A Piece of Walt Disney's Childhood Will Be Part of the Toontown Transformation in Disneyland

Disney recently announced big plans to transform Disneyland’s Toontown area.

©Disney

Toontown is currently scheduled to close in March 2022 and reopen in early 2023 with a new ride and a fully reimagined space. In the meantime, we’ve learned a bit more about one of the most special parts of the new Toontown — and Walt Disney fans will want to hear this.

Although Toontown in Disney World was replaced in 2011, this cartoony land has remained in Disneyland since 1993. Inspired by the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the area features colorful, cartoon-like houses, decor, and rides. While Toontown is not going anywhere in Disneyland, it will soon be undergoing a huge transformation.

Toontown in Disneyland

One of the major parts of the remodeled Toontown will be a tribute to Walt Disney’s beloved Cottonwood tree in Marceline, Missouri, where as a child he used to sit and daydream. In fact, according to Marcy Carriker Smothers as reported in the Orange County Register, Walt Disney credited the tree “as the birthplace of his imagination,” and he named it the Dreaming Tree.

©Disney

The new Toontown Dreaming Tree will have sculpted roots for children to climb, play, and explore, and Toontown itself will be a green space filled with play activities for children and families to enjoy.

©Disney

The Dreaming Tree in Toontown will not be the only Dreaming Tree in Disneyland, as a sapling from seeds of the original Cottonwood Tree, which was sadly struck by lightning, was planted near the Mark Twain Riverboat in 2005, and later moved to the banks of the Rivers of America. If you find yourself in Disneyland, you can find this “Son of the Dreaming Tree” located behind a teepee and a fire pit in the Lakota Village if you take a ride on any of the water transportation on the Rivers of America.

Mark Twain Riverboat

Walt Disney reportedly used some of his childhood memories from playing beneath the Dreaming Tree as inspiration for Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons. You can find another sapling grown from the seeds of the Dreaming Tree on the Disney Family Farm in Marceline, and a third sapling is kept safe in case anything happens to the other trees.

Toontown will close in March 2022 and reopen in 2023 with Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Keep reading DFB for more Disney news, history, and more!