Mr Toad's Wild Ride
For such an unknown Disney film, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad has still made its mark on three of the Disney theme parks - Disneyland, Disney World and Disneyland Paris.
It is The Wind in the Willows which has had the most impact with an entire dark ride based on it's events. Two iterations of this ride have existed; one at Disney World, which no longer exists, and one at Disneyland which is still alive and well.
Once in a car, riders crash through doors and into the library of Toad Hall. Badger is teetering atop a ladder and then, suddenly, you crash back out, through the fireplace and off into a corridor, narrowly avoiding a toppling suit of armour. Weasels hang from the ceiling and then a sharp left turn takes you to meet Mole who is sat at a table with a worried expression.
In moments, riders are out of Toad Hall and into the countryside, a frantic-looking policeman holding up his hand and blowing on his whistle. Police line the roads and bridges as the car careers through the country lanes. Past a terrified farmer and riders find themselves at the docks by the River Thames, cranes looming above them. Turning, the cars travel between crates and barrels labelled as containing TNT. Suddenly, riders crash through a solid brick wall and explosions sound all around them, lights flashing in the dark.
Suddenly, riders are in the town and careering into a pub. Behind the bar, the landlord, Winky, ducks down, tankards of beer spinning from his hands. Back out into town and the cars eventually end up at the law courts. Inside the lawyer for the prosecution points a condemning finger at riders as they disappear through a set of doors, past a policeman and then find themselves travelling into Hell! The prosecution lawyer is present, dressed as the Devil himself. Little red devils and large monsters leer at guests as they continue through the caves of Hell before quickly emerging back into the loading area at the front of the ride.
Mr Toad's Wild Ride is a fun-looking ride. It's fast and I'm sure that you would need a couple of rides to fully appreciate all the scenes you pass through. Most odd, though, is that the ride follows the film relatively closely until the final scenes with riders plunging into Hell which definitely doesn't happen in the film. It's a dark end to the ride, reminiscent of the darker elements of the films of Pinocchio and Mickey's Christmas Carol. It's very effective though.
The long since gone Disney World version of Mr Toad's Wild Ride was an ambitious ride which featured two separate tracks meaning guests could ride twice and have a different experience each time. A right track and left track provided different scenes for the cars to travel through. I'm not surprised a ride set up like this garnered such affection to the point where, still, fans of Disney theme parks campaign for its return.
The loading area for this iteration was a country lane with cars emerging from under a bridge and entering the ride through the large wooden doors of Toad Hall. Guests again ride in replicas of Toad's beloved car and career around the inside of Toad Hall past paintings and statues before travelling through the fire place. Eventually, after a brief meeting with Badger, the cars arrive in the countryside, sheep, cows and a rather angry bull, providing obstacles to the car's journey. Through a barn, scaring chickens along the way, riders are in the village, circling a large fountain and scaring the locals. Cars then crash into the police station and through to the cells full of prisoners (all weasels). Back out to the country lanes, riders witness a car chase between the police and weasels before heading to a train track crossing barrier. Ignoring the barrier, the riders come face to face with a train. As punishment for this recklessness, the next scene sees the riders in Hell taunted by little red devils before emerging back into the loading area.
The left track starts in the same way, just coming from the left instead of the right. This track also enters Toad Hall travelling past the paintings, statues and suits of armour. These riders also get to see Toad Hall's trophy room with various wild animal heads mounted on the wall. Rather than scaring Badger, these riders terrify the servants of Toad Hall before heading out into the forest where they encounter a family of gypsies. These cars then meet up with the right track riders in the village as before but rather than careering through the police station, enter the pub to encounter (as with the Disneyland version) Winky the landlord and his spinning tankards of beer. Back outside, the riders head towards a railway barrier before also meeting their maker at the hands of a train ending up in the depths of Hell.
It's interesting to see the similarities and differences between this version and the Disneyland version. Both rides add elements to the Toad of Toad Hall story which are not present in the film but make do make sense - the gypsies clearly being a reference to Toad's caravanning jaunt at the start of the film, the weasels and prison being a reference to Toad being locked up for his misdemeanours.
The grainy videos may be to blame for this but I didn't notice, in the Disney World version, Mole, Ratty or Cyril the horse. It is entirely possible they are there and the bad lighting and 90s camcorder footage obscure them as it seems odd to not include them. It's also interesting that the Disneyland version transforms the lawyer character from the film into someone akin to Judge Jeffreys condemning poor Toad to hell for his misdemeanours - which does seem a little harsh. It's also surprising that the end of the Disney World version sees guests apparently being killed by the train and sent to Hell! It's not very in keeping with the positive Disney attitude!
Mr Toad's Wild Ride is not a ride I have ridden and the possibility of visiting Disneyland is, at the moment, no more than a pipe dream, but one day, hopefully, it is a ride I can experience as it looks to be an awful lot of fun.
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