Adventures in Toyland
(Dark ride)
That crooked Barnaby seeks to make Mary his bride, and he’s pulling some dirty tricks to separate Mary from her beloved Tom! Follow Tom in a carriage ride that will bring you to the merry and magical world of Toyland!
Visual style of the cottages
Façade and Queue
Among the gentle scenery of Storybook Gardens, guests see a line of quaint village cottages along the road. They are bright and colorful, like a child’s drawing of a cottage. Most prominent of them is a cottage that seems to have carved patterns of clowns and clockwork soldiers in the framework. Resting atop this cottage is a large storybook, whose cover reads ADVENTURES IN TOYLAND. A mailbox near this main cottage bares the name MOTHER GOOSE.
Reference for storybook cover
Entering the cottage, guests pass through an entry lobby that features portraits of Mother Goose and her pet goose Sylvester. Heading along the railing that guides the queue, guests head through hallways that are layered by oversized storybook pages, featuring rhyming verses and artwork of the characters (rendered in a stylized, cartoony take on the original film’s characters). The first page tells of Toyland and the generous Toymaker, while the second tells of the wondrous love between Mary and Tom. The third page introduces the dastardly Barnaby and his henchmen Gonzorgo and Roderigo, with the final page teasing Barnaby’s wicked scheme to force Mary into marriage with him.
Mary and Tom
Gonzorgo, Barnaby, and Roderigo
(in left to right order)
Toymaker
Eventually, the queue path winds out of the hallways to the unloading area, which appears to be a cobblestone street. A colorful carriage awaits, while Mother Goose’s voice tells us of proper safety behavior during the ride. Once guests are in their carriage ride vehicle, the carriage takes off down the track, through a set of crash doors that are labeled ONCE UPON A TIME…
Visual style of carriage
Ride Experience
Through the crash doors, we emerge into the streets of Mother Goose Village. The cobbled streets are lined with a colorful variety of cottages, though we pass by Tom standing there thinking of Mary as Gonzorgo holds out an open sack behind him while Roderigo readies a mallet to strike Tom on the head (simple animatronics, in the same cartoony style of the queue’s art). We hear a clang to signify the attack, as we continue down the road. We pass a house where a scared Mary is taken by the hand by Barnaby, who says that Tom is gone and she must marry him. We take another turn as we pass through the village square, finding Gonzorgo and Roderigo on the edge of town carrying the burlap sack containing Tom. Gonzorgo says they’ll dump Tom in the Forest of No Return, with us following a road sign pointing out that very way.
Living Trees
Passing through some crash doors modeled as tree branches, we enter a dark forest and ride past signs saying KEEP OUT and DANGER. The trees look menacing, but they only seem to be normal trees…at least, until one facing us raises its arms and calls us trespassers! Turning from it, we find Roderigo cowering in his oversized coat as Gonzorgo runs in a circle, saying they have to get out of here. Another turn through the trees brings us to Tom emerging from the sack, as one of the trees tells him to head to Toyland. We pass by a faded road sign that reads TOYLAND and follow the way, emerging from the dark woods (through some crash doors).
Toyland
We find ourselves in front of a candy-cane accented gate with large wooden soldiers standing by its sides, a large colorful factory behind the gate. We pass through the gate and then head forward through some candy-colored crash doors. Entering the factory, we find Barnaby confronting Mary. He tells Mary to marry him or else the Toymaker gets it, pointing his cane at the tied-up Toymaker while Gonzorgo and Roderigo stand over the hapless fellow. Turning down another hallway, though, Tom emerges through a door and calls for a charge! A large toy soldier plays its trumpet, as we pass into the workshop area.
The workshop is chaos as a grand battle takes part. Gonzorgo is on our left tied around the ankles with skipping rope by Lilliputian figurines as a Jack-In-The-Box on a shelf startles him, while Roderigo on our right futilely tries to shield himself using his mallet as small toy soldiers fire off cannon blasts at him. Tom and Barnaby duel at the far end of the room, both standing on a seesaw as Tom uses an oversized candy cane and Barnaby uses his sword cane. We turn from their duel as we find Mary and the Toymaker in front of a large candy-colored machine, the Toymaker saying he’ll speed up this fight as he throws a lever. The machine whirs to life, as blinking lights show words like TOO FAST and HELP. We take a turn right into a large wall of the machine, passing through crash doors as we ride through a transition room filled with cartoony explosion designs and BOOMs, along with some strobe light effects and explosion sound effects.
The Toymaker's machine
Leaving the explosion behind through another set of crash doors, we are back in the worshop. Gonzorgo and Roderigo are knocked out in a pile of presents with stars above them, while Barnaby sneers, his black suit in tatters and trapped in a crib marked TIME-OUT like it’s a prison cell. Through a set of crash doors, we find ourselves back in Mother Goose Village as we find villagers dancing along the cobblestone streets. Set out on the road is a carriage with JUST MARRIED written across the back, with Mary and Tom seated inside and looking lovingly into each other’s eyes. With that, we come to the story’s end as we reach a set of crash doors that read …AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER. Passing through, we reach the unloading area and exit back out into Storybook Gardens.
