Disneyland's 60th Birthday: Rumors, Speculation and News

lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
But don't you realize they actually created a whole storyline where they had it so that this was literally Mickey's home? And it's home to a kiddie coaster, too.
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Disney ignores and tosses aside backstories all the time. Look at how far the Pleasure Island backstory stretched and that did nothing to save it. Does Disney even still bother with the Mickey's ToonTown backstory?
 
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mahnamahna101

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
But don't you realize they actually created a whole storyline where they had it so that this was literally Mickey's home? And it's home to a kiddie coaster, too.



Exactly. I think people would want to know where to go find the characters. That was partially the reason why they made Mickey's Birthdayland/Starland way back when. Toontown was at least partially an outgrowth of that idea.
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Sorry, but Disneyland is extremely limited in terms of space. They don't have the expansion areas MK potentially has. Big Thunder Ranch is near-empty so that's smart to finally get something there.

Toontown might have been Mickey's location (he can really exist anywhere in Disneyland... they just have to change his costume and come up with another convoluted backstory), but really considering what the area offers, it's a waste of space.

Chip and Dale's Treehouse, Donald's Boat and Goofy's Bouncehouse are all useless because they've had a lot removed from them over the past 20+ years.

Gadget's Go Coaster is a mediocre, low capacity, poorly-themed kiddie coaster. It's no SDMT - it could fit in at Six Flags or Cedar Point in one of their kiddie areas.

Aside from Mickey and Minnie's houses and Roger Rabbit's dark ride, there's nothing particularly appealing about the area. And Roger Rabbit could move to DCA if they ever make a sequel.

Star Wars Land.... or Toontown? To the average theme park visitor, it's a no brainer.

  1. Star Wars Land (3-4 attractions... likely higher capacity than Toontown and BTR right now) where BTR/Toontown are
  2. Autopia, Submarines and Monorail get used for massive expansion of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland (3-4 attractions for each area)
  3. Marvel and Roger Rabbit move to Hollywood Land (you could probably fit both)
  4. Mickey and the gang stick to Main Street like they do in every MK-style park
 
mharrington

mharrington

Well-Known Member
ssaamm said:
Gadget's Go Coaster is a mediocre, low capacity, poorly-themed kiddie coaster. It's no SDMT - it could fit in at Six Flags or Cedar Point in one of their kiddie areas.
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So you're saying that kiddie coasters have no place at all in Disney parks?

  1. Star Wars Land (3-4 attractions... likely higher capacity than Toontown and BTR right now) where BTR/Toontown are
  2. Autopia, Submarines and Monorail get used for massive expansion of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland (3-4 attractions for each area)
  3. Marvel and Roger Rabbit move to Hollywood Land (you could probably fit both)
  4. Mickey and the gang stick to Main Street like they do in every MK-style park
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Why does everyone seem to think Mickey should only be on Main Street?
 
W

wdrive

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
But from a chronological standpoint, it doesn't fit.
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A lot of character meet and greets don't make sense. You have Mickey, Pluto, Marie, TInkerbell, Mary Poppins, Snow White and Aurora all meeting on Main Street at WDW. All of them are out of place and don't really fit.
 
M

mahnamahna101

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
So you're saying that kiddie coasters have no place at all in Disney parks?
Why does everyone seem to think Mickey should only be on Main Street?
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I'm saying poorly themed, off-the-shelf ones don't ;) especially when the aforementioned park has limited amounts of space (Autopia and the Subs make much more sense to keep than Toontown when you consider they appeal to everyone - not just little kids)

Because Mickey Mouse is Americana and he's timeless - he can fit in most any setting. Which is why him having a meet and greet in Main Street isn't that outlandish.

I know you seem to have nostalgia towards Toontown, but Disneyland has closed far better attractions in the past (PeopleMover, Adventures Through Inner Space, Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland). And expanding Star Wars into Toontown/Big Thunder Ranch allows Tomorrowland and Fantasyland to expand and grow. Tomorrowland can finally develop some sort of identity (imagine what you could do with the Star Tours/Starcade/Jedi Training Academy/Captain EO/Innoventions/Autopia... at least part of it/subs/monorail area).

Think about the material WDI can go off of with a Tomorrowland expansion/revamp if Star Wars is put elsewhere.

  1. Tomorrowland (2015 film)
  2. TRON series
  3. WALL-E
  4. Guardians of the Galaxy
  5. Big Hero 6
  6. Wreck-it Ralph (the Hero's Duty aspect)
  7. Iron Man (with the futuristic technology... wouldn't mind him staying at DCA though)
Not only that, but the expansion area is big enough for something similar to New Fantasyland to be done over at Disneyland (Frozen dark ride, princess M&G, Bald Mountain, Tangled attraction, something based off Giants, the new musical based off Jack and the Beanstalk... Aladdin, Lion King, an actually thematically sound Winnie the Pooh mini land, Greek mythology - so much to go off of)

Toontown isn't the best Disneyland has to offer by a large margin (in no particular order).



  1. POTC
  2. HM
  3. IASW
  4. Jungle Cruise
  5. Matterhorn
  6. Big Thunder
  7. Space
  8. Splash
  9. Indiana Jones
  10. Star Tours
  11. Buzz Lightyear
  12. Roger Rabbit
  13. Fantasyland dark rides (nostalgia and they're about to get spruced up for the 50th)
  14. Subs
  15. Autopia
  16. Dumbo
  17. Mad Tea Party
  18. Casey Jr.
  19. Storybook Canal
  20. Carousel
  21. Captain EO
  22. Monorail
  23. Tiki Room
  24. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
  25. Fantasmic!
Out of 25 essential/major attractions at Disneyland, only 1 comes from Toontown. The rest are strictly kiddie fare, but the nostalgia or theming that the classic Fantasyland rides isn't there to make up for the lack of thrills.

Toontown is the most logical cut to Disneyland if attractions have to be removed for Star Wars. Autopia, the Subs and the Monorail should only be reworked/removed if WDI has a concrete plan for the space and TDA is willing to fund said plan.
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TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
But from a chronological standpoint, it doesn't fit.
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Neither does a robotic President Lincoln giving a speech from 1863. Nor does any parade that has gone down Main Street USA in the last 59 years fit the chronological theme of that land. But it works, because it's Disneyland and not a museum.

They'll find a new place for Mickey to greet people and have their photo taken with him. And Mickey will talk to them, and the photos won't even be on film or likely printed on paper, they'll just exist digitally in the ether. But it will all be just fine.
 
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W

wdrive

Well-Known Member
GiveMeTheMusic said:
Main Street is a character catch-all, always has been. It's the gateway to the park, so it's not out of the realm of reasons that any character could be there. No one walks by Mickey and thinks, "Mickey Mouse would never be in a 1901 Missouri town. OUTRAGE!"
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In all honesty, if Buzz Lightyear was in Fantasyland you'd get a ton more people queuing up to meet him than you would complaining that he was out of theme.
 
JediMasterMatt

JediMasterMatt

Well-Known Member
mharrington said:
I'm sorrys but the days of spontaneous character encounters appear to be over.
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In Orlando, most certainly. In Anaheim, most likely not and hopefully it will stay that way.

Another piece of the Disney Parks recipe for a "magical" visit that TDO seems to have forgotten, is actually seeing Disney characters in the park actually interacting with people in the park. Anaheim has this in spades over Orlando. There is something special about walking around a corner and running into a character that just adds to the emersion of being in a Disney park. It adds to the kinetic energy that is present in California that is missing from Florida.

My understanding as to why "spontaneous" encounters with characters are rare in Orlando and becoming near extinct is explained away with a couple of excuses:

a) Character meet-and-greets in the streets become quickly disorganize and congest the streets
b) Orlando's climate punishes the cast members and is not suitable for keeping them out in the heat.

Both of those answers, however true are more TDO baloney for the apathy in which they run the resort.

Anaheim has far more restrictive street sizes and they get congested far more often than Orlando and yet they will have even the fab five out daily interacting with guests.

Regarding the heat issue, as far as I know, Orlando's climate hasn't changed much since 1971. Characters use to be in abundance in years gone by. Something changed and that something has to do with the lack of something else - money being invested. The main difference with Orlando's lack of character interaction in the streets when compared to Anaheim is directly attributable to the money one resort is willing to spend to increase capacity and guest satisfaction versus the other.

Anaheim actually has rides and attractions to pull guests off the streets. In Orlando, more and more meet-and-greets are becoming the "ride or attraction". Of course there is going to be a line to meet characters if there aren't other things to do. If you pull any chance of Donald randomly (or planned) during the day and only put him behind closed doors and walled off - then of course you will get people to line up for it. If Orlando didn't spend all of their money trying to play virtual line management and by the process of doing so, dump more guests out into the streets, then they too could let the characters come out to play.

Regarding the heat, I remember the days in Orlando when they would simply swap cast members in and out in shifts. Of course doing so requires more labor and money. In the long run, in TDO's mind, it's cheaper to build a facility to get guests to line up for and keep them indoors.

I certainly hope DLR never gets to that point.

On my many visits to Disneyland, I've seen Mickey on several occasions standing at the beginning of Main Street with people waiting in line and the world didn't come to an end. Other than his Photopass photographer, he didn't even have a "handler" like you see in Orlando. It was almost like he was meant to be standing there all along....

Another thing you would never see happen in Orlando, I've watched Alice meeting people at the front gate and grab a child by the hand and walk them all the way back to the Tea Cups for a ride. No, FP required. No mobs of people or anything causing a ruckus along the way. Again, it seemed like a Disney character out in park interacting with a guest was the way a day in the Park was supposed to be...

I believe if Orlando would get back to getting more characters out in the streets, the same thing could happen there. The rarity of seeing a character without lining up is what creates and feeds the frenzy in Orlando.

Here's hoping we see the Toontown occupants out and about in the park if they get evicted.
 

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