Walt Disney World followers most likely get sick of how Disneyland has the superior model of assorted rides, from Pirates of the Caribbean to Space Mountain. Now Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway may be added to that already lengthy checklist, as the most recent trackless darkish experience in Toontown is best than its Disney’s Hollywood Studios counterpart.
Although the ride-through portion of the attraction is basically a clone, we must always most likely start with background and our Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway assessment plus comparisons to different rides. (Feel free to scroll right down to the following El CapiTOON Theater picture for those who’ve already expertise the Walt Disney World model of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.)
Located inside El CapiTOON Theater, the attraction itself begins with a screening of the “Perfect Picnic” brief, after which visitors actually step from the human world straight into the cartoon world in one of many coolest results of all the attraction. This completely units the stage for the ride-through portion of the attraction, with visitors loading into the (trackless) prepare experience autos.
For causes past me, Goofy is as soon as once more your prepare conductor, reprising his position from Main Street Electrical Parade. Don’t get me unsuitable, Goofy is an professional on plenty of issues. You know that. I do know that. But uh, not plenty of issues. Just a few issues. But railroads?! I don’t learn about that.
Unsurprisingly, the attraction switches gears and hits its “something has gone terribly wrong” bump within the scenic street in brief order. With that, the attraction delivers upon a typical cartoon trope…and the attraction’s identify. C’mon, you’ve gotta understand that it wasn’t known as “Mickey & Minnie’s Scenic Train Ride Before A Perfect Picnic in the Park” for a purpose. And thus begins the Runaway portion of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
While operating away (runawaying?) you careen by way of a sequence of loosely-connected vignettes in quite a lot of environments. There’s great vary within the settings, and the pacing of the attraction turns into pretty frenetic at this level. The narrative through-line that hyperlinks the varied scenes collectively is tenuous at greatest, however the experience however could be very a lot consistent with how a cartoon would bounce round from locale to locale.
All of that is aided tremendously by know-how. While Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is heavy on projection mapping and screens, depth and dimensionality are created through the number of surfaces and the spatial relationships. This can be aided by how the trackless experience autos dart across the environments.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway’s bigger rooms don’t really feel cavernous and empty because of the dimensional set items and different experience autos which are current. It’s a seemingly minor factor, nevertheless it’s noteworthy when contrasted with different Disney sights the place this is a matter.
Part of me would’ve preferred extra Audio Animatronics in Runaway Railway, however I can’t say I significantly love those which are there. The dimensional renderings of Mickey and Minnie look off, and it’s odd to see Mickey’s nostril the place his ear must be in 3D. Other characters don’t look a lot better.
As a staunch advocate of Audio Animatronics, I hate to say it, however the “2.5D” strategy of projection mapping on dimensional environments truly works a lot better than the precise AAs. I’m undecided what the answer right here is–there’s most likely no excellent method to translate these cartoon characters to dimensional variations. Admittedly, I’d even be criticizing the attraction if there have been no Audio Animatronics in any respect, so it’s one thing of a no-win situation for the experience.
Otherwise, there’s loads to like about Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The attraction is very repeatable, with the expertise differing pretty dramatically based mostly upon your experience car. There are additionally a ton of gags, Easter Eggs, and nods to Disneyland historical past and Walt Disney’s love of trains.
As the identify suggests, Runaway Railway has an actual frenzied and frantic strategy that makes it straightforward to overlook what’s occurring in your first and even second ride-through. I’ve been lucky sufficient to experience dozens of instances at Walt Disney World, and have discovered the attraction has grown on me tremendously over the course of the final ~3 years because it opened there on account of persevering with to find new visuals and gags.
Suffice to say, there’s loads to absorb throughout Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. In typical cartoon style, it’s pure pandemonium. Even although that is largely achieved through projections, it really works. The visuals are vibrant and the surroundings immersive–Runaway Railway captures the chaotic vitality of a cartoon and looks like a dimensional model of one of many new Mickey Mouse shorts.
In this sense, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway reminds us of the opposite massive new experience debuting in Southern California, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. Both new rides have been criticized for over reliance on screens and know-how, amongst different issues. While completely totally different, we’d argue that the 2 sights do a wonderful job of capturing the kinetic vitality and chaos of their supply materials. Different means, totally different finish–identical animating concepts and vitality.
Since we’re beginning down the attraction comparability path, we’d as properly knock out one other and draw consideration to a different attraction that Runaway Railway is nothing like: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. As was the case at DHS, that is basically the follow-up to that, being the following attraction–and one other trackless one–to debut at Disneyland after the Galaxy’s Edge headliner.
Don’t get me unsuitable, I like Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. But there’s a purpose you don’t see the effusive reward right here as in our spoiler-free Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Review. Unlike that, this isn’t a game-changing attraction, a masterpiece of Imagineering, or one of many best sights of all time.
Instead, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is the following evolution of Fantasyland darkish rides. It has a wow second or two, however Runaway Railway is usually iterative–not revolutionary. It takes current know-how that we’ve seen within the final a number of years and integrates that right into a Fantasyland darkish experience.
Like these, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is charming and enjoyable. It’s not an epic or jaw-dropping journey, nevertheless it doesn’t have to be. A spread of choices is important to fill a spherical out a experience roster, and Runaway Railway is what Disneyland wanted for its already stacked slate of sights.
Perhaps the largest distinction between this and the Fantasyland classics is that Runaway Railway has a wholesome hourly capability and loads of respiration room–I’d estimate that it’s present constructing might home 3-4 totally different Fantasyland darkish rides. Not that it’s an issue with Fantasyland darkish rides, however Runaway Railway additionally shouldn’t have main reliability or uptime points (that’s extra a distinction to Rise of the Resistance). Runaway Railway shouldn’t be utilizing that digital queue for lengthy as soon as the remainder of Toontown opens.
Despite being a religious successor to Fantasyland-style darkish rides, none are all that near a comparability. The one which feels most related to me is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. That could also be meaningless to these of you who haven’t visited France, (actual world or EPCOT version), although.
Thankfully, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway fixes virtually the entire technical shortcomings of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. With a few notable exceptions, that experience is a little bit of a one-trick rat, and the phantasm is ruined for those who discover that you just’re parked in entrance of a big display. By distinction, Runaway Railway has way more methods up its sleeve and manages to convey suspension of disbelief through a number of means. The finish result’s a way more immersive and dynamic attraction that has a definite character and charisma.
With that in thoughts, I truly assume essentially the most apt comparability is Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, its next-door neighbor in Toontown. For what it’s price, that is no knock–I believe Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin is criminally underrated, and the most effective darkish rides at Disneyland.
The vitality, tempo, gags, repeatability, and many others., are all very related between Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. I’d go so far as to say that Runaway Railway looks like a religious successor to Car Toon Spin–how that attraction would’ve been made with the know-how of at the moment. On steadiness, I personally desire Car Toon Spin…though maybe I shouldn’t say that earlier than seeing what modifications with the reimagined Toontown.
As for why this model of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is the superior one, a part of it comes right down to baggage and surrounding circumstances. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the experience is the centerpiece of the park, having changed Great Movie Ride. That was a basic attraction, proper up there with the Backlot Tour as extinct sights that pushed the envelope. Great Movie Ride was a love letter to basic cinema and Old Hollywood that helped outline the identification of the Disney-MGM Studios.
While I perceive and settle for the explanations for changing Great Movie Ride, for me, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway doesn’t surpass it. Even with all of Runaway Railway’s technological wizardry and development, Great Movie Ride was higher–it had great depth, set design, and was an extended attraction bursting with element.
By distinction, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway replaces a present store and a few backstage Cast Member amenities at Disneyland. Don’t get me unsuitable, it was reward store. But not practically pretty much as good as this attraction.
Another distinction is within the location and venue. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is on the entrance of the park, seen as quickly as you step foot onto Hollywood Boulevard in DHS. That model was inbuilt Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the identical constructing that housed Great Movie Ride.
Although I don’t like that it changed that attraction, I do like that Runaway Railway reuses the Chinese Theater. It’s an opulent previous Hollywood cinema that strikes a playful distinction with the subject material. It works shockingly properly, is exclusive, and supplies an attention-grabbing juxtaposition to the cartoon world that visitors enter.
The Disneyland model of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is situated behind the park in Toontown, and is housed inside El CapiTOON Theater. That’s additionally a riff on an opulent previous Hollywood cinema, proper right down to the Art Deco design beneath the entire toonified artifice. It’s truly cool to see how the design marries actual world Hollywood structure and Art Deco thrives with typical Toontown hijinks.
Tonally, the 2 venues are polar opposites. This is extra whimsical, and a part of the cartoon world by way of and thru. When it involves the particular venues, there’s no higher or worse in El CapiTOON Theater v. Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Just totally different. Personally, I truly desire the extra severe setting of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, as I believe the distinction to the experience itself is sharper and extra hanging. But a part of that may be nostalgia speaking. Either manner, El CapiTOON Theater is hardly a downgrade. It’s a very cool residence to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
With that mentioned, there’s one large manner that El CapiTOON Theater is superior to its Florida counterpart: the queue. I really like the structure and pre-existing inside design of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and actually wouldn’t need it to be any totally different–nevertheless it does stop a few of what’s showcased within the Disneyland model of the queue. That’s the double-edged sword with the sharp distinction of Runaway Railway with the theater it inhabits in Florida.
The finish results of leaning into the cartoon fashion in Toontown is that Imagineering had much more latitude with the queue at Disneyland, and it actually reveals. The finish result’s one thing far superior, with the main points added to El CapiTOON Theater are enjoyable and interesting. The poster artwork in the beginning is absolutely intelligent, and makes El CapiTOON really feel like an actual theater. From there, it continues with an exhibit showcasing the evolution of Mickey Mouse.
Rather an over-explaining it, I’ll let the photographs of the El CapiTOON Theater queue converse for themselves:
Then there’s what Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway brings to the desk for the reimagined Mickey’s Toontown. The remainder of the land has not but opened, so I’m going to must make some assumptions based mostly on what existed earlier than and what the transformation will doubtless deliver to the desk.
The massive factor is {that a} second main attraction ought to make Mickey’s Toontown extra ‘equal’ to its counterparts round Disneyland. While the land has at all times been enjoyable and underrated, it has additionally felt like much less of a land than the remaining. Runaway Railway together with the opposite additions will breathe new life into Mickey’s Toontown.
Previously, the land was moderately well-liked for meet and greets, however that was in any other case forgotten for lots of visitors. It wasn’t even a giant deal that it closed a lot sooner than the remainder of the park for fireworks. Toontown flying underneath the radar is exactly why we’ve known as Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin “criminally underrated” over time–as a result of it’s a high 3 darkish experience, however by no means receives as a lot love as its Fantasyland counterparts.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway will change that. Not solely will the attraction itself have large attraction, nevertheless it’ll draw visitors deeper into Disneyland to expertise the remainder of Toontown. That’s a win for the land and for crowd circulation. (Now, if we might simply get Disney to attach Toontown with Galaxy’s Edge to assist alleviate the Fantasyland crowds!)
Ultimately, that’s the place I stand with Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disneyland. It’s a powerful attraction that iterates on the basic darkish experience method, and enhances the already-strong current attraction lineup. Runaway Railway can be an enormous asset to Toontown particularly, and provides this enjoyable land extra to attract visitors in and stand alongside the opposite areas of Disneyland.
On high of that, having the ability to construct the attraction from the bottom up gave the Imagineers the possibility to do extra with the queue, which is a substantial improve over its Florida counterpart. This is a good love letter to Mickey Mouse over time, and is one thing the beloved character created by Walt Disney deserves.
Even although I’m personally a fan of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the queue in El CapiTOON Theater places this model excessive and makes the cloned model of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway notably higher than the unique. It’s a disgrace that it took so lengthy for Disneyland to get a top-tier Mickey Mouse attraction, however this model was well worth the wait. From its location in Toontown to the expanded queue, that is now the definitive model of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
As for the experience itself, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway has a ton of coronary heart and character, and is an absolute hoot. It succeeds extremely properly as a next-gen darkish experience that may supply household pleasant enjoyable in a park disproportionately filled with thrills. Runaway Railway put a smile on each of our faces and is a experience we’ll do every time we go to. That ought to converse volumes about its high quality and the way a lot we loved it!
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Your Thoughts
Have you skilled Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway? What did you consider the attraction? Any different Disney or Universal rides to which you’d evaluate Runaway Railway? Where does this rank among the many Disneyland sights for you? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we might help you reply? Hearing your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!