Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls is a log flume ride that's located at Universal's Islands of Adventure. Based directly off of the classic Dudley Do-Right cartoons, the attraction is essentially one giant episode of the show, but with a lot more water.
In the queue, guests walk through several locations, including one of Snidely Whiplash's hideouts and a theater where Dudley, Horse, and Nell are performing at. The typical Dudley Do-Right story then takes off as guests witness Snidely kidnap Nell from her dressing room, prompting Dudley and Horse to pursue after Snidely yet again. Guests then board floating log-shaped vehicles and follow the bumbling Mountie and his companion on their adventure to save Nell. In the ride, guests wind up in places like a mine shaft, a railroad (which of course Snidely tries to tie Nell to), a sawmill filled with an unusual amount of spinning sawblades, and another one of Snidely's own lairs before plummeting down a 75-foot drop into an explosive shack.
The ride was originally set to start operating in 2000, a year after the park opened; but budget cuts resulted in many elements of the attraction having to be scaled back, which allowed the ride to move ahead of schedule and open with the rest of the park on May 28, 1999.
Tropes shown in Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls include:
- Abandoned Mine: Dudley and Horse venture into the empty "Wontyabe Mine", where they are met with nothing but darkness...and a bear.
- Affectionate Parody: The attraction contains quite a few jabs at the Disney Theme Parks.
- In the queue line, there's several movie poster parodies hanging on the walls, such as "PAWS", "Saw Wars", and "The Silence of the Hams"
- The queue features mounted bear and beaver heads that talk, a spoof of Max, Buff & Melvin from Country Bear Jamboree.
- The ride opens with a bunch of animals playing instruments, a parody of Splash Mountain.
- Snidely at one point can be seen above Wontyabe Mine attempting to drop a boulder onto the riders, mirroring the scene in Snow White's Scary Adventures where the Evil Queen tries to do the same thing.
- Just before the first drop in the attraction, riders narrowly avoid getting hit by a train, a nod to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride note
- One of the last scenes in the ride shows Snidely in a jail cell trying to lure in a beaver that has the keys, parodying the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where imprisoned pirates are trying to get a dog with the keys to come to them.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: This ride is to Universal Orlando as Splash Mountain is to Walt Disney World.
- The Artifact: The reason why there's two separate tracks in the ride's final drop and two unloading stations is because they're a remnant of a plan in the ride's development of it starting off with two log vehicles being conjoined together that would later be split apart in the climax of the attraction (see the Trivia page for more info).
- Bears Are Bad News: A vicious bear pops up behind Dudley right after he tells Horse that he can't see anything.
- Big Bad: Snidely Whiplash.
- The Cameo: Comedians Dom De Luise and Charles Nelson Reilly (both now long since passed) play the wisecracking disembodied bear and beaver trophy heads in the queue, respectively.
- Can't You Read the Sign?: Guests continue past numerous signs telling them to turn back, and in the finale fall into a dynamite shack that has clear warning signs attached to it.
- Chained to a Railway: A staple of Snidely, he ties Nell to some train tracks, along with Horse and Inspector Fenwick.
- Conveyor Belt o' Doom: Nell gets tied to a log and sent towards a sawblade, being yet another one of Snidely's trademarks.
- Did Not Get the Girl: As usual, Dudley does not win over Nell's affections (as she prefers Horse more), with the narrator saying, "And so our hero proves that a Mountie always gets his man, but not always...his girl."
- Excuse Plot: Similar to the nearby Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges, the plot here is extremely limited and mostly aims to recreate the most memorable aspects of the cartoon.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: In the saw mill scene, Dudley and Horse are trapped inside a log, though they both somehow manage to free themselves in-between scenes.
- Human Cannonball: When she is freed, Nell throws Snidely into a cannon and blasts him away.
- Impact Silhouette: After Nell fires Snidely out of a cannon, he crashes through a nearby building, as evidenced by a silhouette hole.
- Inevitable Waterfall: In one scene, Dudley and Horse can be seen in a boat trying to chase after Nell, not realizing that they're about to go over a waterfall.
- Institutional Apparel: In the "Alottapoopoo Prison", Snidely can be wearing the classic black and white striped prison suit.
- Literal Metaphor: When Dudley says, "Horse, it seems I've lost my train of thought!", a train appears and nearly collides with the riders.
- Lumber Mill Mayhem: A large part of the ride is set in an abandoned saw mill, where Snidely attempts to finish Nell off the typical way.
- Neon Sign Hideout: On one side of the facade there's a giant neon sign that says, "HIDEOUT", on it.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Just after Snidely's defeat, Dudley accidentally sets off a bunch of dynamite while celebrating.
- No OSHA Compliance: Even for a cartoon, the saw mill in the ride is filled with all kinds of blatant hazards that make it no wonder why it's abandoned.
- No Peripheral Vision: When trapped in a log, Dudley is unable to realize that Horse is right behind him in the log.
- Non-Fatal Explosions: Riders are sent plunging right into an exploding dynamite shack, but manage to come out completely okay.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The characters are able to jump between locations within an absurd amount of time, even by the cartoon's regular standards.
- Plunger Detonator: There's one just before the ride's final drop, which Dudley accidentally puts his foot down on while celebrating his triumph. The detonator sets off a huge explosion just before the riders drop down and create an even bigger explosion.
- Punny Name:
- One of the locations Dudley and the riders enter is called, "Wontyabe Mine" note .
- The prison at the end of the ride is named "Alottapoopoo Island Prison" note .
- Railroad Tracks of Doom: As mentioned before, one scene in the ride involves the guests just barely dodging an incoming train.
- Rushmore Refacement: Played with. Though Mt. Rushmore doesn't get refaced, the attraction's facade has its own version of Mt. Rushmore, sporting the faces of Dudley, Horse, Nell, and Inspector Fenwick rather than the Presidents' faces.
- Standard Female Grab Area: During the queue line, Snidely can be seen grabbing Nell's wrist when kidnapping her.
- Visual Pun: Combined with Stealth Pun with the dog dish in front of Snidely's cell in the prison scene, which reads "Crow". To "eat crow" is to admit defeat.
- Water Guns and Balloons: The bridge above the ride features several water cannons that guests can use to spray riders with.
- Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: Snidely is imprisoned in a cell that has bars so uneven that he could easily just slip out.
