7 gems to watch, listen for inside Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway

To create Mickey& Minnie’s Runaway Railway attraction at Hollywood Studios in Disney World the Disney Imagineers watched every cartoon short in the latest “Mickey Mouse” series countless times.

The team wanted to soak up the essence of what makes the cartoons so fun and endearing. They felt the feel of the movies was so important that the research included consulted with Paul Rudish and Joseph Holt – executive producer and art director, respectively, for the “Mickey Mouse” shorts – to ensure the attraction’s hand-drawn look is authentic to the cartoon.

For example, according to Disney, Imagineers added extra floating “lines” around a cactus in the stampede scene to make it appear as if they are standing alone in midair, emulating a common technique used in the cartoons to emphasize motion.

When going through Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway look and listen for these details:

1. There are 10 new posters that appear in the attraction’s queue; nine highlight existing “Mickey Mouse” cartoon shorts, while the tenth is for “Perfect Picnic,” the new short debuting in the theater.

2. The tri-tone whistle from Mickey Mouse’s debut cartoon in 1928, “Steamboat Willie,” was used to record the locomotive whistle sound for Engineer Goofy’s train. In fact, the attraction features several sound effects created by Disney Legend Jimmy Macdonald for Disney animated shorts dating back to the 1930s. Some new effects were developed using Macdonald’s original equipment.

3. Special painting techniques in MIckey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway were used on the attraction’s ride vehicles so they appear to be hand-drawn, as if in a cartoon.

4. A newspaper features the headline “Oswald Wins!” – a reference to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the cartoon character created by Walt Disney that predates Mickey Mouse.

5. The Iwerks and Uwerks Waterworks water treatment plant is named for Disney Legend Ub Iwerks, the animator credited with sketching Mickey Mouse for the first time.

6. The 1401 Flower Shop is an homage to Walt Disney Imagineering’s headquarters in Glendale, Calif.

7. The numbers 1901 and 1928 can be seen inside the attraction; these are references to Walt Disney’s and Mickey Mouse’s birth years, respectively.