March 3, 2025
Toontown Online
Toontown Online is a game I hold very dear to my heart. This was an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game developed by Disney Interactive and published by The Walt Disney Corporation. In Toontown Online, you play as a Toon, an animal species of your choosing. The main premise of the game is to fight Cogs, who take the form of robots depicting a number of corporate stereotypes. These stereotypes are unique to each Cog, with the Bossbots varying from the Flunky to The Big Cheese, with only the Chief Executive Officer above them. These Cogs get larger and more powerful as you go up the chain, with each of the four types of Cogs being stylized around their theme. The four types are Bossbots, Lawbots, Cashbots, and Sellbots. The Toons fight these Cogs by using Gags. These Gags can be throwing a pie, playing a trumpet, or even dropping an anvil.
While I played this game as a child, I was more focused on the gameplay than the overall story and themes. The gameplay is captivating, being an MMO with long roads to gaining new Gags and raising your Laff Points (Health), but this is no longer the main focus of my admiration for this game. The story of Toontown is relatively shallow, summed up by the Toontown Download Intro: “Welcome to the place Toons call home. Sadly, trouble is brewing in Toontown. … Robot Cogs are trying to take over and put an end to all Toons’ fun.” This, along with the stereotypes that define the Cogs, makes it clear that a picture is being painted. The Cogs are clearly adults, more specifically businessmen, and the Toons are children.
With this picture in mind, this silly MMO gets a lot more interesting. This constant assault on Toontown by the Cogs is a battle for childhood. The players, Toons, aren’t just fighting Cogs; they’re fighting the idea of growing up. This is a place for you to forget about your real-life struggles and cling on to your childhood whimsy. This really resonated with me once I grew up a bit and reflected on my experiences with this game. Fighting the idea of “growing up” and keeping hold of your inner child is intoxicating. I can’t help but think back to this game and bathe in the nostalgia, remembering my time in the world of Toontown. That’s when I realized, every time without fail, what this game was trying to tell me: You don’t have to grow up.
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