The Little Disneyland That Never Was: Walt Disney’s Lilliputian Land

The Disney Dish with Jim Hill

The episode covers recent Disney news, including new surveys regarding guest price sensitivity and changes to ride operations at Expedition

Key takeaways

• Disney surveys indicate guests are increasingly sensitive to costs, with some stating they will only visit if a discount is provided.
• Expedition Everest has transitioned from a single rider line to an odds-and-evens system to maximize ride capacity.

Main topics

• Disney guest surveys and pricing
• Expedition Everest operational changes

Notable quotes

I'm not willing to visit the surface of the sun in July.

Conclusion

A blend of historical Disney lore and modern industry analysis regardi

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Welcome back to another edition of the Disney Dish podcast with Jim Hill. It's me, Len Tusta, and this is our show for the week of Schmerzday, September 28th, 2026. On the show today, news plus new Disney surveys on discounts, prices, and more. Then in our main segment, Jim gives us the history of Disneyland's Lilliput Land. Let's get started by bringing in the 1984 valedictorian of the Toontz's Driving Academy. It's Mr. Jim Hill. Jim, how's it going? Speaker 1 (0:26) Toons, the driving cat. For those of you who don't remember this, this sketch was first performed at Saturday Night Live back in May of 89. Steve Martin was the host that week. It was his 11th appearance on the show. He's since gone on to host Saturday Night Live 16 times. Wow. And that's in addition to drop-ins and cameos and that sort of thing. But anyway, the Toontz, the driving cat sketch, got such a huge response. They brought the character back seven other times. Basically the same gag over and over again. You know, you see Speaker 2 (0:58) the Speaker 1 (0:58) cat driving and then the car drives off a cliff. But just in case you're wondering, folks, the Toontz puppet. was built and then operated by Bob Flanagan, who originally worked for Jim Henson's New York office. Yeah, spent years working on Sesame Street. Evidently, he was part of the team that worked. Remember when Henson, the first season of Saturday Night Live, did, what was it, The Land of Gorch, a weekly sketch? It's vaguely familiar. Yeah, this was... Well, that's Speaker 2 (1:30) the Speaker 1 (1:30) thing. It only ran the one season, the first season of Saturday Night Live. By season two, Henson had left, but Bob Flanagan stayed. And he, you know, for the next 27 years, if you saw a puppet or an animated prop of any kind on Saturday Night Live, Bob Flanagan built it. And that included, by the way, the Toonsinator, the vicious cat from the future, Len. Oh, Speaker 2 (1:56) my God, Speaker 1 (1:56) that's amazing. All right. Well, anyway, we lost Bob Flanagan back in February of 2024 at the age of 68. Huge talent. By the way, if you've ever seen Wicked on Broadway and Marvel. I have. Yep. So the time dragon over the top of the stage or that giant mechanical Wizard of Oz head that Elphaba and Galinda encounter when they go to the Emerald City. Bob built both of those two. Fantastic. What a great story. So links to Broadway and to Speaker 2 (2:27) Southern Hand Life. That's fantastic. There Speaker 1 (2:28) we Speaker 2 (2:28) go. There we go. Speaker 1 (2:29) All because of a cat that thinks it can drive a car. I mean, Jim, you and I are of the generation where when Speaker 2 (2:34) we taught our daughters how to drive, we both used the phrase, all right, keep it on the road, tootsies, right? Speaker 1 (2:41) Pretty much. Pretty much. Speaker 2 (2:45) Fantastic. All right, Jim, let's do a quick shout out to our subscribers. Thanks to everyone who subscribes to the show over at patreon.com slash jimhillmedia, including Tyrone Alves, Greg McCann, Jason Beck, Jen Coppola, Jill LaPearl. Jack Parmalay, and Dr. David Sandlin from Walton Verona High School. Jim, this is Disney's Food and Bev team introducing a new afternoon tea service at, you guessed it, the Mad Tea Party in Fantasyland. From 3 to 5 p.m., guests will enjoy unlimited pastries, sandwiches, and kettles of hot tea while spinning at 40 revolutions per minute. The team guarantees you won't need dinner after this unforgettable experience. True story. However, Speaker 1 (3:25) maybe a visit to first aid for scalding, you know, related injuries. You know, we'll work on that, Jim. At this point, we'll go sky. Here we go. There we go. On Speaker 2 (3:35) to the news, folks. The Disney Dish News is sponsored by BeOurGuestVacations.com. From our friends at DVCRentalStore.com. Jim, our friends at NOAA say this is the quietest storm season on record, so it's a great time to visit Florida's theme parks. And our friends at BeOurGuestVacations.com can help you get that trip started. You want hurricanes? There's always Pat O'Brien's at CityWalk, too. So visit BeOurGuestVacations.com now and take advantage of this great luck. All right. On to the news. Jim, Coral Reef has reopened at Epcot, more than a month ahead of schedule. Yay! Okay. Okay. Speaker 1 (4:08) That's... Very unlike the Disney company these days. I like a month ahead of time. I'm glad it is. Speaker 2 (4:14) Also, over at Expedition Everest, they've removed the single rider line in favor of two-line odds and evens system, like those in place at Tron and, I think, Guardians of the Galaxy. So our understanding of this is that it increases ride seat usage by around two percentage points, which, Jim, I mean, that's pretty great for just knowing how to count, right? Speaker 1 (4:35) Absolutely. Forgive me for asking. Does the sale of Lightning Lane have anything to do with single line going away as well? I Speaker 2 (4:46) don't think so. And the reason why I don't think so is that Universal's done something similar. Speaker 1 (4:51) And Speaker 2 (4:52) most people who are using Express Pass over there are getting it for free through the hotel. So I don't think it's a dollar. It's being driven by money here. I think it really is just like, let's utilize or let's use as much of the ride capacity as we can. Speaker 1 (5:06) All right. Speaker 1 (5:08) No negative November is almost here for us. It's coming up. Coming up. Six weeks. Speaker 2 (5:13) Six Speaker 1 (5:14) weeks. Speaker 2 (5:14) Okay. Also, Jim, all of the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party dates have now sold out. And we said last week that Jollywood Nights dates are selling fast, and we expect to start hearing about those sellouts. Very, very soon. So if you guys want tickets to Jollywood Nights, now is the time to get it. Also, as a reminder, there are January dates available for Jollywood Nights, and those might be the thing everyone's kind of sleeping on. You'll have slightly lower post-holiday crowds, but all the food and entertainment. And if you're having FOMO about the holiday parties and you're in town for Run Disney, for example, those January Jollywood Nights events. Speaker 1 (5:47) are just the tickets. So don't forget about those as well. That's it. Excellent point. Excellent point. Speaker 2 (5:51) All right. And last, this is a bit of intriguing news from Walt Disney World. Our friends at WDW Magic are reporting that Imagineering has filed a construction permit over a haunted mansion. And this is exterior Speaker 1 (6:01) Q stuff. What do you think? What do you think this is, Jim? Well, okay. Remember, you and I stood in front of the model there at the D23 Expo back at the tail end of August. And I think you and I both noticed right next door to the mansion was a brand new mysterious building. And, you know, when we cued the imaginary, we said, not so mysterious. It's a bathroom. But it's a giant bathroom. that will be sort of the way station for folks who were hiking over to the side of the park to do Piston Peak and eventually Villain's Land. And so evidently, in order to prep, and this will be right next to the mansion, discreetly hidden behind foliage and all of that, but it just means that, okay, got to make adjustments to the queue because shortly construction of this giant facility will begin. So, yeah, you're not wrong. Our friends at WDW, Speaker 2 (7:04) you Speaker 1 (7:04) know, chase down the permits, and this is, you know, first they do the queue, and then they build the bathroom. Speaker 2 (7:11) It's funny that you mention this now, because I've never thought of this before. We may need to ask our friend Fox Nolte about this, but does the Haunted Mansion canonically have indoor plumbing? Speaker 1 (7:23) There's a whole bunch of you look flush jokes coming up here. I Speaker 2 (7:27) mean, I know that there's a hot and cold running screams. There Speaker 1 (7:31) we go. All right. Speaker 2 (7:33) But is that an aftermarket addition? Like, did Speaker 1 (7:37) that come? Huh. Does the Haunted Mansion canonically have indoor plumbing? Wow. Okay, Fox. All right. We know who to ask. All right. Here we go. Pick Speaker 2 (7:46) up the Speaker 1 (7:46) white courtesy phone. Okay. Speaker 2 (7:48) Exactly. Okay. All right, Jim. Over at Disneyland, while Walt Disney World has sold out of its Halloween party dates, there are still tickets available for Oogie Boogie Bash. What do you make of that? Speaker 1 (7:58) Well, again, remember that this year's edition, I want to say they added one new character to the villain trail, Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove. And likewise, because of the construction of... The Coco ride, they weren't able to do a parade this time around. They did that haunted mansion ballroom thing. And remember, that's the interesting thing about Disneyland. It's the world's most famous regional theme park. And folks who'd previously been to Oogie Boogie Bash, you know, enjoyed it. But the notion is... okay, I'm going back and there's only one new villain, you know, and there's no parade. It's like, no, I can wait. All right. Fantastic, Jim. Thanks. Speaker 2 (8:47) All right. And Jim, over at Universal, our Heavenly Father BioReconstruct has the first photos of construction behind Darkmoor at Epic Universe. And I've included a photo of that construction in the show notes. Jim, the current rumor from our friend Alicia Stella is that this is an indoor coaster themed to Bride of Frankenstein. And that's a change from the Creature from the Black Lagoon boat slash coaster ride. What have you been hearing about that? Well, first of all, I have learned the hard way not to bet against Alicia Stella. I got Speaker 1 (9:16) more to the point. You and I were at IAAPA almost a year ago now and stood there at the MAC booth. And that was when they unveiled the, what is it, the ride vehicle for the Night Flyer Expedition, the thing that was being built at Dollywood. And, you know, remember at that point, they didn't say it outright, but it's like, yeah, this is what's going to Universal for our Creature of the Black Lagoon ride. So it's interesting that this project seems to have changed because a year ago, this was the thing that was going to happen. But on the other hand, Nightflyer Expedition only just opened at Dollywood last month on August 19th. That was the giveaway that something was wrong with Dolly Parton. Dolly always showed up for the opening of new rides