Why did they add the final scene in Mr. Toad's Wild Ride?

Walt Disney1955

Walt Disney1955

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So if you watch the movie "Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" then things on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride make sense. He is arrested for driving like a maniac and he has a run in with the bartender and the judge and so on and so forth. I can see why they made the ride the way they did, both the Disneyland version and the extinct WDW version. That being said, why did they add the final scene on that ride right after coming head to head with the train? You know the scene, the part where you are clearly in hell. I get that this implies that Toad was irresponsible and he never really learns even in the movie as he goes on a wild ride with a plane at the end of the movie. So the idea is that he will always be reckless. Anyway, I always think that part of the ride added a bit of mystery (and darkness). But since it is never in the movie, or implied in the movie, does anyone know what it was added?
 
mergatroid

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
Walt Disney1955 said:
So if you watch the movie "Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" then things on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride make sense. He is arrested for driving like a maniac and he has a run in with the bartender and the judge and so on and so forth. I can see why they made the ride the way they did, both the Disneyland version and the extinct WDW version. That being said, why did they add the final scene on that ride right after coming head to head with the train? You know the scene, the part where you are clearly in hell. I get that this implies that Toad was irresponsible and he never really learns even in the movie as he goes on a wild ride with a plane at the end of the movie. So the idea is that he will always be reckless. Anyway, I always think that part of the ride added a bit of mystery (and darkness). But since it is never in the movie, or implied in the movie, does anyone know what it was added?
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I suppose it was somebody's idea to explain that crime doesn't pay and that behaving badly has consequences? I had to look on a youtube video to remind myself about the ride such is the length of time since I've ridden it. I think it was always a miss-able ride for us as we felt it was always too basic to waste time queuing up to see so only went on if it was a walk on really which it rarely, if ever was.
 
JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
Walt was never satisfied with just telling a story as it was written. He wanted to do more with it. The Imagineers and animators at that time were able to be creative and add things in that would plus the show. The He@@ scene would have been looked at as adding to the dark ride. Back then it would not have been seen as a scene that would traumatize families but add to the fun. Creativity was something Walt encouraged from his animators and he would have approved of added ideas that would bring more to the guest experience. It was a dark ride after all and ending with a moral lesson that crime does not pay would have been welcomed by Walt.
 
EricsBiscuit

EricsBiscuit

Well-Known Member
Unrelated but there’s a story from Three Years In Wonderland (a book on DL’s first employee, C.V. Wood) where, when they were building the Snow White ride, they forgot to add air conditioning to the plans and he (or someone else I forgot) described it as “Snow White’s Adventure Through Hell” (or something like that). AC was subsequently added to the plans lol
 
AndyS2992

AndyS2992

Well-Known Member
It's just a moral lesson that if you behave badly, you go to hell lol Much like in most Disney movies, if you act like a villain, you'll get killed at the end as punishment.
 
MichRX7

MichRX7

Well-Known Member
AndyS2992 said:
It's just a moral lesson that if you behave badly, you go to hell lol Much like in most Disney movies, if you act like a villain, you'll get killed at the end as punishment.
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Which also goes along with the "if you're going to be a hero your mom must die first" part of many Disney movies. I don't know what the moral lesson is in that, but I must not be a 'Disney' hero since my mother is alive and turns 84 on the 10th of this month.
 
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MichRX7

MichRX7

Well-Known Member
mergatroid said:
I suppose it was somebody's idea to explain that crime doesn't pay and that behaving badly has consequences? I had to look on a youtube video to remind myself about the ride such is the length of time since I've ridden it. I think it was always a miss-able ride for us as we felt it was always too basic to waste time queuing up to see so only went on if it was a walk on really which it rarely, if ever was.
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Woah, well I guess everyone has an opinion, lol... we rode it every time we were there, and multiple times at that. After it was taken out and I took my first trip to Disneyland MTWR was the first thing we rode because we missed it so much. (and no, not because there was a semi-naked drawing on the wall)
 
mergatroid

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
MichRX7 said:
Woah, well I guess everyone has an opinion, lol... we rode it every time we were there, and multiple times at that. After it was taken out and I took my first trip to Disneyland MTWR was the first thing we rode because we missed it so much. (and no, not because there was a semi-naked drawing on the wall)
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The world would be boring if we all liked the same thing, we didn't hate it or anything though. I just tended to get more out of other attractions which I would ride multiple times and so MTRW would be skipped if it meant sacrificing a chunk of time to see it. It was whimsical and fun, just only worth a 10-15 min wait in my opinion.
 
Walt Disney1955

Walt Disney1955

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
MichRX7 said:
Woah, well I guess everyone has an opinion, lol... we rode it every time we were there, and multiple times at that. After it was taken out and I took my first trip to Disneyland MTWR was the first thing we rode because we missed it so much. (and no, not because there was a semi-naked drawing on the wall)
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When I went to Disneyland we did 2 full days there. We rode Mr. Toad 4 times! There never seemed to be long lines for anything in Fantasyland so it worked out. It had been years since I had gone on it (1997 I think?) at WDW. By the way, what is the semi-nude drawing you are talking about?
 
Cmdr_Crimson

Cmdr_Crimson

Well-Known Member
Walt Disney1955 said:
When I went to Disneyland we did 2 full days there. We rode Mr. Toad 4 times! There never seemed to be long lines for anything in Fantasyland so it worked out. It had been years since I had gone on it (1997 I think?) at WDW. By the way, what is the semi-nude drawing you are talking about?
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The portrait in question was from the MK version.. This pic was from RetroWDW.
Mr_Toads_0007_a.jpg
 
ppete1975

ppete1975

Well-Known Member
I watched it again on halloween.. mainly due to sleepy hollow. But I would love to know the backstory. Watching it again, I wouldnt have pegged it for needing a ride. I guess they just wanted a dark ride that would be crazy and throw you around and it was more for the ride vehicle than the ride. By 1953 they had tons of movies and cartoons to pick from (2 years prior to the opening). Why pick a 4 year old movie that I dont think did that well at theaters and was an anthology. Bambi, fantasia, alice in wonderland, pinocchio, cinderella even sleepy hollow would have been more popular (I am leaving out sots due to controversies that were afoot even then).

Just random thoughts.
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Also worth pointing out that none of the OG dark rides were built with 100% fidelity to their original films. The Alice in Wonderland attraction originally had an upside down room that didn't match anything in the film, the witch in the Snow White rides didn't quite match the movie, etc.

This just wasn't something the company was concerned about until relatively recently. After all, in the 50s, you were seeing Disney movies every seven years for their theatrical re-release at best, and paying each time. You would have had to have been very familiar with one of rides from one of the Disney parks AND the film in question that it was based on, something that would have been difficult for most people to do for much of the parks' early history.

I'd wager that it wasn't really until these movies were available on home video for the first time in the 80s & 90s that most people really noticed these differences and started commenting on them en masse.
 
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Walt Disney1955

Walt Disney1955

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Cmdr_Crimson said:
The portrait in question was from the MK version.. This pic was from RetroWDW.
Mr_Toads_0007_a.jpg
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JIMINYCR said:
And its a REDHEAD too.
Ive read about the early animators who occasionally drew in such things hoping to get them past Walt and the censors.
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So I guess it is a good question. Toad opened in 1971, 5 years after Walt's death, so I am guessing this version is not in the Disneyland ride. Not that I remember anyway. I get that it is a bar and they want to have the scene look a little seedy and such, but I am still surprised it got on a ride in WDW. Makes me wonder if Walt allows this if he is alive. It does sound like something the animators would sneak in.
 
Cmdr_Crimson

Cmdr_Crimson

Well-Known Member
Walt Disney1955 said:
So I guess it is a good question. Toad opened in 1971, 5 years after Walt's death, so I am guessing this version is not in the Disneyland ride. Not that I remember anyway. I get that it is a bar and they want to have the scene look a little seedy and such, but I am still surprised it got on a ride in WDW. Makes me wonder if Walt allows this if he is alive. It does sound like something the animators would sneak in.
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Reminds me of the art style of the animated short the Saga of Windwagon Smith..And that short was done In 1961..
7494e3ccff7e365dfe7f64a35bb29b4d.jpg
 

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