My favorite ride for the last 5 years at Disney parks has been Splash Mountain. When I was at Walt Disney World in October, I lucked out a little bit (the ride was down for part of the morning, and I only had 3 hours to spend at the Magic Kingdom). I was able to ride Splash Mountain one last time before they convert it into a ride for The Princess and the Frog. Splash Mountain is tied to Disney’s movie The Song of the South, which remains locked in the Disney Vault due to its negative portrayal of African Americans in the character Uncle Remus. After George Floyd’s death, Disney made it a priority to finally give The Princess and the Frog her very own attraction. I am only a little disappointed to see my favorite attraction changed. I really like Splash Mountain for the thrill of the drop, the story that is told through so many animal audio-animatronics, the catchy music, and the lengthy duration of the ride. I am hopeful that Disney will build a fun new ride with the new story. For my Bible World park, I wanted to carefully choose which Old Testament story (since we are in the left side of the park) would be the best one to use the Splash Mountain log flume. Although Noah was an obvious option, I didn’t see part of the story could be used for the giant drop (so instead I placed it in The Pirates of the Caribbean space as I have described in an earlier post). Jonah getting swallowed by the large fish (or whale depending on the translation) seemed like it could fit the bill for the thrill. A Pinocchio water ride had been in development for Disney that would have had guests ride through the whale Monstro before going out of his mouth down a slide. That ride was never built, although a different Pinocchio dark ride was. Although Jonah’s story could focus on him preaching in Nineveh, the location of the drop about two-thirds through the ride suggests that most of the focus should be on Jonah fleeing to Tarshish. An opening scene could be focusing on Jonah’s home right before God calls him. The next scene would be the voice of God calling him to preach to Nineveh but Jonah is disbelieving (after all, it’s an ancient sin city). Outside of his house is a sign with Nineveh one direction and Tarshish the other; Jonah goes the way of Tarshish. When he arrives in Tarshish, he finds some salty mariners to take him on board their ship. While out at sea, a heavy storm whips up, but Jonah is asleep in his room (seen by the riders). The mariners wake up Jonah, and they determine that his decision to flee from his God is the cause of the storm. As riders climb the lift hill, Jonah tells the mariners to throw him into the sea. As they drop him, riders go down the drop and into the mouth of a whale. The music found in the queue to the opening scene is cheery, folk music. When Jonah is on the ship, the colors of the set are darker and the music becomes more frenetic, especially when the storm hits. The music gets louder and reaches its peak at the drop. At the top of the drop would be part of the boat. The whale is curved (following the track of the ride). His tail touches a rocky cliff, which contains the end section of the ride. In this part, we see Jonah coming to his senses that he had disobeyed God. He prays that he would live to see another day on land. God listens to his request, and the whale spits Jonah out (this effect would probably need to come about through a reconfiguring of the track—maybe a conveyor belt that speeds up the logs plus mist and sound to make it seem like they are being spit out). A final scene is Jonah choosing to go to Nineveh (rather than Tarshish).
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