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I still have vivid memories walking around Mickey's and Minnie's houses. I could still hear that bubbling pot in their kitchen. Toontown was so uniquely Disney, I wish they kept it than replace Mickey and friends with a random circus with Dumbo.
this was my favorite area in the park as a kid. getting to meet mickey in his actual neighborhood was amazing~! the new version is nice, but toontown original was the bee's knees.
I remember going to Mickey’s Toon town fair back into 2000s. I still have some of the photos of the meet and greetings in my photo album and home movies my parents would tape
For some reason one the the most vivid disneyqorld memories I have is from when I was like 6 and being in the big tent at toontown fair where they had like a gift shop I think and showed cartoons on the sides
I LOVED this area as a kid. The houses of course, and all the fun little environmental details, but also just the atmosphere. Also I met chicken little there, which as I would come to find out later was a pretty rare encounter
Storybook Circus has a much cheaper feeling than Toontown Fair and it's pretty disgraceful. It's insane that so much space was wasted for outdoor seating when more attractions used to be in its place
I've never been to Toontown Fair, but it along with Toontown at DL and Tokyo were some of my first interests when I came back into the Disney sphere in 2020 alongside Splash Mountain. I've always found more charm in Toontown Fair than in Storybook Circus and I wish they didn't end up removing it Something else I also regret is saving the Toontown Fair music loop because I know someone uploaded it to RUclips a few years ago and it contained some tracks that aren't in the original Disneyland version. Thanks for taking me back in time with this video
My first Disney memory [ I remember] was going to MK excited to see Mickeys house only to realize it had closed…. I was confronted by these tall walls and ever since I became a Disney Parks fan obsessed with what would replace it
Rumors for years after the closure that Mickey’s & Minnie’s house were saved & might pop up at the studios or downtown Disney/disney springs. I always thought that would have been awesome.once the toontown Xmas decorations started showing up at Disneyland I knew chances were slim
I wasn’t really a princess kid, so this was the part of the park that filled me with pure joy and wonder. I loved walking through the houses, and Donald’s boat. Before I can remember, I did see the last version of the stage show. My parents said I loved it so much I made them see it twice. 😁
I still can’t believe they gave us a beauty and the beast quick service restaurant and a sit down restaurant, but they couldn’t give us the ride that they built in Japan. Of course, the Japanese paid for that.
One of my most vividest memories at six years old was when I visited Toontown in California. I remember the carrots growing in the garden and those bright yellows, as well as Pluto's doghouse. I'm glad to see that its still alive and well in California
I even remember the songs that played in the original Birthdayland, on the train and in the show! “We’re going, we’re going on the express. Were going on the Mickey’s Birthdayland Express!” “Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy happy birthday to you, hey Mickey!” Wonderful memories!
I've only been to Disney World once as a kid, but I definitely have a distinct memory of the farm themed Barnstormer. Loved that ride! We were in the area on kind of a slow day, so I ended up riding it like five times in a row
CM here! That space you pointed out at 22:08 is actually a CM break space/backstage area now. While it does look big on the map, the footprint of it definitely isn’t enough to do anything with. Disney would have to do some serious rearranging of storybook circus/close portions of it to successfully do anything in that tiny area.
Oh man I loved this place as a little kid. It was so much fun and while not as fleshed out as toontown in Disneyland, it felt lived in. I think that’s my main issue with Storybook circus, it feels a lot emptier in comparison. Also the souvenier shop isn’t nearly as memorable. It was fun seeing what exciting new characters they had visiting like Cinderella’s mice and Rafiki. I love dumbo but I’d like to see more characters than just the fab 5.
Disneyland’s (and to a lesser extent Tokyo Disneyland) Mickey’s ToonTown is/was far superior to Magic Kingdom’s ToonTown Fair. The entire circus fair theme to Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland proved, that despite the larger castle, the park lacked an identity outside of “Disneyland Lite”. So, it is understandable ToonTown Fair was permanently closed, in favor of capitalizing on Dumbo’s popularity in Orlando. However, due to Disney prioritizing Princess meet-and-greets over rides with the New Fantasyland expansion, the entire area feels broken and disjointed. No other Fantasyland in the world is that shallow in its execution, and I wonder if the Villains Land (which is essentially the dark counterpart to Fantasyland) will actually fix that issue. Especially, since Mickey Mouse still has nowhere to “live” in Magic Kingdom.
I am not into the Disney princess stuff but hearing the plan to redo the land and the original land idea was so great and would have come to check it out. That sound such a good plan, they should have went through it and should do still now as Universal is killing it a lot lately.
We were on holiday in Florida from the UK from 20th October 1988 to 4th November 1988 and so experienced Mickey's Birthdayland. Visited many times in the 1990s and in 2001/2002 but haven't been there since then.
When I was a cast member in 2015, the bulldozing of toontown fair was still fresh. Guests would come to the Main Street help area (where I worked) complaining that they couldn’t find Mickeys house. We were taught to tell them that he lives in California 😂
Birthdayland really was patient zero for Eisner's eternal strategy of "cut costs as much as possible up front". And like DCA and WDSP, it's suffered ever since. Fun background info, the Judge's Tent and gift shop was the area of MK with the highest revenue per square foot in the park and as a result Merchandise absolutely refused to let WDI take down the tents. Since Dumbo was already slated to be moved across the street and the tents had to stay, WDI compromised on a circus theme. They built entirely new, more permanent tents (which was needed anyway) but the park did not want to lose the capacity of the Mickey attraction, so he moved up to the front of the park. But without Mickey, the tents are now among the LEAST profitable areas of MK, leading to days when they're not even open anymore. Disney is bad at almost everything! lol
The first time I visited WDW in 2006, I was crowned Princess of Toontown by a cast member and got to experience Mickey giving me my own private tour of his house. For me, that experience alone trumps anything there is to do there now. I wish they’d been able to keep the houses up, Storybook Circus feels really lame by comparison
I think Pixie Hollow was supposed to go across from Dumbo, and not north of Storybook Circus. I’m sure the Imagineers would have figured out how it all worked thematically. While I appreciate Storybook Circus for what it is, I miss Toontown fair. And I miss walking through that Barnstormer queue
Toontown Fair and Camp Minnie-Mickey (though I also really like Pandora's design) were my childhood. The ONLY change I would make to Fantasyland Storybook Circus is to exchange The Great Goofini for The Great GONZO, as I always felt the Goof & chimp were heavily pushed and mismatched - you'd be getting a much better fit with Gonzo & CAMILLA the Chicken and Muppets getting much needed love (PS - tear down Mama Melrose's to do The Great Muppet Movie Ride instead).
I should also add....my daughter's first roller coaster was Barnstormer. She spent the whole ride screaming "too fast! too fast!" Then when we pulled into the station to debark, she thought we could just stay on and ride it again. :P
Besides this year, my last time I went to Disney World was 1990. I remember my family and I walked past this area and asking my father if we could go to this area. He said it was a baby area.
To me Storybook just feels like a half-baked land that's just getting stale. Dumbo is... well it's Dumbo what do you expect, Goofy is a fun family coaster, the train station is very nice, and the splash pad is a cool addition... but besides that there's not much. The removal of the Character's homes and the earlier theatre were both large loses that removed a lot of life and activity from the land. I just kind of wish they could either open a live show or a small dark ride in the land, possibly getting rid of the large merchandise store. Something for the whole family that is more able to fit the circus theme (I get that Dumbo is a circus performer and that Goofy is a stunt pilot, but they don't scream traditional circus). Just something to anchor the land and give it a real draw like Roger Rabbit was in California before Runaway Railway.
If Mickey’s ToonTown Fair was never replaced but expanded would Disney builded from the ground up Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway in ToonTown Fair like what they did in ToonTown in Disneyland instead in Hollywood Studios replacing the Great Movie Ride
I do agree with that fully. I don’t hate Runaway Railway, but it is more fitting in Toontown than it is in Hollywood Studios. Though I do understand why they couldn’t keep the original Great Movie Ride, so I feel like a better replacement option could have been The Great Muppet Movie Ride.
i remember as a kid wanting to go to disneyland so bad just to go the toontown part of the park. now im in my 20s and having an opportunity to go to disneyland tokyo and sees toontown for the first time.... it was eh alright ig.
This area gave me weird vibes as a kid lol. Idk why, I guess bc the county fair theme was kind of random. I think the newer area with the train station is a lot nicer.
They should have figured out away to keep the house just moved it back or to the right or left. Or to Disney studios. Like it doesn’t make any sense at all to put Indian ride in animals kingdom when Indian show is in Disney studios, and to put in Encanto in animals kingdom is a stretch,(the youngest one dose have the ability to talk to animals) but to get Reid of of the Dino 🦕’s when they kind of dialed it in anyway, and did not finish that land to begin with.and they belong there, and what about the land of make believe animals?????????where is that, I know they were in a rush, then they for got, then, they gave,that land to the blue thing Grupo,
Why would they base Toon town on a cartoon that was considered very risqué, sexual and very mature. Then they read did tune town only to make it bad with part of the pavement, sinking and other small attractions sinking, they could use that portion of the land and make it intobeauty and the beast and put the beauty and the beast right in there. Mickey’s runaway railroad is always breaking down which only shows how wonderful the imagers are really are.
Mickey’s ToonTown is extremely popular in Disneyland. It is not going anywhere. Especially, since it is the first fully-immersive theme park land. “Beauty and the Beast” should take over Autopia and the submarines. That area is old, outdated, and sits on over 6 acres of underutilized land.
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I still have vivid memories walking around Mickey's and Minnie's houses. I could still hear that bubbling pot in their kitchen. Toontown was so uniquely Disney, I wish they kept it than replace Mickey and friends with a random circus with Dumbo.
P
I
right it was so good.
One of my earliest memories is walking through Minnie’s house and watching the cake bake in the oven. Super nostalgic video 🩷
One of mine as well, although I don’t remember the rest of that land of than the coaster part of Goofys barnstormer.
Same
just unlocked a super vivid memory of minnie mouse’s kitchen and looking in the fridges omg
Towntown Fair > Storybook Circus
Even if it was cheap, my family and I fondly remember Toontown Fair growing up
Never forget that birthday land gave us one of the best Mickey Mouse quotes: “when I have to make a call, I use the den”
Lol just went back in time for a sec
Mike carlson is that you!!!!
this was my favorite area in the park as a kid. getting to meet mickey in his actual neighborhood was amazing~!
the new version is nice, but toontown original was the bee's knees.
I remember going to Mickey’s Toon town fair back into 2000s. I still have some of the photos of the meet and greetings in my photo album and home movies my parents would tape
For some reason one the the most vivid disneyqorld memories I have is from when I was like 6 and being in the big tent at toontown fair where they had like a gift shop I think and showed cartoons on the sides
I miss Toontown Fair so much. 😢
I LOVED this area as a kid. The houses of course, and all the fun little environmental details, but also just the atmosphere. Also I met chicken little there, which as I would come to find out later was a pretty rare encounter
Disneyland's Toontown is alive and thriving. It was recently refurbished and expanded. 🏰✨️
Storybook Circus has a much cheaper feeling than Toontown Fair and it's pretty disgraceful. It's insane that so much space was wasted for outdoor seating when more attractions used to be in its place
I've never been to Toontown Fair, but it along with Toontown at DL and Tokyo were some of my first interests when I came back into the Disney sphere in 2020 alongside Splash Mountain. I've always found more charm in Toontown Fair than in Storybook Circus and I wish they didn't end up removing it
Something else I also regret is saving the Toontown Fair music loop because I know someone uploaded it to RUclips a few years ago and it contained some tracks that aren't in the original Disneyland version. Thanks for taking me back in time with this video
My first Disney memory [ I remember] was going to MK excited to see Mickeys house only to realize it had closed…. I was confronted by these tall walls and ever since I became a Disney Parks fan obsessed with what would replace it
I absolutely loved this section of the park when I was growing up. My first trip was in 95 which was probably the peak of this area.
Rumors for years after the closure that Mickey’s & Minnie’s house were saved & might pop up at the studios or downtown Disney/disney springs. I always thought that would have been awesome.once the toontown Xmas decorations started showing up at Disneyland I knew chances were slim
7:36 just gonna pretend I never saw that
Bro, that clip with the kids and Br'er Fox broke my heart.
I wasn’t really a princess kid, so this was the part of the park that filled me with pure joy and wonder. I loved walking through the houses, and Donald’s boat. Before I can remember, I did see the last version of the stage show. My parents said I loved it so much I made them see it twice. 😁
I still can’t believe they gave us a beauty and the beast quick service restaurant and a sit down restaurant, but they couldn’t give us the ride that they built in Japan. Of course, the Japanese paid for that.
I mean, Be Our Guest and Gaston's came way before the ride in TDL was conceptualised...
One of my most vividest memories at six years old was when I visited Toontown in California. I remember the carrots growing in the garden and those bright yellows, as well as Pluto's doghouse. I'm glad to see that its still alive and well in California
I even remember the songs that played in the original Birthdayland, on the train and in the show! “We’re going, we’re going on the express. Were going on the Mickey’s Birthdayland Express!” “Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy happy birthday to you, hey Mickey!” Wonderful memories!
I've only been to Disney World once as a kid, but I definitely have a distinct memory of the farm themed Barnstormer. Loved that ride! We were in the area on kind of a slow day, so I ended up riding it like five times in a row
CM here! That space you pointed out at 22:08 is actually a CM break space/backstage area now. While it does look big on the map, the footprint of it definitely isn’t enough to do anything with. Disney would have to do some serious rearranging of storybook circus/close portions of it to successfully do anything in that tiny area.
They were wrong to get rid of this area. It was a great place to meet Mickey and friends and could have been just as great as Toontown in California
Oh man I loved this place as a little kid. It was so much fun and while not as fleshed out as toontown in Disneyland, it felt lived in. I think that’s my main issue with Storybook circus, it feels a lot emptier in comparison. Also the souvenier shop isn’t nearly as memorable. It was fun seeing what exciting new characters they had visiting like Cinderella’s mice and Rafiki. I love dumbo but I’d like to see more characters than just the fab 5.
Mickey's Toontown Fair was absolutely my fave attraction at Disney World, depsite never going I miss the land. ❤
Disneyland’s (and to a lesser extent Tokyo Disneyland) Mickey’s ToonTown is/was far superior to Magic Kingdom’s ToonTown Fair. The entire circus fair theme to Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland proved, that despite the larger castle, the park lacked an identity outside of “Disneyland Lite”. So, it is understandable ToonTown Fair was permanently closed, in favor of capitalizing on Dumbo’s popularity in Orlando. However, due to Disney prioritizing Princess meet-and-greets over rides with the New Fantasyland expansion, the entire area feels broken and disjointed. No other Fantasyland in the world is that shallow in its execution, and I wonder if the Villains Land (which is essentially the dark counterpart to Fantasyland) will actually fix that issue. Especially, since Mickey Mouse still has nowhere to “live” in Magic Kingdom.
I am not into the Disney princess stuff but hearing the plan to redo the land and the original land idea was so great and would have come to check it out. That sound such a good plan, they should have went through it and should do still now as Universal is killing it a lot lately.
We were on holiday in Florida from the UK from 20th October 1988 to 4th November 1988 and so experienced Mickey's Birthdayland. Visited many times in the 1990s and in 2001/2002 but haven't been there since then.
i have such fond memories of mickey and minnie's house, it's so sad that they demolished them and put literally nothing in it's place 😭😭😭
Thank you for mentioning the maze. I have strong memories of it but no one else seems to remember it. when I tried looking it up, nothing.
i really enjoy the concept art, I have always wondered about this area.
Mickey was kind of a narcissist for having an entire land dedicated to his birthday.
Being the most iconic cartoon character must do something to one’s ego
@ yeah you’re right. Mickey has a big ego.
Hun wake up, new George browning video dropped
7:37 IS THAT THE BITE OF 87?
Yes it’s is lol
When I was a cast member in 2015, the bulldozing of toontown fair was still fresh. Guests would come to the Main Street help area (where I worked) complaining that they couldn’t find Mickeys house. We were taught to tell them that he lives in California 😂
I remember visiting Minnie’s house the last time I visited the Magic Kingdom when I was 8. I remember hearing Minnie’s voice on her phone.
Another great video!
Babe get out here the new George Browning video just dropped!
Birthdayland really was patient zero for Eisner's eternal strategy of "cut costs as much as possible up front". And like DCA and WDSP, it's suffered ever since.
Fun background info, the Judge's Tent and gift shop was the area of MK with the highest revenue per square foot in the park and as a result Merchandise absolutely refused to let WDI take down the tents. Since Dumbo was already slated to be moved across the street and the tents had to stay, WDI compromised on a circus theme. They built entirely new, more permanent tents (which was needed anyway) but the park did not want to lose the capacity of the Mickey attraction, so he moved up to the front of the park. But without Mickey, the tents are now among the LEAST profitable areas of MK, leading to days when they're not even open anymore. Disney is bad at almost everything! lol
Hearing that Storybook Circus is nearly as old now as Mickey’s Toontown Fair was when it closed messed me up.
The first time I visited WDW in 2006, I was crowned Princess of Toontown by a cast member and got to experience Mickey giving me my own private tour of his house. For me, that experience alone trumps anything there is to do there now. I wish they’d been able to keep the houses up, Storybook Circus feels really lame by comparison
I think Pixie Hollow was supposed to go across from Dumbo, and not north of Storybook Circus. I’m sure the Imagineers would have figured out how it all worked thematically. While I appreciate Storybook Circus for what it is, I miss Toontown fair. And I miss walking through that Barnstormer queue
Toontown Fair and Camp Minnie-Mickey (though I also really like Pandora's design) were my childhood. The ONLY change I would make to Fantasyland Storybook Circus is to exchange The Great Goofini for The Great GONZO, as I always felt the Goof & chimp were heavily pushed and mismatched - you'd be getting a much better fit with Gonzo & CAMILLA the Chicken and Muppets getting much needed love (PS - tear down Mama Melrose's to do The Great Muppet Movie Ride instead).
I wish Mickey's Toon Town Fair was still around!
Not sure if you are going to get to it, but Disney actually gave out free slices of birthday cake as well (back in the Mickey's Birthdayland era).
I should also add....my daughter's first roller coaster was Barnstormer. She spent the whole ride screaming "too fast! too fast!"
Then when we pulled into the station to debark, she thought we could just stay on and ride it again. :P
I walked through Minnie’s house in Florida when I was four. I loved seeing her overflowing fridge and cake in the oven the most 😂.
Besides this year, my last time I went to Disney World was 1990. I remember my family and I walked past this area and asking my father if we could go to this area. He said it was a baby area.
To me Storybook just feels like a half-baked land that's just getting stale. Dumbo is... well it's Dumbo what do you expect, Goofy is a fun family coaster, the train station is very nice, and the splash pad is a cool addition... but besides that there's not much. The removal of the Character's homes and the earlier theatre were both large loses that removed a lot of life and activity from the land. I just kind of wish they could either open a live show or a small dark ride in the land, possibly getting rid of the large merchandise store. Something for the whole family that is more able to fit the circus theme (I get that Dumbo is a circus performer and that Goofy is a stunt pilot, but they don't scream traditional circus). Just something to anchor the land and give it a real draw like Roger Rabbit was in California before Runaway Railway.
Those stage shows in that theater were phenomenal… storybook circus just doesn’t cut it by comparison.
I wish they would give pixie hollow a chance!
Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse! 🎉🕯🎈🍰🎊🎁🥳🎂🎈
I think Toon Town became famous when that family had that huge brawl.
I miss walking through Mickey and Minnie’s houses
you should do a video on Nara Dreamland in Japan. its not really a Disney park but quite similar to Disneyland California (so ive heard).
I miss the walk-through attractions, but I must admit that I like storybook circus theming better
Great memories
Maybe I'll get to visit Disneyland one day
I still have pictures of a kid with Mickey at the fair!
1988 the year i was born
If Mickey’s ToonTown Fair was never replaced but expanded would Disney builded from the ground up Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway in ToonTown Fair like what they did in ToonTown in Disneyland instead in Hollywood Studios replacing the Great Movie Ride
I do agree with that fully. I don’t hate Runaway Railway, but it is more fitting in Toontown than it is in Hollywood Studios.
Though I do understand why they couldn’t keep the original Great Movie Ride, so I feel like a better replacement option could have been The Great Muppet Movie Ride.
i remember as a kid wanting to go to disneyland so bad just to go the toontown part of the park. now im in my 20s and having an opportunity to go to disneyland tokyo and sees toontown for the first time.... it was eh alright ig.
This area gave me weird vibes as a kid lol. Idk why, I guess bc the county fair theme was kind of random. I think the newer area with the train station is a lot nicer.
“The end of the 2000s” 😮 erm some way off there, about 9 decades off 😂
Can still remember the huge tomatoes for some reason
what i don’t get about toontown fair is why they never developed it into a full Toon Town land like in Disneyland
I had memories of this place but only in my dreams so I genuinely thought I made it up and wasn't a real part of Disney 😂
They should have figured out away to keep the house just moved it back or to the right or left. Or to Disney studios. Like it doesn’t make any sense at all to put Indian ride in animals kingdom when Indian show is in Disney studios, and to put in Encanto in animals kingdom is a stretch,(the youngest one dose have the ability to talk to animals) but to get Reid of of the Dino 🦕’s when they kind of dialed it in anyway, and did not finish that land to begin with.and they belong there, and what about the land of make believe animals?????????where is that, I know they were in a rush, then they for got, then, they gave,that land to the blue thing Grupo,
Huh.
Why would they base Toon town on a cartoon that was considered very risqué, sexual and very mature. Then they read did tune town only to make it bad with part of the pavement, sinking and other small attractions sinking, they could use that portion of the land and make it intobeauty and the beast and put the beauty and the beast right in there. Mickey’s runaway railroad is always breaking down which only shows how wonderful the imagers are really are.
Mickey’s ToonTown is extremely popular in Disneyland. It is not going anywhere. Especially, since it is the first fully-immersive theme park land. “Beauty and the Beast” should take over Autopia and the submarines. That area is old, outdated, and sits on over 6 acres of underutilized land.