On October 22, 1997, the Orlando Sentinel reported on a rumor that Mr. Toad was about to be evicted from Magic Kingdom’s Toad Hall. Their sources noted that the ride would close forever, and soon.
Now don’t misunderstand… any time Disney announces that they’ll close (or even change) a ride (or even restaurant or gift shop or themed land), it’s met with an army of fans who resist and revolt, often justifiably. But with Mr. Toad, Disney fans rallied with a fervor that outpaces their normal, already-impressive levels of defending doomed rides.
The Save Toad campaign emerged the day after the Orlando Sentinel’s article and would end up shipping hundreds of “Save Toad” t-shirts and gathering thousands of online submissions and memories. It was a hashtag-ready social-media blitz before hashtags or social media… and before Disney had even announced anything.
Still, word spread. The campaign led to a story in AP Newswire, which in turn earned articles from CNN and The Washington Post. Word was circulating and Mr. Toad earned what might be the first national media attention surrounding a soon-to-be-shuttered Disney attraction.
Unfortunately, it didn’t slow Disney’s hand. On September 2, 1998 – more than a full year after the Orlando Sentinel first reported the rumor – Disney finally came clean: it was true. Mr. Toad would take his last wild rides and the 1971-original dark ride would close forever… in five days.
Almost twenty-seven years after it opened alongside Magic Kingdom, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride closed for good on September 7, 1998. The Save Toad campaign was in attendance with a final “Toad-In” where members celebrated and mourned together. And that was that.
For generations of Magic Kingdom guests, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was a veritable park icon on par with Peter Pan’s Flight or Snow White’s Scary Adventures – a classic that harkened back to the park’s origins and, even further, to a Walt Disney original that opened with Disneyland. The announcement that it would close in less than a week was a low blow that stunned even those who suspected its time was short. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was an instant classic, a brilliant dark ride, and a fan favorite…
So why would Walt Disney World close a beloved opening day dark ride? It’s a tale as old as time…
Why Toad croaked
Why did Mr. Toad croak? Frankly, dominoes toppling toward Toad one-by-one probably begin with the arrival of Michael Eisner as Disney’s new CEO in 1984. Tasked with reinventing Walt Disney Productions, Eisner took a particular interest in the theme parks, presiding over a period of unprecedented growth, unimaginable expense, and spectacular scale. In fact, our must-read BLOCKBUSTER: The Ride feature dives into the “Ride the Movies” era Eisner oversaw, injecting modern, carefully-curated, relevant characters into Disney Parks.
Eisner’s unfathomable investment in Disney Parks spawned a decade of incredible attractions… and all the while, his radical reinvention of Walt Disney Feature Animation (known today as the “Disney Renaissance”) gave Disney something it hadn’t had since Walt’s death: relevance. Films like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and more had reinvigorated Disney’s catalogue with marketable, merchandise-friendly characters.
Meanwhile, the captstone of Eisner’s massive plans for Disney Parks centered around a project Imagineering fans know all too well: EuroDisneyland.
Intended as Eisner’s legacy monument, Disney’s first park in Europe was instead a colossal financial flop. Overbuilt and undervalued by the French, the park outside of Paris is almost unconscionably beautiful… but directly or indirectly caused decades of cancellations, cop-outs, and closures.
Almost certainly, we can count Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride among its victims. Paris’ financial collapse and the tragic death of his right-hand man, Frank Wells, shifted Eisner’s perspective drastically. He publically swore off any large scale investments in Disney Parks ever again, surrounding himself in budget-conscious executives. That’s why Eisner’s second decade at Disney is about as derided as his first had been celebrated… and why so many of the closed classics and outright disasters in our collection pivot around this tumultous time.
Beginning in the mid-’90s, Disney Parks entered a decade marked by a “character invasion,” with Eisner’s team hastily (and inexpensively) pushing marketable, merchandise-friendly characters into the parks by any means necessary – even cannibalizing classics. The Lost Legends: Alien Encounter, If You Had Wings, The Enchanted Tiki Room, and The Timekeeper gave way to Lilo & Stitch, Toy Story, Aladdin and The Lion King, and Monsters Inc. – merely the start of the Pixarification of Disney Parks, and the messy introduction of characters into Epcot.
In other words, it’s not at all surprising that the merchandising allure of Winnie the Pooh beat out classic Mr. Toad.
What is surprising, even in retrospect, is the way in which Disney closed the attraction. Sure, any ride’s closing will earn groans and even protests from die-hard fans. But to announce that it would close forever within the week? The underhanded move meant that many fans didn’t have a chance to say goodbye, and in a pre-social-media world, tens of thousands of people likely arrived to Walt Disney World for their normal family vacation and were surprised to find that Mr. Toad simply wasn’t there anymore.
Of course, what else should fans have expected? The same era and executives behind Toad’s short-notice shut-down had already permanently closed Magic Kingdom’s beloved Lost Legend: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Submarine Voyage under the guise of a temporary, seasonal refurbishment (with no notice to fans), and shuttered Disneyland’s Lost Legend: The Peoplemover forever in favor of a sputtering low-budget replacement in a dreary New Tomorrowland.
And though Disney’s methods (and budgets) have changed for the better in the two decades since, the discussion is perhaps even more relevant than ever: will U.S. Disney Parks ever again build an E-Ticket attraction that’s not based on a high-earning box office film?
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh opened at Magic Kingdom at the height of Eisner’s call for characters: June 4, 1999. True to form, the attraction was able to take up just part of the original Mr. Toad show space, leaving plenty of room for an adjoining Hundred Acre Goods gift shop. Trading in Toad’s wild sputtering jalopies for ambling honey pots lumbering through the tale, the ride does it best to imitate Fantasyland classics, even if it never reaches the heights of Peter Pan’s Flight or Snow White’s Scary Adventures.
Five years later in 2005, the filled in Submarine Lagoon adjacent became Pooh’s Playful Spot, a toddler-friendly playground of Hundred Acre Wood interactives, slides, and climbable structures. It was wiped away in 2010 as the entire former Submarine Lagoon went behind construction walls for a transformation into a Fantasy Forest-themed expansion, ultimately yielding the Wizarding-World-esque mini-lands dedicated to Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Dumbo we know today.
At that time, Pooh’s exterior was swapped from a simple redress of Toad’s tournament tent facade to a rustic Hundred Acre Woods aesthetic supported by a new interactive queue. Is Pooh a blockbuster attraction? Of course not. But the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is nonetheless a Fantasyland family favorite in its own right for a new generation…
And by the way, Magic Kingdom’s Winnie the Pooh ride was merely the start of a company-wide roll-out. When Hong Kong Disneyland (one of the last underbuilt projects of Eisner’s era) opened in 2005, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was literally the only dark ride in Fantasyland; even 2016’s Shanghai Disneyland and its roster of mostly-original E-Tickets opted to build a relatively simple clone of Magic Kingdom’s Pooh ride in its Fantasyland, too.
So did the final removal of Toad’s facade officially erase any indication of this Wild Ride from Walt Disney World? Of course not… Imagineers sure know how to leave clues behind…
Living on
The good news is that Imagineers usually find clever and thoughtful ways to pay homage to lost rides, shows, and attractions, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is no different. While the lord may have been banished from the manor, traces of Mr. Toad and his absurd adventures remain hidden around Magic Kingdom for eagle-eyed guests to spot.
A morbid but clever nod to the great dark ride, the statue of Mr. Toad prominently displayed in the Entrance Hall found a new home… fans on the hunt will spot the now-oxidized, rusted statue as a gravestone teetering atop the pet cemetery at the Haunted Mansion. The perfect detail may provide some amount of closure and relief upon viewing.
But even better, designers made sure Mr. Toad’s legacy lived on within his old property, too.
Imagineers left a few hints of what used to be when they designed The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. In Owl’s home, you just might spot a photograph hanging on Owl’s wall of J. Thaddeus Toad himself handing over the deed to Toad Hall. In the same room, you can spot another photo of Pooh greeting Moley, Mr. Toad’s sidekick.
It’s not all doom-and-gloom, though. Disney Imagineers were one step ahead of management in Mr. Toad’s case, determined to let the attraction survive. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh dark ride would come to both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland come hell or high water. The characters from the Hundred Acre Wood were too desirable and too marketable to miss, and management wanted the boost sure to come from a Pooh gift shop on each coast. But, Imagineers were able to maneuver Pooh in such a way as to preserve two classics.
At Magic Kingdom, Pooh would replace Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Fantasyland.
At Disneyland, Pooh would replace the Lost Legend: Country Bear Jamboree in Critter Country.
While that did heartbreakingly eliminate a classic at each park, it also preserved one. Today, Country Bear Jamboree continues to play at Magic Kingdom, while at Disneyland, the graceful redbrick exterior of Toad Hall hosts Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Even in the starved-for-space Disneyland, Mr. Toad looks as if he’ll ride on for many more years alongside a host of other classic Fantasyland dark rides: Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Peter Pan’s Flight, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, and Alice in Wonderland. While it may not be the same as Magic Kingdom’s expanded and upgraded version, rest easy knowing that Mr. Toad continues his journeys to nowhere in particular every day.
And even today, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is still the only Disney Parks ride we can think of that sends riders to Hell. And that is saying something.
If you enjoyed this in-depth look at the history of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, be sure to make the jump to our Lost Legends collection to set course for another closed classic.
Now it’s your turn. In the comments below, share your memories and stories of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride to preserve this unusual and chaotic ride experience for future generations. What was your first ride like? What about your last? Was this Magic Kingdom classic all it was cracked up to be? Is Pooh a worthy replacement? We’ll see you soon with the next