According to recent news reports, Disney is in pre-production on a feature film based on the Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride attraction. Details are scant at this time, but a few facts are known:
- Mr. Toad will be a live-action film with some animated elements, much like Song of the South, Cool World, and other features kids can’t see.
- In a tribute to the original attraction, many sets and some secondary characters will be painted on plywood.
- The title character will be played by Steve Buscemi, possibly with Danny DeVito costarring as Mole.
- This will be Disney’s shortest feature film, with a run time of less than three minutes.
- Despite the short run time, the film’s script is more than four hundred pages long and consists almost entirely of descriptions of action and sight gags.
- Disney is currently actively searching for an author to create a novelization based on the attraction, since this is the only Fantasyland attraction that was not (so far as anyone can recall) based on a novel or traditional story.
- Simultaneous world premiers were scheduled for after-hours events at Disneyland and The Magic Kingdom, but the Florida event was canceled due to its intense popularity.
If the film is a success, it will be part of a string of successful movies based on Disneyland attractions that includes Pirates of the Caribbean, Third Man on the Matterhorn, That Darn Carrousel, and Stop “it’s a small world” — I want to get off.
Tags: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride