For this video series, I will show theme park rides in their original version versus re-themed / rebuilt attractions. This is a side-by-side comparison of Walt Disney World's Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (1971 - 1998) compared to the dark ride that replaced it (1999 - Present). I was unable to find a good quality POV of the Magic Kingdom version, so I substituted the very similar Disneyland version.
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a dark ride at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. It is loosely based on Disney's adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of two segments comprising the animated package film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). The ride is one of the few remaining attractions operational since the park's opening in July 1955, although the current iteration of the ride opened in 1983. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is located in Fantasyland, a variation of the attraction also existed as an opening day attraction at Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World from 1971 until 1998.
In all versions of the attraction, guests have assumed the role of the titular Mr. Toad, recklessly careening through the English countryside and streets of London in a period motorcar before ultimately meeting demise in a railway tunnel and ending up in a tongue-in-cheek depiction of hell. The attraction, unlike other Fantasyland dark rides, is not a direct retelling of the film that it was based on. Its ending in particular is an original scene that has no basis in either the 1949 film or the original novel by Kenneth Grahame. Originally envisioned as a roller coaster, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was realized as a dark ride because Walt Disney felt as though a roller coaster might not have been appropriate for young children and the elderly.
Special thanks to Canobie Coaster for furnishing the POV footage.
Please subscribe to his channel:
/ @canobiecoaster
#adventureschmuck
#darkrides
#pov
#magickingdom
#waltdisneyworld
#themepark