The "new" Mickey's Toontown is still under wraps, with a scheduled re-opening on March 8, 2023 (364 days after it closed for its renovation).

However, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway made an early debut, coinciding with the launch of the Disney100 promotion at Disneyland on January 27, 2023. So even though most of the new Toontown is still under construction, out of view of guests, the "downtown" neighborhood centered on the El Capitoon Theater is out from behind construction walls and accessible to guests. And one thing in particular has seemed to surprise them...

In the "old" Toontown, the downtown cul-de-sac serving as the entrance to Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin was built around a fairly extravagant water fountain with Roger as the star. This fountain was something of a landmark for the area, with the tracks of the Jolly Trolley circling around it.

In the new Toontown, that's changed...

In fact, the Roger Rabbit fountain has been removed entirely and replaced with a small "park" of artificial grass, a few small tree plantings, and Toontown-style street lamps.

Frankly, it's not like the fountain's absence was unexpected... If you return to the land-wide concept art developed for "Toontown 2.0," the fountain is indeed missing. (A new fountain featuring Mickey and Minnie is instead planned for the new "CenTOONial Park" taking shape directly across from the El Capitoon Theater, so technically it's an even swap.)

Even still, the removal of the fountain and its replacement with artificial turf has gotten Disney Parks fans on Facebook and Twitter talking... 

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Some fans argue that the new artificial turf is "bad show;" that it's downright silly to remove a beautiful water feature that added to the "downtown" aesthetic of the land in favor of an odd, out-of-place patch of fake grass; that, basically, the vast expanse of turf with just a few immature trees looks like more of a doggie park than a city park.

Others argue that this is exactly what Disneyland is supposed to offer. These fans suggest that thanks to new green spaces like this one, families will have space to run around, relax, picnic, nap, and just enjoy Toontown's atmosphere... something sorely missing from the former incarnation of the land. Especially today, more places for people to "Dole Whip and chill" while waiting for Lightning Lane return times are needed, and this green space can be exactly that! (And if you see how the space is being utilized, as above, you'd see that people do "get it" and use it for that exact purpose.)

(If you want to know our thoughts, we feel like something more in the middle might've been a nice compromise – maybe just by adding a small water feature or even a statue of Roger Rabbit to the "park," a few artificial grassy "mounds" to climb or sit on, and some permanent picnic blanket-stylized squishy floor squares to break up the grass and clearly define family relaxation spaces.)

In any case, it's clear that this idea of greenery, shade, relaxation, and play is a major focus for Imagineering's vision for the land. This patch of "grass" is probably best thought of as a complement to the nearby (but still behind construction walls) "CenTOONial Park," which will include more green space, more trees, that Mickey fountain that's serving as a spiritual successor to Roger's, and an interactive "Dreaming Tree" playground.

Likewise, the new version of Goofy's House is gaining Goofy's "How to Play" Yard complete with sound garden, musical instruments, interactive games, shade, an accessible elevated clubhouse, and a candy-making "Rube Goldberg"-style contraption that'll see candy sliding, spinning, rolling, and dropping through the yard and house in a giant kinetic display.

That's in addition to Donald's Duck Pond, a new splash pad and whole-family interactive zone that will include spinning water lilies, balance beams and rocking toys. (The boat itself will now be a prop rather than a climbable structure.)

In other words, it's clear that the focus for the newly-refreshed Toontown is on universally-accessible, multi-sensory, and fully-interactive play rather than just climbing nets, slides, and ball pits. Almost inarguably, that's a very smart change for the park to make. Providing more green space, shade, room to run, and room to picnic seems like a win-win, but what do you think? Is the swap from Roger Rabbit's downtown fountain to a flat green space a plus, a minus, or somewhere in between?