This past week was ToonTown’s 25 anniversary

This past week was ToonTown’s 25 anniversary and I was a little shocked that no one has posted anything (pro/con) about this milestone.

Fans have always had a love hate relationship to area of the park. I have read many posts over the years saying rip it out and other who enjoy the charm of the place.

I personally view it as a pressure valve to drain off some of the stroller crowds from Fantasyland. For without ToonTown all those people would crush into the main castle court yard making the walkways even more impassable than they are now. I would also say that in over 25 years a lot of the fun has been ripped out of ToonTown. Goofy’s house no longer bounces. Donald’s boat has had all of its interactive sections taken out. No Chip and Dales acorns. No trolley bouncing down the street.

There are some really good things in ToonTown as well. Roger Rabbit’s cartoon spin, Mickey’s and Minnie’s houses, all the interactive parts around the place and Gadget’s Go Coaster.

Personally rather than get rid of everything, I would love to see an investment on Disney to replace a lot of what they have taken out and give the whole location a refresh.

 

It's 25? Dang, I'm old.

I always felt it was too geared to kids, since the original DL mandate from Walt was a place where adults and kids could have fun together (and even FaL fit that). But that ship done sailed long ago, so I guess I can't complain about that. And since it took up space that was formerly backstage, it never bothered me too much anyway.

I think they should either refresh the playspaces that have lost their interesting elements (all the ones you mentioned), or rip them out and replace them with an all-ages ride, perhaps based on the current version of Mickey and friends - simultaneously nostalgic and up-to-date. If they took the area from the treehouse all the way around the arc to Goofy's house, that's a decent amount of space. They'd lose Gadget's coaster, but perhaps the new ride could have a coaster element (like WDW's Snow White), suitable for all ages but more thrilling than Gadget in the fast bits (and allow for more than one dang train too!)

 

I remember one evening, when Roger Rabbit was down a short time for repairs, when I and a few others had the whole queue to ourselves, and could walk around from scene to scene at will. That's got to be one of the best-designed queues ever, an attraction in its own right, and it's a shame that so many guests do FP, and completely miss out on it.

Much of ToonTown is filled with details that are kind of hard to appreciate unless you're in a position to really pay a lot of attention (as I and the others in the RR cue were, that night).

I also miss the Jolly Trolley, even if it moved so slowly, over such a short distance, that it was quicker and easier to walk.

The big problem is that Toontown was a whole land based in large part on a franchise that consists of one feature and three short subjects, with the legacy Disney characters kind of thrown in as an afterthought.

I'm guessing that much of what was taken out was a matter of CYA, and of people thinking of dumb ways to get hurt that had never occurred to the Imagineers.

 

But Toontown has always been there! That's why Walt decided to put his park in sleepy old Anaheim in the 50's. It was just 25 years ago that the toons opened it up for park visitors to explore on their own

I'm just the right age that I got to experience Toontown in its full glory when I was a kid in its target demographic (even my brother, who is only 2 years older than me, had already outgrown much of it when it opened). It was a great way to burn off some steam, and even as a kid I was able to appreciate the clever design touches and interactive elements. It's a shame that so much was removed from the land so shortly after opening, and hasn't been replaced with anything worthwhile.

Much like Epcot (particularly Future World) these days, my visits to Toontown just remind me how the area isn't living up to its potential, and how much better it was previously. Those are never things to aspire to in a theme park, especially one that charges Disney's admission fees. It's no wonder that there's rarely enough demand to justify reopening the land after the evening's fireworks show.

I've heard rumors that they've considered cloning Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, currently being built in the former Great Movie Ride building in WDW, at DLR and Toontown would obviously be a great place for it. I'm not sure where there's physical space for something that large, but the western half of the land is ripe for redevelopment. Having a real draw back there could pull a lot more people to the out-of-the-way land, and it seems like the new ride would be a good fit in a lot of ways

I agree, it's one of the best queues that Disney's ever done and is really underrated because of its easy-to-overlook location. Indiana Jones always gets the credit for being the big gamechanger in queue design, but I think Roger Rabbit's is even more revolutionary. It came a few years earlier and is just as good, if not better, than Indy's. It's so spooky and atmospheric and does a great job of giving a more grownup feel to the land. The peek-throughs to the ride itself are a lot of fun too!

I'll give them a pass, since it was designed right at the tipping point of our overly litigious society, much like the original Tom Sawyer Island elements that have been removed through the years. Many of those elements may have seen fine enough during design, but within a few years they were lawsuits waiting to happen. Where I really fault WDI is the design of WDW's interactive queue for their Pooh ride, which opened about 5 years ago. It included all sorts of things (most notably, the ankle-breaker Tigger bounce pads) that anybody with half a clue could have seen were accidents waiting to happen, yet the designers installed them anyway. It's one thing to install them before everybody got sue-happy; it's another thing entirely to do it after the fact

 

I forgot about this thread but I did want to post these. We were living in Hawaii when TT opened
so we did not see it until 1997. But they did sell these at our Foodland and I grabbed a few.



I do absolutely love Roger Rabbit. Even Gadget's Go Coaster is fun. On our last trip there was
no line and they were letting us stay on. We went three times and had to get off as we had
other plans. I wanted to see how many times we could ride it in a row. It only takes like
15 seconds.