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A look at Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway from the Imagineer that created it

Disney Imagineer Kevin Rafferty reveals all about the making of Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway is a new trackless dark ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

In 2020, Disney+ debuted its brand new series Disney Insider - a show which peels back the curtain, revealing the secrets of Disney’s movies, theme parks, destinations, music, toys and more.

While production on the show came to a halt in May as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, its final episode of they initial run took a look at one of Disney’s newest attractions - Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway.

Created by Disney’s Imagineering team, the ride opened at Hollywood Studios in Florida on 4 March last year. A Disneyland version is also in the works, however the attraction has been delayed until 2023 due to the global pandemic.

Kevin Rafferty will retire in April after more than 42 years at Disney - Credit: Disney Parks

From the mind of an Imagineering veteran

The attraction takes its inspiration from Disney’s past, with the ride themed to a film premiere of Perfect Picnic, an animated short film from Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Guests then pass through a simulated movie screen and experience a “zippy zany out-of-control adventure”, with the objective being for the trackless dark ride for visitors to feel like they’ve been transported into the cartoon aboard Goofy's train.

“My earliest memory was being in my crib with this Disney train on the wall. Casey Jr form Dumbo was the locomotive and the rest of the cars had Disney characters. I remember being enamoured with Mickey in one of the train cars,” said Kevin Rafferty, executive creative director at Disney Imagineering, speaking on the show.

Confirming his retirement last year, Rafferty, who has been responsible for attractions such as Cars Land and Toy Story Mania during his 42-year run with the company, revealed the timeline this week, announcing that his official departure from Disney will come on April 1.

“Being the Imagineer creatively responsible and helping to come up with the story to deliver this attraction of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, it all comes full circle as the last major attraction that I’ll help deliver,” he said. “I can’t think of a better cherry on the beautiful cake that’s been my career as an Imagineer.”

The ride is not only a triumph for Rafferty but stands as tribute to his friend and mentor - legendary Imagineer Marty Sklar, who died in 2017.

“I always promised Marty that sometime in my career I would help to design and develop an attraction with an original story and an original theme song, much in the spirit of Haunted Mansion, Small World or Pirates of the Caribbean,” said Rafferty.

“He would run into me in the hallway and say ‘Kev, got that attraction yet?’ I think Marty would have loved this. There are many things in the heart of this attraction that he taught me.”

Theatre and showmanship

The attraction aims to offer total immersion for its visitors, with riders becoming a part of the ride experience rather than just a passive observer.

“Walt always said that the guests in his parks were like a camera,” said Rafferty. It’s everywhere around you, with our 360 degree environment.”

The ride uses a lot of advanced technology to create a living cartoon world for guests but Rafferty insists that isn’t the reason for its success.

“It’s about theatre, it’s about showmanship. Don’t just use technology to drive your story - that’s not going to work. What you need to do is come up with a story and vision first then use the technology, use the invention that’s going to help you tell that story,” he said.

“When they’re in an attraction and it’s working really well, and they’re pulled into the spell of what’s going on, and the magnificence of the theatre and the surprises and so on, all of that goes away and they’re just happy. That’s what we do - we create happiness.”

Disney Insider returned on January 15, with the latest episode looking at The Henson Soundstage, the unveiling of Project Luminous and a look at how the National Geographic team captured the Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. To see the full episode featuring Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, see season one episode six of the show.