Toontown at Disneyland Closes March 2022, Reopens in 2023
Disney has announced an ambitious reimagining of Mickey’s Toontown in Disneyland that will debut in early 2023, alongside the new Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway ride. This post shares concept art, closing & reopening timelines, quotes, and brief thoughts on the changes. (Updated February 17, 2022.)
The official announcement from Disney follows significant work behind construction walls in Toontown. This has been visible since the parks reopened, but has accelerated in recent months with demolition and work plainly visible from the ground in Toontown. That’ll soon change, as the entire land closes during the next phase of the project.
To begin this work, Mickey’s Toontown will close beginning March 9, 2022. The land will reopen in early 2023, alongside the new attraction, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. When Toontown reopens in 2023, it will still be home to favorite attractions such as Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Mickey’s House, and Minnie’s House. Other attractions will be reimagined in new ways, including Gadget’s Go Coaster, Goofy’s House, and Donald’s Boat.
Per Disneyland, Imagineers are working to create all-new experiences for families that builds on the legacy of Mickey’s Toontown. The beloved land will transform into a “vibrant symphony of sights, sounds, and sensations.” Focusing on families with young children, Mickey’s Toontown will feature new play experiences, as well as open, grassy play spaces. The land will have landscaping for both play and parental relaxation.
“We are so excited to leverage Disney’s powerful brand, develop new stories and share even more magical experiences with our guests,” said D’Amaro in a quote that could apply to literally anything. “The newly reimagined Mickey’s Toontown will be a welcoming place where families and younger guests can connect and play together in fun new ways.”
With a greener and more spacious Mickey’s Toontown, the land will offer more play activities and attractions than it does right now. From active to tactile play, new experiences will let children slide, spin, splash, touch, and listen.
One of the new areas coming to Mickey’s Toontown will be CenTOONial Park, the first space guests will see when they enter. This natural space will be anchored by two interactive play spaces.
At the center of CenTOONial Park will be a fountain, which will also become a center icon for Mickey’s Toontown. As its base, water tables will invite guests to play with the water and have a sensory experience. At night, the fountain will be brought to life in a unique spectacle.
A nearby dreaming tree will be inspired by the tree a young Walt Disney would daydream under in his hometown. (This seems like a stretch, but whatever.) Sculpted tree roots will provide an opportunity for children to play, crawl and explore, and undulating topography will offer rolling hills and a place to sit and dream.
Mickey’s Toontown will close on March 9, 2022 to begin creating these all-new experiences. In addition to reopening in early 2023 with the new, family-friendly and adventurous Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Mickey’s Toontown will still be home to many beloved characters including Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, and more.
As with Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway coming to Toontown at Disneyland, we are mostly on board with these changes. About the only downside from my perspective is that it appears the current musical Mickey Mouse and Roger Rabbit fountains will be removed, replaced by a single, centralized play fountain.
Other than that, this should breathe new life into a land that is reasonably popular for meet and greets, but that has sort of faded in terms of its energy level. While Disney claims that this will offer more “activities and attractions than ever before” that isn’t exactly true, as Toontown used to have quite a bit more that was cut for safety reasons over the decades. With that said, these plans will definitely offer more interactivity than exists in Toontown right now.
I can’t really speak to the active and tactile play experiences directly, but one of the conversations we’ve had with friends who have small children is that the play experiences for that age demographic are limited in the parks.
While Disney’s announcement is a bit heavy-handed with the word “play” (among other things), I’m very much in favor of kids having opportunities for physical activity, discovery, and interactive experiences. For someone who doesn’t have kids, I have very strong opinions about all of this, but I won’t subject you to those.
We’ve been in Disneyland for the last few days, and have noticed support structures starting to take shape on the show building for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway–plus the attraction facade and more starting to appear behind the construction walls.
Of course, I didn’t take photos of any of this, figuring I’d do so on our last day before leaving. So for now, you’ll just have to trust me that things are progressing nicely in Toontown. (The above photo is from a couple months ago–I’ll share some new ones soon.)
Ultimately, all of these interactive play spaces plus Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway will be solid additions without anything significant being lost. Another big attraction in Toontown should also once and for all put to rest rumors about the land being replaced by future expansion.
Moreover, we feel incredibly strongly Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin is criminally underrated, and anything that exposes more guests to Toontown and potentially that iconic attraction is good news from our perspective. Plus, more green spaces in the parks is always a good thing. We’re cautiously optimistic that all of these changes and additions will be a net positive for Disneyland and guests!
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of the reimagined Mickey’s Toontown? Excited for Disney to breathe some new life into this area, or think it’s already great? Thoughts on the addition of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway to Disneyland? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
New stuff is always welcome and this all sounds good. MMRR is a great addition to Toontown. This isn’t my personal favorite land (and I do not share your love for Roger Rabbit), but I’m glad it exists.
I was also wondering about Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin and if that would still be running during the new development of Toon Town. I have my first trip to Disney Land booked for September and this ride was my number one to go on. That movie has been a favorite since I was little.
Roger Rabbit… the noisiest, screchiest, most abrupt nightmare of a ride! Our small grandchildren were terrified of it at ages 2-5 & I felt like the worst grandparent ever for making them do it. Hopefully those with sensitive young ones will avoid this. Ours are neuro normal and even I hated it!
Carni rides like this aren’t appropriate for young ones.
I have fond memories of the rope areas (whatever you call them?) as a little girl at Disneyland. I was sad all that was closed since I became a parent and started taking mine to Disneyland – in 2012! Now he’ll be too old for it, but this will be great for littles. We need kids exploring, touching, running, climbing and this will be a safe, fun environment.
Agree with Cruzer and others. Bring the cool playgrounds back!! Epcot used to have fun play areas and places to explore. Tom Sawyer island is an underrated treasure at MK. My kids spent an hour in the boneyard. Of all places Disney should have imaginative places for kids to be kids.
@David- The show building is backstage. It’s replaced some infrastructure buildings, like the Fantasyland/Toontown costuming building.
And for those asking, it’s already been confirmed that Roger is not being replaced (in fact, it’s being “politically corrected” and improved some). The building for MMRR started going up during COVID. Since it’s a projection heavy trackless ride, it can be customized to fit into different spaces and configurations fairly easily, or so WDI has said.
Re: the Tree… there is a “Walt Disney Dreaming Tree” in Marceline, and allegedly one of its offspring is planted on Tom Sawyer Island in DL… so it’s not really Toony but it’s not unprecedented. The tree even serves as the logo of the Walt Disney Hometown Museum. (A great, but out of the way place to visit!)
Couldn’t agree more with your friends, Tom. We have a young son and the minute I read this announcement my first thought was “God Magic Kingdom is in desperate need of something like this.” Given the age demographics that Disney caters to, there is shockingly little safe, tactile, sensory play experiences at WDW. My son, like many littles, has sensory issues and ADHD. These kind of safe stimulation areas are vital for all kids but especially for little ones who have some developmental struggles. I am so jealous of the West Coast that they are getting this. It sounds like a fantastic and needed edition for the under 5 crowd.
@David, I believe the showbuilding is being built in what used to be a backstage area and part of the Gag Factory has been demolished for the front. The work started before the pandemic shutdown and has picked back up more recently so it won’t all be forced to be done in one year. I know there was concern at one point that MMRR would replace Roger Rabbit, but it’s being built in a different spot.
Thoughts on changes coming to the Roger Rabbit ride, Tom? (Or have they already come? I’d heard about them a few months ago but then the world went silent on all of it so I don’t know what happened at some point.)
MMRR is a perfect fit for Toontown, and it sounds like the additional changes won’t compromise the land’s integrity. It’s refreshing to have a large Disney project like this where it seems nothing is being forced into a place it doesn’t really belong, or wedged in via an incomprehensible backstory.
I agree with you about Disney needing to expand play spaces. I think each park used to have a playground of some sort which was awesome for parents to relax and leg their kids run around–imagine, something fun for kids that isn’t standing in a line! EPCOT uses to have lots of interactive exhibits (Imagination and World of Motion Pavilions), Hollywood Studios had the Honey I Shrunk The Kids! playground, and Magic Kingdom had ToonTown. Now all that’s left is Tom Sawyer Island and The Boneyard in WDW.
I’m happy that Disney is bringing more interactive and discovery based attractions back into the parks in general.
I’m just curious, where will (is) the show building for MMRR located? There just doesn’t seem to be room for a whole new ride of that magnitude. And with a timeline of only a year, does it seem reasonable that construction will finish on time? If they are building a whole new show building, that will take a lot longer than a year (think about how long it took in DHS). Perhaps they will be replacing Roger Rabbit with MMRR?
Tom, any guess if the entirety of Toontown ends up closing in March 2022 for this reimagining, or only sections at a time? Our first visit is planned for April 2022 and our kids have been hyped up by your enthusiasm for Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin.
I hope that they bring Mickey and Minnies house’s back to Disney World. My son loved them on his first trip there 14 years ago and missed them when we went back 4 years later. They were taken out by then I can’t quite put my finger on where theyd been but I think down by Goofy’s rollercoaster.
Hopefully they will make room over by Mickey & Minnies Runaway Railway too.
What amazing and simultaneously maddening news! I’ve wanted to see ToonTown given proper attention and I am incredibly excited for the additional play spaces.
The frustration is that it means ToonTown will be closed until after my daughter turns 3. D’oh!
I just called Disney and they said Mask Manditate still exists for them even though CDC recommends otherwise
There actually WAS a “dreaming tree” where Walt would do just that while growing up in back in Marceline. It unfortunately died during the past decade though. I think this is a good tribute to what I thought was a great symbol that highlighted Walt’s younger spirit and served as his “happy place” when he was young.
I’m aware of that, what I think is a stretch is that this very cartoonish tree is actually inspired by Walt Disney’s dreaming tree. The commonality between the two is that both look like trees–so by that measure, anytime the company plants a new tree, they could claim it’s inspired by Walt.
Perhaps that’s just me being cynical, but it seems like the company is all too eager to draw convenient connections to Walt when it’s helpful to marketing copy.
Toontown at Disneyland has always been one of the more unpleasant zones of the park. Something about all that hard, bright plastic I think. I can definitely get behind adding trees and grass there!
Totally agree–should be an upgrade from a placemaking perspective, at the very least!