A new Toontown for WDW, Part 2 (open brainstorming)

mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I don't know, I'm having trouble deciding if the old Mickey cartoons really fit the theme of the Studios. I mean, on the surface, they might, but they are really products of a simple time, a time probably better suited for the castle parks. For some reason, only some of Mickey's biggest films might be able to fit the area.

Anyway, I'm trying to conjure up a storyline for the land right now: it's actually set around the time of the infamous strike of 1941, shortly before Walt left for the goodwill trip to South America. Here's the backstory (put in quotes to avoid confusion and some of the dialog is copied from the movie "Walt and El Grupo")...

Walt considered this infamous period to be "the toughest period I've had my whole life". With the critical and financial success of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" came a whole new era for the Disney Studios. "We were sitting with at least a couple million dollars in the bank," Walt said. "With the profits for 'Snow White', I built the studio."

This studio would cost three million dollars. But that's not the only place where the profits were being plowed into. Walt was also plowing profits into doing not one, but two features, both to be released in a single year: one was "Pinocchio" and the other was "Fantasia", neither of which were any mere bag of shells in their costs, either. Also, in the case of "Fantasia", Walt arranged to have that film set in Fantasound, a special sound system that was also steep in price. But due to circumstances beyond Walt's control, only a small number of theaters across the country, such as the Broadway Theater in New York, the Carthay Circle in L.A., the Geary Theater in San Francisco, and the Majestic Theater in Boston, would be equipped with the special system. In the end, Walt would have to put the film in theaters with only regular sound systems. The main circumstance was the outbreak of war in Europe, which, with its markets, had helped to drive the success of Mickey Mouse, the Silly Symphonies and "Snow White". But now, with the war cutting off European markets, three quarters of the studio's profits were gone. As a result, the studio was back owing the back $4.5 million. The outside world was collapsing. "And so," Walt said, "I just practically stopped my feature production. It was all I could do. That is when I had the strike."

There was a rumble of labor unrest that led to the strike. It was not pleasant or happy. "There was a division between the artists," Walt said. "They were doing a lot of organizing in Hollywood. There were two groups. One group claimed they had my artists. The other artists in the studio came up and said, 'Don't believe them, Walt, we are not with him.'" Then along came a union organizer, name of Herbert Sorrell. He demanded a deal, but Walt insisted on a vote, as per the law. Sorrell said he would have nothing to do with votes. As he put it to Walt, "You sign with me or I'll strike you." Walt continued to insist on a vote: "You've got to put it to a vote through the labor board here, and whatever way the comes out, I go. I'm not signing anything with you on your say-so." Sorrell finally said, "All right, I warned you. I can make a dust bowl out of your place here, Disney." And, as Walt put it, "The next morning, before I could even turn it over to my labor people, a strike. And he did! He did smear me! He did everything he could to smear me."

Walt was perplexed by the whole thing. He created a wonderful studio for his employees, with wonderful conditions to work in and create these wonderful movies, and nice salaries, but he never heard from the little guy. His studio had simply got too big. Those in ink and paint made less than $20 a week, while his top animators made some $300. That was a great deal of money. The studio, too, changed as it brought in employees who gain experience in animation by way of Disney. To these people, Walt was "Mr. Disney", not "Uncle Walt". So they had a different attitude towards the whole thing. Walt hoped the strike to be settled shortly, but no, it dragged on for a few months.

We all know how Walt managed to escape the ordeal, by taking a goodwill trip to South America, while a mediator moved in to settle things. But before the trip, Walt found some escape in another city where "Fantasia" had premiered with his Fantasound. That city was called Toontown, located at the outskirts of Los Angeles (where the movie had its West Coast premiere at the Carthay Circle). "Fantasia" was critically acclaimed among the cartoon crowd, and Mickey Mouse, one of the movie's main stars, was lionized once again, just as he had been in the 1930s. He was staying in the Toontown Hotel. Walt was the only human aware of Toontown's existence at the time, and so it really made him smile to see that his film was so successful in a city. He almost hated to say goodbye when he had to leave for South America.

Many years later, it became clear to Toons that the film was a great favorite for the public and for Toons. And so when they opened, they brought the movie back to the main movie palace where it had premiered there back in 1941...
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That's pretty much it. I could use some help, though. Any ideas?
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
If we did put Toontown over where the Backstage Tour is now, what could we do with all the props and whatnot back there?
 
WereMagicLives

WereMagicLives

Member
if they were to do this it would only make sense to bring back mickey and minnies houses and when all the kids asked why they moved we will tell them the rent was too dam high in the magic kingdom
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
WereMagicLives said:
if they were to do this it would only make sense to bring back mickey and minnies houses and when all the kids asked why they moved we will tell them the rent was too dam high in the magic kingdom
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But two things: first, the mice's houses just don't fit the theme of the Studios, and second, wouldn't the rent be just as high in the Studios as in the Magic Kingdom, if not higher? As I read in "Realityland", they initially considered lowering the price for this park than for the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, since it was much smaller and offered less to do as a park, but Jack Lindquist in marketing fought for and won equal pricing for all parks: "My feeling was if you had separate prices, separate tickets, you would force people to choose between parks." So if the rent was so high in the Magic Kingdom, wouldn't it be the same in the Studios?
 
flavious27

flavious27

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
But two things: first, the mice's houses just don't fit the theme of the Studios, and second, wouldn't the rent be just as high in the Studios as in the Magic Kingdom, if not higher? As I read in "Realityland", they initially considered lowering the price for this park than for the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, since it was much smaller and offered less to do as a park, but Jack Lindquist in marketing fought for and won equal pricing for all parks: "My feeling was if you had separate prices, separate tickets, you would force people to choose between parks." So if the rent was so high in the Magic Kingdom, wouldn't it be the same in the Studios?
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No, not really. MK brings in 17 million guests, the most in the world; DHS host 9.6 million, over 40% less. MK is more popular, so each square foot is more valuable there than at DHS.

Getting back to the toontown being in dhs, it just wouldn't work on the cheap. I almost think that they would theme it to look like how the land around mickey's clubhouse is, so there would be a large area with rolling hills and ways to have the look a blue sky background.
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
flavious27 said:
No, not really. MK brings in 17 million guests, the most in the world; DHS host 9.6 million, over 40% less. MK is more popular, so each square foot is more valuable there than at DHS.

Getting back to the toontown being in dhs, it just wouldn't work on the cheap. I almost think that they would theme it to look like how the land around mickey's clubhouse is, so there would be a large area with rolling hills and ways to have the look a blue sky background.
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Let's just suppose for a minute that we were able to put Toontown/Mickey Park (a location from "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse") in the Magic Kingdom and it were to replace the Tomorrowland Speedway. How can we make it so that it won't be easily viewable from the Tomorrowland Transit Authority nor be plainly visible from Space Mountain?
 
flavious27

flavious27

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
Let's just suppose for a minute that we were able to put Toontown/Mickey Park (a location from "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse") in the Magic Kingdom and it were to replace the Tomorrowland Speedway. How can we make it so that it won't be easily viewable from the Tomorrowland Transit Authority nor be plainly visible from Space Mountain?
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The speedway is too visible of a site. If they added mickey park to mk, they could add it past the berm to the site east of the toontown station.
 
flavious27

flavious27

Well-Known Member
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
flavious27 said:
Well it looks like a bridge would be needed, I think disney can find a way to build over a 15 foot wide canal. As for World Drive being an obstacle, there is enough room between the berm and world drive to build a land that is larger than the previous one.
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But because of World Street being right there, the land might end up being much smaller, because we would still require backstage areas and show buildings.
 
flavious27

flavious27

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
But now, what to put in there?
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Well they could have a mixture between the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse set and Toontown in DL with the houses back. They can have the toontown set of buildings bordering the train tracks. Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse will be tugged into the back, and far enough away to not be as seen. The houses for all of the mickey mouse clubhouse characters will be added, including one for pete and clairabell.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5604/newmickeyland2.png
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
flavious27 said:
Well they could have a mixture between the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse set and Toontown in DL with the houses back. They can have the toontown set of buildings bordering the train tracks. Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse will be tugged into the back, and far enough away to not be as seen. The houses for all of the mickey mouse clubhouse characters will be added, including one for pete and clairabell.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5604/newmickeyland2.png
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Oh, I don't know, it just seems like a rather hasty solution to this problem. How can we work with the river in this area instead of getting rid of it?
 
flavious27

flavious27

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
Oh, I don't know, it just seems like a rather hasty solution to this problem. How can we work with the river in this area instead of getting rid of it?
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Well I just threw up a quick mockup, I can put some more effort into it.

Well disney could clean out the pond scum from the pond next to the site, along with the creek. They can put up the same kind of background wall they have in dlr around the pond so that guests won't see world dr or the monorail. The houses can stay where they are but the landscaping near the pond will be the same as what we have seen in past episodes of mmch.

The creek / canal can be moved closer to the tracks to be a feature for the wdwrr. The architecture for the back side of toontown can be nautical themed.

I'll work on something better tonight, but that would be the direction.
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
flavious27 said:
Well I just threw up a quick mockup, I can put some more effort into it.

Well disney could clean out the pond scum from the pond next to the site, along with the creek. They can put up the same kind of background wall they have in dlr around the pond so that guests won't see world dr or the monorail. The houses can stay where they are but the landscaping near the pond will be the same as what we have seen in past episodes of mmch.

The creek / canal can be moved closer to the tracks to be a feature for the wdwrr. The architecture for the back side of toontown can be nautical themed.

I'll work on something better tonight, but that would be the direction.
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Even if we could put a Toontown in this area, we can't have any kiddie coasters here, because A) there's already one nearby, and B) it will still be themed to Goofy. What about that?
 
flavious27

flavious27

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
Even if we could put a Toontown in this area, we can't have any kiddie coasters here, because A) there's already one nearby, and B) it will still be themed to Goofy. What about that?
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I really don't see a reason to add a coaster, there are other ride systems that they can use to please kiddies and their parents. Along with that, a coaster will take the allusion of this land away from the guests while also being seen outside of this land. They could put something in the middle of the clubhouse that would the signature attraction of this land and have that building being more than a m&g and or store.
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
flavious27 said:
I really don't see a reason to add a coaster, there are other ride systems that they can use to please kiddies and their parents. Along with that, a coaster will take the allusion of this land away from the guests while also being seen outside of this land. They could put something in the middle of the clubhouse that would the signature attraction of this land and have that building being more than a m&g and or store.
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But what about Goofy? He may not even be in this land.
 

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