Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Mr. Toad Rides Again



Sure, the attraction vehicle and kids are a bit of a blur, but the mural for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride attraction is fairly stable...AND IN COLOR! Yes, I had to have this 1956 image once I saw it. I am slightly obsessed with the original attraction murals from the Fantasyland dark rides, painted by Disney artist Claude Coats.

Here’s a previously posted 1958 black and white shot of the same area:



...with a little Photoshop distortion provided to give a better view of what the mural looked like:



See more Disneyland Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride attraction photos at my main website.

2 comments:

Stefano said...

Hellzapoppin with bright orange on the mural. I just noticed that the Evil Lawyer, Winky, and the Weasels were on the mural from the start, though they didn't appear in the ride until the 1983 revamp; a nice gesture on the part of the Re-Imagineers.

JG said...

Great stuff, Dave. Glad you scored this pic, and even happier that you shared it.

@Stefano, I was always baffled by this ride as a kid. The cartoon was before my time and I had never seen it, and the cartoon story is quite different from the book version, which was all I knew. I could not figure out who those characters were, or why they were on the mural.

After subscribing to the Disney channel years later, it all became clear.

JG