Toy Story Land — Overview

Ryan Dorman
Boardwalk Times
Published in
6 min readApr 2, 2017

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Source: The Walt Disney Company

In 2010, Disneyland Paris, specifically the Walt Disney Studios park, introduced a land based off of the intellectual property Toy Story. Within this land, three attractions were developed that, while not original in nature, utilized the Toy Story licence in a fashion that further opened the floodgates for new themed areas based on film properties. RC Racer is a modern play on the Pirate Ship carnival ride, Slinky Dog ZigZag Spin is quite similar to carnival spinner rides, and Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop is, once again, developed in the same vain as carnival drop towers. This first incarnation of Toy Story themed areas in the parks was little more than a cash grab, aiming to entice children, and their parents, to spend money in an easily recognizable area. While not necessarily bad, the lazy nature of this addition seemed like little more than dust in the wind.

Source: The Walt Disney Company

The next year, Hong Kong Disneyland became home to the next Toy Story themed area. This time, keeping the same attractions with increased detail in the surroundings. Giant statues of the main characters, oversized versions of commonplace toys, all topped with the Luxo Jr. ball. What should be noted is the fact that Toy Story Mania!, one of the most popular attractions in Disney Parks history, has yet to be installed in either park. Even with the increasing amount of stores within both areas, they have yet to be graced with arduous lines and short ride times.

(Concept Art) Source: The Daily Mail

Shanghai Disneyland did not open with any specified Toy Story area, but did contain assorted attractions from the property. Included with these attractions was the Toy Story Hotel, with one of the oddest architectural stylings I have ever personally researched. In the style of a Mobius Strip, the Toy Story Hotel is adorned with the clouds of Andy’s wallpaper from the films as well as larger than life statues of main characters. At that point, this had been the largest installation of the Toy Story IP in Disney Parks. At least it was up until the 2015 D23 expo.

Source: E! Online

At 11 acres, sitting on land that previously housed the backlot tour at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a full Toy Story Land was announced, and is planned to open sometime this year. Riding the coat tails of another Pixar themed land, Cars Land in Disney’s California Adventure, Toy Story Land attempts to bring the scenery of Toy Story into Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Included with this development is two new attractions and the expansion of an old one.

Source: The Walt Disney Company

Simply put, the most evident relation Toy Story Land holds with Cars Land is found in Alien Swirling Saucers, a ride that aims to capture the energy and childish thrill that Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree delivers. The ride mechanism itself has yet to be shown, but explanations of the system further develops this connection.

Source: The Walt Disney Company

In addition, an area wide coaster named Slinky Dog Dash aims to meet the demand for faster, longer rides in a park that currently has little to nothing to speak for itself. Following WDI’s nature within the past few years, the story around the attraction involves Andy and a “Mega Coaster Play Kit” in his backyard. Why they decided to add a story to a simple roller coaster is beyond me, but the lack of complexity provides for light fluff to discuss while waiting in line. It’s really quite impressive to analyze what they are proposing, especially the fact that the coaster spans nearly half the land, with some of it going under bridges that guests use to cross. The energy that a constantly moving coaster develops will breathe new life into this area of the park.

Source: Disneywiki

The land also welcomes a new expansion of Toy Story Mania!, adding another track to shorten the often unbearable line. With this addition is the demolition of Pixar Place, an area of the park that is loosely based on the Pixar Animation Studios campus in California. What had previously been a tight yet comfortable area, lined with bricks and scaling high in the sky, will now become the antithesis of original thought. The current state of Pixar Place is representative of Hollywood Studio’s former days. Closed, windowed, indoors, hiding detail. Forcing the viewer to walk through doors, look above, below, and behind, as well as giving the readers a playground to explore rather than a museum to follow a linear path within defined Hollywood Studios. Toy Story Land is the first step to the development of set lands in the park, with Star Wars following soon after.

In late 2016, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Toy Story Land would soon come to the Shanghai Disneyland Park. Ground has been broken, and attractions have been outlined. Once again, Disney seems to have returned to their previous style of introducing carnival rides with Toy Story characters. Rex’s Racers is simply a repainted RC Racers, and Slinky Dog Spin was taken directly from Hong Kong. The only mystery left to be seen is Woody’s Round Up, an attraction with little to no information surrounding it.

Source: Disney-Pal

Noticeably absent from this analysis is the introduction of meet-and-greet areas to the conversation. In each of the parks, the centerpiece of each Toy Story Area is meet-and-greet opportunities with each of the main characters. Woody, Buzz, and Jessie (amongst others) are hot topics for every child with television access, and the ability to meet them is enough to warrant the absurd ticket prices currently being peddled. In fact, it’s likely that each of these themed areas were introduced with the explicit intent to develop meet-and-greet opportunities. Character greeting has become a staple in modern theme park ideology, especially to parents trying to make the best of their expensive vacation.

While each Toy Story Land may not have the integrity or impact that a more developed project may hold, it does provide a simple escape from analysis. Sometimes it’s nice to be surrounded with bright colors and nostalgic imagery. Disney may not be embarking on a project that is mentally tasking, but the simplistic nature of this endeavour has promise.

Ryan Dorman is a Columnist for the Boardwalk Times

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