Splash Mountain
Magic Kingdom · Frontierland
Overview
Splash Mountain carried guests aboard hollowed-log flume boats through a series of animatronic scenes adapted from Disney's Song of the South, following Br'er Rabbit's misadventures with Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear before a climactic plunge down the mountain's signature drop into a briar-patch lagoon.
ParksLog Verdict
Splash Mountain's closure was one of the most discussed Disney retheming decisions in recent memory — beloved for its drop and soundtrack, but built on source material Disney itself has long tried to distance from. Tiana's Bayou Adventure inherited the bones of a genuinely great ride; whether it matches Splash Mountain's cultural footprint is still an open question among longtime fans.
About this experience
Log-flume ride with large drops and animatronic storytelling, re-themed in 2023.
Best For
- Guests who rode the original Song of the South theming
- Log flume and ride mechanics enthusiasts
- Fans comparing Splash Mountain to its Tiana's Bayou Adventure successor
Tips
- The ride's layout, drops, and boats live on almost unchanged inside Tiana's Bayou Adventure
- The retheming was part of a broader Disney effort to move away from Song of the South, a film Disney has never released on home video due to its racial depictions
- Compare notes with Disneyland's Anaheim version, which underwent the same retheming around the same time
Details
History
Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain opened in 1992, following the original 1989 version at Disneyland. It closed in 2023 as Disney re-themed the ride and its show building into Tiana's Bayou Adventure, based on The Princess and the Frog, retaining the same flume layout and much of the ride's mechanical structure.
Fun Facts
- Splash Mountain's signature drop was, for decades, one of the steepest and most photographed splashdowns at any Disney park
- The retheming to Tiana's Bayou Adventure reused the vast majority of the ride's mechanical show scenes and flume structure rather than building an entirely new attraction
- Song of the South, the film the original ride was based on, has never been released on home video in the U.S. due to its depiction of race in the post-Civil War South