Oo-soo'-ma-te

Oo-soo'-ma-te is the name of a grizzly bear featured in the Disney California Adventure area Grizzly Peak.

Background

Legend

According to a legend written on a rock located within the queue of Grizzly River Run, Oo-soo'-ma-te was a grizzly bear that lived in the forests of California. When he became a powerful being, he met a coyote named "Ah-ha-ie", who asked him to watch over and protect the Californian landscape. During his life, the people viewed the grizzly bear as a threat and chased him across the landscape, thinking he was taking their land. Following a chase by the humans, the coyote used his magical powers to transform Oo-soo'-ma-te into a giant mountain to avoid getting chased by humans. Years later, the mountain became known as "Grizzly Peak" and to this day, people claimed that the great bear spirit roared through the landscape of Grizzly Peak.

Personality

As shown in a legend engraved on a rock located in Grizzly Peak, Oo-soo'-ma-te was a defensive grizzly bear who defended himself from hostile people who viewed the bear as a monster. All it turns out that Oo-soo'-ma-te was trying to defend himself from the humans who believed that bears are a threat to their home. He event felt reluctant on asking a coyote who agreed to turn him into stone so that he would no longer have to be chased by humans, which he took advantage of the bear's request.

Development

According to Chris Runco, senior concept designer for Grizzly Peak during development of California Adventure while designing an artificial mountain, he decided that the mountain was to represent the beauty of California's natural wilderness, which he decided to use a grizzly bear for the mountain to represent. The California grizzly bear was the official state animal seen in the flag of California since 1953. At the time of developing the mountain, it took the Imagineering team to find a way to design the mountain after a grizzly bear, and thus they struggled for weeks in designing the architecture. Later, it was then decided to sculpt the mountain peak to resemble the muzzle of a California grizzly bear.^[1]

Appearances

Grizzly River Run

Oo-soo'-ma-te appears in the layout of the Grizzly River Run water ride at California Adventure. Guests are able to ride on rafts taking them around the rapids across Grizzly Peak, including Oo-soo'-ma-te in his mountain form. In addition to Oo-soo'-ma-te appearing within the ride, the queue also includes a rock containing a written story about the legend of Grizzly Peak, where Oo-soo'-ma-te was once a living bear who was defending his forest from invaders, but not before he asked a coyote to turn him into stone to avoid getting pursued by predators. When going through one of the mountain caves on the ride, the roar of Oo-soo'-ma-te is heard.

Due to the popularity of Grizzly Peak, Oo-soo'-ma-te appeared in a lot of merchandise by Grizzly River Run, mostly in merchandise inspired by Grizzly Peak as well as media connected to California Adventure.

Other appearances

Prior to his actual debut in 2001, a teaser trailer for the grand opening of California Adventure was released in 2000 and featured Oo-soo'-ma-te within the teaser. He was briefly seen roaring where his head moved briefly just before turning pale purple to form the California Adventure logo. Oo-soo'-ma-te in his mountain form was rendered through CGI technology with his head briefly animated for this commercial.

During a 2015 commercial promoting For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration during the Frozen Fun event at the Disneyland Resort, Oo-soo'-ma-te in his mountain form is one of the characters singing "For the First Time in Forever" from Frozen. Like in the teaser for the grand opening of California Adventure, the bear mountain's head moved briefly while singing one of the lines through the use of visual effects.

Trivia

• "Oo-soo'-ma-te" is the name given to a grizzly bear character in Mewuk folklore, more specifically referring to the extinct California grizzly bear. In the source material, "Oo-soo'-ma-te" is the name used to refer to a female grizzly bear character, unlike the one in California Adventure who was depicted as a male.^[2]
• Oo-soo'-ma-te was featured in the logo for Disney California Adventure from 2001 to 2005.
• Mark Elliott provided narration for the teaser commercial promoting the grand opening of California Adventure where Oo-soo'-ma-te appeared.

References

External links

• The Legend of Grizzly Peak.