Disneyland Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway Review & Synopsis – Good for Kids?

Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway opens this Friday followed by a brand new reimagining of Toontown later this Spring!

This new attraction allows guests to step into a cartoon world as they join Mickey and his friends on Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. We experienced the new attraction this morning and have TONS of photos capturing the ride and beautiful queue.

Read our guide for everything we know about this new attraction starring our favorite mouse including a ride synopsis and review, and details on the new renovation of Toontown.

The new Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway attraction will utilize a virtual queue and boarding group. Read our full guide to the Disneyland Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway virtual queue here.

Disneyland Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway First Look Queue Details

We just got back from an early morning preview of the new Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway attraction. Even before we entered the attraction, it was clear they have done major work on Toontown. The entire area of Toontown that is currently open is glowing. You can read all about the reopening date for Disneyland Toontown and what we know here. The attraction itself is a perfect it that breathes new life into the land.

The attraction itself is a near copy of the Walt Disney World version of Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway but the queue experience and show leading up to the ride are completely new for Disneyland. Clearly the Imagineering team that worked on the attraction took the fact that this was a replicated attraction as a challenge to deliver in the queue and they sure did.

Inside New Disneyland Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway Attraction

The attraction is housed in the El CapiTOON Theater (this is the reference to the El Capitan Theater which Disney operates in Hollywood today). Inside you'll find a special exhibit created by Minnie Mouse and the Toontown Hysterical Society celebrating all things Mickey Mouse with costumes and props from the toon world. There are so many hidden easter eggs here that we will be finding more and more over the coming days. We will continue to update this article with those details.

The exhibit features several items guests may recognize from Mickey Mouse classics including “Steamboat Willie”, “Fantasia”, “Plane Crazy” to more modern favorites such as “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” and iconic music releases. Yes, you are also looking at a tribute to “Mickey Mouse Disco” and “Mousercise”.

The photos below are not in the exact order of the queue currently. These represent different rooms throughout the different “Ear-a”s of Mickey Mouse.

The Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway queue is split for the virtual queue standby option and paid Lightning Lane. The Lighting Lane is shorter and will only see half of the Mickey Mouse exhibits seen below. The Lightning Lane will miss the poster room, the opportunity to get up close with details in the Early “Ear-a” room, and miss the Modern “Ear-a” room completely.

Outfront we caught a group of Cast Members sporting one of the new looks for the Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. There are costumes for those at the beginning of the queue on the theater side and then there are costumes for those dressed as train conductors (see synopsis below for more details).

Pre-Room With Posters and Standup

Before the start of the exhibit, there was a room with movie posters referencing Disney favorites featuring characters from Toontown as the stars. There is also a standup for the “Mickey in Perfect Picnic” short film that is featured throughout the attraction. The Imagineers actually added extra space here so that guests could pause and take photos.

Look at these fun posters.

Each character within the posters is designed to match the original style of the poster from the film. The “High School Musical 3” poster for instance is more airbrushed than the others to match that style.

Love the Chipmunk Trap for the Parent Trap!

Then, there's an exhibit that features some details of the founding of the Hysterical Society like the giant scissors that Willie the Giant used to cut the ribbon for the theater.

“It Was All Started By a Mouse” Queue Room

There were three rooms: “It Was All Started By a Mouse” featuring the original Mickey Mouse debut cartoons including “Plane Crazy”, “Steamboat Willie”, and “Lonesome Ghosts”; Golden Mickey featuring 50s style Mickey Mouse cartoons like “Mickey and the Beanstalk”; and “Modern Ear-a” with references to “Mickey's Christmas Carol”, “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”, and the new Mickey Mouse shorts like Potatoland.

Here's a look at sorcerer Mickey.

More detail on his throne!

All of the different Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse props in this room interact with different special effect elements.

Golden “Ear-a” Mickey Mouse 

The next area of the queue is dedicated to colorful cartoons like “Mickey's Birthday Party” and ”

“Pluto's Christmas Tree” short featured here…

Throughout the queue there is a song written by Emmy award- winning composer Christopher Willis who also composed the music for the new “Mickey Mouse” shorts. The song plays in different styles in each room of the attraction queue to reflect the different eras of memorabilia in that room. The 50s room has more radio static and the modern room is perfectly clear.

“Modern Ear-a” Room

Here you'll see mentions of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey's Get a Horse (short that appeared before Frozen), and the new Mickey Mouse cartoons.

You'll spot a fun hidden detail on the backside of the sphinx with a stamp of “Rudish World Builders”. This is in reference to Paul Rudish who is the lead creative behind the new Mickey Mouse shorts.

Yes, there's also a reference to the “Mousercise” workout classes.

In the final room, there is a concession stand with TONS of hidden details and references. Spot the reference to Powerline from “A Goofy Movie” in the Powerlimes candy below.

This “Begorra” reference is to the Golden Book “The Little Man in Disneyland”.

Look at the popcorn turner just like you would find in the parks!

Spotted! New Disneyland trash can design for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.

Spotted a Hidden Mickey in the popcorn. There are a number of Hidden Mickeys and Hidden Minnie's among the popcorn.

Ride Pre-Show Into the Cartoon World

Entry into the pre-show!

You'll then enter into one of the pre-show theater rooms.

This is a shot from the short mentioned at the top of the article – Mickey Mouse in Perfect Picnic.

You blow right through the screen to enter the pickup room.

First look at the new Cast Member costumes above.

This set of exhibits leads up to the attraction which kicks off below. You'll find a full Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway synopsis and review below which include spoilers.

This is Disney Imagineer Jeffrey-Shaver Moskowitz, Portfolio Executive Producer at Walt Disney Imagineering who led the creation of the new attraction and led our tour through the queue.

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Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway Synopsis and Review

Warning: ride spoilers follow!

Here's our complete review of the Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway attraction. The below section does include spoilers.

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway Ride Synopsis

Guests begin their journey into the world of Mickey Mouse when they are watching a cartoon of the perfect picnic and Goofy blows up the screen. A physical hole is blown in the screen and guests walk through into the cartoon.

The ride vehicles for this Mickey Mouse dark ride are “trains” that pick guests up at the loading station just beyond the screen in the ride queue. Guests board one of four cars behind the main locomotive train engine. The train will depart the station and then make a turn passing a park on a sunny day before they enter a train tunnel. Goofy will appear in the locomotive's back window and asks if you're ready to take a tour around the park. During this scene, Mickey and Minnie will appear and… woops! The switch level falls disconnecting the train cars from the locomotive which starts you off on the ‘runaway railway' chase with Mickey & Minnie Mouse running after the runaway train.

Each scene after this will depict Mickey & Minnie (using the new projection mapping technology) trying to chase the train cars (which you're sitting in!) through various scenarios. These include Mickey & Minnie in a western scene riding horses and trying to lasso the cars, a tornado that scoops up the cars and swirls you around, a tropical island with a volcanic eruption, and a trip down a waterfall (simulated against a screen) when you emerge into an underwater reef. From here, the scene transitions into a sewage system where the water drains away and you move into a city at night featuring Pete and Donald Duck. You then veer into a dance study where Daisy Duck leads the cars into a waltz followed by the conga where you dance your way into a factory. The cars appear to be stuck on a conveyer belt and you will see Mickey & Minnie racing to get to the off switch to save your train car from being crushed. Once the fantastic duo saves you, the cars reverse and move into a room where you see Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto having a moonlight picnic at a park and singing the song “Nothing Can Stop Us Now” The cars then reattach to the train led by Goofy and guests are led through the movie screen returning them to the real world.

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway Review

This entire ride is using the concept animation we see in the new Mickey Mouse shorts for all the characters in the ride. You can expect to see a wide variety of characters such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald and Daisy Duck, Pluto, and Pete. All these characters are represented with this new animation style. So for people that aren't a fan of this new look for Mickey, which we know many people feel this way, that might impact your enjoyment of the ride. But try not to let it! The ride itself is charming, whimsical, and entertaining. I think that even Disney fans that don't enjoy the new cartoon style of Mickey Mouse will enjoy this ride regardless because it's just so well done between the technology and whimsical plot.

The technology in the ride is incredible – the projection mapping really takes you into the world of a Mickey Mouse cartoon and the ride vehicles use the same magnetic trackless technology you see on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance with the cars being able to flow freely throughout the attraction.

The two stand-out scenes of the ride were the tornado room and the waterfall room. These scenes brought thrilling elements to the attraction while still keeping it a family-friendly experience. The tornado scene spins your car gently around while wind whooshes around you all while you hear Mickey and Minnie trying to prevent themselves from being blown away! It was so much fun and we emerged from that scene laughing with tears in our eyes. The waterfall scene puts your ride vehicle up against one of the projection mapping screens and simulates the feeling of going down a waterfall while your ride vehicle never moves an inch. These funny, thrill-like moments sprinkled in with the silliness of a Mickey cartoon were perfectly balanced to keep you laughing the entire way through.

The ride moves quickly through these scenes which helps capture that frantic frenzy of living inside a cartoon so as you're still laughing from being swept into a tornado, you've already landed on a tropical island!

My favorite part is the ending though with Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto all enjoying a nighttime picnic with the song “Nothing Can Stop Us Now” playing as the train leisurely makes its way through the scene. My son is 10 years old and he's at the age where all he wants to do is ride roller coasters. Despite this, he loved this attraction and wanted to ride it again and again. It's a great ride for all ages, small children and big children (like us Disney adults!) since it's so fast-paced and whimsical. Everyone will love this ride- I can't imagine seeing anyone dislike it unless you are really hung up on not liking the animation (don't let that ruin your enjoyment!) and even then the ride is so quirky and fun with so much to see you can easily put that out of your mind.

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