Construction began on August 13, 2017, and the ride was planned to open in 2019, as part of the park's 30th anniversary celebration, but it eventually got delayed to March 4, 2020. The Disneyland version was announced on April 19, 2019 and was originally set for a 2022 opening in Mickey's Toontown.[2] However, it was delayed to January 27, 2023, in light of the Disney 100 Years of Wonder celebration and the land’s 30th anniversary, since the opening was postponed indefinitely following the closure of the park due to COVID-19 pandemic.[3][4]
Prior to this attraction, there had been several proposals for a ride based around Mickey Mouse. In 1976, as part of the proposed Dumbo's Circus Land expansion of Disneyland's Fantasyland, an attraction called Mickey's Madhouse was developed by Ward Kimball. This would be a wild mouse style rollercoaster dark ride through the world of early black and white Mickey shorts. Later versions of this concept would be called Mickey's Movieland and Mickey's Studio Tour and would feature a madcap Disney studio tour featuring numerous characters and set pieces.
The ride was announced at the 2017 D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, and was described as featuring "2 1/2 D" technology (no glasses required). Disney Imagineer Kevin Rafferty stated: "This is one of the boldest...most impossible things I've ever worked on in almost 40 years of being an Imagineer. And you know what? That’s what I love about it. Well, that, and Mickey," [...] “This is not going to be a small attraction, it’s going to be game-changing.”[1]
Furthermore, the Disney Television Animation team responsible for the Paul Rudish helmed Mickey Mouse shorts collaborated with the Disney theme park division and its Imagineers to bring the attraction to life.[1] Sound design for the attraction utilized the original sound effects machines constructed by Jimmy MacDonald and other sound producers during the early years of Disney animation. The whistles used for the steam whistle in Steamboat Willie were used to create the whistling sounds of the train.
Summary[]
The premise of the ride is that guests are invited inside the theater to watch the premiere of a brand new Mickey Mouse cartoon, Perfect Picnic.
Queue[]
For the Disney's Hollywood Studios version, guests enter through a recreation of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre and wind through the lobby a series of posters of Mickey Mouse shorts that might have previously premiered here before entering the auditorium.
In the Disneyland version, a new building was constructed for the ride in Mickey's Toontown called the El CapiToon Theater, which is a pun on the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, which in turn is owned by Disney. The queue for this version features a special exhibit put together by the fictional "Toontown Hysterical Society", showcasing costumes and props from the toon world and even Mickey Mouse-themed props that represent his evolution entitled, "Mickey Through the Ears", courtesy of Minnie Mouse.
Pre-Show[]
The guests then enter the auditorium where the short, Perfect Picnic will be premiering. Once the doors close, the cartoon begins on the movie screen. The short begins with Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto setting out for a picnic at Runamuck Park, singing "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" while packing Mickey's car. Minnie accidentally packs Pluto with the picnic basket in the trunk. The duo make their way to the park. Along the way, Mickey and Minnie drive by Goofy, who is operating the Runamuck Railroad train that travels around the park. Mickey and Minnie pull forward and hit a bump on a railroad crossing. The trunk pops open, releasing Pluto and the picnic basket into the air, which Pluto quickly manages to save. However, a pie from the basket, falls out and lands on top of the train’s smokestack. With the pie clogging the smokestack, the train picks up speed. Goofy panics as the train pulls into a railroad barn. An explosion occurs, ripping a large hole in the movie screen, literally breaking the fourth wall. When the smoke clears, Goofy lands on a loose board on the outside of the barn. Seeing the guests, Goofy offers for them to take a ride on the train. He then asks a nearby cast member help the guests step inside the cartoon while he goes back to the barn to fix the train. Upon walking through the movie screen, the guests find themselves inside the cartoon railroad station within Mickey’s cartoon world, and they make their way to the loading platform where the train arrives.
Ride Experience[]
Once the train stops at the loading platform, guests board one of four cars behind the locomotive. The train then departs the station, traveling on a tranquil sunny day in the park with a cheery song and a chirping bird named Chuuby, while Mickey and Minnie are driving around in the distance. The train makes a left turn entering the tunnel. Once inside the tunnel, Goofy opens the back window of the cab and asks the guests if they are ready for a tour around the park. Mickey and Minnie in their car pull up next to Goofy and exchange greetings. Mickey parks next to a railroad switch and asks Goofy to take care of the guests. Goofy proudly exclaims, "Gawrsh, they're with me, what could possibly go wrong? Well, Back to work." Right after Goofy closes his window and begins to sing "I've Been Working on the Railroad", the switch falls, causing the train to separate with Goofy's engine making a left turn while the cars with the guests head to the right. As the train then derails, Mickey and Minnie set off to catch the train and save the day.
The train exits the tunnel into a desert where Mickey and Minnie ride on horseback, trying to round up the cars, but they caught on themselves and as the vultures target them. The train then enters a Carnival featuring Donald Duck running a hot dog stand, Horace Horsecollar running a popcorn booth, Huey, Dewey, and Louie among the guests looking for a good time, and Pluto still carrying the picnic basket while looking for Mickey and Minnie. The duo come floating in on balloons to try and help the train. But before they can get down, the Twister logo on the side of the carnival's wooden roller coaster comes to life and sweeps up the carnival in a storm. Guests are given a close-up look at the trio swirling around among other objects. The tornado then carries the train, Mickey, Minnie and Pluto to a tropical island where a volcanic eruption occurs. The eruption sends the train down a river and over a waterfall. After going over the falls, the train ends up underwater, where it passes a submarine and musical sea life, including a Giant Squid that plays a trumpet.
The guests find themselves sucked into a sewer pipe and emerge into a Big City. The guests see Pete working on road construction with a jackhammer powerful enough to shake the neighboring buildings (and laughing when he sees what happens), while Donald can be seen again in a truck stuck in the traffic jam the train has caused (honking his horn impatiently as he does so). The guests then enter a dance studio owned by Daisy Duck, who instructs the train cars in dancing a waltz before establishing a conga line out. The dancing train cars exit out through an alley and enter a dangerous factory. Mickey and Minnie try to stop the cars from being smashed by "The Smasher" on a conveyor belt. Mickey and Minnie successfully pull the switch which shuts the factory down and magically transforms the scenery to that of the park at night. Reversing, the train then rejoins Goofy's engine.
As the guests pass through a tunnel, Goofy concludes the tour and hopes that the guests had a good time. The train pulls around the corner to find Mickey, Minnie and Pluto finally having their picnic singing one final rendition of "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" while fireworks explode in the sky above and over the guests. Goofy waves goodbye to the guests and closes the back window. Just before the train enters the station, Goofy finds a lever and pulls it, causing an electric jolt through the train following his signature holler making guests enjoy it as a last laugh. The train then pulls back into the barn, where Goofy thanks the guests for riding with him and tells them to exit safely and asks for them to come back soon. As guests leave the station, they pass through the movie screen to return to the real world. The title card saying “The End” is displayed behind them as guests leave the theater.
Videos[]
Mickey And Minnie’s Runaway Railway-2
All Aboard For a Ride on Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway - Walt Disney World-2
Trivia[]
This was the last major attraction to open before all Disney Parks temporarily closed due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The 10 posters in the Disney’s Hollywood Studios attraction’s queue were created by Disney Television Animation. While one of them is for Perfect Picnic, nine of the other posters were from existing Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts and each of them is created specifically for this attraction:
If a train ends up breaking down in the final picnic scene, the Mickey figure will actually apologize for the delay.[6] Slowdowns during unload will also result in being able to see Mickey and Minnie harmonizing and enjoying their picnic.[7]
One of the posters for the attraction features Huey, Dewey, and Louie with attire and physical features based on their DuckTales reboot models. But in the actual ride, they are based on the models that appear in the Mickey Mouse shorts.
This attraction was among Russi Taylor's final performances as Minnie Mouse not counting her voice over in Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures and was dedicated to her memory. She was able to record all of her dialogue before her passing on July 26, 2019. After the news broke of her passing, Elyse Willis (co-writer for "Carried Away" and "Nothing Can Stop Us Now") shared a tribute tweet showing her with Russi Taylor during a recording session at a recording booth.
This is the final attraction opened at Walt Disney World before the outbreak of COVID-19 in the US.[1]
There is an extra scene found only in the Disneyland version: right after the underwater scene and before the sewer scene, there is a scene of the giant squid pulling out a drain plug in the ocean floor with one of its tentacles, which causes the water to drain, and the train gets caught up in the drainage.
During the scene where the track switches, the Disneyland version is different. The switch spins the wrong direction instead of falling over like in the Hollywood Studios version.
This is the first attraction to feature an animatronic of Mickey Mouse since the Mickey Mouse Revue, which opened 49 years earlier.
Easter Eggs[]
Several nods to the Great Movie Ride can be found in the attraction:
The Carnival scene features a poster for "The Great Moving Ride" (this can only be found in the Disney Hollywood Studios version).
The tornado sequence is a throwback to ''The Wizard of Oz" portion of the attraction and features a mailbox reading "No Place Like Home" among the debris (only in the Disney Hollywood Studios version). The Fantasia scene in The Great Movie Ride was originally intended to be the tornado to Oz before contract disputes with MGM on how much The Wizard of Oz material could be used in the attraction led to it being replaced.
The alleyway leading to the factory resembles Gangster Alley and features a shaking trashcan making the same frightened cat sound effect that was used within the sequence.[8]
The numbers 1901 and 1928 can be found over some of Runnamuck Park's tunnels, referencing the birth year of Walt Disney and the debut of Mickey Mouse.
The sewer scene is set in the "Iwerks and Uwerks Waterworks" water treatment facility, referencing Ub Iwerks.
In the city, a newspaper headline reads "Oswald Wins!", referring to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
The roadblocks surrounding Pete are labeled as "Rafferty's Roadblocks", after Imagineer Kevin Rafferty.
The restaurant sign, Maison de Souris, is French for "House of Mouse".
A parking garage is labeled as "Retlaw Parking", or Walter spelled backwards, a common alias for Walt Disney.
The "1401 Flower Shop" in the City is a reference to Walt Disney Imagineering's address on 1401 Flower Street in Glendale. Next to it are "Carter's Cameras" named for Imagineer Charita Carter who has a photography hobby, and "Holt's Coffee Shop" after the Mickey Mouse series' art director Joseph Holt. A poster by the shops advertises the "Jolley Gallery", named for early Imagineer and Donald in Mathmagic Land art director Stan Jolley.
A "Brave Little Tailor Shop" can be seen in the alley leading to the factory.
A dumpster in the alley is tagged with the names of various Imagineers who worked on the project.
A sign in the park at night includes a reference to "Yensid Valley", a nod to both the sorcerer and Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Railroad, with Yensid Valley being what Walt called the lower elevated parts of the backyard railroad.
The El CapiToon Theater is named after the El Capitan Theater, a real-life theater in Hollywood owned by The Walt Disney Company.
The ticket booth in the Disneyland version of the attraction has a photograph of the child that Max encountered at Lester’s Possum Park in A Goofy Movie, and sticky note references to various Mickey Mouse universe characters such Scrooge McDuck and PowerLine.
Despite the ride being based on the Paul Rudish series, most of the posters are drawn in the "classic" style, with Mickey and Minnie having their post-1939 designs, and Webby and Doofus having their 1987 designs on The Feisty Ducks poster.
This technically makes this the first theme park attraction to include an appearance by Mortimer (unless one counts the poster of him used during the 2011 revamp of Disney California Adventure), P.J., Bobby, Roxanne, Stacey, Millie, and Melody in any capacity.
The Disneyland version exits into a gift shop called EngineEar Souvenirs, which has the Viewliner Train of Tomorrow on its sign.
The name itself is derivative of Engine-Ears Toys, a store that was open at Disney California Adventure from 2001 to 2011.
This technically makes this the first theme park attraction to include an appearance by Julius, Alice (Alice Comedies), Witch Hazel and Powerline in any capacity.
Condiment dispensers in the Disneyland version's concession stand come from Begorra Orchards, named for Patrick Begorra, from the Little Golden Book Little Man of Disneyland.
A Haggis dispenser has the tagline "Glomgold Quality"
The Barbecue Sauce tagline "Classic Smoke Tree Flavor" references the Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs that was Walt Disney's vacation home.
The Secret Sauce dispenser being a clear rebrand of expired Mayonnaise references a joke from The Simpsons, with the expiration date of January 24, 1993 being the original opening date of Mickey's Toontown.
Dispensers for Ketchup and Catsup next to each other serve as another reference to The Simpsons, from the scene of Mr. Burns being confused about the difference between the two in the Season 8 episode "The Old Man and the Lisa".
Gallery[]
"The Perfect Picnic" poster featuring the Dapper Dans in the form of four dogs
Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway on Wikipedia
