Podcast: The Ride - Big Thunder Mountain with Molly Lambert

Episode Date: November 23, 2018

"Molly Lambert (Grantland, Night Call podcast) joins us for the wildest ride in the wilderness. And we all agree: the ride is very good. Club 33 episode now available behind the Second Gate! Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/ FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FOREVER! DOG! In the wilderness, it's Big Thunder Mountain on Podcast The Ride. Welcome to Podcast The Ride, the podcast about theme parks hosted by three guys who think it's perfectly normal to text each other late at night about Imagineer Joe Rohde. I'm one of those guys, Scott Gardner, also Mike Carlson's here. I am here, my name's Mike Carlson. I initiated, I think, what you're talking about. It was an idea for when we get Joe Rohde in the show, which I cannot reveal because I was so tickled by my own idea. I would never reveal it until it actually happens.

It's great, and I didn't mean to roast that we were doing that. No, no. Because, of course, we should, like, when we inevitably have our next great imaginary on the show, Joe Rohde, yeah, we need to do a lot of fun stuff. I was just reacting to it. I was like falling asleep and like, what do I do? I'm texting my male friends about Joe Rohde right now as I pass out.

Well, I will bring Jason Sheridan in. Jason Sheridan. Yeah, hi. I will say this. I was disappointed in both of your reactions to the idea because I thought the idea, it was late at night, and I was so happy with myself and I was waiting for like,

oh my God, what a great idea. And you guys were like, oh, hot. It was a very not impolite response, but it was like, oh yeah, and then a couple ideas and then there were no LOLs written. There were no ha ha ha's. So I was like, oh,

maybe it's not as good as I thought it was. I was probably asleep. I was probably texting you from a dream state. It makes a lot of sense that you would be asleep at midnight. Yeah, I'm a real sleepy bitch. I had night roll kicking in at the time.

I think I texted you one thing back, and it took a lot of energy. As will this, potentially, if I sound a little bit sick. That's just too inside business for me. But why not? Might as well speak my truth, My sick truth. Anyway, we will have Joe on. It will be great. And this bit is going to kill, I think. Let's tee it up

real hard. But let's also talk about our guest today. Here to help us address one of the big ones, one of the great rides in theme park world from the podcast Night Call. It's Molly Lambert. Hello. Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming. Absolutely. I just wanted to say great rides in theme park world from the podcast night call it's molly lambert hello hey guys thanks for having me thanks for coming absolutely i just wanted to say that uh as a person who's

also on a podcast with three hosts who text each other about things late at night uh sometimes from different time zones even all the good ideas come right before you fall asleep right but that's also when you're the least likely for anyone to respond. Right. But also when you're the most excited about whatever it is. Yes, it makes a lot of sense. Like sleeping and I guess it's lame to like shower, I guess, is also the other time.

Doing a shower is when you think of a good idea. But I can't text as easily. Yeah, driving too. Yeah, yeah. It's always when you like have it it's the least write downable um do you but you you have a time zone differential so that messes things up i guess yeah we all get it we also just all we all get excited about things at different times of the day so we all text like we'll all just do bursts of text but at very different times from each other okay so you just have to like marry it all later it just can't

all happen live in the moment you might have to put the pause button on an exciting idea for three hours or so also sometimes having those three hours you're like was that a good idea or was i just really drinking a lot of coffee or right around that time because your brain is reacting to it as if you said the idea to a person in the room. So when you don't immediately get a gratification, at least mine is, is like you say the joke or you say the idea, and then you're like waiting for like an immediate response as if you just told a person, and then you don't get it. So your brain, even though it knows consciously like what's going on,

there's still part of it that's like, now we wait to find out if I'm good or not. I'm like, this is the time I'll find out if I'm real, if I'm a fake or not. Do you guys like, Oh, wait a minute. I was, I realized you were not on Twitter anymore.

I was going to ask a Twitter question. Okay. Okay. Well, congratulations. First of all, here's like headline number one. Thank you.

I am very smug about it and would advise everyone to do it. It makes it made my life better. Uh, and the number one thing that i did that i now can say was like a concrete thing i did because i wasn't on twitter was i built a spooky halloween carnival for my cats out of cardboard boxes oh wow that's moved on to healthy activities like the carnival's the best thing i've done in just months i was just like oh wholesome that's like low like low level imagineering yeah low level imagineering placemaking they could not have been less interested in the haunted castle was it kind of was it like made of trash though yeah yeah it's cats of trash

it was made of boxes that are from like things I've gotten from podcasting and it sounds perfect I leave those boxes out for them anyway because they enjoy them but it was like they enjoyed it less the more effort I put into it I think they were like most excited when it was just like some flat cardboard and the more it became a spooky

tunnel or something they were like they could smell the desperation yeah exactly yeah like now i'm not interested yeah my yeah my cat always like uh not into like fancy toys but into an amoeba bag that was always the highlight of uh my more low tech the better yeah cats are just real low tech let's be honest you know the cats and dogs they don't they don't like fancy stuff yeah yeah yeah they're salts of the earth their favorite rides are the walkthroughs don't need anything fancy yeah i hate what i what when you talk about twitter making your uh life getting off twitter making your life

healthier the really the only reason i am not now is because like it is really because uh not to just kiss the ass of the audience, but truly the, like pockets, right. Has made my Twitter feed like so much more joyous and fun. It really, I feel like I unfollowed a lot of angry strident stuff and followed a lot of people talking about,

you know, gummy bears and whatever. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pictures of little elephants and rainbows from Epcot Center in the 80s. Yeah.

Now your life is better because of it. Theme Park Twitter is like, it's like Christmas Day. Well, I've always loved Theme Park social media. I feel like you guys epitomize the best of it. I was very excited about the City Walk series. Oh, thank you. Yes.

Because you grew up in the Valley. Because I grew up in the Valley. So I spent my formative years, like my tween years, going to City Walk a lot just to go there because it was a place you could hang out underage. Sure. And I am just fascinated and obsessed with it. And so I really enjoyed the like the punishing yeah punishing aspect of it

level of detail and how much did you really want to go back into your pre-teen years well it's like having been to city walker i feel like this happens at a lot of theme park and theme park like environments it's like because it's such a high level of immersion at a certain point you're like get me out of here. Anything else? Well, I feel that way. That's what Scott feels, but Jason and I don't have that. You don't have that? It never kicks in?

Never. What about Las Vegas? Yes, 100% Vegas. Vegas is too much. It's too much. Too much? Okay, so you have a point. Yes, you're right.

That's fair. I do have a point, and it's Vegas. And I love Las Vegas, but like for two days. And then you're like, I have to be away from here. I have to smell real air again or I'm going to die. The escape is so thrilling when you need the Vegas. The arrival in Vegas is wonderful.

Yeah. And the leaving is perhaps even more wonderful. This is why I feel like space, living in space permanently will never work. Oh, because artificial environments will drive you insane. Right. Like eventually. and i've never been to disney world but i'm a little afraid of it because i'm a little afraid of orlando like one of the things i love about disneyland is that you can leave at the end of the day and go

home i don't know you're losing me a little give us a moment hang on tell me more pass i used to i worked for Disney For a few years For a corporation That was under Disney And Oh me too Scott too

Yeah So did you have It was like bought by them Did you have the silver pass Yes I got the silver pass We both had like weird Like we weren't We didn't have to be like

In the main Disney mechanism Yeah We got the silver pass I got it for like two years And it Wow Allowed me to get Into the park for free on

all the days except the blackout days and to bring in three guests which is insane can you believe that today they're trying to eliminate like all things like that i feel like we could just bring in us knuckleheads could just bring in three other knuckleheads it was the only it was like the motivating thing about work to me it was that i could go to disneyland for free sure the thing making you not quit the job well but then i had a period where the job kind of was over but we were sort of like had been laid off but we're getting paid through the end of our contract so i had the silver pass for a few months and i went to disneyland every day yeah essentially hell yeah um and i like told everybody i knew you know i was like going increasingly over time just like more and more as I was feeling more manic about like figuring out what to do with my life and then I just was

like tell my friends like I can go to Disneyland for free just tell me when you want to go and we'll go and so I was like going for the last month like a bunch of people realized it was gonna run out and that now was their chance and I went just like every day for like two weeks because i was also like i have to purge my system of the desire to go to disneyland because like i'm not going to be able to do it like i'm going to have to pay for it if i want to go now right and that's a whole other experience did it did that work did you feel like you got it out did you hit no i didn't that was the thing i like but even by the end there was like one day where i was basically just like chaperoning my friend and her boyfriend and i was like i don't

want to be here anymore like i would like fun to be the third at disney uh because there's so many rides where you are grouped in rows of three it was just like i had had like it had been a fun way to hang out with a lot of friends of mine to be like i could take you to disneyland for free you just have to drive or whatever yeah but this was just i was sort of like you know there's like a point when you're like i would like any food except the food in the theme park i feel i don't think you feel this mike i really don't i don't think you i've never seen you at the moment that I hit where I'm like, I need a vegetable. I need something. The vegetable thing is real.

But you can get a vegetable if you look hard enough. That's true. It's harder in Florida. It's harder. It's a little harder. It's getting much better. Hard. Really hard.

Formerly at Universal Florida. Yes. I think they now are. They're getting a little more. What about the big pickle? That's a vegetable. Yeah. The big pineapple is

good for. Yeah. I've actually gone to Disneyland with a friend who's a vegan and like just knows what all the vegan things are in Disneyland.

Yeah. There's websites that like track. Yeah. But pineapple whip is vegan. Oh yeah. Vegan.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. You know knots you can get just like a just a mango on a stick slightly scored. that's a good snack i think all that should be a standardized theme park snack molly i have to ask because i

doubt any other upcoming guests could be in this position uh talking about silver pass did you ever go to disneyland with bill Simmons? No, I did not. I went, I never went with like co-workers. It was like we just all had the, but like I would run into other people that I worked with. Oh, also flexing their silver pants. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember like running into my co-worker,

Jacoby and his wife and like their kids. And they were just like, oh, we just came from California Adventure and we snuck the wine from California Adventure into Disneyland and nobody noticed. Wow. How do you guys feel? Like just in the stroller, I believe.

Oh, interesting. Oh, that's smart. Oh, that's good. I would like to know, how do you guys feel about the alcohol in Star Wars Land? Oh, I think we're all on the same page that we're totally on board for it. You're pro?

You don't think it's going gonna ruin the family-friendly spirit of the park? No, because I think they're gonna make people jump through so many hoops to get it. I don't know that that's true. I think the waits are gonna be so long that no one's gonna get back in line for round two. I think they're also gonna limit how

many you're gonna be able to order. Do you think the way the lines and rides are designed for Star Wars Land is like a disaster waiting to happen? Potentially. Yeah, there's not enough capacity, I think, already for the rides because they're not going to be able to load enough people on. And then it's just going to, where is everybody going to go? That's what I've heard. It's just going to back up. From Mice Chat.

Are you a Mice Chat? Oh, I'm a Mice Chat. You're on Mice Chat. Oh, boy, oh, boy. What else? That's it. That's it, mainly. Okay, but not Screamscapecape or anything i get very into it i follow a lot of the instagrams too i was following

a lot of like haunt instagrams sure um the i do think i will say real quick about the alcohol i think that star wars land starts just alcohol everywhere in disneyland i think it maybe it takes a couple years to roll out but it's funny that it that it's like in California Adventure, but not Disneyland. Yeah, it's just the one thing that they could be like, here's why you have to go to California Adventure. Yeah. In the early days. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. In 2001. Absolutely. Right. The main feature. But yeah, we've talked a lot about how, why is it like, no, this would be against Walt's wishes. But if you go 100 yards away into another place, then that's fine. Walt has no problem with that.

I feel strongly that you should be able to drink alcohol on fake Bourbon Street. Of course. Yeah, certainly. It'd be great. And in that new tropical hideaway, give me a tiki drink. Where's the tropical hideaway? It's next to the tiki room. They're opening it.

Oh, is that where the bathroom used to be? No, the bathroom is still there to be no that secret bathroom i'm sad that that's still in aladdin's oasis you're saying no there's like there was like a women's bathroom like no that's still there you're talking about that's the one when you entered a tiki room excuse me tiki room i think so yeah yeah it's still there you sure yep yeah preserved i'm pretty sure like taking away the secret back access to the dole whip stand where you don't pretend you're waiting for the tiki room and no that's real oh that's still there whoa oh very good tip but the tip really now is the mobile ordering for the for the dole whip because then it just is ready when you get there and you skip the line that's too

advanced i know you and scott are on the same page about a lot of things i would do the mobile ordering i just i can't count on my mobile to work in disneyland in general is my they have spotty wi-fi the wi-fi is spotty universal people i think too let me clarify mike when i i'm not against mobile ordering but i was against figuring it out in that moment when we were five steps away from the actual line. We wanted Scott to mobile order Bengal barbecue, and he didn't want to hear it. It was more irritating to me than just standing in a line. Well, all right.

Next time, mobile order. Since we were next to, a line we were next to. We were walking toward. We had forward momentum to a line. But back to that tiki thing, which is, if you don't know, they're putting in kind of like a tiki bar area facing the final part of the river of the Jungle Cruise.

But what is the point of it if there's not alcohol there? There's food. There's going to be food and stuff. Yeah, snacks and fruit juices and that sort of thing. And they have non-alcoholic drinks. But I still think, give us a couple years and maybe is there booze in epcot oh yeah oh my goodness is that where the california adventure having booze idea came from is there not booze in disney world but there's booze in epcot well there's there's booze

in disney world now that's also another reason why oh there is yeah all four of the parks in the kingdom yeah oh in the kingdom was there ever not? Yeah. Yeah, or initially. And I think that Paris didn't have it initially, but they got it very quickly because that was feedback from Europeans. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were like, we have to be able to smoke the cigarettes

on It's a Small World. Yeah. And feed them to the dolls as we pass. Our children need cigarettes. Maybe I could start bringing us into the topic of today's show, but one of my now favorite memories in any park was a beer that I enjoyed

in the saloon in Frontierland in Paris, having just been on Big Thunder, or in fact, having gotten off Big Thunder, but we'll get to that later. But having a good draft beer in Frontierland, fantastic. Why would you do it there? I think I've said it on the show maybe 10 times.

I said, saloon has to have a beer in Frontierland. There needs to be tiki drinks in Adventureland. There needs to be some sort of space cocktail in Tomorrowland. And then there needs to be maybe wine on Main Street Street or like at the, what's it called? Is it Carnation? Oh, Carnation Cafe. Yeah, something like that. Wine, milk.

And that's it. Yeah, no walk-around alcohol. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, you do. Wait, no walk-around alcohol? Not at Disneyland. I'm against walk-around alcohol. Oh, wow, this is strict.

Really? Even on Bourbon Street? Are you genuinely? Or is that like a good response? I like the stance. I like the hard stance it's it's what about in the cantina you can only have it in the cantina can't leave the cantina i think that it's disneyland is so like there'll be too many people carrying booze as they go through that horrible adventure

land stretch which is my favorite part of the park but it's the it's the tightest and i don't know i feel like there's no way to expand it it It's very narrow. I just feel like I'm going to get spilled on a lot. Maybe that's fake. Well, maybe they're going to make some kind of a cup that has a Darth Vader on it and doesn't spill. It probably won't have booze and Vader, though. It'd have to be a different character. It'll be like an Elsa frozen margarita.

That's good. Or you have to suck it out of the cow-type creature like Last Jedi. Oh, yeah. You have to drink it out of another. Yeah. You have to milk. If you want that alcohol that badly, you have to milk it out yourself. That is going to be a drink in Star Wars Land.

You think so? I think I've read it. Can you just walk up to it and squeeze it yourself? I think if you're a fan, you know that's where it came from. But I don't think it says, like, from Milked Fresh by Luke. You don't think it's going to be scarring children for a lifetime

to see, like, animatronic udders? Like a cast member squeezing animatronic udders for a milkshake? A child milkshake? You don't think they're going to lead with that? I think if the milkshake is good, it wouldn't scar a child too bad. But no, I don't think that'll probably happen.

But we'll see. They're going to cook meat on an engine from a pod racer. So who knows what they'll do? Fry up eggs on the top of it? That's one of the pieces of art. Is that right? There's things frying on what looks to be a giant pod racer engine. Do you guys like Star Wars? do like star wars are you excited about star wars land very excited yeah my take is i i only care about star wars because it's affiliated with star tours

were it not the movies themselves i have never i wouldn't care about without footage. I never liked Star Tours. Ah. Because I... That's where you guys break. Now I storm out. I like animatronics. Uh-huh. And I was like, this is the beginning of rides that are just going to involve video screens. Oh.

But you've got an animatronic right in front of you. The best animatronic. Not anymore, right? Or do you still... No, I still... It's C-3PO. The best animatronic. I mean, I think also it made me a little sick

being on the ride. Oh, that's fair. A little herky jerk. Yeah, yeah. Those were originally made as military simulators. Of course they were. Yeah. So do you not go on it if you go?

I mean, I will if somebody really wants to. But personally, I feel like Tomorrowland is my least favorite of the lands. And as it has become more of a Star Wars land, I've become less and less interested in it. Although I enjoyed the Star Wars overlay on Space Mountain just fine. I think I went with some Star Wars fans and they enjoyed it so much that I was like, this is fine. Great. Whatever. Oh, they convinced you.

Okay. But I also enjoyed like the new metal halloween skull overlay that everybody else hated i was like this is great like oh the ghost galaxy yeah which i think i've never heard it referred to like that new metal i did see i saw somebody on twitter say uh that they think ghost galaxy is a better overlay than nightmare before christmas on a mansion well nightmare before christmas is a terrible overlay which i oh whoa okay yeah coming in hot coming in hot let's hear it it lasts too long agreed halloween to christmas when i go to disneyland during halloween i want classic haunted mansion yeah i don't want fucking christmas can i can i curse on this podcast i don't

want christmas sorry getting very passionate about that. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's also just like, it's not as good as the regular Haunted Mansion. Regular Haunted Mansion is better, I think. I don't, you know, it's actually surprising to me that there is this, I feel like I've only recently caught that there is an anti-nightmare contingent. I like it a lot, and I don't, again, disparate feelings from movie to ride. I don't really care about Nightmare Before Christmas

the movie. I think I enjoy it. I think the overlay is neat. I like that it's like jammed on top. I love that it seems like he quickly shoved the pumpkin on top of the busts. I like that it's kind of this muted color situation with like, you know,

with bright ribbons haphazardly thrown all around like i think i like that they clash and i like that it like it changes out all right the candelabra the candelabra is zero now and the i like that it like it trades out the familiar elements of haunted mansion culture uh in a bit of old school i like the original elements better i like that i love like madame leota and all that stuff sure sure more yeah yeah i'm with you uh as is uh award winning or at least award nominated actor ryan gosling someone got him bring gosling into this argument agrees with agrees with us where's he on record Gosling will totally eat his words when they ask

him to like play Jack Skellington in a live action before Christmas again I'm not against the overlay entirely I think it is fine I wish it were just for Christmas that's my feeling about it

someone in our Facebook group presented that. What if it started November 1st? I don't disagree. I'll cede that one, but I think I would miss it if it went away entirely. I appreciate how much it pleases the Goths of Orange County. Isn't that really what we're trying to do?

Soothe the Goths? The Tim Burton Goths of Orange County. Also in Burbank, a very heavy stronghold home of of tim burton we're in his backyard right now yeah wait tim burton lives no he's from burbank is he doesn't that explain a lot about him so yeah that explains like right near disney i feel like in burbank and i think he like speaks of, you know, he felt like Luke looking up at the two sons. He was like dreaming of a world beyond this,

like, you know, box mundanity. If you've never been to Burbank, it's very just like rows of kind of small box houses. I have no problem with Burbank, but like you can see how you'd extrapolate that into like the, you know,

exaggerated hellish suburbia. It's a twisted f 50s dystopia. At least he had a local Burbank landmark dark delicacies to go to every day, maybe. Well, there's always been a weird kind of goth element, I feel like, a slightly goth underbelly. Maybe because of the Haunted Mansion, people's love of the Haunted Mansion. Not exactly goth, but David maybe because of the haunted mansion people's love of the haunted mansion not not exactly goth but like david yeah like spots big boy and like had chili johns and

the twin peaks the return it's like it's like a david lynch he kind of weird like oh it used to be the 50s here and it kind of feels like it still is right but time has passed well and there's a bit like the major thoroughfares in burbank have like it all a lot of them feel like these are all the businesses that were here in the 50s and only half of them are operating and how can it be so expensive to live around here but like half of the buildings are vacant oh well that's los angeles for you yes that's true absolutely uh yeah well you know sometimes it feels like a like a ghost town yeah You know, like an abandoned mining town or something. Oh, gee.

Huh. There you go. I found it. You did it. A little thicker. You did it. Just a little thicker. The type of which can be found in our topic for today, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

We're doing it. One of the big ones. Yeah. So excited to have you here for it. So, I mean, why Big Thunder? Other than, like, it's great. It's a great ride. ones yeah uh so excited to have you here for it uh uh so so uh i mean why big thunder other than like it's it's great it's a great ride i think it's like probably the best integration of being a roller coaster and a themed animatronic using ride it's really nice and it's not um as i'm sure we will get into there's bizarre backstory that's there if you feel like looking into it.

But if you just get on that ride, if you are if you are a child, if you're an adult who's not paying any attention, if you're someone who doesn't speak English, there is no like, you know, crazy laid on thick mythology that it's crucial that, you know, it's basically just a runaway train. It's a runaway. It's like it's like a feels like a theme park ride that could be in another theme park maybe but done so well because it's a disney park ride yeah that's the real thing about it that it's i i you know we've we've been we've spent a little time at knots recently and talked about knots a lot on the podcast i love the ghost town at knots i have to say yeah because it is a real life west world yeah really uh-huh i haven't really done the ghost town alive experience i love it i went

last year um a couple times to knots and i hadn't been in forever and i was very impressed by knots i was like oh the ghost town is amazing i just love the like the way that it operates all day and then they were like printing the newspaper every hour and i was like print is alive here let's all move here yeah they have like one of the things they have in the ghost town is like somebody who's the publisher and like every hour they print up like the ghost town gazette that's like this guy accused this guy of like something and then all day there's like the interactive play with all the people that's like their new thing in ghost town can you as a guest end up in the newspaper um i don't know i i don't know if you can participate in the story but i feel like maybe there were some kids got to be like a gunslinger or something

yeah oh sure maybe there's like interchangeable elements like i like the old west town and i like the old west rides in knott's berry farm and it feels like maybe that is just sort of like a pre-existing trope of california theme parks as you have your old west ride yeah i think so it's pretty in the dna of it isn't it and that's what i that's what i was saying is like i think big thunder like advanced it feels like those those great old west rides at knots but uh a higher tech next level version of them yeah for sure i mean i didn't when i i didn't realize of how much like dna of disney is at knots and it's like clear from frontierland you're like oh it's just ghost town and it's just that's clearly like where they were like thinking about like yeah

it was right across the street basically and disney and not were friends and like visited each other's you know parks and stuff and would comments on stuff stole ideas sure yeah uh sure i mean the the precursor to big thunder mountain the the mine train through nature's wonderland is very close to the calico mine ride yeah knots i yeah uh which yeah so that's the this area at disneyland specifically was like it was an original opening day attraction i have to be honest i don't know a ton about mine train through nature's wonderland that's something i need to do a deep dive on for when we eventually do it but it seems like uh this this seems like an early case of an attraction that is like crucial to the DNA for people who were

there in the first five years that it was just they hit a wall they had to take it out it didn't have the capacity it was get like and people were probably mad that they took it out and they had to find a way to do it in such a way that it's something I don't know if it's still there after the Star Wars remodel

but there was something that was like there's like i don't know if it's still there after the star wars remodel but there was something that was like there's like a piece of rock work that has a hole in it that you sort of just see when you're walking around in that area it's still there yeah you on the other side of the pond yeah there's like the tunnel there's like a tunnel to nowhere and that was apparently part of mine trained in nature's wonderland oh gotcha but i think that was just like it was like a more low tech version. It was like a lot of the stuff that ended up in Big Thunder Mountain. That's sort of the, like the nature aspect of it,

of the, like you're in a cavern and. And there's colors in the cavern. It's the rainbow. Yeah. The rainbow. Yeah. Stalactites.

It's that sort of Disney, like it's like nature, but better than nature. Cause we painted it with day glow. We could control this nature. More we painted it with day glow. We could control this. We're like spinning rocks on the mind. Like it was like tipping teetering.

There were like a rock effects. Yeah. I love all the things in the park that are like dioramas come to life. You know, I love a primeval world. Yeah. Yeah. We haven't talked about that much. We were talking on our podcast recently about

people who get their ashes scattered in disneyland yes yeah we have a big story about that very illegal very legal but like such a big problem a lot um and then we were talking about what ride we would each like to have our ashes scattered in uh and my co-host emily said primeval world and i was like that's so indie of you yeah that is the beaten path she was like where would you do it i was like mr toad very edgy in hell but then i was like i don't really mean that i would totally not do mr toad and then i was like what i would really want is big thunder mountain and then i was like actually i would not like to be like scattered in disneyland it's all a hypothetical yeah if you had if you had to but you know do

you guys have strong feelings about about where we would be scattered if we were cremated um i'm trying to think yeah like it would have to i would probably try to pick like the in indie pick like primeval is such a good like brian eno style choice if we're talking music emily would love that you said that i will i think i've said that in the show before that's what i know i compared toad and peter pan the you know the underground that the toad is actually well because toad is i think is the more indie choice of between what's the better one peter pan or toad but i argue peter pan is technically a better ride ah sure but it's a more mainstream choice. But the line's so much longer also. Oh, a lot longer, yeah.

Always gotta weigh it. And I think that's why. It's better. So you would like to be scattered in Peter Pan, is what you're saying? That's the mainstream choice. It was my favorite ride as a kid. It's a very Michael Jackson-y choice of you two.

It is a creepy choice to me. Well, now you say that. I don't want to be scattered with Peter Pan. I can live forever. My ashes will live on the children. I want you to dump me on Wendy, John, and little Michael in the bedroom right when you come to the start of it. This podcast is played as evidence in a trial in many years.

Yeah, dump me on the robots, the kids. Is that what pixie dust is? It's just the ashes of the dead? Yeah. You guys know the creepy thing about peter pan there's like a reading of peter pan that he's like a psycho pomp who like comes to kids windows and tells them to jump out the window and then they die well no no i'm not familiar with this at all oh go ahead i think he was like maybe one of jm barry's kids died or something oh and the guy

who wrote mr toad his son was like an itinerant drunk who kept getting in car accidents and then died oh man so like crashing a car he might have just written mr toad to try and process like yeah no that's 100 because i remember looking it up once to be like what the fuck is this ride about like right because it's that ride also feels like it comes from like british seaside carnivals you know like that's what i like about that ride is feels like it comes from like British seaside carnivals, you know? Like that's what I like about that ride is it's like this is in the tradition of like dark rides, earlier era dark rides where you would go to hell at the end maybe, you know? A lesson is taught.

But yeah, that's what it's about supposedly. Interesting. And wasn't J.M. Barrry like a morphine addict or a heroin like he something maybe maybe to process the death of this kid that i don't i can't prove he mr toad the real mr toad is based on a teenage delinquent driver yes wow because i didn't i was actually just recently going through other there's like stop motion mr toad he was like a rich kid teenage delinquent driver which is why he could keep buying new like motor cars or whatever and then i think he died by

like lying on some train tracks or something whoa like happens to you in the ride yeah whoa that's crazy i didn't do you know if you do like in all the i mean i think every iteration of mr toad like the bat the crazy driving is a big thing and I encourage everyone to go on YouTube and type in Mr. Toad poop poop. Because in the stop motion, Mr. Toad, and I think in the book, too, the thing that he says, well, like it's him imitating the sound of an automobile. He's poop poop poop. And there's a bunch of videos that are called that. You get to watch a crazy stop motion character drive around and say poop over and over. It's a delight.

Well, those cartoons are great, too. They're very fun. Or no, not those. I'm talking about just the regular cartoons. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. We watched this like a year ago, and I was like, these are funny. Except for the haunting Wind in the Willows song.

Am I wrong? Isn't there a lady singing a scary Wind in the Willows song? Maybe. I'm not sure just to cover it where you put in your ashes Jason yeah we got oh good question I can go if you know if you need to think yeah I

gotta be star tours obviously I was trying to think of a place that is not that's out of the way of guests and that wouldn't bother anybody I do nobody would see this but my fan yeah yeah I wouldn't bother anybody. Nobody would see this. How thoughtful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want anybody choking on my ashes. So nobody would know this was there,

but my family would know it was there. Because I love that the Ackbars work at Star Tours up in the top. And if one of them had a coffee mug and my ashes were in them, it was just like one of the Ackbars bitter coffee while running maintenance on Star Tours that day. That is a good, very well thought out.

And that keeps you all together too. Usually when you scatter ashes, you go everywhere, but this will be all concentrated, so it'll be all in one cup. You can put a lid on it.

One Ackbar to love. Yeah. As long as no maintenance worker ever picks it up. Until refurbishment and you get shop vac'd because they forget you're there what's this shit what do you got jason uh so are we saying just disneyland just anywhere in theme park of course you want to bury your ashes well

uh anywhere in theme park it would probably be the scenic waterways of universal orlando uh beautiful lush greenery really? Great walking paths down there. In Disneyland in particular, I think because it is so sweet and pure, the wishing with the snow white wishing well off the side of the castle. That's a great answer. Yeah. Again, won't bother anyone. They supposedly collect all those dimes and stuff for charity. Oh, you'd go to charity.

Yeah. That's true. Your fetuses would be fed go to charity. Yeah, that's true. Your fetuses would be fed to it. Poor child. That's beautiful. He just wants to be next to money. I will finally be able to simulate the Mr. Scrooge,

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oh sure that's a blind spot for me I know people like those comics a lot of them were ripped off for Indiana Jones movies like frame for frame in the second one and the DuckTales movie

is very Indiana Jones yeah I need to get all those collections but yeah those are beautiful collections is it Banks or yeah Carl Barks

Carl Barks yeah yeah I have one of the two of the donald duck ones um funny you mentioned indiana jodes because uh i read somewhere that um the sound effects from big thunder mountain were repurposed for the mine cart in temple of doom like the mine cart sequence that totally makes sense yeah uh back to the ride that we're going to talk about uh yeah i think it's just it's one of the best rides in the park you get the best view of everything recently if you do it at night especially it's like such a great ride to do at night yes because you're outside for like a large portion of it but then you're also in some things right have you ever gotten on the ride at night

and had the fireworks been happening concurrently oh only once and it was the most amazing thing in the world yeah it felt like the end of mario kart oh yeah very good and then i really enjoyed doing it recently because you could see the star wars land construction from the top the last time i did it that was happening and i was like this is great you can see land construction from the top. The last time I did it, that was happening. And I was like, this is great. You can see the construction. And the fireworks light it up so you can see it a lot better. It wouldn't be lit so well otherwise.

Yeah. Mike and I were heading down to Comic-Con and we did that and timed it exactly right. And going around the big curve. Oh, that's great. You're so right about Mario Kart. I was coming back from Orange County like not that long ago. And I was like, oh, are we going to pass Disneyland during the fireworks show?

And we did, and I was so happy. That's great. Yeah, yeah. You can be right there on the five. I think that's a big thing to say. But a lot of what I love about this ride is not this detail or that detail. It's just the basics of the experience.

And one of them for sure is that it's great at night. And I think that's a thing that you, not to be all fuddy-duddy about the screen rides but it's definitely why you need a mix because it's so fun that like matterhorn is different in the day in the night and big thunder is different in the day and then as the park in general uh can be like they they really are uh different experiences and it's so i was night, in fact, if you can believe it. I can. And just like walking around through those little lanterns, like the dim lighting there.

It's wonderful and sparkly and magical. It's great. And it's interesting because I wonder how it'll change with the new passage to Star Wars land being there. Because I went there, the last time I went there, it was like they had just finished rebuilding that walkway around there to fantasyland yeah and it like it blew my mind because it was like having a dream where you like go somewhere you've been before but it's different you know I was like

this is so weird like this wasn't here before no they did will it be just destroyed when it's filled with people like snaking around yes yeah disneyland it's gonna get a little bad and that's maybe that's a question for everybody here do you avoid it for a little bit or do you just i'm going all summer i don't care i'm fighting through it scott answer the question for me what am i gonna say molly what what do you what do you how do you cope i haven't been in a while. I would like to go. I would probably try to go before Star Wars Land happens because I'm not that interested in it.

And I know it's going to be such a shit show when it gets going. Probably smart. See the place intact before all hell breaks loose. Jason, is that where your head's at too? Or do you like? I'm not sure. I mean, look, truthfully, i would love to go down for some sort of press event but as we've been told by multiple sources get your head out of the clouds don't

press your luck it's hard to get press passes for disney uh stuff yeah you know where you can get press passes to though knott's berry farm knott's berry Berry Farm. We did it. That's how I went to Knott's Berry Farm twice last year. Oh, really? It was a press affiliate? Yeah, we went once. I went once because my boyfriend was writing about, I think, Ghost Town Alive, and then I went to meet Elvira. Oh,

nice. Whoa, how'd that go? Oh, it was amazing, and I'd never been to Scary Farm before because I'd always been too scared my whole life. Even though it was the number one group date destination for all the kids. Sure. Really? Oh, yeah.

Spooky. You can go there underage. Many of the theme park things we talk about involve being able to go there underage. Yeah. But it was great. I loved it. I didn't do any of the mazes. We just walked through the scare zones and saw the Elvira show. But I liked the scare zones way more than I thought I was going to, especially because I'd just been to the park before.

So I was like, the ghost town is now a spooky ghost town. This is great. It seemed to be the most like immersive zone from what we can tell from trying to enter and leave as fast as humanly possible. Just the amount of work that people put into their characters. That was very charmed. Oh, yeah. You can tell that they all probably have a backstory if you were to be able to ask them. Yeah.

You could. Right. I don't know if they're allowed to talk about it. We were backstage and we could have asked some of them. We should have done that oh next time well we knew the level of detail i watched that documentary i think it's called haunters there's like a few different documentaries about people that are obsessed with doing stuff like that and one of them was about this woman who like works every year at knott's berry at not scary

farm as a scare actor and a lot of them were like halloween widowers basically like a lot of people had partners who were like i just have to like let them go for those that month like they're doing their thing um but one of the big things was that people would attack you when you're a scare actor they'll like punch you accidentally yeah so her husband was like i just want her to like get out of the being on the front lines and now she works as like an actor in the mazes where she's not one of the people jumping out she plays like the scary teacher in like the maze or whatever and her husband was like thank god like now i don't have to worry about her getting punched in the face at work which because that would happen regularly Because it happens regularly to people.

We talked about it. They have a technique where they kind of come at you from the side. But still, I imagine some people just their arms flail. For sure. Elbow. A co-worker of mine told me he did a very low-fi one that was like a corn maze. And first guy who jumped out, he just straight up punched him right in the face. It's like pure reflex. And immediately like, sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It's like pure reflex and immediately like sorry sorry

sorry i'm so sorry i'm sorry sorry it's just a reflex can't punch mickey or you will get yeah you're from america you'll get kicked out of the country yeah well that's what they said the the universal people said is like they they have figured that if you don't block someone's path they'll be frightened but less frightened less frightened. Like a lizard brain instinct kicks in if you cannot proceed forward. But what I found unnerving going through the one maze I mustered up the courage to do at Knots was that when they started scaring the people behind me,

then I would just see something in the periphery moving. Well, once you start to get in the scare mode then just you see things in the periphery constantly yeah because like i did six or seven of the mazes and now that i'm a big which mike is very proud now that you're a big boy now that i'm a big haunt fan and a big boy yeah i like you start to kind of get the rhythms of all of it and it's still like it's not like totally fun for someone to like surprise you but it's it's a lot your brain kind of goes okay all right it's like i don't know you figured out you realize they're not going to stab you for real yeah i think that's really you just need like 20 for it's happened 20 times and you did not maybe that's bad conditioning

though in case anyone ever does try to stab you and you're like oh no no i've seen this like if i was attacked outside of knots yeah by just an assailant a michael myers and i didn't react at all well you were recently tracked by a wolf or a coyote that was before oh that was before yeah well that was a very serious incident where my dog almost got eaten by a coyote. Yeah. I don't think your scare training would affect that in any way. No, I would not be like... Like, don't worry, he's just gonna come at you from the side and he's not gonna do anything bad.

They tell him you can't actually eat an animal. Yeah. Have you guys done the Rivers of America? Like the Mark Twain thing where you take the boat around the whole river? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Not as an episode. Oh, I whole river. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. We, not as an episode,

but I ride it a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was shut off for a long time. I feel like because of Star Wars land, I feel like, yeah,

they were rerouted. Cause I feel like, okay, so the old West land originally had a very politically incorrect, uh, native American village component. Oh, yes. Yeah.

Where critter country is today. They moved on to the rivers of America. They like, didn't just get rid of it. Oh, yes, true. Where Critter Country is today. That they moved on to the rivers of America. They, like, didn't just get rid of it. They were, because they never get rid of things in Disneyland. They just repurposed them. Yeah. They were like, we'll just put it on over here. Like, update it a little bit so it's not as racist.

But that's when they, back when they had real Native American people in the park. Right. Yeah. Legit doing, like doing ceremonies and stuff. And you could ride a stagecoach or pack mules, which I recently found out the pack mules were ornery. They did not like the guests. Mules are ornery. Yeah, mules are not nice.

Yeah, they would spit at people. They would nip at people. Like children riding pack mules. I'm sure they kicked. Yeah. You would have children riding pack mules i'm sure they kicked yeah you would have loved the pack mules because jason's favorite were the goats that used to be down in the ranch area i was gonna bring those up earlier when you were talking about this getting the the nipple milk from the creature in star wars land and i was like they used to have goats you could do actual you could

milk those if you wanted to. They had nipples. I loved that area, too. Yeah, I like all the things where there's some real nature in the park. The baby ducks. Did you ever... Well, no, you didn't go to Disney World. Do you know that there was a cow in the Magic Kingdom called Mini Moo that had a Mickey that they say was just naturally born with a Mickey ear? Oh, sure, naturally.

Yeah, yeah. So they bought her and put her in the park. I mean, one of the things I find fascinating about Disney World is how it's like the Jurassic Park aspect of it, that it's like surrounded by alligators. Yeah. And in fact, when they drained the rivers of America to put in Big Thunder Mountain,

they had to like, because Big Thunder is in kind of a different place. It's situated differently in all the Magic Kingdoms. They have Big Thunder in Disney World? They do, yeah. And it's more to the left of the rivers. It's like right alongside the rivers of America. So they had to drain it. And they also had to move the track of the riverboat

so that it wouldn't like scrape the edge of where they were putting big thunder uh and when they drained the rivers of america in florida they found giant snakes and alligators living in there that had like snuck in well i mean you're like in a swamp yeah yeah they're gonna there was a there was an amusement park in new orleans my boyfriend's from new orleans and there's this amusement park called Jazzland that I think then became like a Six Flags. And we drove out there because they were shooting like Jurassic World there. My friend had told me. Oh, okay.

So we just like drove out to look at it. And it was like just a theme park that had been just ravaged by Katrina and like kind of gone back to nature. And it was just totally like in a swamp. And you couldn't go on the land because there were alligators and snakes everywhere. But they had somehow shot part of Jurassic World using it. And then my boyfriend's little cousin was like, oh yeah, yeah, me and my friends like snuck in there

and like climbed the roller coaster and like. Whoa, really? Yeah, like nothing bad happened, but. Right. You don't. If you got to the top of a roller coaster and like whoa really uh yeah like nothing bad happened but right you don't if you got to the top of a roller coaster and then got bit by an alligator and then it made you fall off the roller coaster that's a scary series of events well yes that very complicated series of events is scary you get to your last hand up at the top and then like crunch, munch, and then you fall. Aren't there supposedly leeches in the Jungle Cruise? Real leeches?

Oh, what? I have never heard that. I've heard that there are real leeches in the Jungle Cruise. Why is that? I've heard there's an island in Bay Lake in Florida, sort of the main body of water by the Magic Kingdom. And that has just kind of gone back to nature oh i read a thing about that too that's the thing that used to be like island of adventure or something yeah there was a lot of birds and exotic animals right and then there were these these urban

explorers who swam out to it swam or used a rowboat like they swam and they like made it there and back and then later found out that like the whole thing was full of snakes and alligators and like swimming was the worst thing they could have possibly done but they made it there and then they took photographs on the island and it just is so jurassic park because it's like a disney animal park that like the structures are overgrown i feel like they might have turned it into something else by now. No, it's still empty. It's still empty. It's still empty.

It's still empty. It's still... We're talking river... That's not river country. Discovery Island. Oh, Discovery Island. But river country is a similar thing, too. Yeah, urban explorers love sneaking in there.

Yeah. That is what's so weird about Disney World, that there's enough land there that you could just forget about things. For sure. And foreclose things. And that there's just alligators everywhere in the things you forgot

about yeah which people didn't really think i mean you'd see them in the water like uh off the side of the road sometimes for for many years but until that incident where that poor child got eaten the early like travel brochures and stuff uh uh for disney where like, stay at these hotels with beaches. Swim in this lake. Go swimming. Go in the water. It's just filled with animals. It is because when we built the lakes,

because they're man-made, there weren't any alligators in there then. Right, right, right. We just happened to build them in Florida where there's alligators everywhere. It's almost like life finds a way. Well, thank God there's only imaginary critters running around Big Thunder Mountain.

I didn't realize some of them were part of the Mind Train Through Nature. A lot of them are repurposed, which I guess is a Tony Baxter staple between Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain, the repurposing of critters. Have you guys done a Splash Mountain episode yet? Yeah. We did, yes. Yeah, I mean that

finding out that those were all repurposed from other things sort of almost made it make more sense. Yeah, and like how is this so expansive? How are there so many of these around? Well, this is an interesting, it's like it's the same players involved in the history of this ride where the ride was eventually done by Tony Baxter, our hero, who we had in our live show and are still gushing about meeting.

And, but the, like, it was all coming from, like, seeds of ideas from an older Imagineer, Mark Davis, who designed all of those animatronics for the thing, the show America Sings. And this is a similar situation where it's Tony Baxter achieving, like what was at its core, Mark Davis' idea. He wanted to do this ride called Western River Expedition. And I don't know a ton about Western River Expedition, except that basically it was like Pirates, but a boat ride where you sink and you go and see, you go see cowboy Old West scenes.

Wasn't there like they were going to do something besides Pirates for Disney World and then everybody was like, no, no, give us Pirates. That's this. Yeah. They were like, they've already got Pirates in Florida. They want Cowboys.

And people were mad when they went to Disney World and were like, where are the Pirates? We want the things from over there. So yeah, then they rushed it in. Pirates was open in 73, two years after Magic Kingdom opened in general. And I think they were probably trying to figure out a way to do all of it. Well, can we also do Western River Expedition? But by then, another problem too, which is there's no roller coaster.

And Space Mountain had been fast-tracked. Pirates cost a lot of money. Pirates cost a lot of money. Space mountain cost a lot of money. It became clear we are not going to be able to do this expansive multi-ride Western River Expedition area. Yeah, because that was supposed to be like a mini land almost. So it's going to be more than just the one. Do you think any of those things ended up in California Adventure and like

the National Park part? I don't think so. Seeds of some of the ideas seem to be elsewhere. Because I love Grizzly Falls, I was going to say, which feels like the California Adventure corollary to Big Thunder Mountain. It's like the same ride, but as a water ride. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if there's anything directly from it. I know that in France, there's a lot of frontier land is kind of loosely called Thunder Mesa,

which this thing, that's like a term from this Western River Expedition thing. So that's what you find with a lot of rides that don't get built is elements of them fall into other things, but not exactly as envisioned. Do you guys have a favorite like unbuilt ride? Oh yeah. There's a lot of those. And I mean I really

just because of the spectacle of the story of the movie and what like that it could still be there today. The unbuilt Dick Tracy's Crime Stoppers based on the Warren Beatty movie. I was just talking about Dick Tracy yesterday. You would have been in a police car with a gun

zooming around shooting at criminals. And I'm sure the gun part would have been taken out or downplayed or something as the years went on. I think they would have just paint the gun yellow maybe it would be like the buzz light year yeah yeah yeah or it would have been more cartoon but they're they're probably i mean they're if they had built that and then eventually like closed it there would we would be reading articles about like how dare they remove dick tracy's crime stopper anytime something is closed or changed there's always the out like, how dare they remove Dick Tracy's crime stopper. Anytime something is closed or changed, there's always the outcry of how dare they.

Well, mine is in Westcott. It's that boat ride in Westcott, which is the Epcot of the West that never got built. And it was like a 45 minute boat ride that you could get off at multiple places. And it had so many robots and so many like drops. So many robots. So many robots.

That's what Tony Baxter says, at least. I don't even know. I don't know if this had been built, would it be my favorite thing? Maybe not. It might not have even been that great. But the name haunts me forever. It's so intriguing.

What almost replaced America Sings, Plektu's Intergalactic Review. I'm forgetting a word. Yeah, what was that? I'm not sure, but there was some alien country bears equivalent. Oh, wow. At least the name Plectu I love. All that stuff.

The embarrassing stuff they'd like us to forget. That's what... Plectu's Fantastic Intergalactic Review. Everything involving that stage in Tomorrowland that lowers and comes out. Oh, yeah. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Still going strong. Recently we walked by and the characters from the dog and the child from Up

were there and they were dancing to Gangnam Style. It was who let the dogs out and then the kid from Up pointed at himself like me. I don't think it was Gangnam Style. Didn't it switch to Gangnam Style? I think you're imagining.

I don't know. I wouldn't put it past him. Yeah, but I think he hears Gangnam Style wherever he goes. He sees people dancing. Yeah, I think it was Who Let the Dogs Out. It was Who Let the Dogs Out and then I think it switched, didn't it? I could absolutely see. There's no way of knowing but yes jason notorious

psi head yeah he loves psi famously uh are you aware of any like with like stuff that almost got built or anything that like you've you've heard rumors of that you're like why is that question i i have no i can't think of anything actually oh no i don't yeah but um on the spot i just have always felt like they should have built more dark rides around like beauty and the beast like when they built a little mermaid ride i was like good idea but like many years too late to capitalize on this but you know like i'm like why don't they have like they have the frozen ride in disney world now that replaced the beloved uh which also seemed cool because it's like pirates of the vik Vikings which I was like yeah yeah more pirates

it's so good we've like really not done a full service to Maelstrom and we will that's such a big one that's my top five potentially Maelstrom's in five? it's not like on paper greatest but favorite

in five? because I loved it and a lot of kids. This reminds me, Molly, you wrote an article recently about older millennials. Oh, yeah. And I was thinking about that in theme park terms because as I was reading it, you had a lot of details in there that I very much related to. What was the phrase? Too young for Nirvana, too young for nirvana too old for the strokes uh which i went yeah uh which i almost landed but i was a junior in high

school when that album came out and i was really into the strokes so but i i very much related about you being young too young for nirvana uh but i was thinking about like uh the the older millennials the divide do young millennials like did something like maelstrom hit for them and do young millennials know who michael eisner is like do they give a shit that was like our era of disney for sure i feel like the big ones that opened when i was like Splash Mountain is what I remember being like the event. There's like a new ride is opening at Disneyland and with all the specials and promotion and the way that could possibly be.

Then then then it broke down all the time when it first opened. Oh, they always do. Anything new just breaks down. Yeah. It broke down constantly. Splash Mountain has always seemed like the weirdest ride to me that it did get built because it's based on a property that they want to bury and not talk about and yet strangely was re-released several years prior to the ride opening to test the waters did you guys see the

pbs documentary about walt disney it's like american masters walt disney i watched that one yeah it is the greatest documentary because they got licensed from the disney company to show like historical stuff but it's like not a disney documentary so it's not like oh you know fascist it's not like throwing the party line right it's like about how walt disney was like a dick and like stole ideas from everybody and sort of about how he invented like tech bro culture how he was, we'll build a campus for our studio and every, all the employees will live on campus. And that way they can like come to work right away. Like Elon Musk.

He called people pedos with no proof. Well, the reason, you know, there's the rumors always that, well, it was a big anti-Semite, but one of the reasons that that was a rumor was because um he basically he

would like pay the really the animators a lot of money and like no women could be animators and stuff like that so there were like a lot of like underpaid employees at disney who were supposed to just be happy to be working at disney and then this animator i think his name is art something who invented goofy like saw a woman pass out in the cafeteria because she was so like overworked and he was like oh you need to pay people a living wage and then disney like broke with him and that was when the workers went on strike when the animators went on strike led by the guy who invented goofy who was also a really cool jewish guy okay that's good yeah uh the oddly enough the walt disney family museum the one that is like daughter made up in san francisco uh you can see in the presidio

uh is is pretty thorough and doesn't really pull punch there is like a huge wing of it about that strike it's really amazing in the documentary too because it's just uh it's like and then walt dis like, never trusted workers again and, like, isolated himself from everyone. Yeah. That's like he was. Anyway, we thank our new corporate overlords, Amazon and Netflix, for all they do for us. We're just happy to work. We don't need those residuals.

I was going to say something about communists but who cares let's get back to big thunder uh the other i was thinking though the other thing that's not built was going to be backed by in that big thunder area was um i forget the name of it it was uh basically a reverse tower of terror where it was going to be like a geyser oh geyser mountain and you'd go underground and see like people working and then they'd be like luckily the geyser's not going to blow today and then you'd go down and down and see more and then all of a sudden the geyser blew and then

you would get shot up like the reverse tower of terror out of the ground with water on all sides cool, so that's a really that might be, I wasn't familiar with that one before you alerted me to it well okay what do we That might be dumb. That would be amazing. I wasn't familiar with that one before you alerted me to it. Well, okay.

What do we need to hit about this? Big Thunder is, I think Tony Beck's have heard him talk about this, like it's a lot of kids' first roller coaster, which I think is kind of cool and important. And then cool that it like holds up. Right. Because there's stuff that like when you would go on it as a kid and you're like, wow, and then you go on it again as an adult and you're like, okay, it's fine. Jason's going to be upset, but, like, a Casey Jr. is a thing you'd go on. It's not a thrill ride or anything, but, like, you can't go on that forever.

Well, I can. Well, I never had it as a child because I didn't come out to L.A. until I was in college. You just love to go to the park and just go straight to the little elephant train. I love that Disney, that was another Disneyland, early, early Disneyland. That place was dirty with trains. There were just trains everywhere

in the original years of Disneyland. Dirty with trains. Dirty with trains. PC Junior, Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland, the Disneyland Railroad. They're all train nerds. Yeah.

There's art of Jason, Jason with dirty with trains and then his, like in terms of his hands. There's art of Jason. Jason with Dirty with Trains. In terms of his hands, he's making it train. He's tossing trains out. Just throwing train cars at unsuspecting children. We have to put that on a shirt. I guess so. Make it train.

Jason's dressed like Pigpen. Because Dirty with Trains. A dirty... Well, I think I'd be in a conductor outfit. Oh, okay. You're right. That's right. That's's better i feel like pig pen might wear a conductor outfit doesn't wear overalls yeah it's not dissimilar he's getting there yeah just put the hat on i said um so kids is a kid coat like this is uh kids go on the five-year-olds can go on this if they're tall enough like good first coaster good to like it's like thrilling enough stays a little thrilling as an adult um yeah it's a

perfect it's it's a perfect for everybody yeah ride and another thing is uh in that you know i think that's what we keep finding about it it's just it's there it's trusty it's uh it's just always works you always enjoy it and one thing about it like uh it's always yeah it's always you're always happy when you get off the thing and i think i think part of what part of why that is is like the line never that bad if you are stuck in the line it's a fun place to hang out for a little while yeah you're outside it's better than like being in one of the lines where you're just in in a tunnel uh-huh uh-huh and it like changes and shifts a lot you get it's not like uh i think, box lines where you just go this way and that way and this way and that way can be very oppressive. Midway Mania, it's like, boy, if you can get a fast pass for that, that's great.

And if you can get a fast pass for Big Thunder, it's usually only like an hour away. It's not one of those where you get the fast pass, it's nine hours. Now your whole day is based around at the end of the day we'll hit big thunder you can plug it in between other things very easily it's just it's it's uh big big thunder's there it's there for you it is like the glue that holds disney together it's like phil hartman in the snl cast or something like it's truly like it's always so dependable that is what's what i find fascinating but i told tony that that's my low-key favorite ride because i realized that after so many years of like it's the only one i'm always i always want to go on it yeah every ride is great and i will go on any ride at any time but like

that's the only one you're like you know we just did that let's let's wait a couple times i would i happily go on big thunder probably every time i yeah i don't know there's never been a time where i've been like and that big thunder i'm. I'm always, and this is, Lindsay talks, like she sometimes should be like, we've done it a lot or something. I'd be like, yeah, but it's great. Like we could do it every time. Yeah. But I don't know. Yeah, I feel like that's, I don't

know. I'm trying to think of another ride like and I can't. Yeah, I feel like of all the big ones of the mountains and or maybe you don't go on, you know, maybe you're with people who like like space mountains like a little bit much for them or or i didn't do splash mountain for a long time or matterhorn it's like ah it hurts my back or whatever and that line's boring there's really no right there's no limitation it's like not rickety it's a smooth wonderful ride yeah it's like

perfect like it's also like the porridge. I've said this before. I've used this before. It's the exact right amount of like it's not too scary. It's not too intense, but it's also not boring. It's also the line is perfectly. Everything about it is actually perfect. It's located in kind of a centrally part of Disneyland. Every single aspect of it is sort of perfect and right in the

middle like right there I don't know yeah I also love at the end when you like get it off and then there's like the little miniature like saloon oh yeah there's like good stuff to look at even after the ride is over yeah yeah yeah well um Mike would you like to discuss the what is now in one of those buildings well yes it's a recently added backstory of the attraction that is a new invention as far as i can tell in the 2010s let me yeah it was i believe it was added when they added because so they've done like various things to the right over the years um and they've added like you know for, what, like two years or 14 months. They did a major overhaul at Disneyland where they changed out the entire track. Yeah.

Yeah. But they changed, like, put some effect, the smoke effect at the end where like the mine blows up is cool. They added like the, I remember going on it and being like, I haven't been on it in a while because I do not remember this part. Yeah. Which, by the way, we talk about plus ups on this show. That's one of the top plus-ups. They didn't have

to do it. It was a fine ride without. But now you get a great bang at the end. Sometimes it's not working. That's the only bummer. But lately, it's been working every time. But I'm always a little nervous when I start going up the hill. Are we not going to get the big fireball at the end? But when you do, I like

cheer for it every time i put my hands up and cheer it's a great effect uh and also like i've tony baxter's even talked about how the ride doesn't have such a great ending necessarily like the the visceral thrill at the end isn't as satisfying it doesn't feel like oh that's the biggest drop or that's the biggest like the stretch from hill two to three is the most exciting yes three to the end is probably the least exciting right so it does peter out unfortunately so probably due to limited space yeah i think that's what he said and he i which so many baby animals along the way right well and the infamous uh the goat chewing dynamite i love the goat chewing dynamite is a fan favorite

everyone loves the goat and we will do we've we've said we'll do an episode on the patreon exclusively about the goat how do we that one it sounds funny but is it like i don't know we'll see it's the hat ghost of that ride it's just everyone oh the hat box yeah we can he's that he's the star in the sense that he's the star, yeah. And does everybody know that if you look back at it for as long as you can, you get a little extra thrill. That's the little web secret. It's like just keep your eyes on that goat. And then I did it last night,

and you do kind of get this extra weird little inversion. You're just disoriented. You're describing. Getting dizzy, yes. You're getting dizzy is what I'm saying. Yes, it's wonderful. I'm just making sure there's not a sound effect cue

of the goat saying, see you in hell or something that I missed. That's when they do the witch overlay on that ride. Yeah. He shits in defiance of you. Did you guys watch Sabrina?

I have not seen Sabrina. There's a really good satanic goat in Sabrina. Just saying. Oh seen Sabrina. There's a really good satanic goat in Sabrina. I'm the person who was a big fan of those comics and was very excited about there being a show. The original Archie Sabrina.

They did a recent Oh, those. Gotcha. They did a reboot that was kind of like an EC horror comic type Sabrina. And the show is very faithful to it. Oh, good. I love Kieran and Shipko. Yeah, I recommend it. If you like Ghosts and Satan,

you'll enjoy it. I like the Archie Comics family. I love the dark Archie Comics reboot through Riverdale. Oh, yeah. Dark, horny Archie. Who could have predicted that this would be such a hit? I could have told you.

The kids always love it. This was something, well, Mike and me and past guests on the show, Marissa Strickland, were texting about last night. I found a website that is selling like leather Jughead crowns. Oh, my God. A fashion brand selling leather crowns. Also, I found this because it was an ad in the middle of OKCupid. Like saying, like, check out this leather crown website.

It's like, wait. But it was targeted at you. But it was, I guess. You got it just right. I saw somebody who was on Halloween dressed as Leather Jughead. So it's taken off. No. They looked at your search history.

They said Leather Man Jughead. It's a match. Yeah. Single man looking for a date. Looking for world's largest sandwich. Yes. And then the computer is like, I know what to target him yeah i know what crown leather crown i said it's only 30 they said i would go in three ways with marissa if if you

want it yeah but then i have to wear it yeah i think it could be your thing it's definitely a statement piece what did the pickup artist guys used to say you had to have a statement or what was that oh what did they say? Peacocking. Peacocking. Oh, yeah. They were into hats. Yeah, they loved hats.

They were like, it's a conversation piece. People will be forced to talk to you if you're wearing a leather crown. Or you stay very far away from you, depending on what kind of person they are. That's true. If you start getting a lot of dates because you start wearing a leather crown, I'll be the most confused about what's going on with our society, with our world. Jason shared it in his trademark leather crown. Michael, did you want to tell us about a certain someone for this ride?

So when they did that renovation, they added a portrait in, is it the saloon? It's in the saloon in Florida. It's in the line. Oh, yeah, right, right, right. And they added a painted picture of a character named Barnabas T. Bullion. And he looks like Imagineer Tony Baxter. Oh, look at that.

A lot of people, if you Google image Barnabas T. Bullion, a lot of people are putting him side by side, not just with Tony Baxter, but with Donald Sutherland. He looks just like Donald Sutherland. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The curly mustachioed man.

And is the lead antagonist of the Marvel comic, Big Thunder Mountain, the mini series. Oh, this is the inserted backstory. Yeah. Gotcha. So would you care to read that panel, Jason? He says, so the lower we go, the is the inserted backstory. Yeah. Gotcha. Would you care to read that panel, Jason? He says, so the lower we go, the richer the vein. Wonderful. Thank you.

Here's also a panel where they caught Tony reading the comic in the same pose drawn of him reading letters on a tree. Oh, let me see that. Is this the backstory that links it to the Haunted Mansion and other rides in the park? Yes. Yes. Yes. So he's a member of a club called the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, which is called C, which is nicknamed or shortened to C.

And there are many other characters that own rides across all the Disney parks. And they've, I don't know who... This doesn't count Doc Brown and the Institute of Future Technology, does it? The original named ride owner? I think we could count it. Get him into sea. I think he should be in sea.

Sea doesn't have to be a Disney thing only, but who's in sea? We'll see. Hold on. Let me get the full list. Mary Oceaneer. Mary Oceaneer. Harrison High Tower of the Tower of...

What's Mary Oceaneer from? Well, she has... They just opened up a whole Mary Oceaneer from well she has they just open up a whole mary oceaneer area in typhoon lagoon i believe uh and on the cruise ships yeah i believe mary oceaneer new thing to make up a bunch of imaginary bosses of the rides yes she's kind of she's so weird the adventurers club too i think yeah so she's captain mary oceaneer of Oceaneer Labs and Misfortune Falls. And there's all these pictures of them. I think she's, I forget who she's based on.

Like what Imagineer. So Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, and Pirates are supposedly linked in a plot line? Well, Haunted Mansion, because I believe I sent you also this in the same conversation. This is teasing what my bit is. But I sent you a picture of, I didn't realize that Hightower is the husband who was killed in the Haunted Mansion. Oh. By Constance Hatchaway. So Hightower, so there's a George, like George Hightower who has some relation to

Harrison Hightower the man who owns the hotel in Tokyo Disney Sea so it's a rich they're all members of sea

and I we need to look and figure out if this is roadie all of this is roadie because I don't know who it seems up his alley

it seems right up his alley because he's Mr. Adventurer's Club which is where all the members of sea would hang out. Members like Lord Henry Mystic, the man who owns Mystic Manor in Hong Kong Disney, which is supposedly like the greatest ride ever. And which road he was heavily involved in.

Is that right? Is he? Maybe. I don't know, actually. But yes, we're making up fake characters who own all of the rides. Sure. Because there's not enough to just go on the ride. What do you feel about when they try to, like,

add plot elements to rides that weren't there before? It all depends. Like, this stuff is so subtle that 99.9% of people don't know or care about Barnabas T. Bullion. The proof of Barnabas T. Bullion is a painting of him kind of behind some doors. So you can absolutely avoid the Barnabas T. Bullion backstory

unless you're on a podcast about this. It's not in your face. It's not in your face. Do I love it? Yes. I love it. And I want more of it. And I want more.

I want a show now about all these characters. Has anyone been on Pirates since they changed the bride auction scenes? Yes. I think we all went on it together. We've all been on it together. I've been told that they changed the redhead into a pirate. She is a pirate. It could be clean.

It could make more sense. She's like a real like she's now she's a pirate and they're auctioning off chickens. And she's sort of like, the men want the rum, don't they? And she's got like a much. The men want the rum. And she's like, it's a real aggressive, like, because the old redhead people had a lot of affection for, but like didn't have a lot of personality, didn't say anything really. But now I think they're like, she's a fiery pirate and she's... And we've got merchandise you can buy of it.

Yeah, you can get your picture with her in the walkway. I always liked that because I, as a ginger, like as a kid, I was very into that scene because they're all like, we want the redhead.

Everyone else sucks. Sure, representation matters. Yeah. You walked out of there feeling like, oh, right. Well, I think I was also like, that's one of those parts of the ride you know there's things in disneyland rides still that are like vestiges of something where you're like this doesn't seem appropriate anymore but it's still in the ride like all of the jungle crews you know sure yes but it's grandfathered

in right to a certain extent and then so like when they do decide to change things you're like like i don't know is it gonna i realize now there's a couple we just this will come out after our tokyo disney episode um oh no i can't tell it because scott's here shoot ah there's a spoiler of something there's a spoiler of something i won't say i'll tell you after the podcast but i can't say it because i want you to be surprised when you get there i could go in the penalty box do you want to go on I could go in the penalty box. Do you want to go in the penalty box? How hard is it to get out from under that mic stand? I don't feel like getting up.

All right, fine. We'll talk about it later. But yeah, there's stuff like that in Tokyo Disneyland proper. I bet if you told me, I wouldn't give a shit. Yeah, this one might not be that big of a deal to you. This one might not be exciting. It's not exciting. It's just I was shocked. I'll say it and i'll see if i'm like how dare you be funny i react really if it's a spoiler you care about the men still chase the women on pirates what the fuck uh oh

that's interesting i mean you think they'll ever uh yeah do you consider that like is that like a in japan it's fine i don't i guess i mean obviously i think it's the only place they didn't change it because in the Pirates famously, you know they changed, that people were like, oh it's a little unnerving that these men are chasing these women and I wonder why they're chasing them. Now there's food. Yeah, and then they added food

and then they reversed it. Then they just reversed it so the men or the women are chasing them with like a rolling pin or something. Yes, just much better for gender roles though. Very yes. As long as someone's chasing someone there's always got to be chases and uh they're like we've got this circular platform we're not wasting it yes uh so but in japan it's the exact same as it always was you know what honestly i think i would have gone on and not noticed oh really yes we were like oh my god because we didn't know about i didn't know because they don't have

they haven't switched the auction scene either but then you're like wait are like, oh my God, because we didn't know about it. I didn't know. Because they haven't switched the auction scene either. But then you're like, wait, are the men? Oh my God, it's the same. So I mean, I guess maybe it's a cultural thing of like, hey, right on. Did you come across the, are you guys aware of the other Big Thunder character who has been part of the ride for some time in Florida only? No. Oh, no. Or maybe. Maybe. Say it. I did not.

I've never heard this until today. There is an animatronic. First of all, an animatronic where? And there's a couple. There's a guy in a bathtub and then there's a guy in a big like old, like a caboose or something or like an old medicine cart

and it says rain making or rain a caboose or something, or like an old medicine cart, and it says Rainmaker on it or something, and this character's name is Professor Cumulus Isobar. Okay, I don't know that. He's a man who built a... I don't know Professor Cumulus Isobar, but I love him. He built you into him. When you see him, you'll love him again, because guess what?

Top hat, mustache. And he's a Tony invention. It was based on this movie. I don't know if you forget the full title, but I think it's like Dr. Lau. Oh, yes. Cumulus Isobar. Yep.

And here's why. I was like, I've been on this ride in Florida. Why have I never seen this old rainmaking man? And it's because you have to look backwards to see him. You can see him better on the train circling the park. But I've never noticed this before. But anyway, go to Florida and go see Professor Cumulus Isobar, who obviously also will get his own episode. He will eventually get a film and needs to be invited into sea as soon as possible.

He maybe was kicked out of sea. He's a fraud. He was in the comics as well. Oh, yes. Yeah. And he says, do you want me to read his dialogue here? Absolutely, sure. Because I'd like to.

All right. If there aren't rain clouds filling that sky this time tomorrow, I'll eat my hat and both my shoes. Who needs swamp root? Indeed. Works out of context, too. Beautiful words never said. I also, like, on Wikipedia lists, like a backs the the backstory about how like the mountain is cursed or like mining the mountain is cursed and that the in theory the trains just kept running

on their own even if people when people abandoned rainbow ridge did you guys come across that uh and how was that conveyed like it's a ghost town? Yeah, that it's like a ghost town and the trains are enchanted and just never stop to run. Is that what we're on? Are we on a ghost train? We are on the out of control. Mine train. Which has no conductor. Which has no conductor.

I see. Oh, that's interesting. But then, I don't know if that is kind of like tweaked now that you end in a town that seems very populated with like rowdy noises and music and stuff. I thought they were just by ghosts. It's a ghost town. Yeah, I guess it could be a ghost town too. There's like an evil backstory for the Paris one.

I don't think I know it off. It says like according to Shoshani, is that right? Is that a tribe? I don't know. The mountainous island in the middle of the rivers of the far west is a sacred site, the resting place of the Thunderbird. It is said that those who do not respect the mountain will bring misfortune and hardship upon them, a sign of the great spirit bird's wrath. It was left well enough alone by the native people for this reason. So that's a real hardcore, like, it's haunted story for the Paris.

It's different stories and towns in a lot of them. But you know what? They almost added an entirely other character, mythology set of characters to this ride. If a certain film had been a hit, they wanted to add animatronics of The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Aren't we glad it was not? Just in case the Johnny Depp stuff

doesn't go anywhere better, maybe it's good if there are not more Johnny Depp animatronics in the park, especially ones where he's portraying races that are not his race. Yeah, come on. He's won 16th Cherokee, right? It's like Pocahontas.

Yes. Elizabeth Warren. Yeah, thank God. Thank God this did not occur, Lone Ranger and Tonto. I feel like there was also talk of, like, did they do a stunt show or something? Yeah, I think there was rumors of a stunt show. They seemed very confident that Lone Ranger was going to work. It did not work. Yeah, they were waiting for, like like the big pirates new pirates franchise for it or with it um which i feel like

like every few like westerns when when disneyland first opened westerns were like superhero movies now there was just so many westerns and now i feel like every few years a western comes along people like it they move with you know the true grit remake but there's no big like cowboys like yeah do kids still play cowboy like i don't i don't know do kids play cowboys you're pitching a lot of ideas for articles today do kids play probably you got westworld now Maybe That's our cowboy mythology Children love Westworld Of course Yes

A lot of kids Are playing Westworld Children love Killer robots That's why they like Theme parks Kids are all Stripping

And pretending to be Malfunctioning robots And stored in a back room Somewhere Having existential crises I want to be Jeffrey Wright I want to be Ed Harris Dibs on

Thierry Newton. Somewhere that is happening. At least to one set of children. Yeah, we are children. Very precocious. I'm just glad. I don't mind it staying this way, where there is only one speaking part

on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and that is, of course, the man who bids you farewell before you go on the ride, who tells you that this year is the wildest ride in the wilderness. Totally fine that that's it. That guy is great. But outside of Paul Free's Ghost Host, I think one of the best vocal performances

on any of the attractions. So much fun. And I think easy to get lost, too, any of the attractions. So much fun. And I think easy to get lost, too, because the voices, you can sometimes miss it because it's out in open air. And sometimes it's easier to not hear that. So you have to kind of pay attention to really enjoy his classic old prospector delivery. Yeah. Does anyone know the voice of this? I was going to say, I don't know the voice of this.

I just found out today. The guy's name is Dowell McKinnon, or also called Dallas McKinnon. Oh, I love it. If you look him up, he looks like an old prospector. Oh, great. Exactly what you want. A prolific voice actor, but most notably, the laughing hyena in Lady and the Tramp, which is a hyena laugh that is used in many other things, including

the Crash Bandicoot games. So he's like a pretty, when you think hyena, it might be this guy's laugh. He's also Ben Franklin in The American Adventure. Oh, wow. He is Zeke in Country Bear Jamboree. Oh, my God. This guy's a legend. I should have known this guy.

And strangest thing of all, a voice that's nothing like any of this, he's Gumby. He's freaking Gumby is that guy. So next time you hear that prospector, he's also your old pal Gumby, who probably you can't remember the exact voice of. No, I can't, but. Yeah, it's like, hey, Pocky. It's really odd and unpleasant. I think it's just like that.

All right. You nailed it. We gotta stop the blockheads. I'm never gonna watch Gumby again, I guess. Now that you know that's what he sounds like. That's kind of what he is. They also made a Gumby movie in the 90s, and they didn't make him cool like Chuck E. Cheese,

essentially, by its nature. But they didn't update the voice. He was just still that. Hey, essentially, by its nature. But they didn't update the voice. He was just still that. I am a movie now. Let me ask a potentially controversial question. What is Gumby? He's a bendy man. Yeah, he's just like a little bendy green.

He's just a bendy man. He's a living celery stick. Why did you say controversial? What did you think? I don't know. I don't know i i don't know i just i can't i never considered your head that you thought baby gumby is and you didn't want to say it what gumby was before you thought i think maybe i was afraid i was missing it and it was

right in front of me and everyone was gonna go like he's a tree you idiot like but no he's just a little i see not controversial like he's like the sign of a cross that bends or something no he's one of the gumploids duh didn't you read the graphic novels he's a green clay humanoid all right so i sure am i'm a humanoid kids oh he's horrifying do we know the name of the character, Old Prospector? Does he have a voice? I don't think he's named. He doesn't have a voice?

I don't believe so. We'll have to add the next time they shut the ride down, they'll have to add, like, my name is... You can see me on the Disney streaming service. The first thing that the guy who made Gumby, Art Clokey, made was a three-minute student film called Gumbeja, a clay parody of Fantasia. Whoa.

Wow. Wow. Disney connection. He started with Fantasia? He made clay Fantasia. Wow. Geez. A parody.

Is that right? It was a parody of it? It was a parody. A stop-motion clay parody. So he was like the, what's his name, Steve Odekirk, who does those thumb parodies of famous movies? Just like that thumb guy.

He's like the thumb guy. When are we going to get Steve Odekirk's thumb universe into the Disney parks? They need to stop buying all these expensive properties and get me Thumb Wars Fingers Edge. That feels like early 2000s. I could see there being a California Adventure attraction based on Steve Odekirk's thumbs.

It was short-lived, six months, no one went in it. They take you through the hosts in your journey through like a ring factory. Yeah, right, great. Also, if for some reason people don't know what we're talking about, there's a series. I hope enough time has passed that they don't. There's a series of direct- dvd movies uh that are parodies of like star wars and it's called like thumb wars and it's just all thumbs and i've never seen a frame of one of them i've just seen the cases and movie thumb thumb tannic thumb thumblers

list right is there a thumblers list no i don't know maybe it's a good joke bitch but also like i was like well maybe he maybe steve was outrageous i don't know they did. It's a good joke pitch, but also, like, I was like, well, maybe Steve was outrageous. I don't know. They did all the Holocaust movies. Life is thumberful. Yeah. Yes, it's good there's not more animatronics on Big Thunder, though. And as I said to Tony, I think part of it that I like it is that it's you out there,

and I think it's a thing that Tony likes when he's talking about ride philosophy. It's like there's not a lot of robots. You're not watching a show. The thing is happening to you. And the experience feels much more intimate, for lack of a better word. Sure. There's something about that. I love big robot bear shows, as everyone knows.

But there is something cool about it because it's just like you're on this ride and it's you and that's it. And I guess also like 20 people and of course the other thing and then I'll try to wrap up my fact brigade but I had to say all of these what you do have instead of animatronics is fake rocks

y'all know we love fake rocks this ride's the king of the fake rocks y'all know that we're the we're the kings of fake rock fandom this is the king of the fake rocks. Y'all, we're the kings of fake rock fandom. This is the king of the fake rock rides. Oh, yeah. It's perfect fake rock-wise. And largely overseen by a guy named Skip Lang, a name I had not come across before.

He did most of the rock work that we love so much. Tokyo DisneySea, this guy, everything in Disneyland Paris. He was the on-site field director. Wow. Of all of the land. There were people designing these things from afar, but Skip Lang is on the ground. He's building their Big Thunder.

There's like a skull rock there that's really cool. There's rock work in Discovery Land that's real cool. He directed the fabrication and painting of rock work, show set installation, and finishes and facades of all show-related materials. That was his job. Tree of Life, I think he worked on as well. So many of these environments that we love so much, I think, were overseen by this guy, Skip Lang. Worked in tandem with Tony Baxter, also a big part of Indiana Jones adventure and quote from Tony. Apparently in 1981,

he's he, and this guy, Tony and skip went to see a sneak preview of Raiders of the lost dark before it came out. It was not heavily hyped. They didn't know what they were in for. They walked out so excited. They loved it so much.

And Tony turned to skip and said, can you imagine if we could do something with this? Wow. Then they did. They worked together for many years on so many cool things. Big Thunder, I think, seemingly, you know, really the fruits of this Tony-Skip relationship. Skip passed away two years ago.

R.I.P. did incredible work. That feels like if only he was alive because we could have him and talk about our favorite fake rocks with skip lang a full fake two and a half hour episode of fake rocks just bringing up fake rocks especially that paris one the paris big thunder is just so massive and like on an island in the middle of the water where you you start on the shore you're and then you go through a tunnel to get to the island ride around the you know the rock work and everything on the island and then you go through a tunnel to get to the island, ride around the rock work and everything on the island and then ride back through another tunnel.

It's just huge. It's a lot more grand. There's a lot more space than the other ones. And as I've said this on the show before, but really the true highlight of my Disneyland Paris visit is that going up that third lift hill in the tunnel, the ride suddenly stops. And we don't know this version. We didn't know if that was part of, it stops for a second and you watch some explosion happen.

It just stopped. Like, what's this about? And then it kept going for an uncomfortable amount of time. Then the work lights came on. Then an announcement in French. And we're starting to go, is this it? Is this the walk-off? Are we the dream of many theme park fans?

And we got it, and at that point in the ride, the furthest point away from land it could possibly be, we got to walk the entire track backwards. I took a lot of video of it. I found it today. I'll cut it together and do a little thing for Twitter so you yourself can see inside big thunder but like it was perfectly at dusk and we're along the rivers there so we're like it's beautiful sky we're

going in and out of tunnels we're seeing you know all of the like all of the chicken wire and everything and then just like cabinets and boxes and like people sign in sheets and French all the not magical just like cabinets and boxes and like people's sign-in sheets in French. All the not magical stuff going on in there. And then we walked off. Oh my god, that was so cool. What an epic walk-off experience. Went and had the greatest beer

in the frontier land. Tavern, whatever you call it. The highlight of Disneyland Paris. So if you can make it to Paris, make the ride shut down at that point, and then get a beer, you too will have a wonderful experience. At Dusk. Exactly at Dusk.

Yeah, yeah. Just throw like a penny into the track and see if you can make it happen yourself. This might be too early to start talking plus up. I don't know if whatever everyone else has to say, but I think I've said this before. I've tried to figure out on the map an overhead map is there a place where you could put a bar that overlooks big thunder because that's really my plus up as far as the riding i'd love it maybe if the third whatever two to three would be faster

bigger but i think it's impossible but is it possible even just for like a five seat bar where i can drink a beer and watch big thunder and just live in big thunder for a little bit bring back the sky trams oh the skyway so like a skyway would stop overhead on a wire and you would drink in the skyway bucket while big thunder like those pedal those bars that pedal around town like not la but like certain towns it's like people sitting on uh-huh there's giant bicycles that are bars maybe we just have to add another level to disneyland they just need to build a whole nother level that looks super exclusive to look down on the commoners yeah yes uh all right so sky disneyland sky well that was the rumor of Third Park in Tokyo was Disney Sky.

Whoa. Is that still out there? It didn't come to fruition. Because instead, I think they're just doing an expansion of Sea. Okay. But Disneyland, Disney Sea, and then Disney Sky was going to be third, which is very cool. What the hell is going to be in Disney Sky?

I don't know. Avatar Land. Oh, of course. Yes. Uh-huh. Because the mountains float. There's going to be a million movies worth of material. And ups flying around.

Ups flying. Yeah. Ooh. I love Disney. Disney Sky is my favorite part. Yeah. That's your favorite unbuilt thing. Yeah, it is now.

In the hypothetical. Wow. Molly, do you have any walk-off story? Like, has a ride broken down on you? Yeah, yeah. I mean, Pirates, we once had a walk-off. like has a ride broken down on you yeah yeah i mean pirates who once had a walk-off oh where um like right when everything's on fire we were stuck there for a long time wow that's great yeah i remember thinking like the employees at the front of the line had to like get in the

water and pull the boats over i was like man that's sucks for them uh how far did you get to like walk through anywhere weird that uh no, but we went out through an alleyway Where people were smoking cigarettes on their break And it was very glamorous But did you get close to a robot at all? Not as close as I would like to get Sure You didn't get to kiss one or pick their pocket

That's the best part to get walk off there though i think in the fire or no no i guess right before not when the town is on fire when they're just i guess the auction scene probably is the best walk off area yeah town was on fire and then it was just like a long period of like first the lights come on and like they turn the sound off but you can still hear the animatronics likeacking. It's very scary. Sure, yeah. Nope. Broke down next to the giant animatronic snake once at Indiana Jones. That would freak me

out. Were you on the end? Yeah, I was on the end next to that big old snake. I get scared in that room in Indiana Jones because of the fire effect. I'm just like, we shouldn't have a fire in this room around all these chintzy props. I went on it last night and I forgot there was a big flame right there it's not always working sometimes it's like

just a light effect and i'm always like it could just be a light effect like maybe this is from an earlier version but i think it's very expensive to run the fire effect obviously i'm disappointed when the fire doesn't happen did you i forgot it was there i think i did kind of go oh whoa oh so it happened last night yeah because it hadn't happened the last couple times i was on indiana jones and i'm disappointed when it doesn't go off huh huh i think it's such a big part of when you zoom around and you go oh the thing's shooting flames sure sure um well where are we are we winding it down are we are we doing our Are we doing our final verdicts? Yeah, I mean, I think this will probably be part one of our Big Thunder Odyssey over the next 10 years.

No, no, no. As with all of these. Let's talk plus-up ideas. What do we feel about it? Is it perfect? Is there anything that could make this kind of correct temperature bowl of porridge any better? Cinnamon and sugar to this. I think it's perfect.

It's pretty perfect. And one more thing before we totally wind it down. I totally forgot about a bizarre block of stuff I found. Oh, wow. For some people, this is beyond just a fun ride. There is a real sense of relief that they get after going on it because there was a study put out by the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association that because there was a study put out by the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association

that found there were a doctor who specializes in renal calculi, better known as kidney stones. I read this, yes. A doctor found that several people had come to him and said that they were able to pass their kidney stones successfully having been on Big Thunder Mountain. Wow. Including somebody who went on three separate occasions

with three separate stones each time past them immediately having been on the ride. So with Disney's permission, this guy did a study where he brought a 3d model of a kidney stone onto the ride and and like set it up such that like it would like if it was successful there would be a simulation of the pass of the stone it worked just shy of 70 of the time the same model was taken on space mountain and rock and roller coaster 0% of the time. It's something special about Big

Thunder Mountain. So not only a perfect ride, it also saves lives. Also home to the coolest piece of Banksy art for an hour and a half. Oh, boo. Boo to that. That's a part of, if you haven't seen Exit Through the Gift Shop,

where there's like a Banksy prank happens essentially at big thunder mountain and if they like put a fake guantanamo body or something yeah and mr brainwash records it yes yeah yeah and they escape and there's a whole section about how the disney police tried to shake him down lamest thing i'm getting i'm getting over banksy I don't know what it is. Probably because he went after theme parks. That's probably why. This lame prank at Big Thunder that just freaked a couple people out and made no point. And also, Dismaland was stupid.

You're just getting over him? I was a big Banksy head. Man in the 90s. Up until. Love the strokes. Love Banksy. Love Brian Enos. Up until. Love the strokes. Love Banksy. Love Brian Eno. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. That's true. Yeah. So, I mean, yes, it's pretty perfect. I don't know. What else? What would you do to it, Jason? I think I would keep as is.

Is this the first one we're all keeping the ride as is? I think so. Because I don't think we've ever had one where I'm not like, well, we could do this or we could add. I mean, if they put a bunch of country bears on it, I wouldn't hate it, but just put those on Grizzly River Run and make that much more interesting.

Do you miss the country bears? Oh, every day. Like a past relative, like a beloved uncle who passed. It never really goes away. They have them in Florida. They have them in Tokyo. So, look, I've been with them multiple times in the last two years, but I can't see.

You know they're somewhere. You know they didn't get rid of them. They've got to be in a basement somewhere. We just have to find them and liberate them. I think the Oogie, this could totally be wrong. I think the Oogie Boogie on The Nightmare Before Christmas is like a big owl, is the big bear, I think. I could be totally wrong about that.

We've got to find where they keep the country bears. I would be. If you could just with a God computer know that. I just want to bring one to this apartment and leave it here and you just come downstairs and find it. I mean, I would weep. I would weep. But of course, you're describing a privilege that if done

in an illegal manner, it would cost, to get an operating country bear here, it would cost $7 million. Something like that. That's true. But yeah, if any listeners know where the country bears are being kept Where are the bears?

in Disneyland, let us know. I just hope they aren't rusting out in a field somewhere like the E.T. rides Botanicus, which we discovered. We found that out when I worked there, that he was just in a parking lot without his skin collecting dust. I mean, that sounds like an amazing thing to see also. It really was.

I'm thankful, but I don't want to be selfish and hide Botanicus. I don't want to be the only one to get that experience. And Botanicus shouldn't be slowly dying in a fall. Right. Their liver lips McGraw should not be sitting out in the sun somewhere, decaying. It would be... It belongs in a museum. Yes, thank you.

So, yeah, I don't know. It's perfect. I don't know. I guess it's perfect. How about, I got one idea. What if, same ride, exactly the same, so you get your experience intact as you want it, but then that saloon where the painting of Barnabas T. Bullion is hanging out. Go ahead.

You get to the very end. And now your train stops. And an animatronic of Barnabas T. Bullion leans out and says, hey, you came back empty handed. I need more gold. Go back in. And then he uses the saloon door to kick the train backwards and then you do

the whole thing backwards. And then he hands you a beer. That's much too pleasant. I want him to give me an assignment. Here's some incentive. You'll get the other half of the beer when you come back with some bullion. Yes. And then you get to have a beer

with Barnabas T. Bullion who by now is not an animatronic but Tony Baxter in a top hat and you get to hang out with him and drink a beer or on off days Donald Sutherland sure also maybe an idea on overlay is the Nightmare Before Christmas Big Thunder overlay

where Jack is taking over The mine train Perfect right Totally sign off Yeah perfect Makes perfect sense Yeah it's great Totally adds up

This is It's honestly true It's There's not much You could say you want to do to it Yeah It's there It's trusty

It's reliable The little train that could No offense to Casey Jr. But Fuck Casey Jr. Alright offense to Casey Jr., but fuck Casey Jr. All right. I like Casey Jr. I'm just trying to get under Jason's skin.

All the trains are going to roll. Make it train. Make it train. Well, what a wonderful ride. What a wonderful time. Molly Lambert, you survived Podcast The Ride. Yeah, thanks for having me so much. I'll see you guys at CityWalk. Yes, anytime. I

feel refreshed. I could go back up there. Yeah, you're always there. Yeah, happy to do it. Hey, our new thing, we exit, to quote Banksy, we exit through the gift shop. Is there anything you'd like to plug? Just Nightcall. Everybody check out Nightcall, a podcast

about weird stuff sometimes theme parks sure which are weird well it seems like it and you do have like this you do have this depth of knowledge you taught us some stuff today and uh dark rides we all are united in our love our love of dark rides oh yeah as as you should be um and i guess people can happily not find you on Twitter at least happy for you I'm on Instagram would it be fun if they tried to look

and then couldn't find you would that give you a satisfaction of like oh got away yeah yeah where'd she go a Barnabas T. Bullion

type character she slipped out of my fingers we would be okay though if you reactivated for like one day to plug the show cause you did have a lot of followers.

You never know if I come back. Old bullion over here. There is greedy. Always greedy. So you gold nuggets equals subscribers. Speaking of which, you can subscribe to their Patreon. Wait, how do you find that? Why, Scott, you just type in

patreon.com slash podcast the ride. Wonderful. You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram at podcast the ride. Email us at podcast the ride at gmail.com. I think that's it. Yeah, all the stuff. We have a Facebook group too. Yeah, more Patreon episodes are probably coming soon.

They have to be. We're obligated. They will get them. I better be more committed than probably. Yeah, but hey, check out all the things. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner, Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey.

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