First reactions and details inside Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (Spoiler and Non-Spoiler)
Today was the first official day of cast member previews for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This new trackless ride, which takes the place of The Great Movie Ride, promises to put guests in the middle of Mickey’s new wacky world.
We will start with a spoiler free look at what the cast members thought, but read on to learn first-look details inside this attraction. Cast members reactions on social media were mostly positive, with a few not enjoying the current look of the Mickey cartoons or hating that this attraction replaced The Great Movie Ride.
Many Cast members were singing the praises of the attraction from the moment they stepped off the ride. Many are saying “the projection mapping technology cannot be beat”. “The ride is full of special effects that have never been used before” and the ride “explodes with energy”.
We have heard warnings to take off hats and loose glasses because there are very strong wind effects.
Others, not so much, but most negativity has been around what the ride replaced and not the attraction itself. From the details we heard, there are two other things guests may not like. One involves Pluto and the other some animatronics in the ride. More on those later.
Overall, the attraction has been explained as: high-energy, technologically advanced, wacky and fun, bright and colorful, and overall a really fun family adventure.
Spoilers ahead!
Want to know even more? Continue reading to learn the storyline of this attraction and details about this new major ride.
First off, the pre-show. The building has two pre-show theaters to maximize capacity, each doing the exact same thing. The pre-show starts with Mickey and Minnie in a new animated short which is quickly turned amuck due to crazy cartoon circumstances. We heard some cast members didn’t like how Minnie kicked and hurt Pluto at the beginning of the scene. Pluto is visibly upset and Minnie doesn’t seem to care. This scene is done quickly, but still stuck out enough to be noticed by numerous cast members.
The pre-show continues with Goofy’s train wrecking into a barn. In the course of Goofy’s train crashing, the actual pre-show room itself is slightly destroyed and guests are given a new way to exit the room. This transition is used to take guests into the barn loading room for the ride.
This attraction will have a very large capacity with eight rows per ride, which can each hold four guests. The loading process was quick and easy!
The ride then begins with the first scene showcased in the photo above. The ride is incredibly bright and colorful. Some say it’s the best projection effects Disney has ever done by far. The details are astounding and it will take numerous rides to catch them all.
Goofy also opens up the window in his locomotive to look at the guests, and the effect is done perfectly. It makes a cartoon figure look real and very much “in the space” with the guests. This effect is used a few times and it is just as impressive each time.
Shortly after is the first time guests will see Mickey and Minnie, and the Audio-Animatronics are very accurate to the cartoon shorts. This is said to be a first for Disney Audio-Animatronics. The figures were explained like so, “They look like bubbles with animated faces. Mickey and Minnie look awesome, and their projections are so fun, but I don’t know how to explain their bodies other than big bubbles. They are incredibly cute!” Bringing animated characters to the real world, especially in 3D, is certainly a big task. Bubble bodies seems like a weird concept that will require a photo for better understanding.
After a quick moment with Mickey and Minnie, Goofy’s train undergoes an issue which separates the train from the cars and showcases the trackless ride vehicle’s abilities. The cars are immediately taken into a huge western themed room with movement everywhere. Mickey and Minnie take to horses to save the guests, but can’t get to them before the guests are somehow taken to a theme park.
This theme park room has a reference to its predecessor, with one attraction at the park being called, “The Great Moving Ride”. This room features another look at Mickey and Minnie Audio-Animatronics and funny moments with Donald and some mustard. A tornado comes out of nowhere to interrupt the plans yet again. Supposedly this scene is the reason behind the caution off taking off hats. The wind has been described as stronger than the final Kylo Ren scene in Rise of the Resistance.
This extreme wind continues into the next scene which has a large tornado effect in the center of the room. We were told the ride vehicles in this scene make quick turns and stops like the vehicle is being dragged around by the wind.
Guests are “thrown” from the tornado into a tropical oasis. This room is yet again huge! In fact, each room has been described as similar to The Great Movie Ride with massive sets. In the recurring theme of bad incidents, a volcano erupts. Guests are spun around and each of the four different ride vehicles gets their own mini simulator style experience. The vehicles supposedly don’t move, but the projection effects and rumbling of the seats make it feel like they are. A quick spin back into the tropical scene and the entire room has been changed to match the underwater scene shown above.
Guests then head into a city scene where Pete uses a jack hammer to shake the whole room. Characters jitter around and the seats strongly vibrate in conjunction with it. Guests continue into Daisy’s dance room.
Daisy has been said to be the best animatronic in the entire ride with an incredibly cute beak and fun movements. The vehicles all line up in front of mirrors to dance together. The four ride vehicles then follow along with Daisy’s instructions to dance as one. This moment is paired with bright lighting and energetic music.
Guests leave Daisy to enter a factory where they are confronted with a dangerous crushing tool that almost hurts the guests. Thankfully Mickey and Minnie save the day and get the guests back to Goofy’s train engine.
This is the final show room with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto finally enjoying their picnic. It all wraps up with Goofy trying a switch out that ends up electrocuting him and shaking the guests as they head into the unload room.
It appears this high-capacity, technologically-advanced, energetic ride will be exactly what Disney’s Hollywood Studios needs for its ever-growing crowd level. The ride has its original old-time Hollywood themed queue, a new advanced pre-show, fun and colorful ride vehicles, a fast-paced storyline, big-time characters and immense details.
With Disney already giving out Fastpass options for the attraction, they appear to be very confident in this ride’s ability to run non-stop. We are excited to get out and grab footage when possible of this new attraction. Continue to follow along for more details.
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway opens to all guests on March 4, 2020 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and in Toontown at Disneyland Park in 2022.
Since this ride will be a Tier 1 FP+ I’m sure I’ll have a greater chance of riding this in April than ROTR.