Opening November 1993, Splashtacular was a show that took place around the Fountain of Nations, featuring Disney characters, aliens, a large robotic dinosaur, and a good old fashion battle between good and evil.
The show began with Mickey inviting guests of Epcot to join him around the fountain to celebrate an imaginative journey into space. As the show began, an alien queen infiltrated the presentation to steal all the colors of the rainbow. Along with her evil alien hoards, she summoned an odd sort of skeletal robot T-Rex, or TerrosauX, to assist in her fight (read about his build here). The TerrosauX would rise from behind bushes placed against CommuniCore. In order to defeat the evil queen, Mickey summons his own magic: waters from the newly installed and upgraded jets in the Fountain of Nations. Upon Mickey’s victory, fireworks are sent into the sky above the fountain, and a large, colorful banner is unfurled behind Spaceship Earth.
Though the show as intended to be a fairly permanent addition to Epcot’s central hub area, the show was shut down in June of 1994. Some believe this was due to the fact that Disney executives found it to clash with the modern themes that Innoventions added, while others feel the reaction to the show was simply not what was expected, with most guests finding it cheesy, and representing an unrealistic view of the future when compared to the goals of many other areas of the park.
Regardless of the reason, while the show elements were quickly dismantled, the improvements made to the Fountain of Nations for its presentation were kept, and integrated into the new fountain shows. The TerrosauX was given an Elvis costume, and reused in the Magic Kingdom’s Galaxy Search show before being moved to guard over the entrance to a backstage building. There he sat until June 2012 at which time he was removed, and hasn’t been seen since.
