8. Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars

Image: Disney

Location: Hong Kong Disneyland (2012)
Mountain: Big Grizzly Mountain

The other grizzly-shaped mountain in Disney's mountainous portfolio belongs at Hong Kong Disneyland. The tiny, infamously underbuilt park opened in 2005 (the culmination of a dark period in Disney Parks history) lacking many of the rides most fans would call "essentials." No Pirates, no Haunted Mansion, no "small world," no Peter Pan's Flight, and no Big Thunder Mountain to name just a few. Instead, the puny park had only four lands: Main Street, Adventureland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. Period.

In 2009, Disney issued a mea culpa and announced a massive expansion, adding three new lands in an unprecedented outer loop outside of the park's Railroad, including Toy Story Land and the remarkable Mystic Point (home to the park's new-age version of a haunted house and subject of an in-depth ride-through feature, Modern Marvels: Mystic Manor). The third land, Grizzly Gulch, is sort of like a new-age Frontierland sapping a bit of the raw Americana in favor of the whimsy and fantasy of the Old West.

Image: Disney

Grizzly Gulch's headliner is its own bear-shaped mountain (albeit, a slightly more abstract one than California's, given the need to look like desert rock) with its Runaway Mine Cars roller coaster perhaps best understood as "what Big Thunder Mountain would be like if it were developed after Expedition Everest." The ride launches guests forwards and backwards, passing through the mountain's mining innards and through a few scenes populated by animatronic bears, special effects, and explosions.

7. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Image: Disney

Location: Disneyland (1979), Magic Kingdom (1980), Tokyo Disneyland (1987), Disneyland Paris (1992)
Mountain: Big Thunder Mountain

Big Thunder Mountain is a landmark for the part it plays in so many stories in Disney Parks history. Maybe that's because it's a product of the '70s – a time of unbelievable change at Disney Parks. Still reeling from Walt's death, there was great trepidation through the '70s about how – or even if – Walt Disney Productions and its theme parks would survive. The 1960s had been an era of expensive, highly-themed dark rides (like Pirates and Haunted Mansion), and new leadership wasn't sure that such elaborate, ambitious projects should take place anymore. That's why Magic Kingdom never got its planned headliner – a Western cousin of Pirates we studied in-depth in its own feature, Possibilityland: Western River Expedition. 

Image: Disney

Instead, executives opted for something "cheap and cheerful," eager to bolster the parks without too much investment... or risk. Big Thunder Mountain was seen as a much safer (and much less costly) way to infuse thrills into Disney Parks while also bolstering Frontierland, which was feeling stale in an era where Americans' interest in the Old West was waning.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad turned the West wild, sending guests racing through the sunset-hued rockwork of the American Southwest, through collapsing tunnels, among gold mines, and past desert animals. But more than a standalone adventure, it was also meant to be an ambassador. The Disneyland version – intentionally stylized differently than the rest – was originally meant to be the mere prologue to an entire new themed area – a Possibilityland: Discovery Bay – that would've been a seaside, steampunk San Franscisco of inventions, zephyrs, submarines, and more.

Image: Disney

While that extension of Big Thunder Mountain's story never came to be, its most recent installation at Disneyland Paris also proved to be its most ambitious. Given that Paris' version was the only Big Thunder Mountain to be master-planned and built into the park for opening, it was given a prominent position in the center of the Rivers of the Far West (where American fans would expect Tom Sawyer Island) and a prominent position in the land's story, creating a massive, overarching continuity that ties the ride directly to the park's haunted house, a Modern Marvel: Phantom Manor.

Phew! As simple as it may seem by today's standards, Big Thunder Mountain was a game-changer whose position in Disney Parks history acts as the pivot point for many other projects. And at the end of the day, it simply feels like Big Thunder Mountain has elevated through generations to become a Disney classic.

6. Splash Mountain

Image: Disney

Location: Disneyland (1989), Tokyo Disneyland (1992), and Magic Kingdom (1992)
Mountain: Chickapin Hill

Just as the '70s were marked by budget-conscious steel coasters, the '80s were a time of cinematic splendor at the hands of new CEO Michael Eisner. As the story goes, early on in his tenure, Eisner was desperate to take Disney Parks to the next level, and make them current, interesting, relevant, thrilling places where pre-teens and teenagers would want to go.

To help, he brought his young son Breck along on a visit to Disney Imagineering headquarters in Glendale to see what projects they had in the pipeline. And while Imagineers gathered around models of rides that former executives had axed and pleaded with Eisner to green-light Discovery Bay, his son wandered off and found the model of Zip-a-Dee River Run, a thrilling flume ride through Disney's The Song of the South. (Which, interestingly, made the flume a $75 million ride based on a film that's never been released on home video in the US.)

Image: Disney

Breck was in awe of the idea and allegedly told his dad, "I'd want to ride this one." Convinced that the flume would be a step in his mission toward making Disney Parks thrilling, cinematic, cool places to be, Eisner allegedly green-lit the project on the spot, requiring only that it cross-promote Disney's 1984 fantasy rom-com, Splash. (And since Disney designers refused to put an animatronic Madison the mermaid among its show scenes, he'd have to do with simply calling the ride Splash Mountain.)

At Disneyland, the ride was built on a narrow strip of land in the Bear Country area and was populated by 103 Audio-Animatronics (most salvaged from the America Sings! rotating theater show in Tomorrowland, which had replaced the Modern Marvel: Carousel of Progress). The ride was then opened at Tokyo Disneyland in 1992 (in perhaps its most elaborate and built-out form), and opened at Magic Kingdom the day after, each with 63 Audio Animatronics from scratch.

Image: Disney

The ride follows the almost-indiscernible story of the clever Br'er Rabbit, who sets off from his home in the prickly Briar Patch at the base of Chickapin Hill looking for greener pastures... only to find himself on the menu of the always-sinister Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear. It's the Rabbit's quick thinking and a little reverse psychology when cornered ("Oh, no, Mr. Fox! Whatever you do, don't throw me into that there Briar Patch!") that saves the day, sending us over the hill and back home for a rousing riverboat finale. "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-aye, home sweet home is the lesson today!"

5. Radiator Springs Racers

Image: Disney / Pixar

Location: Disney California Adventure (2012)
Mountain: Cadillac Range

When it became clear to Disney executives that the infamous second gate at Disneyland was never going to fix itself, they launched an unprecedented effort to fix the park at its foundation. Disney California Adventure underwent a 5-year reconstruction effort costing more than a billion dollars (when the original park itself had only been $600 million), recasting each of its themed lands as historic, reverent, thoughtful Californian locales rather than the modern spoofs of California they had been.

Image: Disney / Pixar

But the undisputed highlight of the transformation was Cars Land, a bolt-for-bolt recreation of the sleepy town of Radiator Springs from the Disney-Pixar film Cars. The very idea of Radiator Springs (definitely not a California town) seemed at odds with the new, rooted, storied Californian park, but there's no denying that Cars Land changed the game at the Disneyland Resort and beyond.

Image: Disney

Disney's first attempt at an entire, immersive, to-scale themed land based on a single intellectual property, the land is breathtaking in scope, thanks to the unimaginable Cadillac Range that stretches across the horizon – so grand, it ranked among our must-see Seven "Natural" Wonders of the Theme Park World. The Cadillac Rang is absolutely iconic, with its most distant peaks shaped after the tail lights of Cadillac models from 1957, '58, '59, '60, '61, and '62, in order, while somehow looking convincingly possible.

Like a real natural wonder, the Cadillac Range simply must be seen to be believed, as the all-encompassing scale of this vast mountain range fills the eye, creating a backdrop to the southeastern corner of the park.

Image: Disney

The attraction that carries guests up to, around, and through that remarkable range also happens to be one of the most spectacular Disney rides out there. A true Modern Marvel: Radiator Springs Racers is an astounding dark ride populated by amazing Audio-Animatronics, centered around the technology that debuted alongside a Lost Legend: TEST TRACK. The weaving, racing dark ride is a delight. A Disney California Adventure exclusive, the land and its headlining attraction should rank high on most Disney Parks fans' bucket lists as a must-see experience.