Part one of hopefully a series! I love this doll line and I think they’re pretty underrated.

Typically I like to focus on my blog towards Fantasyland topics, but lately I’ve been finding all kinds of lost content of my other favorite land, Critter Country I thought this was something I must post. Sadly we lost Splash Mountain around 2022/2023 to make way for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Although it does coincide with its theming since it’s next door to New Orleans Square, I do miss my childhood favorite.

Splash Mountain opened on July 17, 1989 on what was Disneylands 34th birthday. Inspired by Disney pictures live action/animated film Song of the South, this would be Disney parks first flume ride originally named Zippidee River Run but was later changed to Splash Mountain. Around the time the ride was conceived, Micheal Eisner, then CEO of Walt Disney Company wanted the imagineers to add a mermaid to the ride as a promotional tool for the 1983 film Splash. Imagineers said no since it wouldn’t work within the theme of the ride, but did change the name of the ride as a nod.

The ride would feature over 100+ animatronics from the defunct America Sings which closed in 1988 as a cost cutting measure to not only save money for build new animatronics, but in a way preserve Disney parks history.

Splash Mountain would eventually open to great fan fare, including a tv promo special called Ernest goes to Splash Mountain in 1989. While you can still find footage of this tv special, finding opening day media footage is not. Online there has been videos of Splash Mountain’s Grand Opening in Florida around 1992, but finding footage for Disneyland wasn’t so easy to come by. I came across this video which launched 2 years ago from a guests perspective of Disneylands Grand Opening. The footage is pretty good even though it’s taken far away, it’s the closest to the event that I’ve found.

This was a treasure to find & I’m so happy this exists