Imagineering Theory: The Range of Mountains

Disney likes to set thrill rides in mountains. One possible reason is pragmatic—the conical shape of a mountain makes a good base structure for a track, and the protruding peak is a natural “weenie” making it easy for guests to find the exciting ride. Another could very well be thematic—mountains are places of adventure. They are the lairs of monsters, the strongholds of villains, things to climb or cross in the name of exploration. A mountain is a semi-self-contained environment, a perfect canvas for the theming that Disney so excels in.

I've identified three key ingredients that make each of Disneyland's “mountains” unique. Each one has a distinctive Setting, an exotic and memorable environment. Its track has a particular characteristic, a Track Quirk, that harmonizes with the setting and imparts a little something more to the kinetic aspect of the ride than a standard roller coaster. And it offers a Threat, turning a simple fast and/or bumpy ride into a story with the riders at the center.

So this week, I'll summarize how the five mountains of the Disneyland Resort use these ingredients, and then propose a couple of entirely new variations on the recipe.

Matterhorn Bobsleds

Setting: Disneyland's first ever mountain ride doesn't even have the word “Mountain” in its title, but it doesn't need it. The Matterhorn is arguably the Ur-mountain in appearance and essential characteristics. With a rocky base, lightly clad in vegetation, rising to a snowy peak, the Matterhorn is the archetype of a tall temperate-zone mountain. It's the frigid upper reaches that take center stage, of course, with those extravagant ice caverns.

Track Quirk: Wow, where to start? If the Matterhorn Bobsleds seems conventional, motion-wise, that's because when the ride opened, it set a new standard which was picked up all over the country and the world. There's the composition of the tracks themselves, the steel tubes that can take sharper turns and drops than traditional wooden tracks. There's the fact that there are two discrete tracks, double-helixing around the mountain. And there's the fact that each track can take multiple cars simultaneously—such a useful capability that nowadays, the rides which can't do it are the mavericks and they'd better have a damn good excuse.

Threat: What more immediate threat could there be than a furious Yeti? Although Harold was not part of the ride when it first opened in 1959, he was added in the late Seventies when Disneyland had begun to expand its “mountain range” and thus needed to develop a malleable formula.

Space Mountain

Setting: Disney had only just hit upon the “Mountain” name theme, and it was already completely abstract. Space Mountain takes place in outer space, where there are no mountains. Maybe its the oddness of the name that catapulted this ride to its status as one of Disney's most iconic.

Track Quirk: It's indoors, with the lights turned off. A roller coaster in the dark!

Threat: Well, it depends on when you ride. The ride's interior projectors allow the Imagineers to reskin it basically at will. During the month of October, the threat is a horrific monster made of solar flares. The rest of the year...well, lately it's been Imperial starfighters, because Disney cannot get over the fact that it owns Star Wars now. Baseline Space Mountain sometimes has a few asteroids and things whizzing around, but the real threat is the aforementioned darkness. You can't see where you're going. The ride is going to jerk you around with little to no warning.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Setting: Third time's the charm—we finally have a mountain ride with “Mountain” in the name that is actually located in a mountain environment. The sandstone buttes of the American Southwest are about as different from the Alps as you can get while still falling under the umbrella of mountains, and this carries over into their ride incarnations. Contrast the outlandish fantasy presented by the Matterhorn with the naturalistic presentation of the environment in Big Thunder Mountain.

Track Quirk: This is admittedly the most conventional of the Disney mountain rides, track-wise, but it uses sound effects to enhance a sense of ricketiness.

Threat: The conceit of this ride is that the mine train is out of control, which would be dangerous enough on its own. However, it doesn't feel dangerous to anyone with experience riding roller coasters, so the Imagineers have included a climactic scene with exploding dynamite (originally an earthquake).

Splash Mountain

Setting: This one is more hilly than mountainous—officially the peak is called Chickapin Hill—with a side order of swamp and a fable-style community of critters. Originally the title was going to be “Zip-a-Dee River Run,” but Michael Eisner (this was back before Satan came to collect on their contract) proposed “Splash Mountain” instead. Why? To fit the pattern which had by now been established. I even remember it coming up in the radio advertising for the ride's opening.

Track Quirk: This was the first Mountain to be not a roller coaster, but a flume ride. That alone was and is enough to make it stand out in the park.

Threat: Splash Mountain is a thrill ride hybridized with a dark ride, and fairly successfully at that. The literal ups and downs of the track are well synched to the beats of Brer Rabbit's story, making Brer Fox's machinations a “danger” to us even though he never addresses us directly. Above and beyond that, there's the “threat” of getting wet!

Grizzly River Run

Setting: A whitewater river in California's Sierra Nevada. Terrain-wise, it's somewhere between the Matterhorn and Big Thunder Mountain, and that being the case, they really should have given it some animatronics or other unique scenery to set it apart and bring it to life in its own way.

Track Quirk: This ride ups the ante on Splash Mountain by having not just a flume, but a whitewater raft flume, as its “track.” You don't just glide over the contours, but bounce and spin. The unpredictability adds immensely to the thrill, because:

Threat: As with Splash, the biggest threat is...the splashing. The twist is that your raft's motion is chaotic enough that you can't easily predict where the volleys of water will come from or how big they will be. You might be deluged from behind. Or maybe not. Maybe you'll barely get wet at all. You never know. It's more nerve-wracking then you think, when you're actually on the ride.

So between these five rides, it looks like the Disneyland Resort has mountains pretty well covered and there's nowhere else to go, right?

Wrong.

There's plenty more that could be done with this basic concept. Here are just two rough ideas:

Fire Mountain

Setting: For some reason, no Disneyland ride uses an active volcano as a threat. Various rides and attractions include or allude to them, but the closest thing to a volcano that actually endangers the guests is the lava pit in the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, and in the context of everything else going on in that ride, it might be the least of our worries. I guess they just never got around to it? In any case, Fire Mountain is a roller coaster set in an erupting volcano.

Track Quirk: Above I mentioned that the climax of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad used to feature an earthquake. It was a noble effort, but not very convincing despite the plethora of swinging lanterns and wobbling boulders, because the train itself didn't shake. 1979 technology wasn't up to that sort of verisimilitude, and by the time new developments made it possible, it was far too late to retrofit the ride. You can probably see where I'm going with this, but just in case: Fire Mountain includes motion simulation and shuddering track segments in order to simulate the seismicity of a volcanic eruption.

Threat: The volcano is erupting. Any hazard you can imagine associated with such an event—lava spurts, flaming gas, fissures suddenly opening up in the rock—is present. In fact, let's randomize it a bit, just to keep things interesting.

Forbidden Mountain

Setting: Maybe you just sat up straighter, recognizing this as the name of Maleficent's fortress in Sleeping Beauty. For all those of you who want a Villain ride, this one's for you. Unlike the other Mountains, this is at least partially an artificial structure: a brooding Gothic castle with crumbling masonry, spoooooooky gargoyle carvings, and all that good bad stuff.

Track Quirk: I think I'll go with a suspended coaster for this one. The only suspended ride remaining at Disneyland is Peter Pan's Flight, which is not a thrill ride. Let's say we're the Good Fairies, hightailing it into Maleficent's lair in order to rescue Prince Philip (abstractly—there's no Phillip animatronic on the ride), and then out again. So we're flying.

Threat: What more immediate threat could there be than a furious evil fairy? Drawing inspiration from the escape sqeuence in the film, this ride punctuates its motion with jump-scares and special effects, from goons wielding pikes to destructive spells to Maleficent herself. The climax of the ride features an animatronic of her dragon form, spitting “fire” (mist backlit with greenish LED light) for us to duck and dodge until we can zoom away.

Got any of your own ideas for Mountain rides? Please share them in the comments!