YMMV / Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway

• Awesome Music:
  • The main theme song, "Nothing Can Stop Us Now", is a jaunty and cheerful Dixieland jazz piece that perfectly fits the 1920s-30s aesthetic of the ride.
  • In keeping with its theme of a Mickey-themed historical exhibit, the Disneyland version's queue features a variety of Mickey-themed music from the 2013 series' composer, Christopher Willis. In addition to tracks lifted from the shorts themselves, there's also new arrangements of other pieces, like "Steamboat Bill", "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo", "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", the Mickey Mouse March, both the theme song and the Hot Dog Dance from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and (in a very deep cut) "My, What a Happy Day" from "Mickey and the Beanstalk"!
• Broken Base:
  • Fans are divided on the ride being based on Mickey Mouse (2013). Many are happy to see the new shorts represented in the parks, especially given how well-regarded they are (on top of Disney's television shows being underrepresented), while others view it as a misguided decision that would date the ride in the long ride, arguing that it would've been wiser to use the usual incarnations from the Classic Disney Shorts as the basis instead due to those versions being more recognizable and "timeless".
  • The heavy reliance on projections and screens. Some argue it makes sense for this attraction and enhances the feeling of it being in a cartoon world, which is the point of the ride, while others find it to be cheap and feel it makes the ride less immersive than if they used entirely physical sets and audio-animatronics.
• I Knew It!: While the decision to base it off of the 2010s shorts was not expected, many fans have predicted that The Great Movie Ride would be replaced by a Mickey Mouse attraction for years before the announcement of the ride.
• Improved Second Attempt: The ride's second incarnation at Disneyland is widely regarded to be better than the original Hollywood Studios version. This comes down to the Disneyland version being in a separate show building, unlike the Hollywood Studios version (which reuses The Great Movie Ride's show building), which allows for better effects and more elaborate sets since it no longer has to work around the limits of a previous attraction. The queue area is also regarded as being superior, as unlike Hollywood Studios' queue, which reuses GMR's queue with some light Mickey flourishes, Disneyland's version is an elaborate exhibit celebrating Mickey Mouse's history that — true to the shorts the ride is based on — contains a lot of Mythology Gags to both Mickey and Disney-related works.
• Replacement Scrappy: Many Disney Hollywood Studios fans view it as this to The Great Movie Ride. It didn't help that The Great Movie Ride was the only ride to remain from the park's opening day (giving it a Sacred Cow status amongst fans), nor does it help that four years before its closing, there was newfound hope for the ride's future, as Disney and Turner Classic Movies (the ride's then-new sponsor) would give the ride a refurbishment and a much-needed update after years of neglect, making the ride's closure come off as a cruel Yank the Dog's Chain for fans of the attraction. Even those who love the attraction on its own merits have argued that it would've been better off elsewhere in the park (Animation Courtyard being a popular contender due to its animation-based theme) instead of replacing The Great Movie Ride.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • In the original ride at Hollywood Studios, it was intended for Mickey's car to crash into the track switch, causing the tracks to switch and the train to decouple and derail from the locomotive. However, the track switch activates several seconds after Mickey's car hits it, causing the intended effect to fall apart. This issue would be fixed in Disneyland's version thanks to the beginning sequence being slightly longer, allowing the car to hit the track switch and for the switch to activate at the intended time.
  • The bird sitting in the train barn's loft at the end of the ride sometimes has issues with its shadow being out of sync.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To The Great Movie Ride as a trackless dark ride that immerses guests in another world.
  • Also the whole idea of you walking into a crazy cartoon makes this a Lighter and Softer version of Bendy and the Ink Machine. This is especially true when you walk through the railroad station.
• Tear Jerker: Similar to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh marking the final time Paul Winchell was able to voice Tigger, this attraction is the very last time Russi Taylor was able to voice Minnie Mouse. ^note The "Vacation Fun" cartoon shown at "Mickey Shorts Theater" contains no credits, meaning that Minnie was either voiced by another unidentified actress or Russi Taylor was dying while recording her lines for that short, resulting in Minnie sounding less energetic. This makes the scene where Mickey and Minnie are singing "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" during the ride's finale very bittersweet, especially knowing that she passed away ten years after her husband Wayne Allwine, who himself voiced Mickey for 32 years from 1977 until his death in 2009.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Although an attraction based on Mickey Mouse was far from unexpected and had been rumored for years, nobody had expected the ride to use the Paul Rudish incarnations of Mickey and the gang, especially since Disney tends to use the more iconic and recognizable portrayal of the gang from the Classic Disney Shorts when representing them in the parks.
  • Not in the ride proper, but one of the posters in Disneyland's queue features a High School Musical 3: Senior Year parody that features, much to the surprise of fans, Max and his friends (plus Roxanne and Stacey) from A Goofy Movie. The presence of Max's supporting cast is especially a surprise, given that, unlike Max, they are barely acknowledged in most Mickey Mouse media.
  • The fictional candies on display at the concessions counter in the Disneyland version's queue each reference one of Disney's animated works, and some of them are very deep cuts. Seriously, when was the last time you saw Witch Hazel (not that one) or the Laugh-O-Grams referenced in the Disney parks?
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Even people who still feel the sting of The Great Movie Ride closing will admit that its replacement displays some of the finest implementation of Disney's theme park technology to create a living cartoon with amazing setpieces.