Coming Attraction: Eighth ‘Land’ at Disneyland : * Theme parks: ‘Mickey’s Toon Town,’ based on ‘Roger Rabbit’ movie, is expected to open in early 1993. Also in the works is a nighttime laser extravaganza as massive 10-year expansion projects begin.

After a sleepy summer without any major new attractions, Disneyland will soon start building a magical world of cartoon characters that will become the first new “land” at the fabled theme park in nearly 20 years, park officials said Thursday.

In addition, workers will also start building the sets next month for a spectacular nighttime show featuring lasers, a fire-breathing dragon and the evil Ursula from the feature cartoon “The Little Mermaid” along the banks of the “river” in Frontierland.

Together, these attractions will easily be Disneyland’s most ambitious construction project since completion of Splash Mountain in 1989 at an estimated cost of as much as $70 million. Disney said it could not estimate construction costs of the two new projects.

Initial construction should start near the “It’s a Small World” ride by November on Mickey’s Toon Town, an area themed around the popular animated movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” that featured Bob Hoskins and the voice of Kathleen Turner as sexy Jessica Rabbit. It will mark only the second time, after Splash Mountain, that the park has been enlarged outside of the railroad tracks that surround the Magic Kingdom.

It will also signal the first component of an ambitious series of projects unveiled last year as part of the “Disney Decade”--a 10-year-plan that would eventually include a refurbished Tomorrowland and a $3-billion theme park in either Anaheim or Long Beach.

Toon Town is scheduled to open in January, 1993, and its most elaborate element, an expensive thrill ride featuring Roger Rabbit and friends, should debut later that year, said Disneyland publicist Barbara Warren. It would be the eighth “land” at Disneyland and the latest since Critter Country opened in 1972.

Through an entrance near the old Videopolis stage, children will be able to venture into a make-believe world inhabited by cartoon figures. The village, which will include the houses of some of Disney’s most popular cartoon characters, is vaguely modeled on a Mickey’s Starland attraction at Walt Disney World in Florida. The version in Anaheim, however, is expected to be a far more elaborate playground for younger children.

“When you take a 4- or 5-year-old to Disneyland, they have a lot of energy that has to be let loose,” said Disneyland chief spokesman Greg Albrecht. “This way, they can climb and walk and jump.”

Before Toon Town begins to take shape across the park, construction begins next month in the Rivers of America section of Frontierland on the nighttime light show. Parts of the man-made river will be drained next month for installation of special-effects equipment that will transform it into a waterfront stage of lasers, pyrotechnics and a first-ever system of projecting images on mist.

From special-effects barges sunk in the river, the “Imagination” show will include crashing waves, shooting stars and monstrous flames. A French-designed system of projecting images onto pillars of mist, giving the illusion that they are dancing in mid-air, will be attempted for the first time in North America, said Disneyland publicist John McClintock.

The show will call upon Mickey Mouse to replay his sorcerer’s apprentice role from the Disney film classic “Fantasia.” From a perch atop a grist mill on Tom Sawyer’s Island, Mickey will seemingly create the special effects that are supposed to dazzle up to 6,000 onlookers.

The water show will premiere next spring, McClintock said.

“What we’re hoping for is a show that is going to be as big a tradition as the (Main Street) Electrical Parade,” he said. The evening parade, which has visitors seated on curbs for an hour or more in anticipation, will continue.