Changes

Splash Mountain was originally developed as an attraction for Disneyland. In the summer of 1983, there were three problems looming on Imagineer Tony Baxter 's mind. The first, was trying 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 on his mind was the fact that Dick Norris , 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:

Finally, while driving to work on one day, Baxter came up a solution to all three of these problemsat 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 parks 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 had demanded a log flume ride, Imagineers were not initially sold on the idea, with many feeling . Many felt that log flume rides were beneath Disney , since they were already in almost every average amusement park. Eventually however, it was decided that Disney’s log flume would be different due to the story they would tell <ref name="Korkis"> https://www.mouseplanet.com/10394/Splash_Mountain_Double_Anniversary</ref>.

{{Quotation| "The three of us—Tony, Bruce Gordon and myself—literally 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"/>. Along the wayIn 1984, in 1984 the name of the attraction was changed to Splash Mountain. after a suggestion by Michael Eisner suggested that the change in order to 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.