Widen Your World: April 2023

Walt Disney World's version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (1971-1998) had the same basic exterior structure for its full duration, one which was passed on to The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (its successor) in 1999. The changes mainly consisted of colors, signs, planters and pavement. Otherwise it was a "medieval tent" facade - reminiscent of how Mr. Toad's Wild Ride looked at Disneyland from 1955 to 1981, before its exterior was converted to a film-based Toad Hall look for 1983's New Fantasyland at Disneyland. That new look was never carried over to the Florida version of Toad.

Because my introduction to so much of Disney (and the greater world) came directly from WDW, the first place I ever saw a depiction of Mr. Toad was above the ride's entrance. I was two when the park opened, so probably by 1973 I was looking at that sign and wonder who Mr. Toad was, then go on his crazy ride and learn basically nothing about him other than he owned a huge house, had many ancestors, was friends with a horse and must really like cars. There was no Mr. Toad merchandise of any kind in the park or at the Walt Disney World Village with its twenty shops. The park guide books gave only a one-sentence description of the ride. It wasn't until my grandmother bought me a Disney storybook anthology from a garage sale c. 1976 that I started making loose connections to Toad's place in literature and film. Then my grandfather bought me a copy of The Art of Walt Disney by Christopher Finch around 1978 and I learned that Mr. Toad was both the star of a Disney movie in 1949 and descended from the 1908 book, The Wind In The Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. Oh, that innocent, pre-digital era. What a time to be alive!