How many people actually prefer Winnie the Pooh over Mr. Toad's Wild Ride?

Mr Toad vs. Winnie the Pooh

  • Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

    Votes: 124 62.9%
  • Winnie the Pooh

    Votes: 73 37.1%

  • Total voters
    197

danheaton

Well-Known Member
I suspect the 24 votes may include some that never rode Toad at Walt Disney World. The Disneyland version is nice, but the Florida version was epic! Still, it's good to see Toad is at least ahead. On our last few trips, I completely forgot to ride Pooh. We never really thought much about it. It's not bad; just sort of there.
 

Goofyque'

Well-Known Member
Need the both option. Loved Toad, love pooh. Got a chance to ride toad again in DL couple of weeks ago. Really enjoyed it, but still think pooh WDW is a super ride!
 

KaliSplash

Well-Known Member
I'd never heard of Mr. Toad until we went to WDW in 1980, as an adult. The ride was very much a local fair, tiny "spookhouse" type ride. It's one virtue, and I'll give them this, was being hit by a train and ending up in Hell. Shocked that WDW would do that, even back in the day.

Pooh much better known and the ride is better, even if it is still a basic, simple, dark ride.
 

FettFan

Well-Known Member
I'd still like to see a new version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, where J. Thaddeus Toad is the fire chief.
Roger_rabbit_toad.jpg



Also, my vote is going to Toad as the superior ride simply because it was designed with two tracks.
trk_mk_toad.jpg
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
OK, fess up... some of you folks figured out a way to vote more then once. How can you all like something that was just half a step up from a roadside carnival fun house. A ride where you die at the end and go to hell after looking at a large selection of day glow painted plywood. I went to it once and never went back again. Pooh isn't the best dark ride ever build but at least it had a happy story line and a character the most people could relate too.
 
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Walt Disney1955

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yeah, I picked Toad too, and I started this thread! People are right, it had a charm to it. I like Pooh as well, it had a place but for some reason with the upcoming Animal Kingdom at the time and two rides that have animals in them they didn't find room for either in 1998, but instead had to remove one. The whole "it was just a carnival ride" is overplayed I think. I have never been to a carnival ride that was as good as that. The whole train thing was a little scary to a 10 year old riding it (I mean me).

Lastly, does anyone remember why the train and hell scene were added? So basically in 1955 when this ride was built it would have been in there as well at Disneyland? I am just wondering what the angle was with that. Disney has some dark moments in their rides, Pinocchio comes to mind, but that was pretty dark and maybe even controversial. I mean, why did Mr. Toad die? Or go to hell? Always wondered how that came about.
 

danheaton

Well-Known Member
OK, fess up... some of you folks figured out a way to vote more then once. How can you all like something that was just half a step up from a roadside carnival fun house. A ride where you die at the end and go to hell after looking at a large selection of day glow painted plywood. I went to it once and never went back again. Pooh isn't the best dark ride ever build but at least it had a happy story line and a character the most people could relate too.

The death and train is a big part of the fun. It's not a happy and boring attraction. Toad was a madcap ride that was completely different than most other Disney dark rides. Whether it's made from plywood or fancy material; it's just fun and weird in the best way.
 

Incomudro

Well-Known Member
The death and train is a big part of the fun. It's not a happy and boring attraction. Toad was a madcap ride that was completely different than most other Disney dark rides. Whether it's made from plywood or fancy material; it's just fun and weird in the best way.

Yeah, it was completely different from other Disney rides because it was a low budget carney ride.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Mr. Toad by a long shot. That ride had energy. To a child, you felt like you were driving the car; which is always great.
Now that's a good observation.

Why would a kid prefer Pooh simply because of character familiarity? What kids dream of sitting motionless on a bench, being slowly driven past book pages? Methinks it's the parents who assume kids love that.

Quod non! Kids love being sat behind a steering wheel, going of on a mad dash dangerous adventure on their own through wild zany scenes. Cutouts don't bother kids either, it's all real to their imagination.

Toad is the kiddie ride for kids, the fat honey slouch is the kiddie ride for parents.
 
I never rode Mr. Toad because I wasn't born before it closed, but isn't the track the same as what they use for the Winnie The Pooh Ride? So is the difference in the ride just the backdrop? I am asking this because I really don't know.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I picked Toad too, and I started this thread! People are right, it had a charm to it. I like Pooh as well, it had a place but for some reason with the upcoming Animal Kingdom at the time and two rides that have animals in them they didn't find room for either in 1998, but instead had to remove one. The whole "it was just a carnival ride" is overplayed I think. I have never been to a carnival ride that was as good as that. The whole train thing was a little scary to a 10 year old riding it (I mean me).

Lastly, does anyone remember why the train and hell scene were added? So basically in 1955 when this ride was built it would have been in there as well at Disneyland? I am just wondering what the angle was with that. Disney has some dark moments in their rides, Pinocchio comes to mind, but that was pretty dark and maybe even controversial. I mean, why did Mr. Toad die? Or go to hell? Always wondered how that came about.
Why go to hell? Why not go to hell?

Vintage MK was a very different beast from today's park. The castle looks the same and some other stuff looks similar, but the MK has changed immensely in character. Today's park is a girlie, kiddie toddler playground. Vintage MK had a subversive edge, was an adult park.

The Jungle Cruise skipper fired at the animals with his pistol. The pirates pillaged and burned and raped.The Mansion was scary. Snow White was a horror movie. 20k was a claustrophobic death trap under actual water, fighting undersea beasts. Above was the Skyway. Small kids dangling 50 feet above ground in open buckets. Main Street had actual cars. Ariel was topless, bare breasted. If You Had Wings had boys and girls dancing in skimpy bikinis and trunks. Lots of replica toy guns were for sale in Adventureland and Frontierland. You had to physically row your canoe. Psychedelic bands played in Tomorrowland. And Toad was a drugged up DUI ride to hell.
 

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
Why go to hell? Why not go to hell?

Vintage MK was a very different beast from today's park. The castle looks the same and some other stuff looks similar, but the MK has changed immensely in character. Today's park is a girlie, kiddie toddler playground. Vintage MK had a subversive edge, was an adult park.

The Jungle Cruise skipper fired at the animals with his pistol. The pirates pillaged and burned and raped.The Mansion was scary. Snow White was a horror movie. 20k was a claustrophobic death trap under actual water, fighting undersea beasts. Above was the Skyway. Small kids dangling 50 feet above ground in open buckets. Main Street had actual cars. Ariel was topless, bare breasted. If You Had Wings had boys and girls dancing in skimpy bikinis and trunks. Lots of replica toy guns were for sale in Adventureland and Frontierland. You had to physically row your canoe. Psychedelic bands played in Tomorrowland. And Toad was a drugged up DUI ride to hell.
Don't forget Magic Journeys (although that started off as a place-holder in Epcot before Captain Eo was ready). That was one attraction that you could guarantee would make most of the toddlers in the audience cry

But one disagreement... the pirates didn't literally "rape". They just chased the women (how that chase ended is up the imagination).

.So is the difference in the ride just the backdrop?

I can't remember if the track layout for Mr. Toad and Winnie the Pooh are the same, but the tone and feel of the two rides are very different. Winnie the Pooh is like a gentle ride through a story book, Mr. Toad is like a madcap drunken bender through a surreal version of Edwardian England.
 

DfromATX

Well-Known Member
I picked Toad even though I've never been on it (unless I rode it in 1984 in Disneyland, but I don't remember). Pooh is ok, but it's a baby ride.
 

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