Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride Latest Disneyland Attraction To Get The Movie Treatment

Of all the rides in Disneyland’s Fantasyland section, one of the oddest (and coolest) has got to be Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Oddest because Disney’s adaptation of The Wind in the Willows was only a segment in the package film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr.Toad, and not really a well remembered full length classic like Peter Pan and the like. And coolest because the ride literally ends with your Mr. Toad driven car getting hit by a train and you and your fellow passengers being sent to Hell.  Yes, there is a Disney ride that ends with dying and going to Hell. I’d like to see that concept get past Walt Disney Imagineering these days.

Since opening day in 1955, the ride has remained a beloved fixture at Disneyland (although it was removed from Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World and replaced with Winnie the Pooh. I know, lame.) According to Deadline, Disney has announced plans to make a  feature film of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Pete Candeland, director of many music videos and commercials, has been hired to develop a live-action/CGI mix movie. Justin Springer (one of the producers on TRON: Legacy) will produce Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and the studio is currently looking for a writer.

Disney’s track record with theme park ride adaptations has been very hit and miss; obviously Pirates of the Caribbean is a juggernaut that can’t be stopped, but anyone remember Eddie Murphy’s Haunted Mansion disaster? Or The Country Bears? Aside from Mr. Toad, Disney has revealed in the last few years a slew of ride-to-movie plans, like The Jungle Cruise, a Guillermo Del Toro reboot of Haunted Mansion and the Jon Favreau movie set in Disneyland itself called Magic Kingdom. Now add Mr. Toad to that growing list. The real question is which of this will get made first, if any? And why haven’t they announced a Space Mountain movie??