THEME PARK REVIEW : Loony Toontown Made Just for Kids

Although its raucous colors and aggressively loony architecture may leave adults feeling like Alice after she fell down the rabbit hole, Mickey’s Toontown, the new “land” that opened Tuesday at Disneyland, probably will delight its obvious target audience: kids eight years old and younger.

Like “Camp Snoopy” at nearby Knott’s Berry Farm, Toontown is a collection of tamer, scaled-down amusements designed to divert small children while their older relatives go on Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and the other wilder rides.

The 1988 live action/animation hit “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” provided the inspiration for the attraction: Toontown was the community where animated characters lived when they weren’t working in cartoons.

It would be physically impossible to reproduce the rubbery bouncing buildings in the film, so senior concept designer Joe Lanzisero and his crew opted for a generic zany look involving more garish colors and exaggerated physical styling than the rest of the park. There doesn’t seem to be a straight line or a right angle in Toontown: It’s a topsy-turvy conglomeration of curves, bulges, slants and angles.

Children will love some of its attractions--a small roller coaster, seemingly constructed of nuts, bolts and assorted scrap cartoon props; the corkscrew slide in Donald’s Boat (“Miss Daisy”) and the similarly twisted Chip ‘n’ Dale Tree Slide, and Goofy’s Bounce House, where they can frolic amid cushions and padded walls. (The sign reading “You must be shorter than Goofy’s hand to bounce” will come as a welcome change from the minimum height requirements for other rides.) Parents can sit on the numerous benches while they watch their offspring burn off excess energy.

Visitors also can stroll through Mickey Mouse’s house, which is stocked with ersatz memorabilia and cartoon props (his garage includes recycling bins for cans, glass and oversized gloves) and they can have their pictures taken with Mickey in his “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” robes. They can hear messages from Donald, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Roger Rabbit and Jessica by turning the knobs on the characters’ post office boxes.

Other interactive amusements include a dog pound with rubber bars to facilitate escapes, a plunger that triggers an “explosion” in the fireworks factory, and a group of storage boxes at the depot that unleash sound effects when opened. A Roger Rabbit ride is scheduled to open in August; currently, the nutty bunny appears in the center of a fountain and as a costumed character.

Ironically, the general look of Toontown is closer to some of the rival Fleischer studio’s cartoons of the early ‘30s than to Disney’s “Silly Symphonies,” which boasted a more subdued palette and elegant styling. There are few references to specific incidents in “Roger Rabbit” and none to the non-Disney characters who contributed so much to the film.

But these inconsistencies are apt to strike only animation-conscious adults; kids will be too busy climbing, sliding, bouncing, grabbing and listening to notice--or care.

* Disneyland , at 1313 Harbor Blvd. in Anaheim , generally is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to midnight Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is $23 for children and $28.75 for adults. Parking is $5. (714) 999-4565.