134 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | MAY/JUNE 2020
TRAARVTEL
A CARTOON ADVENTURE
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
By Margaret Word Burnside and Aaron R. Fodiman
Photography Courtesy of Disney
The Runaway
Railway
attraction
at Disney’s
Hollywood
Studios is in the
Chinese theater
at the center of
the park.
The Walt Disney World Resort is transforming its
Hollywood Studios with a host of attractions ranging
from Toy Story Land with its larger-than-life outdoor
setting of Andy’s backyard featuring the Slinky Dog
Dash family friendly roller coaster, an Alien Swirling Saucers
ride and Toy Story Mania 4D shootin’ fun, to Star Wars: Galaxy’s
Edge, an immersive experience that transports guests to the
distant planet of Batuu, where they can man the controls of
the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and then participate in a
battle between the Resistance and the First Order in Rise of the
Resistance, a fast moving revolutionary type of ride.
Hollywood Studios’ newest attraction this spring is Mickey
and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, where you can find yourself
inside a cartoon, joining Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and
their pals on a visually dazzling adventure, accompanied by a
theme song, “Nothing Can Stop Us Now,” which was written
for the ride.
Housed in the park’s re-creation of the Grauman’s Chinese
Theatre, this ride’s new technologies incorporate Disney’s
iconic Mickey Mouse into a ride-through attraction for the
very first time. Guests find themselves on the Runnamuck
Railroad aboard a train being operated by Engineer Goofy,
thanks to a combination of physical sets, Audio-Animatronics
figures, animated media and projections-mapping techniques
that are synced with trackless vehicles, which allow guests to
look in all directions, so that each person has an individualized
experience. Guests see different things depending on where
they are seated in the car and where they are looking, as the
ever-evolving animation programming provides continuous
sights and sounds.