Original Thinking

2025 will make it an even 45 years since the ride opened and looking back on it, I have a different perspective given the whole IP driven industry. I guess the days are pretty much gone where your boss sends you out into the park and says “think of something cool for this ride or this area.” Instead of referring to whatever the latest film or toy release was, you think of something that the audience might like from an experience standpoint, then what theme it might be or what might happen to them along the way. WSBR was in effect me looking at what appealed to me as a kid which was Disneyland’s “Mr Toad’s Wild Ride”, it’s reckless nature and then making it a “race” of sorts through some pretty random environments. Everything you saw was unique to the farm, Nothing from a TV show, toy, or movie. I watched an interview on the state of Hollywood with Director George Lucas and he said that there were too many remakes and a lack of “Original thinking.” That was how we thought back then. The thrill of the job was not so much applying an existing story, but doing your best to come up with new one that the guests would like!

So to me, if there is a lasting appeal to WSBR beyond the ride system experience itself, it’s being able to sense that many “wacky” references influenced the show and it felt inspired to a degree. Certainly you can’t hear Mancini in a town of drunken cats just anywhere!