The Great Movie Ride

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The Great Movie Ride
Disney-MGM Studios
Land Hollywood Boulevard
Designer Walt Disney Imagineering
Attraction type Dark Ride
Theme Motion Picture History
Opening date May 1, 1989
Vehicle type Traveling Theatre
Vehicle capacity 70
Ride duration 22 minutes
Length 1928 ft (587.7 m)
Audio-animatronics 59

Must transfer from wheelchair.Assistive listening is available.

The Great Movie Ride is an attraction at Walt Disney World's Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It is a dark ride which takes the guest through scenes taken from famous movies.

The ride is located inside a recreation of the famous Hollywood landmark, Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The facade was the symbol of the park until 2001 when a giant replica of Sorcerer Mickey's hat was built in front of the facade. Since then, the hat has served as the park's symbol. (It should be noted that the design of the theater is based on Grauman's Chinese Theatre. However, as the Walt Disney Company did not obtain permission to use the name 'Grauman' the proper name of the building is simply 'The Chinese Theatre'.)

Contents

[edit] The Queuing Area

The entry line winds through a Grauman's-styled lobby, with occasional display cases containing movie costumes, props, and set pieces. The queue then zig-zags through a small theater, where persons in line are shown a series of condensed trailers for various famous films. There the line ends, and riders walk into a 'studio' area to board waiting 'cars'.

[edit] Notable Props Currently Residing in the Queue

[edit] Props that Formerly Resided in the Queue

[edit] Movie Trailers Shown in Queue

[edit] The dark ride

Beginning of the dark ride.
Beginning of the dark ride.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

After a brief spiel from the guide, the cars drive through various movie scene recreations/vignettes populated by audio-animatronic figures.

During the course of the attraction the ride vehicle (which uses the same "traveling theatre" system used by Ellen's Energy Adventure, slightly smaller with an open cab in front for the tour guide to stand and drive) is "hijacked" by a gangster named Mugsy during a gun fight with rival gangsters or a western movie bandit who is in the middle of a bank robbery. The hijacker then takes over as vehicle through several scenes until a cursed jewel catches their eye and attempts to steal the large jewel mounted on an ancient tomb. A robed figure seen protecting the tomb, orders the hijacker to stop. When the hijacker refuses, he or she vanishes in a puff of smoke, while the robed figure removes the robe, turning out to be the original tour guide. The tour guide returns showing that anything can happen in the movies. The tour guide then continues on with the tour.

If crowds are light, and only one loading gate is being used, the hijacking will normally always occur in the "gangster movie" scene; if both loading gates are used (even for only some loading cycles), the vehicle at the front loading gate will be hijacked in the "western" scene, while the one at the rear loading gate will be hijacked in the "gangster movie" scene. If both scenarios are running, and guests are willing to wait, cast members can honor polite requests for the "western hijacking" scenario.

If both gates are being used, the guide in the first set of cars will have dialogue in the Wizard of Oz scene.

[edit] Films featured in the dark ride portion

Picture from the original Footlight Parade display on the ride.
Picture from the original Footlight Parade display on the ride.
Picture from the currentFootlight Parade display on the ride.
Picture from the currentFootlight Parade display on the ride.

The Great Movie Ride has had some minor modifications worth noting. The first sequence of the ride, Footlight Parade, was plagued with engineering and technical problems from the beginning. When the ride was newly opened, the Footlight Parade segment was much different than it is today. The entire portion following the neon lighted entrance was fleshed out. All the walls leading up to, around, and beyond the cake were painted in art deco style patterns as seen in the "By A Waterfall". Approximately 3 "diving boards" with 3 (still) animatronic dancers wearing capes were perched on the right hand side of the wall as you enter the ride segment. The 5 tiered "cake" was prominently displayed at a left hand turn. It was in the open air illuminated with an array of animated lights. During this pass through the Footlight Parade segment, you hear a "loop" of "By A Waterfall" lasting approximately 40 seconds as bubbles fall from the ceiling.

For approximately the first year, the "cake" actually rotated and was adorned with water jets as seen in the "By A Waterfall" song number in Footlight Parade. Allegedly, the mechanism which allowed the rotating "cake" to turn was constantly breaking down which was the cause of constant repairs and downtime. In addition, the water pumps would constantly fail, flooding the ride path. Park operations believed it was much cheaper and less problematic to leave the "cake" in place with lighting effects used to provide what imagineers terms as ‘kinetics’ to the segment. And, this is what you find today.

Today, this segment is still the "opening act" of The Great Movie Ride, but significantly toned down. The guests now enter a segment with its lighting significantly diminished. The outer walls are dark with practically no art deco recreations from the movie set. The "diving boards" have been replaced with art deco style wall sconces. Instead, guests pass through a deco inspired archway to find themselves facing a large scrim-lined proscenium decorated with grey/blue clouds and remnants of the art deco set designs. Throughout the segment, 3 large rotating projections of Busby Berkeley style kaleidoscope dance sequences appear on the scrim (from By A Waterfall, 42nd Street, and Shadow Waltz). These disappear to expose the “cake”, which is behind the scrim, and is simultaneously illuminated with washes of light and reflective water effects. The caped dancers on diving boards are now located to the far left of the "cake" behind the scrim. The art deco style wall panels still reside behind the "cake". The song “loop” and bubbles remain.

[edit] The finale

At the end, the cars line up in a large, dark theater where a compilation of famous movie scenes & lines is shown for about 2-3 minutes. The cars then exit the theater, returning to the 'studio' area where passengers disembark.

[edit] Some films featured in the finale movie

[edit] Attraction facts

  • Grand Opening: May 1, 1989 (Opened with Disney-MGM Studios)
  • Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering
  • Show Length: 22 Minutes
  • Track Length: 1,928 feet
  • Ride System: Interactive show scene dark ride system
  • Audio-Animatronics®: 59 figures

[edit] Trivia

  • The Great Movie Ride was originally going to feature a segment based on Gone with the Wind, however MGM required Disney to file a separate contract to use the movie in particular. Disney had already done this with The Wizard of Oz, so the segment was removed due to excessive added expense.
  • Alien appears in the Great Movie Ride though it was released by 20th Century Fox rather than MGM. Disney had acquired the rights to use Alien from Fox several years earlier for a planned ride at Disneyland that was based on the movie. While the ride was canceled, the overall concept later morphed into The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, though ultimately the creature from Alien was not used on the basis that it was "too scary".

[edit] Other parks

The Great Movie Ride directly inspired the creation of the Disney-MGM Studios. In an Imagineering book, it was revealed that the Great Movie Ride was actually going to be the main attraction in a showbusiness themed pavilion at Epcot, but newly assigned Disney CEO Michael Eisner and WDI president Marty Sklar decided the idea was strong enough to lead an entire new theme park. The idea for the ride was expanded, and the Disney-MGM Studios went into official development.

Rumors have circulated in recent years of replicating the attraction at several Disney theme parks around the world. The Great Movie Ride was going to be the main attraction in the plans for the Disney-MGM Studios Paris theme park, which was scrapped due to the financial difficulties of the Disneyland Resort Paris. Years later when the resort began making profits, a showbusiness themed theme park went into development again, and the Walt Disney Studios opened in 2002, although minus the Great Movie Ride. The ride was also due to be installed at Disney's California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort, but budget cuts in the original development planning forced the ride's projected money to be spent on new and original attractions.

When Jim Henson's MuppetVision 3D attraction opened at the Disney-MGM Studios two years after the park's opening, the area surrounding the attraction was going to be developed into a Muppets-themed zone, with another attraction in the area being The Great Muppet Ride, featuring Muppets such as Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy re-enacting scenes from famous movies. Again, budget cuts at the stalling theme park forced the idea for a Muppets land to be scrapped, along with the Great Muppet Ride.

[edit] External links

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