Disneyland’s reimagined and revitalized Toontown reopened to the public on Sunday. The previous day, Disneyland President Ken Potrock hosted a dedication ceremony to commemorate the park’s reopening and a new chapter for Mickey’s Toontown, which opened to the public more than 30 years ago.
Potrock’s entire remarks can be read below:
“Welcome to all of our guests, and especially our younger guests. Thank you guys for being here. Hi, everybody.
So, I think I think many of you know that Walt Disney opened up this park in 1955.
When he opened this park, he had a very famous quote, where he said to, ‘All who come to this happy place, welcome.’ I’m going to modify that quote just a little bit for today, and say: To all who come to this happiest of lands in this happiest place, welcome.
We are so thrilled that you are here as part of, not just the opening of Toontown, but quite honestly the continuation, and further excitement of the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company.
We launched our celebration in January, and it continues to do extraordinarily well. But we built it in such a way that we would have new milestones along the journey. And today, Toontown is one of those very, very exciting and dear milestones.
One of the things that I think is so incredibly important, is recognizing that Toontown, and what we tried to accomplish here in Toontown was really not just creativity and hard work, but a labor of love.
One of the things that we wanted to be able to do is recognize that this was going to be a land that was available, not just to all of our guests and our families, but all children of all capabilities and all ages. And I think the Imagineering team built this and developed this with such sensitivity that it really is coming through. We hope you’ll look at it through those lenses today as you get to experience it.
By the way, doing something like this is truly, you know, a team effort and it takes a village to make it happen. So, in addition to Imagineering, one of the things that we think about are all the different disciplines and people and groups that went into this very layered experience. And again, I would like to give a big round of applause to all of those people that worked on it here today.
To give you a little bit of context, Toontown lives right here in what I have been calling the ‘hot corner’ of the park. And the hot corner of the park encompasses, when you walk right outside the gates of Toontown, it encompasses the Tale of The Lion King at the Fantasyland Theater, the Small World attraction, the parade step-off and so many other things that happen in that area, it makes this multi-layered experience on this side of the park so extra special and really, really effective, so we’re thrilled about that, as well.
One of the things that went into this was care and thoughtfulness. We wanted to make sure that to all of our guests, and especially our children with a variety of different capabilities and abilities, that this was a welcoming place for everyone.
So I’m very, very pleased to be able to talk about those kinds of things as well.
So you’ve heard enough about me, I wanted to just take one last shout out to our cast members, the operational cast members, you see them in their costumes throughout the park. They are the people that will bring to life, the passion, the empathy, the sensitivity of what this land is all about. And quite honestly this land is a new standard for us and we’re extraordinarily proud of it.”
Potrock concluded his comments with an invitation to those in attendance for the dedication ceremony to go forth and experience all that the new-and-improved Mickey’s Toontown has to offer.
Mickey’s Toontown reopened to the public on Sunday, March 19 at the Disneyland Resort.
