“Everything RUNAWAY RAILWAY Isn’t” - Tom’s Honest Review of Tokyo’s INSANE Beauty & The Beast Ride 

Are you planning to visit Japan?

Okay, I literally never noticed the projected floor to hide the marks. That's ....that's GENIUS. Next to nothing Disney does impresses me, but I'm genuinely impressed.

as my dear old Grand-dad used to say: "If you go the extra mile, it will always be worthwhile."

I am Japanese. Just as you Americans think Tokyo Disneyland is wonderful, we Japanese think the American parks are wonderful because they have many things that TDR does not. It is very interesting to be able to compare and contrast the parks I know well with those overseas. Sorry if this is hard to read as I am using the translate function.

Just to add that not only are the attractions better at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, the quality of the merchandise is better and the cast members are at least as great if not greater. This is what you get when the Walt Imagineers take precedence over the Chapek budgeteers.

Projecting a floor onto the floor is such a clever solution for dealing with smooth trackless ride floors.

Wish I could afford to go to Japan and experience the real Walt Disney innovations, that Disney was known for. Thanks for the great review Tom!

Tokyo Disney Resort is so impressive. They put every small details in their attractions. Even some of them are not important. Everything is so smooth in TDR, you seldom feel like you walk in another area in a sudden. Can't wait to see the Fantasy Springs. After seeing all the vehicles and Elsa's real animatronic. I know they will build something incredible again.

The Beast transformation is actually just a Pepper's Ghost effect. They obviously used a tiny bit of projection with the magical flourishes, but I'd say this is the most modern way to utilize the effect very well

Tom the Toyko Disney Beauty & The Beast Ride and the Tokyo Disney Resort as a whole are a reminder of how great a Disney attraction and/or domestic theme park can be and shows you what the imagineers can do without the constraints of a limited budget and given a sizeable budget like the Oriental Land Company.

The Beast transition to the Prince...goosebumps! SO well done! We need this at WDW!

In the states, it’s just about building attractions to soak up the crowds and that’s it. If people would stop coming, they would be more thoughtful detailed and elaborate as we saw with Indy. But people keep going and settling for mediocrity. And as long as that is the case and as long as Disney doesn’t have a visionary CEO, that will sadly continue to be the case.

Come for Tom’s passionate rants, stay for the fact that Tokyo built an animatronic Fifi!

I will admit the only reason I watched this video was to see happy, passionate Tom give a review of something I know he absolutely loved. ❤️

My daughter called trackless rides, Roomba rides because she said it felt like riding on a roomba. Her evaluation was that there were too many of them at WDW.

Kinda sad. That Beauty and the Beast ride is on par with the kind of attractions WDW would have if Walt Disney wasn’t hijacked by staunch corporatists. Instead we keep getting closer and closer to Six Flags with each new announcement lately.

I feel like if I were ever to be able to get to Japan and ride that Beauty and the Beast ride I would probably cry. One of my fave movies as a kid. Why can’t the US be at this level 😭😭😭

Remember when you were going to do the cruise with WDWNT fans before it got cancelled due to Covid? You could do the same thing with a trip to Tokyo. :)

Japan was trained by the old Disney guard, and because the Japanese are the way they are, very little has changed concerning how they conduct their business in the traditional Disney style. While in the US, numbers control everything, and if Disney feels it can get away with cutting a corner in customer service, it will because all they seem to care about anymore is optimizing their earnings. So in many ways, this is the Disney Walt built.

"Tokyo Disneyland has the most amazing ride. It puts runaway railway to shame" Disneyland Paris locals: "can we have any of them?.. Half of one?"

I agree Remys is not imersive to me. they don't event have the projections go on the floor. and there is only two physical sets.

I always felt like the Enchanted tale of beauty and the beast ride is missing a Gaston audio animatronic in the village invasion scene. It's such a missed opportunity for a Gaston animatronic. It totally would have taken it up a notch.

One thing that makes it sure Fantasy Springs will live up to its expectations is that they announced to rebuilt their Space Mountain. It's so unreal that after Fanstay Springs we have another thing to look forward; which is so exciting to go in Japan.

My dream would be to visit Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea. Everything seems to be so much better run and planned. However, I don't have the money or language knowledge to be able to ever go, so I enjoy watching videos of the attractions. Easiest way to know that Mickey & Minnie's doesn't meet this quality is to watch the wait times. By afternoon, not even families with little kids want to ride it twice. Queues are significantly shorter.

WDW News. Tom, Oriental Land Company doing Walt's Work. Cheers, Chris Perry.

Don’t Forget DisneySea’s Toy Story Mania. It’s So DIFFERENT. Just Compare the POVs of Florida, California, & Japan.

You’ll be happy to know the Disney Legend who dreamed up TDL’s Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast is also the guy behind Fantasy Springs and many other attractions.

Such great detail in your review. Thank you. I am looking forward to more reviews of your Japan trip.

Great Review Tom, as usual! I'm also impressed with what the OLC has done with the Beauty & The Beast ride and the animatronics they made.

Great review Tom. I'm genuinely more entertained by your honest reviews than many things the parks are doing. I'll probably never have the time to go so I live vicariously through these travels you take us on. Ironic that the park Walt was always against ( Japan, and to be fair Nara Dreamland didn't turn out too well, validating Walt's concerns ) is now the one on top, both of them. The one Walt would be proud of is from the land where he refused to let one be built. I wish he could see it.

Keep doing what you do Tom!! Love these review videos and i know they take a good amount of time to put together. Great work!

Wonderful and detailed review Tom! Your love for the themepark truly shines through. Can you imagine when Fantasy Springs opens?? My goodness. I’m planning to go for the first time there once that opens next year. I need to be there at least 2 weeks from everything I’ve seen online! I can’t believe how much classic IP that’s well deserved gets the love there.

As a VFX artist that made much of this attraction work, including the effects for the Beast transition, I thank you for your kind words. That transition effect is MUCH more intricate than “just” a pepper’s ghost. But who told you about the projected floor? I think we have a mole problem. 😅. With myself and many many other talented folks laid off from WDI don’t expect to see this caliber of attraction again anytime soon from Disney. Maybe never. PS. I was on the Soaring pre show too.

If we ever go back to Disney parks again, it will be Tokyo. Tbh, we can visit Tokyo Disney, get the nostalgic vibes that the American Parks have lost, but with a much higher quality for everything. We would probably break even cost wise, but only b.c of airfare. The cleanliness, maintenence, etc is enough for me to want to go there. When we visit Europe, we will definitely be going to Efteling.

Great review Tom…I bet being on this ride in person is amazing! I can only dream of riding it as I am a huge animatronics fan myself 😊

I actually believe that the beast transformation effect is done by peppers ghost. With a "real" beast animatronic hidden above the stage, not just a projection. A elaborate effect similar to the Jack Sparrow transformation at Shanghai Pirates Ride.

i loved this video. incredibly informative and enjoyable content. hope to go to tokyo disneyland someday

That's cool, I've never noticed the projection mapping on the floor! I'm looking forward to seeing it the next time I fly down to Tokyo Disneyland

why cant be have rides like this in the USA?😥

Excellent Review! Tom I am glad you got to get to Tokyo Disney Resort and had a good time; from videos I have seen of other you tubers just walking around both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea would be amazing experiences unto itself. I remember listening to another youtube channel concerning Tokyo Disney Sea that allegedly an executive at OLC was quoted as saying "we Japanese are not really good at creating something from the beginning. But we are very good at making something better TV set, electronics, cars; you make it we will make it better". To be honest they did when it came to the Tokyo Disneyland Resort with them taking the things that they knew worked well in the domestic Disney parks and making them better. Tokyo puts in expansions and new rides at a pace at this current time every other Disney resort is envious of then making them better.

Very cool thanks Tom. Hopefully I’ll get out there in the next few years.

What an exceptional review!! Made me want to see the Beauty and the Beast attraction Right now!!

Great breakdown of the trackless deficiencies of the US parks, love your channel.

The pessimistic side of me imagines that if this ride was in the US it'd easily have wait times of 1-2 hours on relatively slow days just because people are buying their individual Lightning Lane to bog down the queue to maddening levels.

Thank you Tom for an frank and honest discussion. Sure you and I could have hours long conversations regarding what Disney can and should be doing. Perhaps one day I’ll get to visit Tokyo.

Wow. The parks look gorgeous. Thanks for taking us along! I wanted to do Paris next. Now I'm rethinking that plan.

Oh my gosh, Tom, I was tearing up just hearing you describe that final scene. Beauty and the Beast is actually my favourite and I am now making it my ambition to get over to Tokyo someday so I can experience such a phenomenal park and this ride in particular. Thank you, as always, for sharing your thoughts.

I agree that the animatronics at runaway railway aren’t that great. They kinda look like flat bobble heads with projections. Enchanted tales with Belle looks incredible! The animatronics in that ride also look phenomenal.

The Beast-to-Prince transformation is NOT done by projection mapping; it's our old friend, Pepper's Ghost.

This was awesome. We felt like we were having a cup of thee with you while you are telling us about you trip and the review. So def yes to this concept!

Thanks again Tom. Real honesty. Tell it like it is. Im going to Tokyo.

I'm glad Tokyo keeps making the domestic parks look like Six Flags... Far too many pixie dusters thanking the company for their subpar efforts...

The Oriental Land Company seems to understand that you need to spend money to make money.

That theatre is WOW.....and then the ride. Holy S. Great vid !

Tokyo Disney puts the U.S. parks to shame.

Exciting news thank you as always!😊

OMG! I've been waiting for this review & I'm sitting here feeling SO jealous! I love animatronics- loath screen based attractions.... everything you've talked about is just phenomenal. If only we could get something like that at home! Thank you for the review!!!

I loved this Vlog… probably my favorite of all time. It’s because finally someone gets it why this attraction is my favorite in the world…#1. Tokyo Disney being my home park I get to ride it often. I still tear up and get goosebumps.

I love your passion Tom!

Wish we would get new innovative rides like Avatar was.

Tom, thank you so much for this great video. I have not ridden The Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast yet but I had seen videos of it when it first opened. I cannot comment on your opinions about the attraction specifically since I have not experienced it in person but when you spoke about the quality of The Tokyo Disneyland Resort you took the words right out of my mouth Tom. I have visited the Tokyo Disneyland Resort on three separate vacations so far. I was planning to visit it a fourth time but the blasted covid-19 pandemic delayed my vacation plans unfortunately. I loved Tokyo Disneyland but DisneySea completely blew me away every time that I visited it. Just like you said, the Tokyo Disneyland Resort shows what Imagineering can do if the suits and ties in Burbank would let them. It is disheartening and frustrating (as an American Disney park fan) to see the projects that US Disney theme park fans have to settle for when the parks in Japan always constantly get the best - time and time again. It is nice to finally hear from a Walt Disney World fan and loyal guest about how much better some things are at Tokyo Disneyland. I have said that ever since my first trip to Japan several years ago and then I usually get lambasted online from Disneyland and Walt Disney World fans because they just cannot accept that the Japanese parks might possibly do things better than the US parks. (Note that in almost every one of these discussions that I've had, the Disneyland and/or Walt Disney World fans have never been to Tokyo Disneyland.) It's like they cannot come to grips with the possibility that the "little" Tokyo Disneyland Resort could do things better than "The Original" or "The Biggest." My personal suggestion, as a fellow Disney theme park fan, is that you must, must, absolutely MUST visit the Tokyo Disneyland Resort. There is no other Disney theme park like the ones over there, particularly DisneySea. If you do like I have done and put the money that you would have spent on Disneyland or Walt Disney World vacations and put it towards a Tokyo Disneyland vacation instead, you'd be amazed at how going to Japan is actually possible. As an added bonus, since The Tokyo Disneyland Resort is completely owned by Oriental Land Company, none of your hard earned money will line the pockets of the suits and ties in Burbank. Well...OLC does pay licensing fees to The Walt Disney Company but you get my point - most of your money goes directly to OLC and not to Disney. (Take that Bob Chapek!) In a perfect world, US Disney park fans would demand better and do like I have done and refuse to spend any of their hard earned money at the US parks until the suits and ties in Burbank open their wallets and pay for high quality like what Oriental Land Company has done and is doing in Japan. Sadly though, as shown by my conversations with fellow fans about what is "the best" Disney theme park resort, US Disney theme park fans keep their minds closed and continue to pay for lower quality in record numbers. I keep hoping that one day more US fans will get to visit the Japanese parks, open their eyes, wake up to the fact that they have been paying more for lower quality for a long time, and demand better. So far, hope is all that I have in that regard. Thank you Tom for doing your best to show US Disney park fans what they are missing out on. Hopefully people will open their minds and demand better from the suits and ties in Burbank. Since you have a very public forum Tom, your words and opinions carry way more weight than mine and hopefully will make a difference. I'm just a lowly Disney fan in California.

“…. The floating Beast carcass.” 😂 Great video.. I did not know how much WDW lacked.

“Everything Runaway Railway isn’t!” You mean, like, visually attractive, respectful of its Disney source material, and based, not forcibly, on an IP the guests actually LIKE? 😄

I love they started the ride with the show stopping number. what a banger of an opening to a ride!

Tom - Amazing review, well done.

My family really loves Mickey's runaway railway. The look is so unique. I'm very much looking forward to it opening next year in Toon Town.

"What do you mean Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan." - Marty Mcfly

I am looking forward to riding Mickey's Runway Railway for the first time when finished in Disneyland. I hope the floors will be more in keeping with the rest of the ride. Watching videos on RU-vid, it always bothers me to see the water flowing on the walls and not the floor.

One of my theatre professors who works for tokyo disney and disneyland paris on assignment actually worked on the mickey magic show from the very beginning concept of it. It was so awesome to hear all of the technical aspects and old concept drawings of the stage and set pieces that were going to be and are currently in the show. Cant wait to go see the show someday and see what my professor was talking about in real life

I had seen this featured on another RU-vid channel a while back but I certainly enjoyed your take on what I had already come to the conclusion... I think Walt would be most pleased with Tokyo Disney, I would even go on to say his spirit resides there when it comes to the love and care of the Legacy of Walter E Disney... I don't have a bucket list, but I know I will someday go to this magical place in Japan.

Looks good!

I live here in Japan and went to TDL earlier this month and I can say, as a person who doesn't care about Beauty and the Beast this ride was the best Disney ride hands down. The Castle was amazing to look at and the pre show room really does a good job in getting you into the world that you are about to enter.

I miss more trees in the MK New Fantasyland, as showed in the first renditions of the land. In Tokyo, it seems no problem with that.

Absolutely the most beauful I've ever seen in all the attractions. 😮😍💗 My mouth dropped when I saw the crisp and clear visual of the beast transforing into the prince. I was blown! 😯

great commentary

I hope to experience that ride one day. Maybe the American audience needs something that we would find 'a weird ride' something fresh, something we wouldn't expect. Looking forward to the vlog!

“Almost in tears?!” I’m blubbering just watching your RECAP! 🥹

Very nice vlog

Amazing can’t wait to see it and your enthusiasm is infectious Tom!

I hope to visit Tokyo Disney in the fall of 2023. I can't wait to experience the parks there. I know I will love it.

Absolutely fabulous!!!

Japan has announced they are fully opening up to tourism on October 11. If true Me my wife and pops are planning to go middle of May after golden week for a 4 day trip to TDR (have not been since the opening of soarin). This ride has me so excited to see and with the yen at 144 we have been buying up a bunch for this trip. Also going to finally go to Fuji-Q highlands which has been a bucket list park for a long time.

We shouldn’t have to go to all the way to Japan to appreciate Disney technology and other so called Disney magic. It should be here in the US. Disneyworld should be the crown jewel of all the Disney parks. But unfortunately it’s not. Gonna have to go to Japan one day god willing I guess. Thanks Tom for the info and the video.

I just don’t understand why the US parks are so bad, especially WDW. Living here in FL and seeing all this tourism I get frustrated with why we are not as good as the parks outside of the US.

They need to copy this to WDW expansion which is of course all ‘Blue Sky’😕

I am totally blown away. So amazing.

9:12 this room makes me think of the minnie's bow toons shorts that either were or still are on disney junior

When I watched the on-ride POVs, I was underwhelmed, even though I knew it would be more impressive in person. Now that I understand that so many of those effects are real props instead of screens and the floors are projection-mapped, it is overwhelming.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth are tied for my favourite theme park attractions anywhere in the world. Considering that, the Beauty and the Beast ride, the Jr. Woodchucks restaurant, Dear Danny merchandise, etc. I have the feeling that the Oriental Land Co. trust the Disney brand more than the Walt Disney Company Ltd. does. They are licensing the Disney brand and giving it their all, whereas Walt Disney Company Ltd. is just trying anything but Disney, remaking classic films, cheaping out, buying new IP, whatever. They'd never even think to do 20,000 Leagues stateside.

That looked very familiar to me. There is a Beauty and the Beast stage show at the Hollywood Studio Park in Orlando. I remember those cupboards and plates and dancing spoons were once part of the live stage show. I wondered what happened to them.

Galaxy’s Edge saved both American parks. Disney would be dead over here without the Star Wars rides

It’s a cultural thing… Japan has a culture of fine-tuning details. Little things matter to them that are overlooked in the USA.

28:55 Tom starts channelling Rich Evans.

Great review! When will the Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan additions be completed?

Beauty and the Beast looks amazing! I wish there was a Gaston animatronic.

Tom great review

Oh i would love this ride! Beauty and the Beast! I would be in tears.

Literally seeing Tom practically on the verge of tears talking about how not only the animatronics are just plain awesome, but also getting excited about human versions of the servants AS animatronics for literally the first time makes me sooo happy and excited!!! Thank you sir! It really does need to be said that yeah Disney CAN make greatness, but choose not too, makes me so angry. "Paycheck" can just go hide up a tree.

To me it's an insult that we can't get the level of detail and technology/AA's in the US parks that some of the foreign parks get. We know what Disney is capable of but what they give us here get's whittled down by the pencil pushers. Only recent exception is ROTR. Frustrating.

The elephant in the room is that Fifi the Maid can only exist in Tokyo because the sensibilities of too many Americans would cry bloody murder to see an attractive character in animatronic form. It’s the reason Clarice the Chipmunk is such a popular character there, while she’s been so altered from her classic appearance in her current incarnation.