Yesterworld: The Troubled History of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride - Disney's Defunct Fantasyland Ride

this episode of yester world is sponsored by North Vee PN go to north VPN calm /oscar world to save 75% off a three year plan and use code yester world for a free extra month ah viola ha mix monthly book the lost are not so fast stitched that's my book and now it's time to pay for your crimes [Music] waiter that's Christmas you're allowed a visitor artful Senora hey little guy I don't want to see you you're roaring my love I know I know but I'm here to help you you're just gonna have to trust me okay many people often ask me why did I help stitch with this Great Escape well eventually I realized maybe he just needed that book more than I did it was time to finally let go even if it meant losing something deep down I loved just like those who adored Magic Kingdom's mr. Toad's Wild Ride as despite its fascinating origins rooted deep within Disneyland history it didn't matter how the love the attraction was or the noble efforts by those who tried to save it in the end they just had to let it go but don't take my word for it [Music] [Music] the history of mr. Toad's Wild Ride begins with Snow White in the Seven Dwarves shortly after its release and incredible success Disney was looking for another story to adapt into a feature-length animation he was pitched the idea of adopting The Wind in the Willows a children's book written in 1908 part of which tells a story about a reckless motorist named mr. toad Walt Disney purchased the rights to the story in 1939 but the animated feature was shelved just two years later as Disney wasn't happy with the quality of what had been produced sketches and storyboards of this abandoned version of mr. toad have surfaced over the years but whether production got to the animation stage is unclear however 1946 The Wind in the Willows was revived and reworked into a 25-minute short and packaged alongside an adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow becoming The Adventures of Ichabod and mr. toad no chicken have i beaten missing the film was released in 1949 to both critical and commercial success but it's legacy would continue to a new form of entertainment that's just a few years later Walt Disney began developing his idea for a revolutionary new theme park now in previous episodes we've explored the original signature attractions of Fantasyland of the original for Pinocchio Square was eventually abandoned but another would take its place a dark ride based on mr. toad unlike the others mr. toad would not focus on recreating specific scenes from the animation instead it would be the excitement and chaos of recklessly driving through locations inspired by the movie and original book also unlike the others in which Imagineers had all sorts of ideas for ride vehicles mr. Toad's was incredibly simple and an obvious choice right from the very beginning a motor car in 1954 construction began on mr. toad and alongside the other Fantasyland attractions was built at a very quick pace mr. toad would also share the same show building as Peter Pan as well as the original Mad Hatter gift shop the show scenes for mr. toad were built an assembled at the Disney Studios in Burbank California most of which consisted of plywood flats studio was also the location where Imagineers assembled the vehicles designed the track layout and gave the vehicles a test-drive once the show building was complete the scenes were relocated and installed and on June 17th 1955 mr. toad and Disneyland were officially open mr. Disney's great picture wind and the Willows inspires this ride mr. toad on a 1903 automobile and believe me this ride is the wildest of them all much like the other Fantasyland rides the exterior was initially designed to be much more elaborate more than likely a recreation of Toad Hall but due to budget constraints the Medieval Fair theme was a substitute upon entering the attraction you would be faced with the beautiful and intricate mural showing many of the events from the animation and those presents in the ride after taking the driver or passenger seat of your individually named motorcar your journey officially began unlike Peter Pan and Snow White the track design was far more chaotic with near-constant twists and turns to avoid crashing into set pieces you first found yourself in Toad Hall and as he drove through the library pass statues paintings in a fireplace you eventually crashed into a bookcase and entered a very dark room with cool air from the darkness you were immersed into an English countryside and just as it seemed as if you were about to drive into a cabin you swerved out of the way as you continued your reckless driving you pass through a town almost colliding with the local antique shop within moments you had your first encounter with the police who shined his lights and blew his whistle for you to stop instead you made a sharp turn onto a wharf and by way of bumps on the ground in forced perspective appeared to be heading towards the end of the pier at the last second another sharp turn takes you inside a warehouse heading toward a pair of slightly ajar doors saying this way out a flat cut out of there will swing at your vehicle at the last second forcing you to swerve right into a brick wall you again found yourself in the English countryside however this time it was very foreboding more police tried to stop your reckless path of destruction but you won't have any of it and continued past a sleepy railroad operator despite red lights and signs warning you to stop you proceeded into a tunnel surrounded in pitch darkness you were suddenly blinded by the light of what appeared to be an oncoming train and seemingly crashed into the locomotive you then received a warm Disney welcome into the gates of heck winding your way through the fiery corridors and laffing Devils thankfully you reach a cross Shore and escape to civilization as Imagineers didn't intend for visitors to feel as if they ended there for eternity to travel the road with mr. toad and experience his misadventures is something you'll never forget compared to the other Fantasyland rides one of the most successful parts of mr. toad was the whole taking on the role of the main character narrative with Snow White and Peter Pan and eventually Alice many guests complained about not seeing their favorite character and their own attraction they didn't understand that they were supposed to be experiencing the ride through the eyes of the story's main character with mr. toad guests intuitively understood as they were literally driving his car as seen in the film in 1961 many of the fantasy line attractions saw minor updates and while Peter Pan's was the most drastic mr. toad would see quite a few as well Toad Hall was extended into the dark empty room before the English countryside of becoming a kitchen now featuring a butler the town center was given a water fountain featuring mr. toad in his companion and rowdy was placed outside one of the facades the now iconic crashed or barrels were added into the warehouse and a few additional policemen popped up near the end the scene in heck was also given an upgrade replacing the flat Devils with three-dimensional rubber figures and making the scene more detailed and elaborate overall mr. Toad's Wild Ride would go mostly unchanged for the next 20 plus years but another version was in the works for Disney's Florida theme park the Magic Kingdom this rule that the Walt Disney Studios is the command post for project for it when deciding the attractions of Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland Peter Pan Snow White and it's a small world were obvious choices when mr. toad was up against three other possible experiences an attraction based on Mary Poppins called jolly holiday another on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and a ride based on Sleeping Beauty of course all these would have made excellent choices for dark rides but mr. toad won the competition as it was more cost effective however it would see the most amount of changes from the original Disneyland version compared to the others when the park opened in 1971 Magic Kingdom's version of mr. toad featured two separate experiences track' on the left and track B on the right with a cue that was much more elaborate than its predecessor side by side with the other vehicle both experiences began with entering toad hall but we'll begin first with track a on the left as you drove through Toad Hall you would soon have a near collision with those experiencing track B you then found yourself in mr. Toad's trophy room as you wound your way through the show scene all the visuals were along the wall which made it one of the more empty scenes in the ride you then crashed into the kitchen for a brief encounter with some of mr. toad staff from Toad Hall you entered a forest with signs advertising a palm reader named Sarah which led to a gypsy camp full of very colorful characters leaving the camp you somehow wound up on a one-way street and surprise surprise you were driving in the wrong direction this resulted in another very close call with visitors on track B and of time correctly you entered Town Square alongside the other vehicle this was the largest room within the entire attraction and you more or less saw exactly what the other visitors were saying from Town Square you entered Winkies tavern with a very of risque portrait and rather busty waitress as the owner through mugs of beers spinning in the air this led to a storage room where the weasels were hiding among the barrels presumably waiting for the cops a stock of barrel swing away as he went to the rain room passing by Riley's house before almost colliding with a fisherman of course you ignore the warning signs of the railroad crossing and enter a dark tunnel where just like the original you were struck I know incoming train you end up in the same firey place as the Disneyland counterpart only this time featuring Satan himself but thankfully you escaped back to civilization [Music] however before leaving to experience the parks other attractions why not ride mr. toad again only this time on track B after winding through Toad Hall which on this side for some reason was far more intricate and detailed you had a near collision with the vehicle and track a after crashing into the fireplace you found yourself in the library of Toad Hall in this room you passed by mcbowser and after almost being struck by a suit of armor you crash into a bookshelf after a period of darkness you arrived to a barnyard almost running into various farm animals after swerving past a very bewildered farmer you crash into a barn where chickens fly above you in circles as you continue your motor madness similar to track a you enter one-way street going in the wrong direction which of course resulted in the near collision with the vehicle on the other side Town Square was of course identical as it was the same room as track a however you suddenly made a sharp turn into a court procession where just like in the movie you were on trial and found guilty of reckless driving you travel through the jail cells where the gang of weasels are making their escape and before long you're caught in the middle of a shootout between the police and weasels much like the other side and Disneyland original you drive toward a railroad crossing and enter a tunnel and eventually are struck by an oncoming train the location of heck was virtually identical as it was simply a mere opposite but thankfully you escaped once again back to civilization and so when we speak of fabulous characters the most fabulous ball will always be to me at least the master of Toad Hall Magic Kingdom's version of mr. toad was the rare case of being a major improvement over the original unlike a certain future and rushed parts of the Caribbean however back over at Disneyland in the 1980s the original mr. toad was about to receive a major update for the 1983 overhaul of New Fantasyland much like Snow White's adventures mr. Toad's track loud and show scenes were completely gutted to essentially rebuild the ride from scratch to extend the ride show scenes both Peter Pan and mr. toad would utilize the old Mad Hatter's gift shop with the extra space a portion of mr. toad show building would serve as a new finale for its neighbor Alice in Wonderland like the others mr. Toad's exterior and cue was given a drastic facelift and would finally see the recreation of Toad Hall as initially envisioned and in May of 1983 New Fantasyland was open though for some reason mr. toad never had any real visual coverage at least compared to the other reimagined dark rides the first noticeable change to the ride was taken from the Magic Kingdom where you crashed through a fireplace only this time it used a smoke in projection effect the rust was a perfect blend of updated scenes based off the original 1955 version and a few inspired by both tracks of Magic Kingdom's version such as Winkies tavern and the judge sentencing mr. toad this time Imagineers used the likeness of the prosecutor from the animated film who then appears as Satan himself a bit dark but also a humorous job with the whole lawyer cliche in one of the earliest examples of an abandoned Wright effect by 1986 the fireplace illusion was replaced by a scrim crash door as the smoke wasn't having enough time to build in between the vehicles passing through making the projection often invisible speaking of abandoned I'm sure you know where this story is headed and actually begins with the collision gag and Magic Kingdom's mr. toad sort of hello I'm Michael Eisner I'm here with Leela boo for making some snacks and getting ready to enjoy a special evening of cartoon classics on the Disney Sunday movie you see it was towards the end of Michael Eisner's time as president that cheap fast low maintenance costs and high hourly load capacity became a huge priority the whole gag of nearly colliding with the other vehicles a pretty essential part of the overall experience depended entirely on the right operator sending both in at the same time since a priority was put on faster loading and unloading the cars often passed through the gag too early or too late for it to work but the first true victim of the company's new priorities was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as it was a very expensive right to maintain with a very low hourly load capacity the attraction was suddenly closed without notice in September of 1994 supposedly for a quote temporary maintenance period but two years later the closure was made permanent fans were understandably very upset with Disney not only for closing a beloved attraction but not giving them a chance to properly say goodbye so as an effort to avoid this again in late 1997 Disney announced the possible closure of mr. Toad's Wild Ride in favor of a Winnie the Pooh experience you see it was around this time that Disney was really emphasizing the Magic Kingdom as wholesome and politically correct though far from graphic mr. toad did feature risque depictions of women alcohol and of course the devil and Satan in hell I mean hat and parents complained about it scaring children though certainly not the only factors in the morning at gone it played a significant part nonetheless however Disney's early announcement of a possible closure didn't go quite as planned as immediately a campaign was launched to save the ride but this was far more than just a simple petition keep in mind this was the very very early days of the power of the internet but even so many fans from all over the country joined together in their anger to arrange protests of mr. Toad's closure Disney received thousands of letters and the protests became so rampant that it was picked up by multiple news stations green t-shirts with a save mr. toad slogan sold through the roof there are even buttons posters patches postcards and other forms of merchandise to tell Disney how fans really fell the situation became so severe that Disney put security on high alert disguising them as janitors or even visitors and stationing them both inside and outside of the attraction though to be fair the protesters were very respectful to the staff and security and was done by Disney is simply a precaution as the groups met up in surprisingly high numbers month after month day after day however despite the efforts from devoted fans on or around September 1st 1998 members of the protest told news outlets that Disney had contacted them revealing mr. toad would close on September 8th it turns out that were mostly right as just two days later Disney made the official announcement that mr. toad would close on September 7th giving unaware fans just four days to say goodbye a bit ironic considering how the whole situation began in the first place so just like that one of Magic Kingdom's most beloved Ark rides was gone and in June of 1999 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh opened to the public one of those days where just can't win a or traces of Magic Kingdom's mr. toad are few and far between though you can find a trophy bust at the haunted mansion and photographs within Winnie the Pooh and Al's house 1 is of mole tipping is hot to pooh and the other is mr. toad handing off the deed to the right I guess curiously Snow White's closure at the Magic Kingdom a little over 10 years later for a simple mean greed true very little attention beyond diehard fans making mr. toad quite the anomaly especially given the internet's infancy of course back over at Disneyland the original mr. Toad's Wild Ride is safe and sound however it is the only original Fantasyland dark ride that's yet to receive a single digital upgrade so you might want to keep those safe mr. toad t-shirts handy I'm only kidding they wouldn't replace an original fantasy line attraction or would they now that's about as likely as someone hacking into your phone while using public Wi-Fi at the parks oh well that's not good jokes aside anytime you're on public Wi-Fi you never know who could be accessing your data credit card information or even your personal identity but with Nord VPN you can have the peace of minds knowing you're browsing shopping or just watching videos online anonymously and with their mobile app you're covered at home or on-the-go on your Wi-Fi or someone else's Nord VPN offers military-grade encryption lightning-fast servers and even a 30-day money-back guarantee if that's not enough to convince you it's also PC magazine's editors choice for best VPN service and as the one I personal use just go to Nord VPN calms loss gesture world or use the link in the description to save 75% off a three-year plan and use code yester world for a free extra month [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 463,373

Rating: 4.9091587 out of 5

Keywords: yesterworld, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, mr toads wild ride, history of mr toad, magic kingdom mr toads wild ride, disneyland mr toads wild ride, defunct mr toads wild ride, 1955 mr toads wild ride, disney world mr toads wild ride, disney mr toad ride, abandoned and closed mr toads wild ride, the history of mr toads wild ride, Defunct mr toads wild ride, magic kingdom fantasyland rides, magic kingdom mr toad

Id: TOwm7Gm4EkU

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 04 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/MikeT75]

I miss this ride at the Magic Kingdom more than any other attraction removed in the past 48 years. Felt so good riding it at Disneyland on my last visit, but really miss the dueling track layout - and the fact that it was on the East coast, where I live!

[u/wongs7]

thanks for the video. It inspired today's map - https://www.reddit.com/r/DisneyMaps/comments/cmcdtl/ride_mr_toads_wild_ride_2005/

[u/[deleted]]

Damn this Mark-Stitch storyline is getting interesting.

Anyway, even though Pooh is a great ride, it’s a shame they had to take out Mr. Toad to make room. This version of Toad has always intrigued me, especially with the dual tracks.