Construction began on August 13, 2017, and the ride was planned to open in 2019, as part of the park's 30th anniversary celebration, but it eventually got delayed to March 4, 2020. The Disneyland version was announced on April 19, 2019 and is set for a 2022 opening.[2]
Starting in February 6, 2020, guests are able to make early Disney's Fastpass reservations for the ride.[3]
Prior to this attraction, there had been several proposals for a ride based around Mickey Mouse. In 1976, as part of the proposed Dumbo's Circus Land expansion of Disneyland's Fantasyland, an attraction called Mickey's Madhouse was developed by Ward Kimball. This would be a wild mouse style rollercoaster dark ride through the world of early black and white Mickey shorts. Later versions of this concept would be called Mickey's Movieland and Mickey's Studio Tour and would feature a madcap Disney studio tour featuring numerous characters and set pieces.
The ride was announced at the 2017 D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, and will feature "2 1/2 D" technology (no glasses required). Disney Imagineer Kevin Rafferty stated: "This is one of the boldest...most impossible things I’ve ever worked on in almost 40 years of being an Imagineer. And you know what? That’s what I love about it. Well, that, and Mickey," [...] “This is not going to be a small attraction, it’s going to be game-changing.”[1]
Furthermore, the Disney Television Animation team responsible for the recent, Paul Rudish helmed Mickey Mouse shorts are collaborating with the Disney theme park division and its Imagineers to bring the attraction to life.[1] Sound design for the attraction will utilize the original sound effects machines constructed by Jimmy MacDonald and other sound producers during the early years of Disney animation. The whistles used for the steamwhistle in Steamboat Willie were used to create the whistling sounds of the train.
Summary
The premise of the ride is where guests are invited inside the theater to watch the premiere of a brand new Mickey Mouse cartoon, Perfect Picnic. The theater is depended on the location of the attraction. At the Disney Hollywood Studios, the attraction takes place at the Chinese Theatre, which use to housed The Great Movie Ride when it was opened in May 1, 1989 until it was closed on August 13, 2017. For the upcoming Disneyland version, The attraction will takes place at Mickey’s Toontown in a brand new building called the El CapiTOON Theater, which is a riff of the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.
Queue
For the Disney Hollywood Studios, As guests make they way to though the lobby, guests can enjoy a series of posters of Mickey Mouse shorts that might have previously premiered at the Chinese Theatre. In the upcoming Disneyland version, The queue for the El CapiTOON Theater will featured a special exhibit put together by the Toontown Historical Society showcasing costumes and props from the toon world.
Per-Show
As guests reached the end of the queue, they entered the auditorium to watch the premiere of a new Mickey Mousecartoon, Perfect Picnic. Once the auditorium doors behind close, the cartoon starts on screen. The short begins with Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto setting out for a picnic at the Runamuck Park, singing "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" while packing Mickey's car for a picnic. Minnie packs Pluto and the picnic basket in the trunk. The duo drive up to the park. Along the way, Mickey and Minnie drive by Goofy, who is conducting the Runnamuck Railroad that surrounds the park. When their car hits a bump crossing the railroad track, the trunk pops open, releasing Pluto and the picnic basket into the air, which Pluto quickly manages to save and try to get back to Mickey and Minnie. However, a pie from the basket lands in the train's smokestack, causing Goofy's train goes out of control and crashed into the railroad station, causing a large explosion, and punching a hole through the movie screen. When the smoke clears, Goofy lands on a nail on the outside of the barn in front of the guests and a cast member. Seeing the guests Goofy offers them to takea ride on the train. He then ask a nearby cast member help the guests step inside the cartoon while he went back to the barn to fix the train right before falling off the wall. Upon walking though the screen, the guests winds through inside the cartoon railroad station, and make their way to the loading station where the train arrives.
Ride Experience
The ride begins traveling through a tranquil sunny day in the park with a cheery song and a chirping bird named Chuuby, while Mickey and Minnie are driving around in the distance. As they enter a railroad tunnel, Goofy greets the guests from the back of the train engine. Mickey and Minnie soon drive by in their car to greet the guests. Mickey parks next to a railroad switch and asks Goofy to take care of the guests. Goofy proudly exclaims, "Gosh they're with me, what can possibly go wrong?" Right when Goofy closes his window, the car accidentally hit a track switch, causing the train to separate with Goofy's engine making a left turn while the guests heading to the tunnel at the right. Mickey and Minnie decided to race into action to catch the runway train and save the guests.
The train then enter a desert canyon where Mickey and Minnie ride on horseback trying to rodeo the "stampeding" trains. They get the rope the train but they caught on themselves and soon the vultures target them. The train then enters a Carnival featuring Donald Duck running a hot dog stand, Horace Horsecollar running a popcorn booth, Huey, Dewey and Louie among the guests looking for a good time, and Pluto still carrying the picnic basket looking for the mice. Mickey and Minnie come floating in on balloons to try and help the train, but the Twister logo on the side of the carnival's wooden roller coaster comes to life and sweeps up the carnival in a storm. The tornado carries the train, Mickey, Minnie and Pluto to a tropical island where a volcanic eruption sends the guests off course and down a waterfall into the sea. Passing a submarine and musical sea life, including a Giant Squid that plays a trumpet.
The guests find themselves sucked into a sewer pipe and emerge into a big city. The guests see Pete working on road construction with a jackhammer powerful enough to shake the neighboring buildings (and smiling evilly when he sees what happens), while Donald can be seen again in a truck stuck in the traffic jam the train has caused (honking his horn impatiently as he does so). The guests then enter a dance studio owned by Daisy Duck, who instructs the train cars in dancing a waltz before establishing a conga line out. The dancing train cars exit out through an alley and enter a dangerous factory, where Mickey and Minnie try to deactivate the machinery to save the guests. After successfully shutting the factory down, it transforms into a moonlit night at the park. As the guests enter a tunnel, their train reunites with Goofy's engine where he is concluding his guided tour and hopes that the guests had a good time. They then see Mickey, Minnie and Pluto enjoying their picnic singing one final rendition of "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" while fireworks go off in the sky above and the guests. Goofy finds a lever and pulls it to find a small explosion in the cab as the train arrives back to the railroad barn. As guests leave the station, they pass through the screen to return to the real world, the title card saying “The End” is displayed as guests leave the theater.
Like all rides in the parks, this ride has suffered a few breakdowns since opening.
One of the posters for the attraction features Huey, Dewey, and Louie with attire and physical features based on their DuckTales models. But in the actual ride, they are based on the models that appear in the Mickey Mouse shorts.
This attraction marks Russi Taylor's final performance as Minnie Mouse. She was able to record all of her dialogue before her passing on July 26, 2019. After the news broke of her passing, Elyse Willis (co-writer for "Carried Away" and "Nothing Can Stop Us Now") shared a tribute tweet showing her with Russi Taylor during a recording session at a recording booth.[1]
Easter Eggs
Several nods to the Great Movie Ride can be found in the attraction:
The Carnival scene features a poster for "The Great Moving Ride".
The tornado sequence is a throwback to the Wizard of Oz portions of the attraction, and features a mailbox reading "No Place Like Home" among the debris. The Fantasia scene in The Great Movie Ride was originally intended to be the tornado to Oz before contract disputes with MGM on how much Oz material could be used in the attraction lead to it being scrapped.
The alleyway leading to the factory resembles Gangster Alley and features a shaking trashcan making the same frightened cat sound effect that was used within the sequence.[4]
The numbers 1901 and 1928 can be found over some of Runnamuck Park's tunnels, referencing the birth year of Walt Disney and the debut of Mickey Mouse.
The sewer scene is set in the "Iwerks and Uwerks Waterworks" water treatment facility, referencing Ub Iwerks.
In the city, a newspaper headline reads "Oswald Wins!", referring to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
The roadblocks surrounding Pete are labelled as "Rafferty's Roadblocks", after Imagineer Kevin Rafferty.
The restaurant sign, Maison de Souris, is French for "House of Mouse".
A parking garage is labeled as "Retlaw Parking", or Walter backwards, a common alias for Walt Disney.
The "1401 Flower Shop" in the City is a reference to Walt Disney Imagineering's address on 1401 Flower Street in Glendale. Next to it are "Carter's Cameras" named for Imagineer Charita Carter who has a photography hobby, and "Holt's Coffee Shop" after the Mickey Mouse series' art director Joseph Holt. A poster by the shops advertises the "Jolley Gallery", named for early Imagineer and Donald in Mathmagic Land art director Stan Jolley.
A "Brave Little Tailor Shop" can be seen in the alley leading to the factory.
A dumpster in the alley is tagged with the names of various Imagineers who worked on the project.
A sign in the park at night includes a reference to "Yensid Valley", a nod to both the sorcerer and Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Railroad, with Yensid Valley being what Walt called the lower elevated parts of the backyard railroad.