Toontown at Disneyland

 

Mickey’s Birthdayland in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World was developed to celebrate Mickey’s 60th birthday in 1988.  It was intended as a fixed costume character ‘meet-and-greet’ location in order to better manage the guest interactions.  It was closed in April 1990 and re-opened in May 1990 as Mickey’s Starland.  In 1996 it was re-modeled again – and opened as Mickey’s Toontown Fair.

Walt Disney Imagineering was not involved with the development of Mickey’s Birthdayland. 

Disneyland had a similar interest and went to Imagineering for the design.  It was intended to be a much bigger themed land, but a portion of the designated land was used for the new Team Disney Anaheim building (designed by Frank Gehry).  The scaled-back Toontown consists of a suburban ‘Mickeyville’ and downtown Toontown… more reminiscent of the Who framed Roger Rabbit film.

Toontown ride design concept - by Daan JippesNumerous concepts were developed for the Toontown rides.  Ultimately, the Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin ride was developed.  Imagineer Joe Lanzisero led the overall Toontown project – Don Carson designed many of the downtown Toontown exteriors and Marcelo Vignali led the Car Toon Spin ride development.

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