Mickey
and Minnie’s Runaway Railway is opening this week at Disney’s Hollywood
Studios, and though this park is still dealing with heavy crowds due to
the popularity of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, there is plenty of
excitement around this blockbuster opening on March 4, 2020! Here’s
everything we know about this new attraction!
The setup: Walking into a Mickey Mouse cartoon
Mickey & Minnie’s
Runaway Railway begins the moment guests enter the iconic Chinese
Theater in the middle of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The setup is that
everyone has gathered at the theater for the premiere of a new Mickey
Mouse cartoon short, “Perfect Picnic,” which sees Mickey and Minnie
setting off on a journey to find the best spot for a romantic picnic,
taking their little red convertible for a drive through Runnamuck Park.
However, as you might expect, things go wrong pretty quickly,
and guests are transported “through” the movie screen and into the
cartoon world, where they join Engineer Goofy on a train ride on the
Runnamuck Railroad, following Mickey and Minnie through the park on
their quest for that perfect picnic.
On their way through the ride guests will be able to check out a number of environments and setups, including
- Stampeding through the Wild West
- Visiting a carnival
- Avoiding a swirling twister
- Escaping an exploding volcano
- Diving over a waterfall … and much more
A technological marvel
Though Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is still the most technologically advanced attraction in existence, Mickey
& Minnie’s Runaway Railway will be quite the unique attraction when
it opens, blending classic Disney attraction design in a brand new way
with cutting-edge technology to turn a two-dimensional cartoon world
into a rich, vibrant environment. The attraction features a combination
of physical sets, Audio-Animatronic figures, animated media and
projection-mapping techniques, all while using the same trackless
technology that powers Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
There will be plenty of fun references to spot!
Disney has announced
that guests who ride Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway can look for
special “hidden gems” that nod to Disney history. Here are a few to keep
an eye out for:
- A newspaper features the headline “Oswald Wins!” – a reference
to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the cartoon character created by Walt Disney
that predates Mickey Mouse. - The Iwerks and Uwerks Waterworks water treatment plant is named for
Disney Legend Ub Iwerks, the animator credited with sketching Mickey
Mouse for the first time. - The 1401 Flower Shop is an homage to Walt Disney Imagineering’s headquarters in Glendale, Calif.
- The numbers 1901 and 1928 can be seen inside the attraction; these
are references to Walt Disney’s and Mickey Mouse’s birth years,
respectively.
News Source: themeparktourist.com