When you think of classic Disney dark rides, you might imagine yourself soaring over London in an enchanted pirate ship, racing through the dark forest to find Snow White before it’s too late, climbing through Wonderland aboard a most unusual caterpillar, or facing Monstro’s razor-sharp teeth with Pinocchio. These Fantasyland dark rides are standards – decades old, classic in every sense, rooted in Walt Disney’s style, and beloved by generations of fans.
But when it comes to the most beloved, lost classic Fantasyland dark ride, one sentence comes quickly to mind: Toadi Acceleratio Semper Absurda.
From the start, our LOST LEGENDS series has set out to celebrate and remember closed classic attractions before they’re lost forever. All along, we’ve asked you which rides you’d like us to include in the Lost Legends series, and you’ve answered. So today, we’ll finally go whipping around the streets of London aboard Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride!
An outlier in Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland, this whimsically wild ride based on a little-known animated double-feature film included one of the strangest and most surprising finales of any Disney ride ever. Despite being one of the oddest stories featured at a park otherwise populated by beloved heroes and well-known stories, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride gained (and earned) a cult-like following based on its wacky, wonderful nature. So now, let’s put pedal to the metal and see what mayhem we can cause en route to nowhere in particular! After all, Disney fans fought to save this Magic Kingdom classic from the wrecking ball… and lost. Here’s the story…
The Wind in the Willows
The story begins more than twenty years before Magic Kingdom would open. Remember that, when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theater, it was more or less assumed that Walt Disney would be finished. After all, Snow White was the world’s first full-length animated feature film and right from the start, it was called “Disney’s Folly.” Critics assumed that this would be Walt’s first big misstep – the thing that brought it all down.
Of course, Snow White was received with great acclaim. Walt was even awarded an Honorary Oscar for his work and the continuation of Disney Animation was assured. Soon after Snow White’s release, Walt was approached by animators James Bodrero and Campbell Grant about adapting Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 children’s book The Wind in the Willows into a film. The story (centered on a host of anthropomorphized animals including Mr. Toad) could only be brought to life through animation. Walt objected, saying the idea was “corny,” but acquired the rights in June 1938.
By time 1941 rolled around, the script was complete. The Wind in the Willows would be a budget film (like Dumbo) but it would employ many of the prestigious animators currently finishing up Bambi. By the middle of the summer, more than 30 minutes of the film had been animated.
Then, World War II cooled the animation industry. Disney was tasked with producing propaganda films for the US government and the studios entered into a period focused on package films – several different short films presented together, often united by a common theme or a frame story. Films like The Three Caballeros (1944) and Melody Time (1948) exemplify this unique cost cutting undertaken during the War, when animators were drafted and overseas releases were cut off. When production re-started in 1945, animators finished off whatever footage they’d created for The Wind in the Willows and decided to release it as a package paired with another short film: an animated version of Washington Irving’s 1820 Legend of Sleepy Hollow, introducing the dreaded Headless Horseman.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was released in 1949 as Disney’s eleventh animated feature film. It was also the last of Disney’s War-era package films. (They’d return to their full-length format the following year with 1950’s Cinderella.)
Dark rides
Image: Disney
Just six years after the release of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California.
In the diminutive park’s Fantasyland, great Disney stories came to life through a very special medium: dark rides. Disneyland was far from the first to use dark rides to tell stories. In fact, the unique storytelling medium dates back to the late 1800s when boats would drift through caverns and “old mills” lit by theatrical lighting and special effects. But the dark rides in Fantasyland were certainly definitive for the genre – brilliant, artistic rides through blacklit backdrops, glowing scenes populated by simple mannequins, and delicately-recreated settings from Disney’s already-beloved stories.
Equal parts nostalgic and timeless, Disney Parks around the globe operate these fairytale dark rides today, often intentionally recreating the simple, 2-D blacklight style of the 1955 originals. So classic is this cutout style that fans ask for it – when the new 21st century dark rides based on The Little Mermaid opened at Disney California Adventure and Magic Kingdom, guests quickly noticed that, even if the ride tried to emulate the style of Fantasyland’s mid-century dark rides, it didn’t look or feel right. The culprit? Disney hadn’t use blacklight paint.
(Both versions of The Little Mermaid ride closed a few years after their respective openings to get an intentional re-do: blacklight paint, static figures, and cutout elements that disguise lighting rigs, rid the ride of awkward incandescent lighting, and help it to blend in among Fantasyland favorites. A look at the before and after shows just how much of a difference the “classic” lighting look can make.)
The wild ride begins
On Opening Day, Disneyland’s Fantasyland was home to three such dark rides: Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White’s Adventures, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
By 1955, Disney had already released such classics as Bambi, Cinderella, Pinocchio, and Alice in Wonderland, so it’s clear that the lead of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was chosen intentionally and not simply because of a lack of worthwhile properties.
Mr. Toad’s portion of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad chronicles the wayward stories of the well-meaning but eccentric amphibian J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq. An upper-crust elite, Mr. Toad is maniacally attracted to whatever the current fad might be, and he’ll bankrupt himself out of the majestic Toad Hall to get it. While he’s known to zoom across the English countryside on his horse and buggy, lately Toad is abuzz about the newest craze sweeping society: the horseless carriage. One look at the brand new, sputtering, guzzling, rumbling motorcar and Toad is struck by “motor-mania” and offers to trade the deed to Toad Hall for a car of his own.
Aboard Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland, guests are seated aboard early 1900s motorcars and sent barreling through the foggy streets of London where mischief abounds.
Unlike Fantasyland’s more subdued and subtle dark rides, Mr. Toad’s ride is wild indeed, bursting through a fireplace, whipping around turns, rumbling over a boardwalk, and zipping through town as cutout figures appear to dive out of the way! The mad dash through the countryside ends with us being sentenced to jail but, en route, we’re struck by a train and detour into… well… nowhere in particular.
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was at once a classic, somehow perfectly at home among the more enchanting, fairy tale stories and settings of Fantasyland. And that made it an easy for choice for duplication at the brand-new Walt Disney World being built in Florida. As we’ve seen time and time again, Imagineers did better than to simply copy Disneyland’s rides bolt-for-bolt. Given the benefit of limitless land, bigger budgets, and the invaluable gift of foresight and master planning, Imagineers knew that Mr. Toad in Florida deserved a bigger space and an even grander adventure.
So what awaited guests inside of the unique, super-sized Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom? Read on…
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride may have been an outlier at Disneyland – themed to a lesser-known character from a 1940s package film. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t loved. Today, for example, Mr. Toad is an obscure figure from Disney’s backlog, about as recognizable to children as Clarabelle Cow or Ortensia. Certainly most children have never heard of him by way of his movie.
That gives his Fantasyland dark ride at Disneyland a sort of “original story” ethos, quite different from his neighbors, Peter Pan and Snow White. And given Disneyland’s intensely local, generations-long guest makeup, that means he’s something of a mascot for the park.
Of course, if the ride proved itself at Disneyland, then it certainly needed a place at Disney World, too. When the new Magic Kingdom opened in October 1971, it included Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. But this expanded version of the classic dark ride had a few major changes. The most significant? Dual tracks. Two loading areas each dispatched jalopies into the ride, with each separate track experiencing entirely different ride scenes, meeting up at specific points through the ride!
The gargantuan dark ride was designed in an intentionally “cartoon” style that closely matched the multiplane camerawork of many early Disney animated films.
The “right” track
Boarding the ride via the “Right Track,” you’ll need to hold on tight – once the car starts, the race is on! At once, the car whips around the corner into the stately cutout exterior of Toad Hall and passes through a grand, wallpapered Entrance Hall. Ahead is a proud stone bust of Mr. Toad himself. Of course, the mayhem has to start somewhere, so after a brief glimpse of Toad’s ode to himself, the motorcar accelerates toward a flickering fireplace and bursts right through it into the manor’s stately Library!
As Toad’s friends duck behind desks, suits of armor topple toward us. The car chugs ahead, driving headfirst into a towering bookshelf and breaking of the manor into a barnyard full of sheep, cows, and pigs. Seemingly with no path forward, we plunge into a pile of hay, bursting out to find ourselves nose-to-nose with a fuming bull standing guard over the farm’s cows. We seem to have taken a farmer by surprise, as he falls backwards, yanking a rope that sends a haypale falling right toward us!
Here’s a memorable moment: the car drive through the wooden doors of a barn only to unsettle a chicken coup. In the darkness, dozens of chicken circle around, clucking as they fly.
Racing out of the barnyard, neon glowing signs catch our eye… What do they say? “Danger.” “Road Construction” Do Not Enter.” “One Way.” And what’s that head? A car heading right towards us! (Cleverly, this oncoming car is from the “Left” track – our first encounter!) At the last second, the motorcar pulls off to the right and into the charming Central Plaza of a quaint English town. This large Central Plaza set is where the two tracks converge, circling around a central stone fountain, past police officers whistling frantically, and past spinning, lopsided directional signs pointing toward “Nowhere.”
The car makes a quick turn out of the Central Plaza and into a courtroom, where an angry sheriff sentences us toward the jail with some no-good weasels locked away. Escaping from the jail cell, the car enters into a shootout between the policemen and the weasels.
In a race to escape, riders burst through a railroad crossing gate and turn into a dark tunnel. What’s that up ahead? It can’t be! A train heading right for us! In one of the most classic dark ride maneuvers ever, an oncoming train light suspended by an overhead track produces the simple and effective sensation that we’re done for!
And, if you can believe it, you were right! There’s no last minute escape on this ride. The darkness gives way to reveal that you’re… well… in Hell. As painted flames illuminate gnarled, jagged red rocks, tiny red demons holding pitchforks laugh and bounce, their eyes shining green. Then, Satan himself rises from behind a molten rock, pitchfork in hand.
Ahead, doors swing open as the car makes a final advance back to the loading dock.
The “Right” track of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is a hoot, and has almost nothing in common with the Disneyland original. Even shared rooms like the library and the town square and the underworld look and feel completely different on this wild chase. And that’s only half of it! Before we move on, check out this spectacular on-ride video of this half of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride:
But in Magic Kingdom, we’re still only halfway through Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride!
The “left” track
Imagineers must’ve doubled Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride into two separate tracks at the Magic Kingdom to double the popular ride’s capacity. What they didn’t expect is that guests would catch on to how each side of the ride was almost entirely unique and opt to ride them both! Brilliantly, guests aboard the “Left Track” will encounter some of the same settings and even physically enter the same scenes, but all from a new perspective.
Aboard the left track, cars enter Toad Hall as before, chugging through the Entrance Hall to view that wonderful stone bust of Toad. Ahead, you may even spot riders from the other loading dock busting through the fireplace and into Library, but aboard the “Left” track, we pivot in front of the statue and head further into the manor: into an impressive Trophy Room full of exotic cartoon animals mounted between elegant tapestries, then into the Kitchen, causing quite a fuss and breaking more than a few plates.
Breaking out of the manor, we drive ahead into the woods and pass by a Gypsy camp with a dozen dancers and performers. Their ornate wooden wagon is dead ahead – but not for long. Our wild motorcars break right through their wagon only to find a one-way street beyond… with a car heading right toward us! At the last second, the car zooms left and enters into the beautiful Central Plaza of town, now mingling with riders from the “Right Track.” They break off of the plaza and turn right into the courthouse, but we have a different destination in mind: Winky’s Tavern, just ahead!
As the car bursts through the door, the bartender ducks out of the way, leaving his mugs spinning in mid-air! The jalopy jolts into the storage room behind the bar, stacked high with shelves upon shelves of wooden barrels. Those dastardly weasels are hiding among the barrels waiting to give us what-for, so we rush out into the misty countryside passing by Ratty’s house. Up ahead? A railroad crossing.
Despite the flashing lights, the car breaks right through the crossing gate and turns left… right onto the railroad tracks! The car sputters into a dark tunnel when suddenly, the blinding headlight of a locomotive races forward! Before we know what hit us, doors split the darkness ahead and open into… you guessed it… Hell. Steaming rocks, laughing demons, and Satan himself.
As before, a benevolent force shows us the exit as the motorcars press forward and back to the loading area.
Wild rides…
So let’s get this straight – after the success of Disneyland’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Imagineers exported the idea to Florida where it was expanded into two very separate, very different dark rides, each as fun as the last and neither borrowing much of anything from Disneyland’s.
The frenzied fun of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride sent guests zooming through elegant dark ride scenes straight from the animated stylings of the 1940s, included classic gags and large-scale scenes, interactions between two separate tracks, and sent guests to Hell (literally) for a face-to-face encounter with the Devil himself.
Even if Magic Kingdom’s version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was loosely based on the original Disneyland dark ride, this one was sincerely one-of-a-kind. And talk about character! Worlds away from the fanciful elegance of Peter Pan’s Flight or the intensity and darkness of another Lost Legend: the original Snow White’s Adventures, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was a quirky, funny, and yes, wild ride that felt nonsequitor, zany, and a little bit mad, like Toad himself.
In the mid-1990s, Disney executives must’ve taken a second look at the showbuilding housing Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and caught something important: the double tracks meant that Mr. Toad took up more space than a typical dark ride. Put another way: Mr. Toad’s showbuilding was large enough to contain a single, regular sized dark ride and a gift shop.
And luckily for them, a tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff was just beginning to re-enter public consciousness after a brand revival… A character with some serious merchandising clout and an agreeable, storybook personality perfect for Fantasyland was making a big re-entrance into pop culture. Winnie the Pooh needed a dark ride and a gift shop.
Find out what happened and, most importantly, how, as we close Mr. Toad’s chapter on the next page…
On October 22, 1997, the Orlando Sentinel reported on a rumor that Mr. Toad was about to be evicted from Magic Kingdom’s Toad Hall. Their sources noted that the ride would close forever, and soon.
Now don’t misunderstand… any time Disney announces that they’ll close (or even change) a ride (or even restaurant or gift shop or themed land), it’s met with an army of fans who resist and revolt, often justifiably. But with Mr. Toad, Disney fans rallied with a fervor that outpaces their normal, already-impressive levels of defending doomed rides. The Save Toad campaign emerged the day after the Orlando Sentinel’s article and would end up shipping hundreds of “Save Toad” t-shirts and gathering thousands of online submissions and memories. It was a hashtag-ready social-media blitz before hashtags or social media… and before Disney had even announced anything.
Still, word spread. The campaign led to a story in AP Newswire, which in turn earned articles from CNN and The Washington Post. Word was circulating and Mr. Toad earned what might be the first national media attention surrounding a soon-to-be-shuttered Disney attraction.
Unfortunately, it didn’t slow Disney’s hand. On September 2, 1998 – more than a full year after the Orlando Sentinel first reported the rumor – Disney finally came clean: it was true. Mr. Toad would take his last wild rides and the 1971-original dark ride would close forever… in five days.
Almost twenty-seven years after it opened alongside Magic Kingdom, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride closed for good on September 7, 1998. The Save Toad campaign was in attendance with a final “Toad-In” where members celebrated and mourned together. And that was that.
For generations of Magic Kingdom guests, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was a veritable park icon on par with Peter Pan’s Flight or Snow White’s Scary Adventures – a classic that harkened back to the park’s origins and, even further, to a Walt Disney original that opened with Disneyland. The announcement that it would close in less than a week was a low blow that stunned even those who suspected its time was short. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was an instant classic, a brilliant dark ride, and a fan favorite…
So why would Walt Disney World close a beloved opening day dark ride? It’s a tale as old as time…
Why Toad croaked
Why did Mr. Toad croak? Frankly, dominoes toppling toward Toad one-by-one probably begin with the arrival of Michael Eisner as Disney’s new CEO in 1984. Tasked with reinventing Walt Disney Productions, Eisner took a particular interest in the theme parks, presiding over a period of unprecedented growth, unimaginable expense, and spectacular scale. In fact, our must-read BLOCKBUSTER: The Ride feature dives into the “Ride the Movies” era Eisner oversaw, injecting modern, carefully-curated, relevant characters into Disney Parks.
Eisner’s unfathomable investment in Disney Parks spawned a decade of incredible attractions… and all the while, his radical reinvention of Walt Disney Feature Animation (known today as the “Disney Renaissance”) gave Disney something it hadn’t had since Walt’s death: relevance. Films like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and more had reinvigorated Disney’s catalogue with marketable, merchandise-friendly characters.
Meanwhile, the captstone of Eisner’s massive plans for Disney Parks centered around a project Imagineering fans know all too well: EuroDisneyland.
Intended as Eisner’s legacy monument, Disney’s first park in Europe was instead a colossal financial flop. Overbuilt and undervalued by the French, the park outside of Paris is almost unconscionably beautiful… but directly or indirectly caused decades of cancellations, cop-outs, and closures.
Almost certainly, we can count Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride among its victims. Paris’ financial collapse and the tragic death of his right-hand man, Frank Wells, shifted Eisner’s perspective drastically. He publically swore off any large scale investments in Disney Parks ever again, surrounding himself in budget-conscious executives. That’s why Eisner’s second decade at Disney is about as derided as his first had been celebrated… and why so many of the closed classics and outright disasters in our Legend Library pivot around this tumultous time.
Beginning in the mid-’90s, Disney Parks entered a decade marked by a “character invasion,” with Eisner’s team hastily (and inexpensively) pushing marketable, merchandise-friendly characters into the parks by any means necessary – even cannibalizing classics. The Lost Legends: Alien Encounter, If You Had Wings, The Enchanted Tiki Room, and The Timekeeper gave way to Lilo & Stitch, Toy Story, Aladdin and The Lion King, and Monsters Inc. – merely the start of the Pixarification of Disney Parks, and the messy introduction of characters into Epcot.
In other words, it’s not at all surprising that the merchandising allure of Winnie the Pooh beat out classic Mr. Toad.
What is surprising, even in retrospect, is the way in which Disney closed the attraction. Sure, any ride’s closing will earn groans and even protests from die-hard fans. But to announce that it would close forever within the week? The underhanded move meant that many fans didn’t have a chance to say goodbye, and in a pre-social-media world, tens of thousands of people likely arrived to Walt Disney World for their normal family vacation and were surprised to find that Mr. Toad simply wasn’t there anymore.
Of course, what else should fans have expected? The same era and executives behind Toad’s short-notice shut-down had already permanently closed Magic Kingdom’s beloved Lost Legend: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Submarine Voyage under the guise of a temporary, seasonal refurbishment (with no notice to fans), and shuttered Disneyland’s Lost Legend: The Peoplemover forever in favor of a sputtering low-budget replacement in a dreary New Tomorrowland.
And though Disney’s methods (and budgets) have changed for the better in the two decades since, the discussion is perhaps even more relevant than ever: will U.S. Disney Parks ever again build an E-Ticket attraction that’s not based on a high-earning box office film?
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh opened at Magic Kingdom at the height of Eisner’s call for characters: June 4, 1999. True to form, the attraction was able to take up just part of the original Mr. Toad show space, leaving plenty of room for an adjoining Hundred Acre Goods gift shop. Trading in Toad’s wild sputtering jalopies for ambling honey pots lumbering through the tale, the ride does it best to imitate Fantasyland classics, even if it never reaches the heights of Peter Pan’s Flight or Snow White’s Scary Adventures.
Five years later in 2005, the filled in Submarine Lagoon adjacent became Pooh’s Playful Spot, a toddler-friendly playground of Hundred Acre Wood interactives, slides, and climbable structures. It was wiped away in 2010 as the entire former Submarine Lagoon went behind construction walls for a transformation into a Fantasy Forest-themed expansion, ultimately yielding the Wizarding-World-esque mini-lands dedicated to Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Dumbo we know today.
At that time, Pooh’s exterior was swapped from a simple redress of Toad’s tournament tent facade to a rustic Hundred Acre Woods aesthetic supported by a new interactive queue. Is Pooh a blockbuster attraction? Of course not. But the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is nonetheless a Fantasyland family favorite in its own right for a new generation…
And by the way, Magic Kingdom’s Winnie the Pooh ride was merely the start of a company-wide roll-out. When Hong Kong Disneyland (one of the last underbuilt projects of Eisner’s era) opened in 2005, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was literally the only dark ride in Fantasyland; even 2016’s Shanghai Disneyland and its roster of mostly-original E-Tickets opted to build a relatively simple clone of Magic Kingdom’s Pooh ride in its Fantasyland, too.
So did the final removal of Toad’s facade officially erase any indication of this Wild Ride from Walt Disney World? Of course not… Imagineers sure know how to leave clues behind…
Living on
The good news is that Imagineers usually find clever and thoughtful ways to pay homage to lost rides, shows, and attractions, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is no different. While the lord may have been banished from the manor, traces of Mr. Toad and his absurd adventures remain hidden around Magic Kingdom for eagle-eyed guests to spot.
Image: Josh Hallett, Flickr (license)
A morbid but clever nod to the great dark ride, the statue of Mr. Toad prominently displayed in the Entrance Hall found a new home… fans on the hunt will spot the now-oxidized, rusted statue as a gravestone teetering atop the pet cemetery at the Haunted Mansion. The perfect detail may provide some amount of closure and relief upon viewing.
But even better, designers made sure Mr. Toad’s legacy lived on within his old property, too.
Image: Michael Gray, Flickr (license)
Imagineers left a few hints of what used to be when they designed The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. In Owl’s home, you just might spot a photograph hanging on Owl’s wall of J. Thaddeus Toad himself handing over the deed to Toad Hall. In the same room, you can spot another photo of Pooh greeting Moley, Mr. Toad’s sidekick.
It’s not all doom-and-gloom, though. Disney Imagineers were one step ahead of management in Mr. Toad’s case, determined to let the attraction survive. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh dark ride would come to both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland come hell or high water. The characters from the Hundred Acre Wood were too desirable and too marketable to miss, and management wanted the boost sure to come from a Pooh gift shop on each coast. But, Imagineers were able to maneuver Pooh in such a way as to preserve two classics.
At Magic Kingdom, Pooh would replace Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Fantasyland.
At Disneyland, Pooh would replace the Lost Legend: Country Bear Jamboree in Critter Country.
While that did heartbreakingly eliminate a classic at each park, it also preserved one. Today, Country Bear Jamboree continues to play at Magic Kingdom, while at Disneyland, the graceful redbrick exterior of Toad Hall hosts Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Even in the starved-for-space Disneyland, Mr. Toad looks as if he’ll ride on for many more years alongside a host of other classic Fantasyland dark rides: Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Peter Pan’s Flight, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, and Alice in Wonderland. While it may not be the same as Magic Kingdom’s expanded and upgraded version, rest easy knowing that Mr. Toad continues his journeys to nowhere in particular every day.
And even today, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is still the only Disney Parks ride we can think of that sends riders to Hell. And that is saying something.
If you enjoyed this in-depth look at the history of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, be sure to make the jump to our LEGEND LIBRARY to set course for another Lost Legend.
Now it’s your turn. In the comments below, share your memories and stories of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride to preserve this unusual and chaotic ride experience for future generations. What was your first ride like? What about your last? Was this Magic Kingdom classic all it was cracked up to be? Is Pooh a worthy replacement? We’ll see you soon with the next installment of Lost Legends!
