starts in the queue, where guests learn that Tiana has also started Tiana’s Foods, an employee-owned cooperative. By combining her talents with the community’s, they’ve turned an old salt mine into a beloved brand.

Tiana purchased the salt mine and the large salt dome it operated from, and with the help of her mother Eudora, Naveen, Louis, and fellow owners of the cooperative, she began to grow vegetables, spices, and herbs for her recipes on the revived land.

To thank her family and community for all their support, Tiana plans to throw an amazing party during Mardi Gras. However, when it turns out there has been a mix up with the party preparations, Tiana invites us to join her at Tiana’s Foods to find the missing ingredient for the party!

When guests arrive at Tiana’s Foods, we see that Tiana has decorated the area with art from local artists, food is being prepared, and beignets are being loaded into crates to prepare for the journey guests are about to take into the bayou, where you’ll see both new and familiar friends from the film along the way.

The details of the ride itself are still under wraps, but now we know what sets up the ride, and what guests will learn in the queue!

Splash Mountain definitely has a storied history and no small amount of controversy, but we hope it’ll continue to entertain guests (and provide us with ride photos!) for years to come. As always, stay tuned to AllEars for all the latest Disney news!

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