Drawn that way

Disney’s Hollywood Studios has always been a friend to Roger Rabbit and the fountain of entertainment known as Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This is especially true of the early years of the park, then known as Disney-MGM Studios, which opened in 1989, just a year after the film had been released. In those days, guests could visit the recreated warehouse from the film which housed Marvin ACME’s Gagworks. Inside were boxes crates filled with an assortment of toon sound effects, cutout characters for family photographs and sight gags that filled every shelf and hung from the rafters. Vehicles from the movie, including the nefarious Dip Mobile and the weasels’ Toon Patrol truck, could also be found parked in the warehouse.

The truck, a black Dodge Humpback emblazoned with the symbol of the City of Los Angeles, was the means of transportation for the five weasels of the Toon Patrol, as well as means of transferring ‘criminal’ toons into the custody of Judge Doom. While the weasels, who were modeled after the animated weasels featured in the Disney short The Wind in the Willows, met their maker in the final scenes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Toon Patrol paddy wagon found a second life after the shuttering of ACME Gagworks area of the Studios.

Today this toon transport can still be found at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, along with a large assortment of other vehicles from film and Disney theme park history, in the Backlot Express restaurant. Just venture to the covered patio dining area and you’ll find the Toon Patrol, still looking for out of control toons.