Two ideas for a Mickey ride - How can they work together?

[mharrington]

On numerous occasions, I have posted ideas for a Mickey dark ride in the Magic Kingdom. One of them was actually by @MANEATINGWREATH as an extension of Main Street for the Town Square Theater (Magician Mickey's Magical Madcap Mania). The other is my own idea, augmented time and again, for Storybook Circus (Mickey's House of Wonders), which was recently updated (go here for the first post: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/some-unfinished-business-in-fantasyland.954370/#post-8670645). I liked them both so much that I really could not pick a favorite, so I had put up a thread with these two attractions (along with a third attraction I came up with I didn't think much of): https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/three-mickey-rides-which-one-is-the-best.940296/. I included a poll for people here to vote on which one they preferred, with Mickey's House of Wonders winning handily, with eight votes to only two for the Magician Mickey concept.

But still, I am bothered. I like them both. I like the concept of Mickey as a traveling magician in town on Main Street, but I also like the concept of the House of Wonders. At one point, I even considered swapping out the House of Wonders concept with Magician Mickey, or even keeping the latter on Main Street, to make that Main Street the first Main Street to have a true attraction (the WDW Railroad notwithstanding), while leaving Storybook Circus the way it is now. I actually was considering all of this because I was thinking of duplicating that kind of ride for Paris (in Fantasyland near the Mickey meet-n-greet, which has a similar, if not identical, theme to Florida) and Hong Kong (in the Opera House-like building currently home to the Art of Animation, also making that Main Street home to a true attraction (again, the trains notwithstanding)). Of course, in Paris' case, there is (or at least, there was) a rumor of a small Toontown-like area being added so a copy of Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway can be added there. But I digress.

Anyway, I'm pondering the possibility of Mickey as a traveling magician who also hosts the House of Wonders in Storybook Circus, particularly since the Town Square Theater is so close to the WDW train station and the circus typically arrived by train, as per an article from Passport 2 Dreams: http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2012/09/lightning-in-bottle-storybook-circus.html. The article argues that while Dumbo is ostensibly the reason for the land to exist, the real star is the railroad (hence, the train station).

Anyway, how can I do the House of Wonders concept with the Magician Mickey concept? It would mostly be the House of Wonders, but with magic tricks messing things up. Any ideas on how that can be done?

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

What are you going to do with Minnie since the passing of Russi Taylor weeks ago?

 

[mharrington]

What are you going to do with Minnie since the passing of Russi Taylor weeks ago?

Minnie is not going to be in there. It will just be Mickey, Donald and Goofy.

 

[mharrington]

I guess my idea could be that Mickey is running a House of Wonders by day and is a magician by night, but that somehow the two concepts get mixed up together. Kind of like this one concept for an abandoned Mickey short called "Mickey's Vaudeville Show": https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Mickey's_Vaudeville_Show.

 

[mharrington]

I was thinking about how some of the magical properties in the Mickey meet-n-greet of Town Square Theater could work in Mickey's House of Wonders. I was thinking of the trunk full of magic props could be open by accident and things go wrong when everything gets loose. But there are mostly inanimate objects there, like so:

There are a few other props here and there, but not a lot that would cause a lot of chaos or something.

In the interest of not spreading things too thin, I was thinking of combining the two into one, have the ride, any ride, be a continuation of Mickey's magic act at the Town Square Theater (and vice-versa).

That's one reason why I was thinking about maybe doing the magic show ride either on Main Street, as an adjunct to the meet-n-greet, or in Storybook Circus. The connection could be the WDW Railroad, as per an article from Passport 2 Dreams, about Storybook Circus (http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2012/09/lightning-in-bottle-storybook-circus.html), which states that the real star of Storybook Circus isn't Dumbo, but the WDW Railroad:

The railroad had previously provided important conceptual links on Main Street and Frontierland, but it grows into a central role in this area. When you enter, you're directly facing a train and train roundhouse - that's the introductory statement! Your other options include arriving on a train, or walking in via Tomorrowland and directly facing a train.

And so I was thinking about adding that magic show ride into Storybook Land. However, many on the forums voted in favor not of the magic show ride, but of Mickey's House of Wonders, an entirely different ride (the magic show ride got 2 votes while House of Wonders got 8). I didn't want to disappoint them by picking something I preferred other than what they had voted for. One person questioned the logic of creating a poll if I had already considered a favorite. So I'm trying to incorporate that into the House of Wonders as a compromise, but I don't really know how to do that. The thing is, I don't want to spread the concept of Mickey doing things too thin, at least not at the Magic Kingdom.