The podcast Unbuilt: An Unrealized Theme Park Podcast revealed that a DuckTales attraction was once set to replace Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin at Disneyland.
DuckTales Almost Replaced Roger Rabbit
Plans to transform Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin into a DuckTales attraction were in the works in 2019, right around the time when Disney announced Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and a reimagining of Mickey’s Toontown. While Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opened in 2020 and the reimagining of Mickey’s Toontown was completed in 2023, the DuckTales ride was lost to the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the U.S. in 2020.
Unbuilt shared two pieces of concept art for the attraction’s reimagining, with some details blurred and blotted out. In the podcast episode, they also described other pieces of concept art that they would not be sharing publicly.
A rendering of the facade shows a Gyro Labs sign above the entrance. Gryo Labs is the headquarters of DuckTales character Gyro Gearloose. A gyrosphere is above the sign. More inventions are on the rooftops and across the facade, which retains the general shape of the Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin building (pictured below).
The attraction would have been primarily based on the 2017 “DuckTales” reboot, which ended in 2021. Disneyland remained closed due to COVID-19 from March 2020 to April 2021 — after the “DuckTales” series finale.
The second piece of artwork shows the ride’s layout with different themed rooms and appearances by Donald Duck and his nephews. The ride track is the same as Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin.
The queue would have taken guests through Gyro Labs, where Gyro was working on a time machine. Webby Vanderquack would have turned on the machine, opening a time vortex, and guests would have traveled through time with Donald Duck, leading to a climactic battle with Magica de Spell. The Unbuilt hosts drew parallels to Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
Notably, Scrooge McDuck didn’t appear to be featured in the attraction. It instead would have focused on Donald, Huey, Dewey, Louis, and Webby.
Though the DuckTales ride never came to be, EPCOT introduced the DuckTales World Showcase Adventure in 2022.
Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin stuck around and received updates in 2021. Last year, former Imagineer Jim Shull revealed that the ride also almost became a Winnie the Pooh attraction.
Listen to the Unbuilt episode embedded below.
Watch our POV video of Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin:
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