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/* Attraction History */
Splash Mountain is an attraction located in [[Frontierland]].
==Attraction History==
Splash Mountain was originally developed as an attraction for Disneyland by Imagineer Tony Baxter. In the summer of 1983, there were three problems looming on Baxter's mind. The first, was that Disney needed to figure out a way to attract guests to the park's scarcely visited Bear Country land <ref name= "Jack1"> http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/2010/06/splash_mountain_part_one_1.html </ref> . Also lingering was the fact that Dick NorrisNunis, who oversaw Disneyland, wanted his Imagineers to create a log flume attraction for the park <ref name= "Jack1"/>. On top of all this, Tony was also concerned about the closing of America Sings and its 114 Audio Animatronics. Baxter would later recount:
{{Quotation| I kept thinking, ‘What a terrible waste of all those Audio-Animatronics characters. Isn’t there something we can do with them?’”<ref name= "avenue"> http://www.disneyavenue.com/2015/06/making-of-splash-mountain.html </ref>}}
Finally, while driving to work one day, Baxter came up a solution to all three of these problems at once. Working with Bruce Gordon and John Stone, the attraction he came up with was to be a log flume ride called "Zip-a-Dee River Run" <ref name= "Jack1"/>. The ride would be based on the 1946 Disney film "Song of the South", which was chosen because its main characters- Brer Fox, Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit- had been popular walk-around characters since the park's opening. By choosing Song of the South, Baxter also knew that he would be able to reuse the Audio Animatronic animals located in America Sings, thus solving two problems with one attraction <ref name= "avenue"/>. Although Dick Norris Nunis had demanded a log flume ride, Imagineers were not initially sold on the idea. Many felt that log flume rides were beneath Disney, since they were already in almost every most average amusement park. Eventually however, it was decided that Disney’s log flume would be different due to the story they that it would tell <ref name="Korkis"> https://www.mouseplanet.com/10394/Splash_Mountain_Double_Anniversary</ref>.
According to Stone:
{{Quotation| "The three of us—Tonyus— Tony, Bruce Gordon and myself, literally spent the next three days in Tony's office preparing about 30 storyboards and outlining the entire project"<ref name="Korkis"/>}}
Although the designs for Splash Mountain came together in a matter of weeks, it would be six years until the attraction would open to the public <ref name= "avenue"/>. In 1984, the name of the attraction was changed to Splash Mountain after a suggestion by Michael Eisner that the attraction also promote the new Disney-Touchstone film "Splash" <ref name= "Korkis"/>. Although Eisner's other suggestion of adding a mermaid to the ride (to further tie in with the film) was rejected, the new name stuck <ref name="Jack1"/>. On July 17, 1989, Splash Mountain opened in Disneyland and the attraction proved so popular that Michael Eisner decided to add it to Tokyo Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom.
