DHS Monster Inc Land Coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios

[MagicEye99]

I hear you my only question is: where?

As far as I can see, Hollywood Studios is probably the most landlocked park out of the current 4.
Theres a few places you can go but a lot of it is backstage that needs to be moved somewhere and thats not cheap either.

It's pretty interesting when you step back and think about why it might be so landlocked, relative to the other parks. The park was purpose built as a working studio theme park - my belief is that the original Imagineers on the project probably did not anticipate it being anything other than that (but maybe they did, idk). Therefore, they felt comfortable keeping the park within its original borders as much as possible, even to the point where backstage, offices, etc. were built nearly on top of it. So to your point, they're in a pickle.

 

[lazyboy97o]

It's pretty interesting when you step back and think about why it might be so landlocked, relative to the other parks. The park was purpose built as a working studio theme park - my belief is that the original Imagineers on the project probably did not anticipate it being anything other than that (but maybe they did, idk). Therefore, they felt comfortable keeping the park within its original borders as much as possible, even to the point where backstage, offices, etc. were built nearly on top of it. So to your point, they're in a pickle.

In the case of the Feature Animation building the building and some of its office space was also part of the theme park experience.

 

[doctornick]

Move the functions of the building I outlined in blue to the location of the parking deck and the entire area in red is opened up for expansion.

You could also move it to backstage next to the parade building or elsewhere to the south beyond Galaxy's Edge or Muppets, but this is just for illustration. Or you could build it on the far side of World Drive which is "suitable for building" land and put in a walkway over the road.

View attachment 812426

Or to piggie back on my own post, if they really want to do long term planning, they could move back of house stuff to the other side of World Drive which would free up not only backstage but allow flexibility in the future to use some of the parking adjacent to the park to the South or Southeast for future expansion. The land across World Drive is considered "suitable for development" and could be used more easily and cheaply than a lot of the undeveloped land on the WDW property. But it is not ideal for any in park expansion given the large roadway in between.

So something like this where the orange building and red parking deck move are replaced across the road. the Blue is an elevated walkway backstage for CM to get from parking into the park. all the area in yellow then can be used for expansion.

 

[marni1971]

When they were going to do Star Wars there was Indy going to close or stay? I heard multiple things and was never sure.

2 proposals ; one to remove Indy and the other to go behind it via the service road

 

[erasure fan1]

It's being converted into a Pigs in Space RPG

Don't you toy with my emotions!

 

[LSLS]

Well, unfortunately that gets thrown around. Here's what one of our resident muppet haters says

So for some, they'll find any reason to get rid of them.

Boy, wait til this guy hears about Marvel movies.....

 

[Coaster Lover]

I know it was joked about, but any chance the starcruiser building could be adapted into office space?

Most people who work in an office want (demand?) windows/natural light. It wouldn't be cheap/easy to add windows to a windowless building.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Most people who work in an office want (demand?) windows/natural light. It wouldn't be cheap/easy to add windows to a windowless building.

It’s not a windowless building. There’s just a wall that separated the rooms from the windows.

 

[Figments Friend]

Gotta be the AC area.
Such a wasteland now, with a lot of empty space.
We all know at this point how much could be developed back there….we have talked about it for years here on this very Forum.

Would also make a lot more sense to utilize that huge lot of land for not just this proposed project, but for future expansion in the years to come.
Cannot really do that kind of expansion with the narrow spacing over in the Muppets area.


-

 

[cjkeating]

It’s not a windowless building. There’s just a wall that separated the rooms from the windows.

But converting the Starcruiser to offices is highly impractical on so many levels.

Quicker/cheaper/easier to just get some trailers in.

 

[Tha Realest]

Most people who work in an office want (demand?) windows/natural light. It wouldn't be cheap/easy to add windows to a windowless building.

If it’s good enough for guests, it’s good enough for them.

 

[roj2323]

Isn't one of those literrally just the walkway to Fantasmic, idk what kind of ride can fit there. The Star Wars spot can pretty much exclusively be used for Star Wars stuff which imo the park could use but you get my point I'm sure. Then we have the area where they have a good portion of the Indiana Jones show so we would have to scrap the last part of the show. And the backstage stuff which I agree is a good expansion plot but like I said, rebuilding offices is expensive and not immediately financially "viable"

Having worked at fantastic for nearly 6 months as a custodian, I can speak to the space available. To keep it brief, while there's a lot of room dedicated to crowd control, There's still more than enough room, particularly behind theater of the stars to build something the size of Star tours or tower of terror.

If they use the airspace above the walkways they could easily put a fairly significant roller coaster in the space as well. Keep in mind that this space was originally allocated for an attraction that was never built. Additionally there has been talk off and on for years that theater of the stars would be replaced with something else but shows crew (I forget the actual name of the department) took that threat seriously and this was about the same time that the special events and unique holiday shows started popping up in 2014ish in TOT's. Ultimately I don't think the theater will go away entirely but there is a lot of real estate dedicated to it that could be reconfigured to use the Highland ave. / Perimeter road area to get to the field behind TOT's. That said, This area absolutely will not be used for Monsters Inc so I'm not sure why it's being discussed.

 

[roj2323]

I present the following as a way to reenforce the idea that realistically Animation Courtyard is the most likely candidate.
View attachment 808336
This deletes The little Mermaid theater but keeps the One Man's Dream theater allowing for Laugh floor to potentially be relocated there.

This configuration would also maintain the office building but if they deleted the office building they could keep everything inline and open up a potential corridor connection to Coaster Courtyard later on. I'm not however convinced that they want to remove the office tower as the last time I was in there it was still actively being used by park management and there's already a lack of office space around the park due to the office deletions the Toy Story addition caused.

View attachment 808340

This still makes the most sense after 180+ pages of discussion. It's the only area that fits the imagineering drawings without major reconfiguration or flat out bulldozing everything. This limits the guest areas demo to Mermaid and allows for a lot of existing infrastructure to be reused such as the massive bathrooms to the left of Animation Courtyard which a lot of people don't even know are there because they are hidden behind mermaid by one man's dream exit. Additionally they would be able to keep the front half of the Animation building including the gift shop and entry cue areas. This stuff would obviously have a major overhaul but even just saving the steel structure would reduce the project cost by millions.

 

[peter11435]

This still makes the most sense after 180+ pages of discussion. It's the only area that fits the imagineering drawings without major reconfiguration or flat out bulldozing everything. This limits the guest areas demo to Mermaid and allows for a lot of existing infrastructure to be reused such as the massive bathrooms to the left of Animation Courtyard which a lot of people don't even know are there because they are hidden behind mermaid by one man's dream exit. Additionally they would be able to keep the front half of the Animation building including the gift shop and entry cue areas. This stuff would obviously have a major overhaul but even just saving the steel structure would reduce the project cost by millions.

You’re demolishing the wrong building

 

[ToTBellHop]

They’re not removing Mermaid a few months after opening a new show. C’mon.

 

[doctornick]

They’re not removing Mermaid a few months after opening a new show. C’mon.

On that note, can we assume One Man’s Dream is safe for the time being?

 

[doctornick]

Additionally there has been talk off and on for years that theater of the stars would be replaced with something else but shows crew (I forget the actual name of the department) took that threat seriously and this was about the same time that the special events and unique holiday shows started popping up in 2014ish in TOT's. Ultimately I don't think the theater will go away entirely but there is a lot of real estate dedicated to it that could be reconfigured to use the Highland ave. / Perimeter road area to get to the field behind TOT's. That said, This area absolutely will not be used for Monsters Inc so I'm not sure why it's being discussed.

It was brought up because some have suggested that Disney “needs” to use the Muppets footprint in the short term because there is little other space in the park to use for any additions.

I brought it up to illustrate that there is literal designated “expansion pads” in the park available that could be used before Muppets has to be looked at as a site for any build.

 

[Casper Gutman]

They’re not removing Mermaid a few months after opening a new show. C’mon.

If the garbage Mermaid show, which should have closed forever in 1993, pushes out the excellent Muppets 3D (the second time the show will have pushed out a Muppets show), it’s a mind-boggling indictment of Disney’s judgement.

Disney can do excellent shows - Lion King, Nemo, Indy, etc are all great. But the survival of the profoundly mediocre Mermaid and Beast shows (and, to be fair, the much better Indy show) is incomprehensible. To give context for the attractions age, The day after Mermaid debuted, President George H W Bush vomited on the Japanese Prime Minister. These shows, which barely rise above the level of something you’d see at a local park, have outlived The Great Movie Ride, World of Motion, Horizons, Journey into Imagination, Mr Toad’s Wild Ride and a bunch of other, vastly superior attractions.

Fans understandably focus on Disney’s removal of beloved rides, but equally egregious is letting mediocre attractions fester long beyond any reasonable sell-by date. Mermaid, Beast, the husk of Animation, Mission: Space, the Figment zombie - all should be barely remembered footnotes. Since Animal Kingdom opened, Disney has given very little evidence that they can competently operate a theme park.

 

[Moth]

To Disney, The Little Mermaid is more 'Disney' and 'Timeless' than an acquisition that wasn't done by The Holy God Emperor of Disney That Banished The Vile Eisner and Chapek From This Holy Realm.

A lot of the stuff they've been replacing has been Eisner-era stuff. Just food for thought.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

A lot of the stuff they've been replacing has been Eisner-era stuff. Just food for thought.

It was so close to his end I actually thought Disney bought muppets under Iger!