(playfully suspenseful music)
(playful music)
- [Narrator] Tonight a red carpet event
where Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse are the stars
as the Chinese Theater opens its doors
to a brand new attraction,
taking all of us into a cartoon world.
Live from Walt Disney World Resort in Florida
Inside Disney Parks presents a live stream
of the dedication ceremony
for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.
- Good evening and welcome to Disney's Hollywood Studios,
I'm Mark Daniel live in front
of the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard
for tonight's historic Dedication Ceremony
of Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway.
This red carpet event marks the premiere
of the first Mickey and Minnie themed
ride through attraction in a Disney Park.
Ror the first time in two and a half years
the doors to the Chinese Theater will open
to guests tomorrow morning and take them
on an adventure they won't forget!
More on the attraction in just a minute
because tonight's dedication features
some big entertainment and joining us back stage
in the middle of the pre-show excitement
is our very own Leanne O'Regan.
Hey Leanne how is everybody doing back there?
- Hi Mark, it is so exciting, we are here back stage
as the entertainment team is getting ready
for the big moment!
Over here we have tonight's dancers
doing their final prep work.
How about that?
Woooo.
And then over here we have Mickey and Minnie,
the stars of the show,
also getting their final prep work in.
How do you feel guys?
Yes, you're ready, how exciting is that?
Alright well we are lucky to have the entertainment director
here with us tonight, Janie.
Come on in.
- Hi! - Hey, tell us
what can we expect tonight?
- A lot of fun, a lot of energy, we're so excited,
we've worked so hard to bring something so exciting
for Minnie & Mickey's Runaway Railway.
Are you guy's ready?
- [Dancers] Yeah!
- We are so excited!
Thank you Janie, thank you everybody.
Tonight we have
the President of the Walt Disney World Resort,
Josh D'Amaro here.
He's gonna part of the show tonight.
We are so excited to have him with us.
So Mark it's a big night, big moment!
we're going to send it back to you to get the show on.
- Thank you very much Leanne
and thank you as all, good luck to all the dancers
and Mickey and Minnie.
So what exactly is Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway?
And what can guests expect?
Well joining me to answer those questions
is Disney Parks Blog contributor Courtnee Collier.
Courtnee welcome.
- Hey Mark, how's it going?
- I'm doing fantastic,
Okay Courtnee you've actually ridden the attraction
so tell us what are we in for?
- Well Mark when guests walk through those front doors
starting tomorrow, they will enter a cartoon world
joining Mickey and Minnie on a fun picnic
and what can possibly go wrong when Goofy is their engineer?
- Hmm.
(playful music)
- [Courtnee] Disney Hollywood Studios',
iconic Chinese Theater and the new marquee
create a magical gateway bringing guests
into Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway.
Watching a new Mickey Mouse cartoon short,
you suddenly burst into the cartoon world
boarding engineer Goofy's train.
Anything can happen on a whirlwind ride
where mouse rules apply:
a dazzling ride through immersive experience,
and an adventure for Mickey and Minnie fans of all ages.
There's no telling where Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway
is heading!
- Oh Courtnee, that looks like so much fun!
- Mark as you mentioned I was able to ride
Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway with my two young kids
and they absolutely loved it, this is going to be something
the entire family is going to enjoy!
- Courtnee I am going to take your word for it!
And it all starts tomorrow, I can't wait to experience it
for myself, thank you very much Courtnee.
- Thanks Mark.
- Alright, this is a beautiful evening,
it is gonna be a great moment,
and speaking of beautiful and exciting,
we have a way for those of you watching
around the world to get in on the act.
Joining me know is JFB, Jennifer Fickley-Baker
from the Disney Parks Blog, welcome Jen.
- Hey Mark.
- Now Jen I understand you have a special opportunity
for Mickey and Minnie fans watching right now,
so what is it?
- That's right Mark, earlier this week
on the Disney Parks Blog we gave a first look
at these adorable new wishables
inspired by the attraction, engineer Goofy, Mickey,
Minnie, Daisy and Chuuby will be available starting tomorrow
right here at Disney's Hollywood Studios and online
at Shop Disney, but if you can't make it to the park
right away, we have a handful of engineer Goofy wishables
to give away to viewers watching tonight.
To enter for a chance to receive one visit @Disneyparks
on Twitter right now.
We just tweeted out a link
with the directions on how to enter,
while you're on Twitter use the #DisneyParksLive
to tell us where in the world
you are watching from tonight.
- [Mark] All right and engineer Goofy's so cute.
- [Jennifer] I know.
- Thank you very much Jen, now as I mentioned earlier
this is a historic night for Disney Parks
because this is the first ride through attraction
featuring Mickey and Minnie.
And joining me now to add more perspective
is Disney historian and Disney Parks Blog
contributing Editor Jeff Kurtti.
Hey Jeff and welcome back.
- Good to see you.
- Now Jeff let's talk about something very important,
tell us about the significance of this new attraction
featuring Mickey and Minnie.
- I think in a nutshell we're being shown the future
of Disney theme park attractions by the most beloved
and familiar characters, that we've known all our lives.
- Now Jeff, is there any surprise that this whole attraction
is based on a train?
- Actually no surprise at all.
I did a blog post about it today.
Trains have been part of Disney since Walt was a boy,
and we've seen 'em through the whole history of the company.
- Well thank you so much Jeff for that historic perspective,
once again Jeff Kurtti,
Disney historian and Disney Parks contributing editor.
Now as you can see all of our invited guests are in place
and we are moments away from tonight's dedication ceremony.
Now somewhere down in the crowd
are a couple of VIP celebrities.
Now I'm not going to tell you who they are right now
but I will say if your kids are Disney Channel's
Zombies 2 fans, you'll want to stick around
after the dedication ceremony for an appearance
you won't want to miss.
Now that's all I can say about that.
So the time has come and nothing can stop us now.
Inside Disney Parks is proud to present
the dedication ceremony
for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway!
(bright music)
♪ Nothing can stop us now, I'll tell you how ♪
♪ We're gonna make it happen, let's take a ride ♪
♪ Spend the day in the countryside, time for me to stay ♪
♪ We'll get away and have a birthday picnic ♪
♪ We'll sing a song and absolutely nothing will go wrong ♪
♪ Now we're heading down the open highway ♪
♪ And I'm glad you're going my way ♪
♪ Everything is just so peachy keen ♪
♪ Nothing can stop us now, I don't know how ♪
♪ It could be any better, we'll travel hand in hand ♪
♪ Across this wonderland, try out the marching band ♪
♪ Nothing can stop us ♪
- [Announcer] Honored guests put your hands together
for President of Walt Disney World Resort, Josh D'Amaro.
(audience cheers and applauds)
- Hello everyone and good evening,
tonight is a very special night for all of us
here at the Walt Disney World Resort
and I want to thank you for helping us dedicate
the first ever ride through attraction
based on Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
(audience cheers and applauds)
Now these two icons made their first appearance
more than 90 years ago.
They've been entertaining generation after generation
of kids and adults alike,
and now we're so excited to share
Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway with our guests.
This is a ground breaking attraction that puts you
into the fun and unpredictable world
of Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts.
It's pretty wild and we're very proud of it.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge
our Walt Disney Imagineering team who brought this to life,
Kevin Rafferty and Charita Carter.
(audience cheers and applauds)
You guys did an amazing job, your team did an amazing job,
we're proud of you and we're proud of this attraction.
Thank you.
And of course I also want thank
our incredible, outstanding Walt Disney World cast members
who have been working so hard behind the scenes
as we get ready to welcome guests on our newest attraction.
(audience cheers and applauds)
Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway
is a crowning achievement in Disney's Hollywood Studios'
multi-year transformation.
This park once took you behind the scenes.
Now you can put yourself at the center
of your favorite stories.
Right here, you can travel deep into the Star Wars galaxy,
you can be transformed into a toy
and play in Toy Story land, and now you can even enter
Mickey and Minnie's cartoon world.
(audience cheers and applauds)
- We can't wait for you to experience this new attraction
and I know guests of all ages will love it.
Tonight we've invited some of our cast members' children
to join us in the festivities
(audience cheers and applauds)
- I can guarantee you that they can't wait to jump on board
and of course neither can I.
So Mickey, Minnie would you like to get things started?
- Why I'd love to.
- Oh, this is such fun!
- Okay everyone, on the count of three, everybody.
- [All] One.
Two.
Three.
(train whistle toots)
(jazzy music)
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Now heading down the open highway ♪
♪ Everybody's going my way, everything is just peachy keen ♪
♪ Nothing can stop us now, I don't know how ♪
♪ It could be any better ♪
♪ We'll travel hand in my hand, across this wonderland ♪
♪ Strike up the marching band ♪
♪ Oh yeah ♪
♪ 'Cause nothing, nothing ♪
♪ Can stop us, stop us now ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
- [Announcer] Thank you all for joining us this evening.
Please enjoy the rest of your evening
at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and we'll see ya real soon.
(playfully suspenseful music)
- Whoa, now that was a dedication. (laughs)
Now before the ceremony I mentioned
we have celebrities in the house and joining me right now
is Trevor Tordjman, and Chandler Kinney
from Disney Channel's Zombies 2, welcome.
- Thank you, hey. - Yes, thank you so much.
Happy to be here.
- Now what did you think of the ceremony?
- Man, it was incredible, all those dancer killing it.
Of course anything where Mickey and Minnie's at.
- Did you see Mickey and Minnie?
- We love. - Those moves were crazy.
- Right.
- Chandler how are you feeling about that dedication?
- I'm feeling so good, now I'm a big fan
of Mickey and Minnie so I love to see them
hit the dance floor.
- Yeah and I'm gonna tell you what, I'm gonna tell you what,
we actually have video of both of you
riding Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway earlier today.
- [Trevor] Oh snap
- [Mark] Yeah, yeah, we're gonna run that right now.
So tell us what'd you think about the experience?
- [Trevor] Man this ride is so much fun,
there's so many twists and turns.
- [Chandler] Twists and turns, ups and downs,
it's unpredictable, it's fun, it's a really good time
and I love the fact that they really transport you
into their world, you feel like you're living
in the cartoon world.
- [Mark] In the cartoon world.
- [Trevor] I can't believe this is the first official
Mickey and Minnie ride.
- [Mark] I mean this it's historic right?
- [Trevor] It's crazy man.
- [Mark] I gotta tell you this is very historic.
Now here's the big question, how are you gonna explain
this ride to your fellow zombies?
- [Trevor] I'm gonna be like hey we rode it first.
(both exclaiming and laughing)
- Take that.
No, I think it's just really cool that you get
to be with Mickey and Minnie in the cartoons,
you get to be in those tricky situations,
you get to ask those questions, like what do we do next?
Where do we go?
So it's really cool.
- Thank you very much for being here guys,
Thank you very much Trevor and Chandler
from Disney's Zombies
- [Chandeler, Mark] 2.
- [Trevor] Thank you guys.
- Yes.
Now as you can see the party continues here
at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Invited guests are enjoying the attraction.
Joining me once again is JFB, Jennifer Fickely-Baker
from the Disney Parks Blog with my favorite,
some shout outs.
- Yeah we got it, so we had a great international tune in.
Thank you so much to everybody who watched tonight,
we want to say a special hello to our pals in Australia,
Brazil, the Netherlands, all over Canada
and the United Kingdom.
A few people I want to say an extra special hello to:
Ann Charlotte who's watching, Mark, from Disneyland Paris.
- [Mark] Oh wow.
- [Jennifer] So thank you for tuning in.
Katie in Pennsylvania says Mickey is her favorite
and she can't wait to experience the attraction herself
with vacation just six weeks away,
and then a happy birthday
- [Mark] Happy birthday!
- [Jennifer] Happy birthday to James who's watching
from his birthday dinner right now over at California Grill.
- Yeah I think I heard that.
- And he plans to ride the attraction tomorrow morning.
- Well what a great birthday gift, happy birthday!
- Yep, happy birthday!
- Thank you very much Jen, for the little shout outs.
Now before we say goodnight I have important information
for those of you coming out to experience
Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway in person.
The attraction opens to the public tomorrow
when Disney's Hollywood Studios opens at 8:00 a.m.
Passes are being used for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway
and as always, subject to availability.
For more information on Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway
visit DisneyWorld.com.
For the latest news and information
about Disney Parks be sure to follow Disney Parks Blog,
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
And if you are looking for a more in depth look
at Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, our friends at D23,
the official Disney fan club's got you covered,
tomorrow at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. Pacific,
tune into D23.com for D23 Inside Disney
and look at the attraction's grand opening.
Ride along as imagineers and creative minds
who brought this experience to life take us
into the world of Mickey.
And it's a cartoon world at that,
again the fun begins at noon Eastern,
9:00 a.m. Pacific at D23.com.
With that, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway
is dedicated and ready to start taking guests
on an adventure tomorrow morning.
So from all of us at Inside Disney Parks
and Walt Disney World Resort,
thank you for watching us on this historic night
and remember nothing can stop us now.
♪ Nothing can stop us now, I don't know how ♪
♪ It could be any better, we'll travel hand in hand ♪
♪ Across this wonderland, strike up the marching band ♪
♪ 'Cause nothing can stop us now ♪
(playfully suspenseful music)