Introduction
Hello and howdy once again everyone!
I’ve long wanted to start posting on here but just haven’t had the time and energy for a while. Now, I’m finally committing to getting stuff down on the page and starting with a park-wide refresh of my least favorite Disney Park that I have visited, Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Despite the efforts of TWDC in the last decade, I feel like so much of Hollywood Studios is still languishing and stuck in limbo. Animation courtyard and the former Muppets Courtyard are getting re-dos of various sizes, sure. But, this is a park where Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage still exists. The front half of the Park, namely Echo Lake, needs new blood desperately, and even the new expansions built over the last decade already need some freshening up.
Before I hop right on to my concepts for the redone park, I want a post however to define a couple of very important things going forward, affecting also what I envision for the later re-dos of the other parks. Let’s start with the most important question to be asked for this park:
What is Disney’s Hollywood Studios?
Following the additions of Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Hollywood Studios was no longer clinging on to the idea of the park as a working studio, but instead as a park where guests can enter the worlds of the movies that Walt Disney Pictures (and its acquired subsidiaries) have produced. I do plan on keeping the park to this overall theme. Despite this, the name Disney’s Hollywood Studios just doesn’t fit as well into this vision for the park. However, I argue that the name is too iconic to be replaced at this juncture. Almost everyone refers to the park as “The Studios”, despite it not have been a working studio since long ago. Sure, we could pull a Disney Adventure World and give the park a more all-encompassing name to fit the many realms guests will explore during their day, but I’m going to go a different way.
Instead of removing all references to the “Studios” entirely, I want our hub and entry areas to lean even further into the aesthetic and vision for the original park. Make Hollywood Boulevard and the surrounding areas into even bigger tributes to the people and technology behind the film worlds we see in the rest of the park. This will include a number of new additions to the park’s original remaining areas, as well as a re-imagining of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, which I will go over in the next post. However, the park is still going to have a much larger IP focus. Let’s talk about that.
My Approach to IP
How do we decide which IP belongs in which park? With the additions of Cars in Magic Kingdom and Guardians of the Galaxy in Epcot, the thematic line has been blurred somewhat. I feel that overall, though, Hollywood Studios has long been the dumping ground for whatever IP doesn’t make a good obvious fit for the other three parks. Somewhat out of necessity, the new all-encompassing theme for the park allows for this and that's basically how I will initiall be choosing properties for expansions. However, some IP will be omitted from this redo, and some IP attractions will be redone and replaced. This park-wide refresh, as well as the re-dos of the other parks, will being doing major work to address one of my major gripes with the Disney parks a a whole: doubling up on IPs. Basically, no more Little Mermaid show in a different park from the ride, and no more Toy Story shooting gallery attraction in a different park from the entire Toy Story Land. The one exception to this rule will be Mickey and friends, who are allowed to have some presence in every park. Each park needs to truly have its own identity, and sharing IPs across parks muddles these identities.
Another consideration is the age range appeal for these IPs. I've long seen Hollywood Studios as Disney's attempt to rival Universal's studio park, both in purpose as well as relative intensity From Great Movie Ride to Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the Studios has not been afraid to go more mature in terms of themes as well as thrills. However, recent expansions such as Toy Story Land have introduced a lot more for families and small children to do in the park, and overall I do want a good mix of attractions for all age ranges. A lot of the additions I plan are for dark rides, shows, and flat rides for all ages. There is still potential for franchises such as Alien to have a presence here, but I do think that 'scary' attractions have to come secondary. Studios is still arguably the most intense Disney park in terms of attarctions, so much so that my grandparents fully skipped it on their last trip, having very little they could do there! While they may have wanted to compete with Uni down the road in terms of thrills and chills before, it is at the end of the day still Disney's Hollywood Studios, and the park should be majorly accessiIble for young and old alike.
With that said, I have another band-aid to rip off. As an added challenge for myself, and as a attempt to make this redo more “realistic”, two IPS will NOT be major components: Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Muppets.
Do I hate these properties? Heavens no! I’ve DREAMED of Roger and the Muppets having an even bigger presence in the parks. However, in a realistic sense, I think the ship has sailed on these two properties being major draws for this park in this era. Rock ‘N’ Roller coaster will still gain its Electric Mayhem overlay, but don’t expect any NEW (hint) attractions related to either franchise.
Additionally, although I will reverse course on some decisions made this decade (Dinosaur will remain in my hypothetical Animal Kingdom redo for instance), Muppet-Vision 3D will NOT remain in its current location (hint again). Monsters Inc.’s Monstropolis will still rise in the home of the former courtyard.
With all of that said, I hope to return later this week to present Hollywood Boulevard to y’all. Thank you for reading my first armchair Imagineering post of hopefully many!
