02x02 - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

[bunniefuu]

[birds chirping]

[announcer] Remain seated, please.

[in Spanish] Please remain seated.

[♪ theme music]

[♪ epic music]

[in English] There's something brand new
on the horizon.

-[thunder rumbling]
-[riders screaming]

[♪ upbeat music]

[narrator]
Gripping, roaring, bending, twisting,

-not to mention…
-[goat bleats]

…uh, whatever it is he's doing up there.

-It's a little unnerving.
-[goat bleats]

Anyway… this wild ride

through the rocky outcrops
of the American Frontier…

[bird squawks]

…is an express train to fun!

[Southerner] Howdy, partners!

[narrator]
With stops all around the world…

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
will make you exclaim with glee…

Hold onto your hats and glasses,
the wildest ride in the wilderness!

[narrator]
And really, this rail-based attraction

was inevitable for the Disney Parks.

This is something
that had to come to be eventually,

our railroad, our train
at the heart of the thrill attraction.

[narrator]
Because Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

all started here.

Which is no surprise,
because Walt Disney loved trains.

-All aboard!
-[train horn honks]

Trains were a part of his whole psyche,
I think.

He had his own backyard railroad

with a featured engine, the Lilly Belle,
named after his wife.

So when Disneyland opened,
it was a lot about trains

because that was Walt's hobby.

[narrator] And here in Frontierland,
was one particularly curious train.

Live pack mules that you could ride on
in a pack mule train.

[narrator]
No, not the mule train, this train!

[train conductor] All aboard, folks!

[narrator] A place where two tracks
converged with Walt's love for trains

and the history
of America's Wild Frontier.

He created an area in Frontierland,
which was an Old West town.

[announcer] Rainbow Ridge is
a Frontier Traffic Center.

Their stagecoaches and conestoga wagons
arrive and depart

just as they did in the days gone by.

[narrator] And at the center of it all…

this charming little choo-choo.

Called Rainbow Caverns Mine Train.

This was a vast adventure
throughout Frontierland of the desert.

It would take you through
the natural vistas of the Old West.

And then you would go inside the mountain,

and there were colored waterfalls in there
with stalactites and stalagmites

and it was really lovely.

[narrator] And by 1960,
it had become even lovelier.

It evolved into the attraction
that came to be called

the Mine Train
Through Nature's Wonderland.

[train conductor]
♪ All aboard the Mine Train… ♪

They're essentially the same attraction,

but Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland
was a great expansion of it.

We redesigned the entire desert area
and expanded it way out to there.

And it added all kinds of scenes,
including a trestle that goes over a river

through a beautiful environment,
where there are bears.

[narrator]
Many of which came from the imagination

of one of the brightest, funniest
and newest artists on the Disney roster.

-[chuckles]
-Well, at least new to Imagineering.

I was a man that had been sitting on my…

hind end for, like,


[narrator] But the Mine Train
Through Nature's Wonderland

was one of his first forays
into Imagineering.

And Marc Davis played a large part

in creating this beloved early
Disney immersive experience.

When he first came to Imagineering,
he added a lot of humor.

[announcer]
That critter there, that's Itchy Sam.

He's having himself a time.

[laughter]

[narrator] But, as hilarious
and delightful as it was,

the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland

did have a couple of issues.

It was quite leisurely.

It was poky, it was slow.

And then there was also the pack mules.

[mules bray]

[narrator] Um, no,
the pack mules didn't last long.

Because they tried to nibble at you.

[narrator] Despite the lack of thrills…

guests very much enjoyed the Mine Train
Through Nature's Wonderland,

as it chugged away
along the railroad of time,

through the '60s and into the '70s.

But, as a new decade dawned,

something far from poky

-was on the horizon.
-[riders screaming]

Because Disney Parks were about
to be struck by Big Thunder.

[thunder rumbling]

Which you find quite a bit of in Florida,

where in the late 1960s,
Imagineers were hard at work,

designing and building
the all-new Walt Disney World Resort.

The Imagineers wanted some differences
between Disneyland and Magic Kingdom Park.

So one of the differences was going to be…

there would be
no Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.

Why take pirates to Florida
when they've been promoting pirates

for several hundred years down there.

[narrator] Exactly!

So Walt's creative team
had a different idea for Florida.

The idea was to take the cowboys
to Florida

and give them a similar show
in the opposite way.

[narrator] And thus the plan became…

Pirates of the Caribbean,
of the West, and the East.

It would be one of three attractions

in a massive themed area
called Thunder Mesa.

And it was big.

It took up a whole kind
of western section of Frontierland

in the Magic Kingdom.

And the only thing I can describe that was
that big in today's Disney knowledge,

would be the Cars Land rock or…
or Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.

It was a lot of real estate.

[narrator] Which makes sense,

because Walt and Roy Disney
did buy a lot of real estate.

Walt Disney World is twice as big
as the Island of Manhattan.

[narrator] As plans for the expensive,
Floridan Thunder Mesa took shape,

size was no object.

[Tim] You were on this boat

and you're going through
all this Western scenes.

There's all kinds of shenanigans going on.

[narrator] But time was.

It was so elaborate, it was going to take
some time to create and build.

Certainly past the October 1, 1971 opening
of Walt Disney World.

[narrator] And so,
with Marc's passion projects

slated for phase two development,

Walt Disney World got on with the business
of its 1971 Grand Opening.

And as thousands flocked to the new park…

It was clear they had a problem…

and that was that The Pirates
of the Caribbean wasn't there.

[thunder rumbling]

[narrator] What the public was saying,

sent shivers down the spine
of Walt Disney World management.

The public was starting to become
very vocal about,

if you're gonna go to a Disney Park,
go to California,

because the new ride they opened
out there, Pirates of the Caribbean,

is way beyond anything
in Walt Disney World.

[narrator] But they did have a plan.

And there was no plan for making
The Pirates of the Caribbean.

So… panic.

So they knew
they had to build a pirate ride

which would be a ton of money,

and they had to do it really fast.

[narrator]
Meaning Walt Disney World would now have

Pirates of the Caribbean, and…

a Western-themed Pirates of the Caribbean.

-[chuckles]
-Well, you can't have two.

That put a spotlight on
what are we gonna do with Western River?

[narrator] Well, they weren't thinking
about shelving it, were they?

In Imagineering, there's hundreds
of thousands of sketches.

People are sketching all the time.

And half the time, they go into drawers
never to see the light of day again.

[narrator]
But, the living legend, Marc Davis,

had poured all of his best ideas

into this incredible
Western expanse of entertainment.

The ride was absolutely stunning.

[narrator] Well, this man should know.

He worked under Marc Davis on it.

Well, my name is Tony Baxter

and I spent my entire career
working for the Walt Disney company.

[narrator]
Starting when he was a teenager.

It started with Disneyland
as an ice-cream scooper.

And it wasn't
that I wanted to scoop ice-cream,

but I really wanted to work at Disneyland.

[narrator] But it didn't take long
for this young ice-cream scooper

to realize that the real action
didn't happen at Disneyland

but at the Walt Disney
Imagineering Facilities

about an hour's drive up the road.

I remember one day, this kid showed up

with this kind of a gravity machine
in the back of a vehicle

and set it up and started to describe
why he wanted to come to Imagineering.

A few minutes into his demo,
I basically told the guys,

"Hire this guy,
he's never gonna leave us alone."

I guess Bob Gurr was kind of right.

In that if I didn't get hired,
I would've pestered them, uh, forever.

There are people like that.

They have their heart set on something,

and they will never leave you alone
until you hire them.

[narrator] And so, they did hire Tony.

[Tony] My first job at Imagineering
was working in a model shop

and that was kind of a training ground.

And then I was sent out to Florida,
to work on Walt Disney World.

And when I came back from that,

Imagineering was kind of in a,
you know, downscaling mode.

And so, I had to find an attraction.

And so, that's where I started working
with Marc Davis.

[narrator] On Thunder Mesa,
which was now… about to get canceled.

Yeah.

[narrator]
But that idea was not acceptable to Tony.

I didn't wanna ever get anything
where we're ruling it out.

[narrator] And besides, there was
more to it than just the boat ride.

On the front of his attraction, he had
the appearance of a mine train ride.

It wasn't developed enough to know
if it was gonna be fun and thrilling.

I was very inspired by that.

And I knew I had to extract it,
while trying to not offend Marc.

[narrator] An intimidating prospect
for a young Imagineer,

who'd been working under Marc Davis.

And now, he was proposing
throwing out a bunch of his boss's work.

Who would do such a thing?

Spoiler alert! This guy.

With an opportunity
to create his first attraction,

Tony applied his trademark persistence…

This guy, he's never gonna leave us alone.

…to convince imposing
Disney Executive, Card Walker,

that this small part of Thunder Mesa
was a big idea worth saving.

We could build this big Thunder

for about a quarter of what the cost
would've been for the Western River Ride

and I think that's where I got
the corporate level vote

to go with Big Thunder.

[narrator] And so,
thanks to Pirates of the Caribbean,

Thunder Mesa was scaled back,
and Tony Baxter needed to dig in

and get his hands dirty,
on what was now a mountain of work.

I think this was the first attraction,
big attraction,

that was created
without any Walt Disney input at all.

So Tony and his team were making
handmade models.

[Tim]
And you just poured over that, going,

"Oh, my gosh,
look where the train's gonna go!

Look what it's gonna do, this is gonna be
so exciting, it's so neat!"

[narrator] And finally, after developing,
creating, working and reworking…

There were nine different models made

and they were very intricate,
very detailed.

In fact, they were using Q-Tips
for the rail tracks…

[chuckles]
…in these models.

[narrator] Oh, but not for long.

Because on January 15th, 1975,

Tony Baxter was able to witness
the opening of…

[Mickey Mouse]
We proudly present Space Mountain!

[narrator] Oh, that's the wrong mountain.
What happened there?

About halfway through
my design on Big Thunder,

all of a sudden,
there was this other thing.

We had landed on the moon

and NASA was right near Walt Disney World…

-[launch commentator] Ignition.
-…and we knew

people were gonna visit us,

-and then go over to the Cape.
-[launch commentator] Lift off!

[narrator] And suddenly,
one of Walt Disney's ideas

came out of the drawer.

And they again looked back
through the Walt book,

and there was this thing

that was tentatively called
Space Mountain.

That was in during Walt's time,
he saw it, John Hench had drawn it

and they began to refine it.

And the next thing you knew,
both Big Thunder and Western River

were up against something
that was topical, tremendously exciting

and doing a roller coaster
in complete blackness was unheard of.

[♪ epic music]

[narrator]
Soon, people all around the world

would hear of Space Mountain.

And, with only enough budget
for one mountain…

Big Thunder was put on the shelf.

More likely… an actual drawer.

And that's where our story…
might have ended.

The whole thing crumbled.

[narrator]
But all hope hadn't eroded just yet.

Because back on the West Coast
in Disneyland,

the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland
was still chugging away.

But it looked like it might be coming
to the end of the line.

Nature's Wonderland
was getting a little bit tired.

[mules bray]

It wasn't thrilling and the animation
by even their standards after Pirates,

was first grade versus college level.

-[owl hoots]
-[announcer] Howdy hooty,

you're awake, yeah?

Their big measuring stick was

how many clicks
does the turnstile do in an hour?

And when it gets down to a certain point,

you'd say,
this is not a preferred attraction.

[narrator]
And those turnstiles told a story

-of what people really preferred.
-[crickets chirping]

Guests, especially young guests,
were seeking thrill attractions.

[narrator] Right. Like Space Mountain
back in Florida.

Now it seemed the tables had turned,
where once Florida had pirate envy…

The Pirates of the Caribbean wasn't there.

…now California had an adrenalin deficit.

So… something had to be done.

[narrator] So once again,

Tony Baxter's employment future
looked bright.

When Disneyland finally opened…

well, they…
they put Space Mountain in as well.

But that was in Tomorrowland of course.

On the, uh, East side of the park,
the West side of Disneyland,

the Mark Twain, you had the Colombia ship,
you had the island, it's all great.

-It's a little slow.
-[ship horn honks]

[narrator] And Disney management
knew exactly what to do.

We need a thrill attraction at Disneyland,
in Frontierland

to take the place of Mine Train
Through Nature's Wonderland.

-[narrator] Wracking their brains…
-[announcer] Big Thunder.

…and searching
Imagineering's drawer for ideas…

-[announcer] Big Thunder.
-…once more…

Tony Baxter steps in.

[narrator] Tony Baxter stepped in!

And they said, "Well, we really liked
what you were doing in Florida

for that thing called Big Thunder.

Could you make that work at Disneyland?"

And I was so thankful that there might be
a way to keep it going

rather than shutting it down,
while Space Mountain happened,

that I said, "Well, yeah, sure."

[narrator] And so finally,

the train had left the station,
albeit a little late,

-thanks to the re-routing through Florida.
-[inaudible laugh]

But not to worry,

because all the hard work
was already done.

All Tony had to do was take his plans
and bring in the bulldozers.

Oh, that and one other little thing.

I never realized it was gonna require

completely sending all the blueprints
through backwards.

Because the only space at Disneyland

was over where Nature's Wonderland existed
and that was on the other side.

So all the dips and turns and everything
had to be totally reverse engineered.

And imagining Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad for Disneyland,

Tony Baxter and his team drew inspiration
from Bryce Canyon in Utah.

Very whimsical looking.

And it was gargantuan in scale.

When the Imagineers were building
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,

it was one of the largest undertakings

and largest developments to occur
at Disneyland, in a long time.

I mean,
it took up a very, very big footprint,

while the park is open and operating
by the way,

and where Big Thunder sits, it sits
basically in the middle of Frontierland.

So you're trying to build this mountain,

while you're having an operating park
happening around you.

So it was a big, big deal.

[narrator]
A big deal and a big attraction.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
made some big promises.

[announcer] Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

is perhaps one of the most thrilling
and imaginative adventures of all.

It's in keeping with Disney tradition,
an experience,

a show with runaway mine trains

that whisk guests
through dark tunnels and mineshafts.

Past raging waterfalls
and into deep canyons.

Face to face with an avalanche.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be
an adventure that's as downright wild

as the reckless days of a gold rush.

Currently under construction for both
Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

[narrator] What? Walt Disney World?

Well, it turns out Card Walker
and Disney management thought,

"Why not learn from our mistakes?"

The Pirates of the Caribbean wasn't there.

[narrator] And just decided to do
both parks at the same time.

So Tony Baxter… re-reversed his plans.

At Anaheim, you do a ton of right turns.

In Magic Kingdom,
you're gonna take a lot of left turns.

They are just true mirror images
of each other.

[narrator] The movement might be the same,
but the vistas are slightly different.

Because, well, they wouldn't wanna
make this too easy for themselves.

In Florida, the Imagineers echoing Walt,
didn't want to just repeat themselves.

So they gave it a different environment
based on Monument Valley in Arizona.

It's very similar rides,

but they still are unique and different
from each other.

[narrator] However, they were
exactly alike in one important way.

I love our story,
I think it's so different

than a lot of other stories.

[narrator]
The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad story.

Because there had to be a reason for it
taking off and going crazy.

[narrator] There really did.

And so, what is the… uh, story?

It's not just about
a bumpy, twisting coaster.

[narrator] Ooh, but don't worry,
there's plenty of that!

There were mine train rides
at other parks,

but Disney, of course, was not going to do
anything like the other parks had done.

Start putting you into a story world,
which is in this case,

an Old West Mining Company and a mountain.

[narrator] And some greedy miners
who dug… too deep.

If you dig deeper,

the spirits of Big Thunder Mountain
are gonna come after us and curse us.

[narrator] And with this curse,
comes devastation.

We experienced havens,
mining equipment disappeared,

trains started to drive themselves…

-[goat bleats]
-…and goats started to chew on dynamite.

[narrator] But this isn't just any goat.

At least in California,
I think the star of the show

is our surprising little goat
with a dynamite stick.

[goat bleats]

The name of our goat is Billy.

-[narrator] Well, unofficially, at least.
-[goat bleats]

I don't think we would be Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad without Billy.

And it's grown its own subculture.

He's kind of the symbol of who we are
as a team, kind of our team leader.

[narrator] But the question
everybody wants to know, is, uh… why?

-I don't know.
-[narrator] Well, Julie knows.

A lot of our guests love riding
our attraction because of the goat trick.

[narrator] That's right. The goat trick.

The goat trick,
when they stare at the goat

while they go around
the tight curve there,

which makes it seem like
you're going too fast.

-As soon as you see the goat…
-[♪ upbeat music]

…turn all the way to your right,

and through physics, it almost feels like
you are spinning faster than what you are.

It's grown this cultural thing,
where people will ride it

and be obsessed on the goat, you know.

So the goat trick
has come into, uh, its own.

-And we have goats on all of the rides.
-[goat bleats]

But I think the position at Disneyland,
for some reason,

has lifted it

out of being just another character
along the track, into notoriety.

-[goat bleats, shrieks]
-[narrator] Don't look in its eyes, or do!

Anyway, the menagerie
of mechanical animals in many ways,

was Tony Baxter's tribute to his mentor

and the original beloved attraction
that Tony had just bulldozed.

And the goat kind of came to life
as an homage

to what Marc Davis would've done.

I have to say that if we had been able
to give it to Marc,

it would've been ten-fold probably more.

You can see classic Marc Davis moments
in the attraction.

I have always loved
Marc's love of critters and animals.

And here you are
on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,

"Wow, we're going really fast

and this train's running away
and we're in this mine.

And there's an expl*si*n here!"

And then… there's a possum
sort of swinging in the tree.

And you're, like, "Huh? That's weird."

[narrator] Well, they are possums.
Definitely don't look into their eyes.

-[possum squeaks]
-[narrator] Anyway…

There's something brand new
on the horizon.

…on September 2nd, 1979,

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
finally opened at Disneyland.

[♪ grandiose music]

And then, about a year later,
in Walt Disney World.

And guests flocked
to these exciting new attractions.

[riders screaming]

And as for that old measuring stick…

How many clicks
does the turnstile do in an hour?

[narrator] Well, we'll let the turnstiles
do the talking.

Oh, and this reporter.

I counted them and we came up
with the number for you, umpteen thousand.

But seriously,
judging from their comments,

Big Thunder Mountain
is a very big success.

[narrator] It surely was.

[reporter]
There is so much going on during the ride

that you can't possibly see it
all in one trip.

[representative] Our shows create
an interest to go back again and again.

And that's kind of the magic
of Disney World and Disneyland.

[narrator] Having brought
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

to its wildly successful destination
in two parks,

it was time for Imagineers
to put their feet up and relax.

No.
[chuckles]

Uh… actually,
it was back to the salt mines.

Or in this case, the gold mines.

After Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
was a tremendous hit

at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World,

of course they wanted one
at Tokyo, Disneyland.

[narrator]
And in 1987, that's just what they got.

Tokyo is similar to the one in Florida,
that's Monument Valley.

[narrator] But it's similar
to both its predecessors

in one very special way.

The unbridled optimism
of its cast members.

[in Japanese] We came to the West
in search of gold during the Gold Rush.

We haven't hit gold yet,

but we're not giving up on our dream.

And as miners, we're working right here
on Big Thunder Mountain.

[narrator in English]
Out of all three Asian resorts,

Tokyo Disneyland is the only one
to feature a Big Thunder Mountain.

-No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
-[laughter]

[narrator] Well, at least
if we're going strictly by name.

-[in Japanese] Yes.
-[narrator in English] Because in 2012,

Hong Kong Disneyland installed
what could best be described as…

Big Thunder's spiritual cousin.

It's called Big Grizzly Mountain
Runaway Mine Cars.

While it is not a Big Thunder attraction,
there are many similarities,

geysers and the mountainous terrain,

and certainly
the Frontierland Western theme.

In an area called Grizzly Gulch,
it's reminiscent of Big Thunder Mountain.

It's also reminiscent
of the Old Mine Train,

because it's populated with bears,
Grizzly, get it?

[bears growling]

And they're very reminiscent of the bears
that Marc Davis had designed,

way back when for the Mine Train.

So it's kind of a fun mash-up.

[announcer] Well, stay seated, folks.

And as the story goes,
the settlers of Grizzly Gulch

struck gold on August eighth, 1888.

There's a lot of eights in that.

So with the auspicious number eight
holding a lot of importance

in the local Chinese lore

because they think
that's a very lucky number.

Four, on the other hand,
is an unlucky number.

So instead of going down
shaft number eight

to see where all of the gold was found,

you go down
to the dangerous shaft number four.

[riders screaming]

[Mark] There's a mine and all of that.

But the difference here
is really the thrill.

You're going forward and you look like
you're gonna climb this large mountain.

And suddenly…

it all reverses and you're suddenly going
flying backwards for half the time.

So I think it's a very different kind
of experience there.

[narrator] But, getting firmly back on
the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Track,

when it comes to versions
around the world,

we simply must talk about this one.

In 1992, it got probably
its most exciting incarnation.

[riders screaming]

[Tim] And that is Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad in Disneyland, Paris.

[narrator] But Big Thunder Mountain
is based around the American Wild West,

which you wouldn't think
is of particular interest

-to the French.
-No.

[bird squawks]

[narrator] But what is… is the cinema.

And thanks to those same films
that inspired Walt Disney, it turns out…

They love the Wild West, and they love
what John Ford is showing them in movies,

and John Wayne and…

uh, they know Monument Valley,
and they know the Grand Canyon.

[narrator] And so,
with an enthusiastic audience,

Tony Baxter suddenly found himself
in a position

to make the biggest Big Thunder Mountain
of his career.

You know, it's very seldom
that a designer gets to do, uh, redesign

the same project four times.
[chuckles]

[narrator] But in Paris,
not only would the attraction be bigger…

Every other park, it was added
after the park was already built.

So in Paris, I was determined
we're going to put it front and center.

[narrator] Actually, he was even able
to do a little bit better than that.

It's on an island.

[narrator]
In the very center of Frontierland.

Because it changes the experience.
You board land side,

you get in the vehicle and say,
"How am I gonna get out there?"

And so, the attraction begins
by plunging you down into darkness

as you're really traveling
beneath the river.

And then coming up into the attraction.

[riders screaming]

And then at the end of the attraction,

after you think you've had all the thrills
you could possibly imagine,

we plunge you down beneath the river
to give you a great finale

and bring you back up.

So it not only changed
the place-making of the attraction

and how wonderful it sits
as the centerpiece of Frontierland,

but it really amped up
the thrill of the attraction as well.

For sure, Big Thunder Mountain is
the perfect mix between sensations

and the scenery
is absolutely breathtaking.

You get this beautiful sense
on colors everywhere.

You feel like
you're in the middle of Monument Valley.

I mean, it's absolutely gorgeous.
It's my favorite by far.

[narrator]
But it's not just its good looks

that separate this Big Thunder
from the rest.

Frontierland at Disneyland Paris

is wholly different
from the Magic Kingdom or Disneyland,

in the sense that it has
a very definitive storyline.

We tried to connect
all the stories within the land.

[narrator] And oh, what stories.

It's about a gold baron.

Henry Ravenswood who owned the mine.

Whose, you know, very elaborate house
is up there on the hill,

and it's falling into disrepair,
that would be Phantom Manor,

their version of the Haunted Mansion.

[thunder rumbling]

That in turn changed of course,
Phantom Manor.

This whole finale act

where going out into…
rather than the graveyard,

you're going out into the Western town.

So tying it back
to what you're seeing in Frontierland.

So all of those elements
are very cleverly, I think,

story-wise,
integrated at Disneyland Paris.

[narrator]
Which brings us back to the storyline

of the original attraction,
with plot twists like…

Goats started to chew on dynamite.

[narrator]
Yeah, that's pretty much the highlight.

-Yeah.
-[goat bleats]

When the attraction opened,

it was really about the wildest ride
in the wilderness, this runaway train.

[Southerner] This here's the wildest ride
in the wilderness!

[narrator] And of course,
there's nothing at all wrong with that.

But in Disneyland…

it was a story that had, well…

-[cheers and applause]
-…remained unchanged since 1979.

Hey, this thing needs some love.

Just like your house at home,

you need to repaint it,
you need to rebuild something.

[narrator] The Imagineers had to rebuild
the entire track actually.

Things just wear out over time.

[narrator]
Luckily, things had come a long way

for bent steel roller coasters.

[Ray] The track, back in the '70s,
was all hand-fabricated.

In the rehab, it was all done digitally,
and then computer machines bend the track.

Because computers figure out
all the geometry and all the forces

and they're able to do it seamlessly.

[narrator] But redoing an entire track
sounds neither quick nor easy.

Which meant, like,
complete closure of the attraction.

-[insects chirping]
-[animal shrieks]

And it was decided that anything else
that needed attention at that time

was gonna be done too.

[narrator]
Which of course included the story.

And so, we went in and looked,

"Okay, what can we do in there

that would be fun
and exciting and different?"

[narrator]
And here's what they came up with.

Barnabas T. Bullion is
the proprietor and owner, if you will,

of Big Thunder Mining Company.

He established a town
called Rainbow Ridge right next door.

[narrator] But hold on one second,
there's something about that face.

Who happens to look, by the way,
a little bit like Tony Baxter.

-[♪ dramatic music]
-[people exclaiming]

I have certainly seen
the rendering they have done.

And I felt the facial expression
on that painting was pretty severe.

[narrator]
Meh, maybe it's just a coincidence.

Well, whoever he's modeled after,

Barnabas T. Bullion was a big deal
in Big Thunder Mountain.

And he's also a member
of an organization called S.E.A.,

Society of Explorers and Adventurers.

[narrator]
This exclusive international society

is comprised of fictional characters

featured in Disney attractions
around the globe.

Like Captain Mary Oceaneer.

Doctor Albert Falls
and Harrison High Tower III,

to name a few recognizable ones.

Yeah, that is a thing.

[narrator] But don't be fooled

by the pleasant demeanor
of this mining baron.

He's not necessarily the most, um…

uh, you know, positive character
in the fact that he is, uh…

he went into a mountain
and maybe he shouldn't have.

He wants that gold.

He doesn't care how it gets out,
but he wants that gold

and he wants the money for himself.

[narrator]
But, as Tony Baxter, ooh, sorry…

Barnabas T. Bullion
lords over the mountain,

it's Ray here who,
like the great Tony Baxter before him,

needed to dig in and get his hands dirty.

As a Creative Director,
I'm the guy who's kind of looking at

and herding everybody to a common goal.

[narrator] But Ray wasn't just directing
traffic on the Big Thunder refurb,

he was also… timing it.

I had to ride the ride
maybe 15 times a night,

every night after the park closed,
to adjust the show timing.

[narrator] And Ray took his sweet time,
perfecting the timing.

We had time.

[narrator] But what they didn't have
was an ending to the attraction.

The finale was not operating at that time.

[narrator]
Well, if you're looking for ideas,

a good place to start
would be… the drawer.

Hundreds of thousands of sketches
put into drawers,

never to see the light of day again.

[narrator] For one particular idea,
the light would shine again.

And it just so happened to be
one of Ray's old ideas.

I'd done a bunch of sketches
a few years before that.

[narrator]
And they were really quite dynamite!

Uh, literally, dynamite.

It had always been kind of this danger,
the rocks and caves are falling in on you.

Now, we decided to go
with some exploding dynamite effects.

[expl*si*n]

Stuff is literally exploding at you,
dynamite going off all around you.

[narrator]
In a very precise manner of course.

We were able to scan digitally
all our caverns.

We were able to scan all the spaces.

We were able to texture map everything.

And so we were able to create
these crazy effects and crazy projections

that weren't possible… back in the '70s.

[explosions]

[narrator] Well, with a dynamite ending
and a brand-new track…

[riders screaming]

…Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
had never been better.

Putting a smile on the faces
of guests and Imagineers alike.

-In fact, it insighted so much joy…
-[cheers and applause]

…that the attraction
soon inspired a comic book,

honoring the great creator
of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

There was a series of comics
on Big Thunder,

in which I appeared to be the villain.
[chuckles]

I was looking at it in line
at a restaurant one night, with horror.

And the person that was with me
snapped a photo.

And when he sent it to me,
they both looked identical.

And he said, "So, what was it
you were saying about not looking

like the way the character is drawn?"

[narrator] Whether he likes it or not,

Tony Baxter has been rightly immortalized
into Disney history.

So I've kind of accepted it.

[narrator] But of course,
Tony Baxter's character

is by no means Big Thunder's G-O-A-T.

The literal greatest of all time
is of course, the goat.

And in fact… a fan made this for me…
[chuckles]

…because she was so enamored of Billy.

It's beautifully done,
it looks better than the real thing.

[goat bleats]

[narrator]
And just like the attraction itself,

Billy the Goat's legacy
is born of a rich history.

-Stretching back to…
-[train conductor] All aboard, folks!

…right here.
Where earlier mine trains once meandered

and the legacy of Marc Davis
can be seen to this day.

I think
Big Thunder's a great hand-off really,

between the first generation of Imagineers
and the second.

You know, you think of Marc Davis

and his original thinking
of a Western-themed land

and all the attractions
that would be in that.

And how Tony was inspired by that,

it really brought
some of that thinking into the idea

that became Big Thunder Mountain.

[Jim] Guests going to Disneyland today

can see remnants of Mine Train
Through Nature's Wonderland.

-[animal honks]
-[narrator] That's right.

In an homage to his mentor…

[train horn honks]

…Tony reused parts of the very first thing

that inspired Big Thunder Mountain.

The biggest element
that we were able to salvage

was the little town of Rainbow Ridge.

[Ray]
The entire little town of Rainbow Ridge,

which is at the end of the ride,

it used to be the dispatch point
for the little trains

that were on that attraction.

So some of those things were held over
and reused in Big Thunder Mountain.

It's amazing to think
that they are there to this day.

[narrator] It surely is.

They are still there to this day,
right, Ray?

All of the buildings in that little town
at Rainbow Ridge were rebuilt.

They were termite damaged.

[narrator] But never fear,
because Ray knew exactly where to go…

the drawer of course.

So we dug out all the blueprints
from Imagineering and we went through,

worked with the carpenters and the crews,

and recreated those buildings
from the ground up.

[narrator]
With Ray's faithful reproduction,

the spirit of the Mine Train
Through Nature's Wonderland lives on.

[train horn honks]

As it also does in Walt Disney World.

We have this beautiful painting
of Big Thunder Mountain,

kind of the Thunder Mountain Range.

And so as you look at this painting,

it has the original Western River
Expedition Mesa.

You then see Magic Kingdom's Big Thunder.

And behind that, into the clouds,
you see Disneyland's,

you see Tokyo's and you see Paris's
with its distinctive arch in the water.

All of that, and the whole kind
of Big Thunder range,

including the range that never got built,
is there on display in the park today.

[narrator] But if you wanna know how
Disney Park fans across the world feel

about Big Thunder,
there's only one thing that really counts.

[♪ dramatic music]

Well, it's the turnstiles, obviously.

Because to this day,
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

is one of the most popular attractions

in the four Disney Parks
where it operates.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is
an all-time Disney classic.

It's an attraction
that people just cannot get enough of.

And really shows
how much all the work and imagination

the Imagineers put into it, paid off.

[narrator] And for that young
ambitious former ice-cream scooper…

He's never gonna leave us alone.

…Big Thunder Mountain
secured Tony Baxter's legacy

as a leading Imagineer
for decades to come.

Sometimes you will meet people
and you can just tell.

I had no idea where he would wind up

but look at all the things that he did
for Disney thereafter.

I worked my entire career
for the Walt Disney company,

primarily at Imagineering.

And worked my way up
to Senior Vice President

in the Creative Development Department.

[narrator]
Oh, there's more to come from Tony.

But for now…

Okay, Big Thunder, done it. Home run.

[narrator] In fact, you could probably say
that Tony hit the bullseye.

-[goat shrieks]
-Uh… goat's eye, goat's eye.

[goat bleats]

[♪ closing theme music]