News Reimagined Toontown coming

[Rich Brownn]

So, 2 days ago I wrote this:


I'm not sure how that silly opinion started a crazy SIX PAGE argument.

Anyhoo... let me clarify what I meant. As I'm not a fashion designer or imagineer, I have NO IDEA what the costumes for ToonTown SHOULD look like. However, as an infrequent guest, my initial response to those costumes was to NOT NOTICE THAT THEY WERE COSTUMES. That's what makes them fail, IMO. If people have trouble immediately and obviously picking out who the cast members are, that's an issue, and that's why I said what I said.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's just because I've only seen them via video.

FFFt. I would be working in a Pirates outfit and people would still ask me if I worked there. LOL

 

[Dr.Cheeto]

Ok, I have a few thoughts after listening to the original Toontown area loop as well as today's newly released Toontown area music. They did a good job with the new one and I like the idea that different instruments are playing thru different speakers throughout the land- that sounds like it would have a very immersive sound - very classic Disney imagineering detail there. However, the old man in me is disappointed in the loss of all of the classic Silly Symphonies and classic Disney short music- you know... the shorts the original Toontown was inspired by (besides Roger Rabbit and the Max Fleischer building aesthetic). It kind of feels like new Toontown is more rooted in the Disney Afternoon, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Goofy Movie. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'd just wish classic and new could better co-exist. Funny, because I think the music in the modern Mickey Shorts do a better job at capturing the feeling of early Disney short music better than this new area music does. I wish they could have gotten Christopher Willis to arrange a mix from everything from Skeleton Dance, or Donald and Goofy's theme, all the way to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog stuff.

I know kids today didn't grow up watching Silly Symphonies or classic Mickey Donald Goofy cartoons from the 30's and 40's. But maybe that's Disney's own mistake for not making them readily available post-Walt Disney Treasure DVD releases from 2006 or whenever.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I know kids today didn't grow up watching Silly Symphonies or classic Mickey Donald Goofy cartoons from the 30's and 40's. But maybe that's Disney's own mistake for not making them readily available post-Walt Disney Treasure DVD releases from 2006 or whenever.

It's insane to me that Disney easily has the most well known and valuable back catalog of any studio out there, but because of their utmost refusal to promote most anything that came out before Little Mermaid, it will eventually be just as irrelevant to modern audiences as most other older movies owned by other studios.

Just destroying what should be a major asset through continued mismanagement, and in favor of what? Throwing The Lion King into something for the 100th time? Horking out a Monsters Inc Disney+ series? Yet another bland kidcom that would've been on the Disney Channel a decade ago?

Eventually no one will care about the bulk of their back catalog, and they'll have no one to blame but themselves.

 

[SplashJacket]

Regretfully, rode Roger Rabbit this past week and spent the entire ride spinning. Couldn’t tell you what happened!

Beware of the spinning!

 

[mharrington]

It's insane to me that Disney easily has the most well known and valuable back catalog of any studio out there, but because of their utmost refusal to promote most anything that came out before Little Mermaid, it will eventually be just as irrelevant to modern audiences as most other older movies owned by other studios.

Just destroying what should be a major asset through continued mismanagement, and in favor of what? Throwing The Lion King into something for the 100th time? Horking out a Monsters Inc Disney+ series? Yet another bland kidcom that would've been on the Disney Channel a decade ago?

Eventually no one will care about the bulk of their back catalog, and they'll have no one to blame but themselves.

And yet they do have some (though nowhere near all) of the old shorts, including the Silly Symphonies, streaming on Disney Plus. I suppose we should be grateful that they have anything of the sort at all.

Plus, they supposedly have released (or will be releasing) some of their shorts on Blu-Ray as part of the 100th anniversary:

Again, I guess we should count our blessings. It's certainly better than them erasing their history at all.

And with Bob Chapek gone, maybe, just maybe, things will turn around again. How hard can it be to change a music loop, especially if the tracks already exist?

 

[Parteecia]

Regretfully, rode Roger Rabbit this past week and spent the entire ride spinning. Couldn’t tell you what happened!

Beware of the spinning!

I love the ride but hate spinning. I spend the entire time fighting the steering wheel.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Ok, I have a few thoughts after listening to the original Toontown area loop as well as today's newly released Toontown area music. They did a good job with the new one and I like the idea that different instruments are playing thru different speakers throughout the land- that sounds like it would have a very immersive sound - very classic Disney imagineering detail there. However, the old man in me is disappointed in the loss of all of the classic Silly Symphonies and classic Disney short music- you know... the shorts the original Toontown was inspired by (besides Roger Rabbit and the Max Fleischer building aesthetic). It kind of feels like new Toontown is more rooted in the Disney Afternoon, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Goofy Movie. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'd just wish classic and new could better co-exist. Funny, because I think the music in the modern Mickey Shorts do a better job at capturing the feeling of early Disney short music better than this new area music does. I wish they could have gotten Christopher Willis to arrange a mix from everything from Skeleton Dance, or Donald and Goofy's theme, all the way to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog stuff.

I know kids today didn't grow up watching Silly Symphonies or classic Mickey Donald Goofy cartoons from the 30's and 40's. But maybe that's Disney's own mistake for not making them readily available post-Walt Disney Treasure DVD releases from 2006 or whenever.

I think my bigger gripe with the new music loop is the instrumentation and style of it. They’ve mentioned a few times that they made new ToonTown this area of zen and relaxation…even though the bulk of the land still looks like the wacky zany land of cartoons that it was designed to be. Even the new additions/renovations (Donald’s Boat, Goofy’s Play Yard, Runaway Railway, the Colourful play fountain) are all super wacky and fun. To give the music a completely different vibe from the visual aesthetics of the land just feels off to me. It’s like if they wanted to make Frontierland more “exciting”, and they sought to achieve this by recomposing the area music in a hard rock style…whilst keeping every physical element of the land as is.

The original area music was one of the most enjoyable tributes to the golden age of Disney cartoons. The instrumentation and song choices perfectly encapsulated the feel of the land. The new area music sounds like it comes straight out of the two newest Paper Mario games, which has caused me to redub the land “Toad Town” instead of ToonTown.

It’s also worth noting that there are a few songs I’ve caught on live streams of the land that weren’t included in the recent online release of music. Minnie’s YooHoo, Donald’s 1940s theme, Ducktales theme, and the Paul Rudish Mickey Mouse theme. Perhaps they’ll be coming in a second drop down the line?

 

[brb1006]

Ok, I have a few thoughts after listening to the original Toontown area loop as well as today's newly released Toontown area music. They did a good job with the new one and I like the idea that different instruments are playing thru different speakers throughout the land- that sounds like it would have a very immersive sound - very classic Disney imagineering detail there. However, the old man in me is disappointed in the loss of all of the classic Silly Symphonies and classic Disney short music- you know... the shorts the original Toontown was inspired by (besides Roger Rabbit and the Max Fleischer building aesthetic). It kind of feels like new Toontown is more rooted in the Disney Afternoon, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Goofy Movie. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'd just wish classic and new could better co-exist. Funny, because I think the music in the modern Mickey Shorts do a better job at capturing the feeling of early Disney short music better than this new area music does. I wish they could have gotten Christopher Willis to arrange a mix from everything from Skeleton Dance, or Donald and Goofy's theme, all the way to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog stuff.

I know kids today didn't grow up watching Silly Symphonies or classic Mickey Donald Goofy cartoons from the 30's and 40's. But maybe that's Disney's own mistake for not making them readily available post-Walt Disney Treasure DVD releases from 2006 or whenever.

So glad I have both DVD copies of the Mickey Mouse Cartoons in both volumes for the black-and-white and colored cartoons from the Walt Disney Treasures series. Because there is a huge amount of classic Mickey Mouse cartoons that ain't available on Disney+.

 

[brb1006]

It's insane to me that Disney easily has the most well known and valuable back catalog of any studio out there, but because of their utmost refusal to promote most anything that came out before Little Mermaid, it will eventually be just as irrelevant to modern audiences as most other older movies owned by other studios.

Just destroying what should be a major asset through continued mismanagement, and in favor of what? Throwing The Lion King into something for the 100th time? Horking out a Monsters Inc Disney+ series? Yet another bland kidcom that would've been on the Disney Channel a decade ago?

Eventually no one will care about the bulk of their back catalog, and they'll have no one to blame but themselves.

Suddenly this explains why Disney decided to make The Three Little Pigs characters not as common meetable character as they did up till the 1990s (sans Tokyo Disneyland). Same with Bongo and Lulubelle from Fun and Fancy Free.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Suddenly this explains why Disney decided to make The Three Little Pigs characters not as common meetable character as they did up till the 1990s (sans Tokyo Disneyland). Same with Bongo and Lulubelle from Fun and Fancy Free.

I recall reading in Mouse Tales that the Pig costumes were not particularly maneuverable and/or more vulnerable to abusive guest behaviors; if either of those were the case, I can understand why the only place they're still seen is Tokyo, where that behavior is less of a concern.

I'm fine with them not having the F&FF characters out though. I imagine maybe one in a hundred guests, maybe, generously, would have any idea who those characters are. All of the package films, with the possible exception of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Three Caballeros, are pretty obscure. I know that I had never heard of Make Mine Music or Saludos Amigos before I started reading books about the company. And I think the company made a purposeful choice for it to be so long before The Little Mermaid. There's not much further value that they could extract from the package features beyond what they have already done IMO.

What concerns me is the erasure of basically every other Disney animated film made before 1989, particularly if there isn't a princess or a Tinkerbell involved. Of course, not every one of those movies is a winner or viable either (I don't expect that Black Cauldron will ever get great representation), but it's just odd the way that they mostly ignore so many established classics for no reason.

 

[brb1006]

I recall reading in Mouse Tales that the Pig costumes were not particularly maneuverable and/or more vulnerable to abusive guest behaviors; if either of those were the case, I can understand why the only place they're still seen is Tokyo, where that behavior is less of a concern.

I don't understand why the Fifer, Fiddler, and Pratical Pigwere easy to attract rude and terrible guest behavior.

Then again, they did have a notably strange appearance prior to given more screen accurate designs beginning in the 1990s. Since the Mouse Tales book was written in 1994 with the old designs for The Three Little Pigs still being in public mind at that period. But that doesn't the guests.

I bet Tokyo might someday have walkaround versions of Elmer and Tillie Tiger from the Elmer Elephant Silly Symphony short of the same name.

But yeah, with the exception Winnie the Pooh, The Aristocats The Jungle Book, and 101 Dalmatians which all manage to get newer material and still gain tons of merchandise from modern Disney post-Renaissance. I wish Disney would focus more on their older films and works instead of focusing on their recent hits (that ain't Marvel or Star Wars) or at least have a healthier balance.

 

[J4546]

Every video seems to give toontown a great review. Looks like Disney hit a homerun with this renovation. Can't wait to see it next month!

 

[Rich T]

Looks like there’s lots of good and a bit of bad in the renovation. What the heck happened to the “Dreaming Tree?” Makes me think of how Spinal Tap’s Stonehenge prop turned out.

Love what they did with Goofy’s House, though!

 

[mharrington]

It’s also worth noting that there are a few songs I’ve caught on live streams of the land that weren’t included in the recent online release of music. Minnie’s YooHoo, Donald’s 1940s theme, Ducktales theme, and the Paul Rudish Mickey Mouse theme. Perhaps they’ll be coming in a second drop down the line?

In one of the videos of the Mickey ride (I forget which one), they clearly play the Mickey Mouse Club theme. And the video for the opening ceremony of the ride clearly shows the Goofy theme (the 1950s version) playing at the very end, although it doesn't play all the way through since the video ends right then.

I'm also curious what you mean by "second drop down the line". Also also, can you maybe show some videos of these streams so we can hear? I'm now curious to know how they sound in this new version of the land.

What concerns me is the erasure of basically every other Disney animated film made before 1989, particularly if there isn't a princess or a Tinkerbell involved. Of course, not every one of those movies is a winner or viable either (I don't expect that Black Cauldron will ever get great representation), but it's just odd the way that they mostly ignore so many established classics for no reason.

"The Black Cauldron" used to have a representation in the parks, mostly in Tokyo. From 1986 to 2006, the castle was home to a walkthrough called the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour, which is set in a dungeon under the castle and involves run-ins with Disney villains, including, as the final villain, the Horned King! Defunctland did a whole video in case you're interested:


Even WDW got into the act for a while with an eatery in the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland called Gurgi's Munchings and Crunchings, which was open from 1986 to 1993: http://disneyphemera.blogspot.com/2010/07/gurgis-munchies-crunchies-photos.html.

 

[J4546]

Im not a big merch guy at all but Im really liking both the remote control railway set and the simple old school donald duck water toy

 

[mlayton144]

I don't know. My real fear is that is actually what they were going for. They did it on purpose and that's actually what the CM costumes are supposed to look like. And how scary is that to consider this was all on purpose?!?

But there's just something off about these new uniforms. I have absolutely no idea how this themes to Toontown, or Disney's classic cartoon characters in general. I don't even know what these uniforms theme to, but it's certainly not Mickey's Toontown.

In the group photo below, the inseam on nearly everyone's green trousers is horribly sized, so that doesn't help them. There's a few cute costume pieces or CM's trying to pull it off, but overall it's a look that just seems sloppy and weird and not an attractive at all. But, um... at least there's a cute reference to the short-lived Tomorrowland Viewliner in the souvenir shop's sign!

And, trying to be as positive as possible, at least the uniforms for MMRR CM's are entirely different and rather fetching! I noticed in the videos that the CM's working the theater pre-show area wear the yellow ushers vests, but the CM's working in the train station load/unload area wear the purple conductor's outfits. Clever! And classic Disneyland attention to detail!

These outfits perfectly match the AstroTurf level of quality that is the new Disneyland standard of quality

 

[Phroobar]

FFFt. I would be working in a Pirates outfit and people would still ask me if I worked there. LOL

That is like walking into a Target and people asking if you work there because you are wearing a red shirt.

 

[chadwpalm]

That is like walking into a Target and people asking if you work there because you are wearing a red shirt.

That's part of my 5 essential lessons of life:

1. Don't tug on Superman's cape
2. Don't spit into the wind
3. Don't pull the mask off the old lone ranger
4. Don't go to Target wearing a red shirt (or go on an away mission)

and the most important....

5. Don't mess around with Jim

 

[TP2000]

Every video seems to give toontown a great review. Looks like Disney hit a homerun with this renovation. Can't wait to see it next month!

It's honestly not really different from the Toontown we knew and loved circa 1993-2021.

They finally removed the abandoned trolley tracks, and replaced the fountains with AstroTurf areas. Plus added a "Dreaming Tree" that Walt himself planted and nurtured in Missouri in 1910 and they replanted it in Anaheim, a tree where he would sit and dream about Disneyland on its cement, trip-hazard roots.

Otherwise, the land got a fabulous new E Ticket addition, plus an overdue repaint and full cleaning and thorough refurbishment of all its 1993 facilities. So what's not to love? Especially if you're a fan of AstroTurf.

 

[Phroobar]

It's honestly not really different from the Toontown we knew and loved circa 1993-2021.

They finally removed the abandoned trolley tracks, and replaced the fountains with AstroTurf areas. Plus added a "Dreaming Tree" that Walt himself planted and nurtured in Missouri in 1910 and they replanted it in Anaheim, a tree where he would sit and dream about Disneyland on its cement, trip-hazard roots.

Otherwise, the land got a fabulous new E Ticket addition, plus an overdue repaint and full cleaning and thorough refurbishment of all its 1993 facilities. So I visited Garden Walk for this past weekend's Wondercon at the convention center. All of the grass areas in Garden Walk are AstroTurf and most of it is sprouting weeds. I wonder how long we start seeing weeds popup in Disneyland's AstroTurf.