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DHS Disney Animation-Inspired Experience Coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios

FerretAfros

FerretAfros

Well-Known Member
LSLS said:
OOF, that bottleneck looks awful for Little Mermaid. Obviously not a ton they can do with it, but hopefully they can get that area at least opened sooner rather than later.
Click to expand...
These images should be mandatory viewing every time somebody suggests a small refurbishment is in preparation for a larger project scheduled for later.

bioreconstruct-DHS-Animation-Feb-27.jpeg


The Mermaid theater sat closed to guests for 62 months, from March 2020 to May 2026. A mere 4 months after reopening, they walled off the theater's exit (and main entrance, for that matter) so they could repave the courtyard. That work could have been done at any point in the 5+ years prior, but they decided to wait until after the show had reopened for it to begin.

bioreconstruct-DHS-Animation-Feb-27-1.jpeg


Even if they needed to maintain access to Launch Bay while the work began, it's far easier to deal with a steady trickle of guests to the exhibit, than the surges of hundreds of guests each time the show lets out. This approach also likely means that the new show will need to close temporarily to allow the pavement closest to the building to be replaced to match the rest of the courtyard, when that strip of work could have easily been done prior to the show's opening.

bioreconstruct-DHS-Animation-Feb-27-3.jpeg


But they didn't consider the impacts of the courtyard work prior to the show's opening, because the courtyard overhaul was tied to the animation exhibit, which in turn likely wasn't approved until it was too late to minimize impacts on the brand new show. It's clear they weren't saving this area for some ideal future development; they were flying by the seat of their pants and reacting to crisis du jour instead of having a proactive vision for what the park should become.

It's why guestflow in Epcot was a mess for 5 years while they changed their mind on what to build. It's why projects like Tron, Ratatouille, and the Monsters Inc coaster are all plopped in place instead of being integrated into their surroundings. It's why DAK's Tropical Americas is getting rides with only tenuous connections to the region's animals while there are rumors of an Emperor's New Groove ride being shoehorned into MK's villains land. Disney still gets a lot of the granular stuff right, but the overall master planning of growth and development is a mess.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
FerretAfros said:
But they didn't consider the impacts of the courtyard work prior to the show's opening, because the courtyard overhaul was tied to the animation exhibit, which in turn likely wasn't approved until it was too late to minimize impacts on the brand new show. It's clear they weren't saving this area for some ideal future development; they were flying by the seat of their pants and reacting to crisis du jour instead of having a proactive vision for what the park should become.
Click to expand...
Does anyone know to what extent Disney designs/builds in anticipation of additional construction near term?

In other words, do they build things to be easily reconfigured (or at least easily demolished)?
 
J

James Alucobond

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
Does anyone know to what extent Disney designs/builds in anticipation of additional construction near term?

In other words, do they build things to be easily reconfigured (or at least easily demolished)?
Click to expand...
I would suspect that, even if they were able to build in anticipation, few would want to eat into their own project’s budget to cover the cost.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
Does anyone know to what extent Disney designs/builds in anticipation of additional construction near term?

In other words, do they build things to be easily reconfigured (or at least easily demolished)?
Click to expand...
They often do not. They don’t know what will be next and technically Imagineers aren’t even allowed to talk about their projects with other Imagineers not on the project.
 
aladdin2007

aladdin2007

Well-Known Member
FerretAfros said:
These images should be mandatory viewing every time somebody suggests a small refurbishment is in preparation for a larger project scheduled for later.

View attachment 911147

The Mermaid theater sat closed to guests for 62 months, from March 2020 to May 2026. A mere 4 months after reopening, they walled off the theater's exit (and main entrance, for that matter) so they could repave the courtyard. That work could have been done at any point in the 5+ years prior, but they decided to wait until after the show had reopened for it to begin.

View attachment 911148

Even if they needed to maintain access to Launch Bay while the work began, it's far easier to deal with a steady trickle of guests to the exhibit, than the surges of hundreds of guests each time the show lets out. This approach also likely means that the new show will need to close temporarily to allow the pavement closest to the building to be replaced to match the rest of the courtyard, when that strip of work could have easily been done prior to the show's opening.

View attachment 911149

But they didn't consider the impacts of the courtyard work prior to the show's opening, because the courtyard overhaul was tied to the animation exhibit, which in turn likely wasn't approved until it was too late to minimize impacts on the brand new show. It's clear they weren't saving this area for some ideal future development; they were flying by the seat of their pants and reacting to crisis du jour instead of having a proactive vision for what the park should become.

It's why guestflow in Epcot was a mess for 5 years while they changed their mind on what to build. It's why projects like Tron, Ratatouille, and the Monsters Inc coaster are all plopped in place instead of being integrated into their surroundings. It's why DAK's Tropical Americas is getting rides with only tenuous connections to the region's animals while there are rumors of an Emperor's New Groove ride being shoehorned into MK's villains land. Disney still gets a lot of the granular stuff right, but the overall master planning of growth and development is a mess.
Click to expand...
spot on very well written last paragraph!!
 
HMF

HMF

Well-Known Member
FerretAfros said:
These images should be mandatory viewing every time somebody suggests a small refurbishment is in preparation for a larger project scheduled for later.

View attachment 911147

The Mermaid theater sat closed to guests for 62 months, from March 2020 to May 2026. A mere 4 months after reopening, they walled off the theater's exit (and main entrance, for that matter) so they could repave the courtyard. That work could have been done at any point in the 5+ years prior, but they decided to wait until after the show had reopened for it to begin.

View attachment 911148

It's why guestflow in Epcot was a mess for 5 years while they changed their mind on what to build. It's why projects like Tron, Ratatouille, and the Monsters Inc coaster are all plopped in place instead of being integrated into their surroundings. It's why DAK's Tropical Americas is getting rides with only tenuous connections to the region's animals while there are rumors of an Emperor's New Groove ride being shoehorned into MK's villains land. Disney still gets a lot of the granular stuff right, but the overall master planning of growth and development is a mess.
Click to expand...
To be honest most of the master planning at WDI for WDW especially seems to be placing random IP-based ideas on a board and then randomly selecting a park for the idea and then contort the theme of the IP enough so that it can supposedly be tied into the supposed theme of the park just enough so the rubes won't actually think about how it fits.
 
N

Nickm2022

Well-Known Member
personally still feel this is a massive improvement to what was there and am impressed. Plus it's not like this project was 5 years of construction walls ............ EPCOT! But in all seriousness I think that these images look good and show a bad area be fixed for the foreseeable future while not spending to much to where if they ever decide to knock down this area it's not a huge deal fan wise or finically, while also bringing in the Studios back in HS. Would love to see more Studio influence on the rest of the park
 
rreading

rreading

Well-Known Member
DCBaker said:
A new Notice of Commencement has been filed for marquee installation:

561 STAGE LN (HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS GATEWAY) - Jon Richards Company FL, Inc. - Fabricate and install sign marquee [DLE]
Click to expand...
So this permit looks to be valid for one year; but have we gotten an impression as to when this is likely to be done?

I had thought initially that it could be pretty efficient, but with the olaf animatronic (or will he just be a video?), I would guess it’s going to take a while…
 
J

James Alucobond

Well-Known Member
rreading said:
So this permit looks to be valid for one year; but have we gotten an impression as to when this is likely to be done?

I had thought initially that it could be pretty efficient, but with the olaf animatronic (or will he just be a video?), I would guess it’s going to take a while…
Click to expand...
A year is the generic permit length. The front of the courtyard (main walking area, Disney Jr.) is supposed to be done at the beginning of summer. The animation experience is supposed to be ready later in the summer.
 
IMDREW

IMDREW

Well-Known Member
Nickm2022 said:
personally still feel this is a massive improvement to what was there and am impressed. Plus it's not like this project was 5 years of construction walls ............ EPCOT! But in all seriousness I think that these images look good and show a bad area be fixed for the foreseeable future while not spending to much to where if they ever decide to knock down this area it's not a huge deal fan wise or finically, while also bringing in the Studios back in HS. Would love to see more Studio influence on the rest of the park
Click to expand...
Yeah, id love to have seen a WDS, Pixar Studios, Lucasfilm, Muppets and Fox studios areas spoke out of the main hub into their respective full blown ip lands (too bad for Marvel). Would be unique and a really cool way to keep the studios theme AND ip lands.
 
HMF

HMF

Well-Known Member
IMDREW said:
Yeah, id love to have seen a WDS, Pixar Studios, Lucasfilm, Muppets and Fox studios areas spoke out of the main hub into their respective full blown ip lands (too bad for Marvel). Would be unique and a really cool way to keep the studios theme AND ip lands.
Click to expand...
That's certainly how I would have done it, it would have likely saved them a few million as well.
 

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