Disney Extinct Attractions: Toy Story Funhouse, Woody’s Roundup, and Toy Story the Musical

Welcome to Disney Extinct Attractions. My name is Cole, and I’ll be your guide on today’s trip through Toy Story Disney Parks past.

On Saturday, Toy Story Land will finally open in Walt Disney World, becoming the most immersive Toy Story Land around the world. From what I’ve seen, this entire land looks amazing, and I am really excited to be able to visit it later this summer. Toy Story Land’s opening marks the end of Pixar’s amazing June where we got Incredibles 2, Pixar Pier, and Toy Story Land. But today is all about Toy Story, so let’s take a step back and look at the movie that started it all.

In 1995, Pixar released Toy Story—the first ever fully computer-generated feature film. The film went on to become the highest-grossing movie of the year and put Pixar on the map as an animated force to be reckoned with. At this point in time, Disney did not yet own Pixar, but they were the film’s distributor and also had the theme park rights to the film.

As is common with nearly all Disney films, Toy Story had a run at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. As a part of this run, Disney produced the Toy Story Funhouse for the moviegoers to visit after watching the film.

I wasn’t born when the Toy Story Funhouse made its home there, but I do remember the days when many of the films at the El Capitan had expansive exhibits for guests to visit after the film. These exhibits would only stand for a limited time, and Toy Story Funhouse actually had the honor of moving over to Disneyland on January 2th7, 1996 as a special exhibit.

Toy Story Funhouse found its home in the area near the exit to what is now Star Wars: Path of the Jedi. (The area was formerly an arcade but has been unused for many years now.) Just like in the El Capitan Theater, the area featured a meet-and-greet, drawing area, video games and my personal favorite, an obstacle course where younger guests got to run around wearing the same type of shoes as the Green Army Men.

Additionally, there was a show that took place on the small stage outside the entrance of now Path of the Jedi called Hamm’s All Doll Revue. Unfortunately, I could not find a video of the show, but it looks pretty cool with all of the characters appearing in their giant toy outfits.

After a few months, the Toy Story Funhouse closed because it had served its purpose of keeping guests excited about Toy Story throughout the rest of its theatrical run and the beginning of the DVD release. There was then a brief period of time when Toy Story disappeared from Disneyland before its reappearance for Toy Story 2.

In Toy Story 2, we get a chance to see Woody in his earliest days when he was on the popular 1950s TV show, Woody’s Roundup. This idea was one of the coolest parts of the films, so when Disney was looking to promote the film, they decided why not show us more of the show that left us all wanting more. Debuting in November 1999 at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon at Disneyland, The All-New Woody’s Roundup was born.

What I loved about this show was its ability to truly simulate a live TV show from the 1950s. Between the radio-style narrator to the friendly cowboy leading you in song, everything felt so natural. I really felt like I was watching the TV show watching this show, especially because of the use of commercials and usage of black and white during the “actual” Woody’s Roundup show. In between the action, they also brought the characters on stage to perform some extra acts for the guests.

Overall, this show was the quintessential promotional idea. They put a lot of time into designing the show to be fun for guests of all ages without making it feel heavy-handed. In fact, I came out of the show wanting to watch the film, so in my mind, that is a perfectly executed show.

But the show was always only a temporary addition, so it closed on June 17th, 2000 with Billy Hill and the Hillbillies moving back into the Golden Horseshoe. Over the years, the Woody’s Roundup name has been reused for a meet-and-greet in Disneyland Paris, an attraction in Shanghai Disneyland, and Big Thunder Ranch during the summer of 2013. However, we won’t be discussing any of those Roundups today. Instead, we’ll be looking at another Toy Story-themed show, Toy Story the Musical.

Appearing on the Disney Wonder beginning on April 10th, 2008, Toy Story the Musical is one of only two Disney films to ever be adapted into a musical show that wasn’t a musical (along with Finding Nemo -The Musical).

This show had a really cool approach in terms of the portrayal of these toys. Many of the side characters were given walkaround outfits and had their voices portrayed by their original actors. Plus, Toy Story is not the film that you would expect to be adapted into a musical, but it actually managed to work pretty well, with many of the songs being well-crafted and all of the costumes being exquisitely created, so much so that the characters look nearly identical to the film.

In terms of what I didn’t love, I wish that it was a bit more exciting along with some extra humor. The film has a lot of great jokes scattered throughout, but many of them sadly did not manage to make it into this show and it left me yawning at some points.

The show did feature some pretty strong performances from its actors, though, especially Sid. Sid’s song is more of a solo number, but the person in the show that I watched killed it. It had an awesome beat, and you understood a lot more of Sid’s maliciousness.

The show actually managed to have an eight-year run on the Wonder, a pretty incredible feat for a cruise ship show. Eventually, though, the show was replaced by a Frozen-themed musical. (Shocker, I know.)

Originally, Toy Story the Musical was also supposed the replace Disney’s Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular at Disney California Adventure. However, fans petitioned to keep Aladdin, and their wishes were granted (until Frozen took over as well).

Bringing everything together, today we got a chance to look at so many awesome Toy Story-themed attractions that I wish I could have had the chances to experience. But now its time to get out into the parks and visit Pixar Pier and Toy Story Land to see all of the new offerings available. First though, here are your clues to next week’s article.

1. This attraction celebrated America.
2. This attraction tended to move in circles.
3. The animatronics for this attraction moved to another attraction.

Thanks for reading and have a magical day!