Hey guys, I have decided that after reviewing all of that automobile related material, I needed a brake. Don't worry, I'll be getting back to some reviewing automobile material soon but over the next two days, I have decided to talk about car based attractions at the Disney parks.
Now the first ride that I wish to talk about was never actually built but after learning about it, I wish to shed some light on it as it sounded like a neat idea but in many ways I can see why it never came to be.
The Herbie the Love bug Ride - Disneyland
As I stated, the first ride I wish to talk actually never saw the light of day. Back in '76, there were plans to build a Herbie The Love Bug ride. Now from what I understand each car would have been a different Herbie and it would have taken you through different scenes from the films. Now I don't have all the details but from what I understand, it would only follow The Love Bug and Herbie Rides Again. They would have even had the Herbie cars pull of similar tricks that Herbie did in the films such as driving up the Golden Gate Bridge. Now that seems practical but they wanted to do something that I don't think would have worked, in one of the first Herbie film when Herbie wins, he is split in half and takes first and third. They wanted to try and emulate that on this ride. I don't see how that would have worked because I don't think we have the technology to pull that off even today. Now besides that, the other thing that confuses me about this ride is that they wanted to put in Fantasyland. Now to me the location seems even odder than the idea because well, most of the rides there are more fairy-tale based and this film not so much. Sure, a living car isn't exactly the most realistic thing but Fantasyland just doesn't make sense. In the long run though it really wouldn't fit in any other area of the park. It does sound like it would have been a neat ride and I believe that there is a lack of rides based on the live action films at the parks. Oh sure, you got Star Tours and the Indy ride but those are based on films not owned by Disney. They just have the rights to use the characters in their parks. I'm just saying it feels like ever since 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea closed, there haven't been many if any rides based on the live action films. Sure, you can argue the addition of Jack Sparrow to Pirates counts. Though you already know my feelings on that and what I'm talking about isn't just adding characters to a ride but rather making an actual ride based off of a live action Disney film. Granted, other than Pirates and Tron as of late, the live action films haven't been doing well when compared to their animated counterparts. Though there are rumors of a Tron ride opening soon. Just rumors, that's all.
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - Disneyland/Magic Kingdom
Now this ride is among one of the most popular ride to ever be around. Never having ridden on it, I can't comment on what makes it so popular. From my understanding it is a basic Dark ride that takes the riders through the story of Wind In The Willows but it seems to go faster than most of the other dark rides. Now you ride in a jalopy that looked similar to the motorcar from the short. They looked like something like this.
Now one thing that each car had that made it unique was each of the cars had a name of one of the characters on it. Now I did watch a ride through of this ride on YouTube and it does look as though it is a very cartoony ride capturing the wild spirit of Mr. Toad quite well. Now sadly, the ride at Magic Kingdom has closed and been replaced by The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh. Many fans were left upset by this decision and some fans would like to see the ride make a comeback. Now I don't know because this goes back to the theory of change and how the park needs change in order to survive. Now the Winnie The Pooh ride does reference Mr. Toad's Wild ride in two different pictures that can be found when you come across Owl's house. First their is a picture of Owl being the hand of deed of Toadhall by Mr. Toad. Secondly, in that scene you will also see a picture of Pooh Bear and Mole together.
Now one more reference can be found to this ride but to see it, you'll have to go to The Haunted Mansion. When you do, head towards the pet cemetery and there, you'll see a statue of Mr. Toad.
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin - Disneyland/Tokyo Disney
Now this ride is located in ToonTown in Disneyland and I believe that there were plans to bring this ride to Disney's MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios). There was supposed to be an entire Roger Rabbit section but the financial mess of Euro Disney caused them to cut back and so this ride only ended up in Disneyland and Tokyo Disney. Now we have finally come to a ride that I have actually been on and I loved this ride. Sure, it's your basic Dark ride and it takes you through the film but as you can see part of the name of the ride is Spin and that means when you ride in your cab, you get to spin it around. That is if you are behind the wheel and I actually like that because it gives you more to look at and I just love getting dizzy on rides. It's a weird yet satisfying feeling when I get dizzy. Now just as I said Mr. Toad was cartoony, this was ride was as well but amp up the cartoony-ness to 10 and that is how this ride feels. It is just so wacky and fun. Now the warehouse was renamed in the ride as if you recall in the film it was called the Acme Warehouse but seeing as Warner Brothers owns the title of Acme, they opted to just call it the Gag Warehouse. Also when you come across the Dip cans in the Disneyland versions, those are the actual cans from the film and one has a dent where Christopher apparently kicked it. Now your ride vehicle is Benny The Cab from the film and that makes sense and I think they did a good job of capturing his likeness. Take a look for yourself.
Now there is one last thing that I wish to discuss ans you may know Disney loves having their guests look everywhere and even entertain them while waiting in the queue for their rides and this one is no exception as you see they have a wall of license plates that spell out or refer to Disney characters, shorts or lands.
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| How Many names can you make out? |
Autopia/Tommorwland Speedway - Disneyland/Magic Kingdom/Disneyland Paris/Hong Kong Disney
Ah, now we come to perhaps the oldest ride at the Disney Parks on this article. Not only that this is the only ride listed so far that is at all four of the Disney parks. Hmm, makes me wonder if this will be built for the Shanghai Disney. Though I'll just have to wait until 2016 to find out. Anyways you may have noticed that that I listed two different names for the ride. As you see at the Magic Kingdom it isn't called Autopia but rather Tommorwland Speedway. Now I had not been on this ride that was until I went to Magic Kingdom a few years back for a Thanksgiving trip and decided to go on this ride at night just to see what it was like. I can say that I hadn't missed much as the ride really while not bad wasn't all that impressive. It was just okay, the wheel was stiff and hard to use. Also it felt a bit greasy as well. Yeah, not the best ride I have ever been on.
So ends, day 1 of our look at car based attractions at Disney Parks. Join me next time for day 2 of Car Based Attractions at Disney Parks
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