Nothing can stop us now! Especially not now that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is officially open to guests at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It seems only a few weeks ago we were lining up at 4:00 AM outside of Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the grand opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and here we are again for a trip aboard the Runnamuck Railroad with Engineer Goofy.
Here’s a look at the updated Chinese Theatre facade, which features the neon marquee we saw go up a few weeks ago, now illuminated for the grand opening. To the left, you have the entrance to FastPass+, with the Stand-By queue off to the right.
As you walk into the renovated Chinese Theatre, you walk past posters of various Mickey Mouse shorts, like “Potatoland”, “Split Decision”, and the attraction’s premier short, “Perfect Picnic.” Inside, the bright red and gold hues of the classic theater are still very much alive as Cast Members welcome you to the premiere. Instead of a majestic score, the queue features music from the animated shorts.
Once inside the pre-show, you get to watch the start of the “Perfect Picnic” short, where Minnie literally kicks Pluto into the trunk for some reason and Mickey doesn’t bat an eyelash. (Inside the trunk, Pluto is seen perfectly contorted thanks to cartoon physics, so it’s at least established that he’s okay.) I’m aware this is supposed to me a zany cartoon adventure where “mouse rules apply”, but I’m sure this scene will confuse most children, if not concern some adults. Then Goofy shows up aboard the Runamuck Railroad and offers to meet Mickey and Minnie at the Runnamuck Park. Mickey and Minnie hit a railroad track bump that then sends Pluto and the picnic basket high up into the air. A pie then gets lodged inside the train’s smokestack, effectively causing a large explosion once Goofy pulls into the station.
The screen then explodes in smoke as it opens to reveal the loading queue and platform. Goofy invites guests on the train, prompting a Cast Member to lend him a hand (a cute touch given the active roles Cast Members had as actors within the old Great Movie Ride).
You’re then led into the attraction’s loading area, where you wait in a rustic barn to load into the train. Old-time lanterns and fun artwork line the walls. Even Cast Members are dressed as train conductors!
Each train car features two rows of three to four passengers each, with a golden lap bar you pull down. Do note that guests in wheelchairs will have to transfer into the ride vehicles.
As you begin your ride, the Runnamuck Park landscape comes to life in vivid “2 1/2-D”, with a 1928 sign perched over the top of the archway as a nod to Mickey Mouse’s birthday.
Goofy pops out from behind the train’s engine car once you’re in the train tunnel. The fact that he’s just a rectangular screen not even made to fit the rounded opening is somewhat disappointing, and really takes you out of it. In the same tunnel scene, guests encounter Minnie and Mickey in the car driving alongside them. Mickey and Minnie take the form of these oddly round audio-animatronics figures, riding inside of a physical car that will travel alongside guests through the entire scene.
The next scene is a Western scenario, where the cars break apart as Mickey and Minnie try to wrangle them.
This is followed by a trip to the carnival, which somehow ultimately ends with Mickey and Minnie caught up in a twister.
The twister drops guests and the characters in a tropical locale with 4 separate projection rooms, one for each car of the 4-car train to pull into.
These individual rooms have a large screen as they teeter near the edge of a waterfall, eventually falling into an undersea scene with familiar jazzy music from the “Wonders of the Deep” short, and into a sewer.
The train cars then go down a drainage pipe into the big city. Guests somehow end up taking a detour into a dance studio, where an audio-animatronic Daisy Duck is giving lessons. The cars actually dance while in this dance studio, similarly to Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters at Disney California Adventure.
Guests then end up in a alleyway leading to a large factory, where they come up close and personal with a giant furnace before being saved by Mickey and Minnie.
Once guests are safe, they arrive back in the park for a romantic picnic after dark. This scene includes audio-animatronic figures of Mickey, Minnie and their dog, Pluto.
Chuuby is perched over the exit archway, almost as a “Little Leota” effect in waving guests goodbye.
Guests then head to the unload station and disembark to a post-show “The End” scene before eventually exiting out the same exit doors as The Great Movie Ride.
If you enjoyed this photo tour, don’t forget to check out our full video ride-through in this post, or in the video below:
So, what do you think of the new Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Make sure you check out our coverage throughout today and in the following weeks as we track the attraction’s progress throughout its first initial weeks.
As the spouse of a person with a disability that uses a wheelchair, I am ashamed that Disney could not find a way to make this ride accommodate a wheelchair. My wife has cerebral palsy and cannot transfer to a ride vehicle without me lifting her into the vehicle. Second she has muscle issues that do not allow her legs to fully relax so she probably wouldn’t fit into the ride vehicle anyway without hurting her feet. I am ashamed that Disney will go out of its way to accommodate and celebrate so may different types of people, but people like my wife get left behind at a place that she loves so much.
Does anyone have any idea what the Disney company did with the scenery from The Great Movie Ride? Those movie scenes were like a fascinating showcase.
Do guests get wet on this ride at the waterfall portion? Thanks
Nope