What Could Be the Fate of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride? - Inside the Magic

Comments for What Could Be the Fate of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride?

Mr Toad's Wild Ride

Credit: Disney Parks Blog

35 Comments

  1. EricJ

    So, if you don’t know IF it’s going to be “reimagined”, and you don’t know WHY it might be, you’re just going with “Sure, let’s do another one!”?

    1. Dona Coffey

      Our family will always remember the cast members of Mr Toad. We miss it DW so we were determined to ride it DL. As we were going by we got in line only to be told by the cast member that it was closed due to fireworks soon. My husband explained that we were celebrating our 40th anniversary with our sons and their wives. We hadn’t been in DL since our honeymoon. She then sent us through on the fastpass line. We felt like VIPs.

      1. Christian

        Here’s the most important reason to keep Toad: it is likely many 6 year old’s first experience “driving a car. “ And this experience will create the proper fear of driving that could save a life a decade later….

    2. Elizabeth Madewell

      Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride scared the hell out of me when I was 7. Maybe it is time for a change. A ride can be scary without scarring. I think it is time to say goodbye to Mr. Toad.

      1. Betty

        The hell part did not scare me at all when I was a kid. I actually appreciated the heat on a cold day. If Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is removed, that will be the downfall of Disneyland.

  2. KevinY

    I hope Mr Toad stays! It’s not the best ride by any stretch but it gives you a feeling of nostalgia that you’re riding something that was there since the beginning!

    1. Paul Bond

      Mr Toads is a OG ride that has been there from the beginning. Leave it alone if gives people a look back at when the park opened and for me my dad was there on opening day and rode that ride. He is no longer with us so when I go I feel like my dad is riding with me.

  3. Jill

    I will NEVER go to Disneyland again if they touch one thing on this ride! How many other Fantasyland rides do you see adults on without children?!

    1. Joshua Beyer

      Agreed loved it as a child. Me and my family go on it just to go on it now. Brothers we’re well in 30s today lol. Love the ride. Best stay

  4. S1

    Mr. Toad will not be touched and isn’t going anywhere. It’s also partly built into the same building as Alice. Not everything has to be for kids and Disneyland will never be “for kids.” Walt said “you’re dead if you aim only for kids.” There is nothing wrong with keeping classic attractions and denying newer IPs any attractions. NOTHING is out dated. If kids cannot connect with an attraction because its too scary or they don’t recognize the characters, that’s their fault, not Disney’s fault.

    1. Eddie

      I couldn’t agree more and have been saying the same thing for years now. There is no sense of history anymore in regards to Disney. I’m not sure when this whole “outdated” obsession took prevalence, but I am sick of it. How are they going to explain how Disneyland opened in 1955 if there is hardly anything left from back then. The same could be said of WDW (If You Had Wings) comes to mind. Part of the blame lands at the Disney company’s feet. While the other part is parents fault for not introducing these characters to their children and demanding everything new and hip with nothing but new IPs. It seems as if it is older than them, that it is outdated and needs to be destroyed. Sorry for the rant, but this stuff really grinds my gears. I’m so glad I grew up in the 70’s.

      1. CP

        It sounds like you’re still stuck in the 70’s. I love Mr. Toad and I don’t think it’s going anywhere, but if Disneyland didn’t evolve the park would have disappeared long ago. Why is it so hard to accept that things change? The characters and stories and attractions you loved as a kid were new and exciting then. They’re no longer new and some have lost their appeal. Don’t begrudge kids today enjoying what’s new and exciting to them. The park should not look like it’s right out of 1955 or 1970 or 1990 or whatever year you built your own personal nostalgia.

        1. S1

          If Disneyland didn’t evolve it would still thrive. Has it ever occurred to you that Disneyland can survive on its name alone? It’s Disneyland, people will always come. Most kids today are dumb enough that when they see “Disneyland” they’ll always come.
          “There’s a sucker born every minute.” – P.T. Barnum

        2. S1

          If Disneyland didn’t evolve it would not only survive but it would thrive. Has it ever occurred to you that Disneyland can survive on its name alone? It’s Disneyland and when people see “Disneyland” they’ll always come. Kids will like anything. This whole idea of the parks “must evolve” needs to go away more than Mr. Toad and other classic attractions. I’d take the park of 1970, 1985, 1990, 1995 or more recently 2005 back any day than the one in 2021.

      2. Brenda Suzanne titus

        Ditto! I’m a Disney history geek…makes me sad

  5. Michele

    I still miss Mr. Toad’s wild ride at World in Florida, I wish they’d rebuild it. The California one is an original ride from Walt Disney himself but the Magic Kingdom one had a really cool feature it lacks.

    For the record, I’ve never seen Wind in the Willows and I still grew up loving that ride. (Note to self, see if it’s on Disney +)

    At World, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride would start out sending every other car onto two different tracks which regularly encountered each other in playful near-misses that were fun rather then scary.

    It was one of my absolute favorite rides growing up and half the fun was being able to divide a family of 4 into two cars and wave/fake scream/laugh every time the cars encountered and swerved away from each other.

    Even as a little kid I was never really scared beyond the fun level. All you had to do was glance at the track to know you were never going to crash and the ride established pretty early on that there were no “solid” objects and this was a land of cartoon logic.

    Even as a very young child, the ride was just fun with a bit of thrill, Snow White’s Scary Adventure legitimately scared me some, but Mr. Toad was just mad-cap fun. The California one has more impressive exterior themeing but the Florida one was something special….I really miss it

    The only actually frightening part was that simple yet *highly effective* train illusion. I think that’s a good thing.

    The train at the end is the only part of the entire ride that feels connected to the real world and it makes sure the ultimate lesson is to *not* follow Mr. Toad’s reckless example anywhere but fantasy. Also be *careful* on train tracks. Seems like a good life lesson delivered in an edutainment style.

    Have I mentioned really missing that ride.

    The hell section is much longer at Land. At World, it was all about the Train, the hell section was a blink and it’s gone, while you were still processing the train…and then you were abruptly and effectively ejected into the real world.

    It is and was a good ride…bring back the Florida Mr. Toad and IF they were to change the classic California one…the one change I would make is having the dual tracks encountering each other.

    1. Kimberly Lynn Robbins Zemke

      Great ride. The lady that wrote this article is a silken buttercup who calls herself a princess. Princesses are tough and she is not. Disney seems to want to close down every ride and start over. Nostalgia is a good thing, scary rides are a good thing. It build’s character.

      1. es

        I agree with this so much. So stinking much. Its hella exhilarating to be briefly frozen with fear/confusion and suddenly feel relief that all is well. It’s like a quick emotional …um, what’s the word… “roller coaster”!

        If people didn’t want scary, the Haunted Mansion would NOT have the massive following it has always enjoyed. Besides, NOTHING inside WDW comes even close to the scare-level as driving on I-4 just to get into the damn place. I nearly died like 3 times at that off-ramp from everyone slamming their breaks.

      2. Brenda Suzanne titus

        ?❤

    2. Melanie Durham

      I miss it too

  6. Phoebe L Ho

    How about no? How about the fact that this is an original D-land attraction and has to stay? Not to mention the fact that generations of kids were introduced to Toad and friends through this ride before they even saw “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad”. The long lines for this ride say it all, not that such a fact matters these days, am I right?

  7. Mario

    Please god no! This was one of my fav rides as a kid along with Pirates. No need to change this ride at all.

  8. No, just no. Why do we feel our little precious angels can never be exposed to scarier themes? Goodness sakes stop the madness leave Mr. Toad alone, it’s an original. I went to Land for the first time at 2 years old in 1983 and again at 6 and Toad was one of my favorites. Kids are fine with the ride let it alone.

    1. Adam

      To be fair, even though it’s not an opening day attraction, “Pinocchio’s Daring Journey” can get scary and somewhat depressing in some scenes! So I think kids can still get scared on the Disney rides.

  9. Adam

    I don’t want Mr. Toad to leave Disneyland either. But people have to understand that it’s not the best of the Fantasyland dark ride attractions. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ride too, but if they were to replace it, I would love to see a Tangled ride!

  10. This is getting worse and worse. Disney is running out of ideas for future re themes in their Disney attraction.

  11. Andrew

    I don’t think it would hurt to have two Princess attractions close to each other. Look at Fantasyland area at Disney World. There are ‘Little Mermaid’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, and ‘Snow White’ attractions next to each other. I personally think if this ride should be reimagined, then they should turn it into Belle’s cottage from ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and make a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ ride.

  12. Jennifer Bourne

    I hope Mr. Toad stays. I still remember discovering it as a kid and thinking “Mr Toad? There’s MORE Disney characters out there? That’s so cool!”
    ***It’s fun: Gags, slapstick, action, near misses, and even visiting a cartoon “hell” are all tropes from classic cartoons. It does “being in a cartoon” better than any other ride.
    ***It’s well plotted. Instead of cramming the whole movie into a jumble, we get a simple story: Toad is reckless. After several close calls, it leads him to wrecking his motorcar and a visit to cartoon hell. Even a Martian would understand it.
    ***It might be fun to enhance the ride with projection imagery- movement, depth, and perspective would offset the tight space. Animated characters could dive out of the way, objects in his path (leaves, water, dust, bricks, twigs, flowerpots, straw, stained glass, feathers) could go flying.

  13. Ed H.

    Can we please stop trying to homogenize the Disney experience? At what point does the watering down stop? What’s next? The Haunted Mansion is too scary? The Pirates of the Caribbean are too swarthy? Sure. Bring in New tech for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, but leave a classic attraction alone, for crying out loud.

  14. Kate F

    This site needs to be shut down. All it does is stir the pot.

    1. Melanie Durham

      My thoughts exactly

  15. Josh Gratton

    Great article Jenny!

  16. Mark

    Frozen has state of the art animatronics? Really?
    I went on it for the first time around Thanksgiving and they look terrible and creepy. The shape of the heads with the screens don’t even match the characters properly. Definitely some of the worst animatronics that Disney has in any ride

  17. bjohnson

    Kids are only scared when someone tells them they should be, Leave Walt’s original ride exactly as it stands! I was 7 when DLand opened, and Mr Toad was immediately my favorite ride.

  18. Brenda Suzanne titus

    I am already pissed about
    losing splash mountain. If they touch my J Thaddeus, I might have to go all weasel them!?? wind in the willows is my fave! Next to song of the south! Toad must stay in his hall!!

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