Disneyland Gets a Toon-Up : Hands-On Attraction, Inspired by Roger Rabbit Films, Designed for Kids

The name will be Mickey’s Toontown, but for every kid who ever dreaded a “please don’t touch” sign, it might as well be called heaven.

At the new Disneyland attraction, children will be encouraged to touch everything. They can bake a cake at Minnie Mouse’s house, blow up a fireworks factory or literally bounce off the walls at Goofy’s inflatable home.

Walt Disney Co. officials are unveiling their plans for the new child-oriented land today to the press. It will mark the first new “land” at the Magic Kingdom since Critter Country opened in 1972.

Toontown will be constructed in a backstage area near the “It’s a Small World” ride, which would also make it the first new area built entirely outside the original perimeter of the park. Disney publicists said the new “suburb” will be about the size of New Orleans Square or Critter Country.

The idea for Mickey’s Toontown is an outgrowth of the two Roger Rabbit cartoons. Disney Imagineers were called upon to build a crazy town where cartoon characters would live, where everything is make-believe and just about anything could happen.

Hence, the manhole covers and mailboxes will talk, the dishes will dance and the flowers will spin. Visitors can stop by the houses of some of Disney’s best-known characters or try some of the child-oriented rides.

Mickey’s Toontown is scheduled to open in 1993, followed the next year by what promises to be its top attraction, a Roger Rabbit ride that will be roughly akin to an updated version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Visitors take a spin aboard Benny, the talking cab, which they will be able to steer down the roads they want to see.

Designing a cartoon world has posed some special challenges for designers.

“They had to capture the personality of the characters,” said Disneyland spokesman Greg Albrecht. “What kind of house would Mickey live in?”

Well, as it turns out, Mickey Mouse lives in a basic California bungalow, complete with a stone fireplace and a big porch. Inside, Mickey himself will greet visitors as they look over sets from his most famous cartoon roles, such as “Steamboat Willie” and when he played the sorcerer’s apprentice in “Fantasia.”

Donald Duck will live on a big, fat tugboat moored in Toon Lake. The “Miss Daisy,” as the watercraft will be known, will be crammed with bells, whistles, periscopes and a few other nautical gags.

Other than the Roger Rabbit ride, the other rides in Toontown will be rather simple by Disney standards. Visitors will be able to ride a weaving, pitching trolley car through downtown Toontown or zoom down a pint-size roller coaster that appears to have been built with Tinker Toys.

The town around the houses and rides will include real stores and restaurants, a make-believe fire station and a phony post office. The village will be “like walking into a cartoon,” Albrecht said.

Toontown on the Way Mickey’s Toontown will be the first Disneyland area built entirely outside the original perimeter of the amusement park.