News Disney Not Renewing Great Movie Ride Sponsorship Deal with TCM ; Attraction to Close

[PiratesoftheHM]

If this came to DLR, where would it go? I think some would say Toontown, but if the DHS version has the Chinese Theater facade and hopefully relates to Hollywood, to me the DLR version would fit better in the Hollywood Backlot area. If the Marvel land went behind Tower of Terror as originally planned, then that would leave the Backlot open.

That area could really use a high quality dark-ride. If they kept with the Hollywood theme for that street, it would also hopefully inspire them to re-do the facades on the Animation building side of the street and the Hyperion theater facade. It would be nice to balance out the height requirements that are likely in Marvel Land with Tower of GOTG and Captain America coaster or whatever comes there.

Also, it would be strange to have a trackless Frozen ride and a trackless Mickey Mouse ride right next to each other in DL. Then again, they will have the same situation in DHS.

 

[gmajew]

Got to say I am really excited about this attraction. I wish it was an addition and not a retheme as so many of you have already said. This park needs attractions lots of them even with everything coming it is still a plus maybe 1 for the park.

Thanks you @marni1971 for being on top of all this. Excited to get the ride system and see what it can do!

 

[SorcererMC]

Actually, I'd be curious to know what modern-day Disneu considers Mickey's greatest moments... "Sorcerer" and..."Steamboat" and...?

'The Band Concert'? 'Thru the Mirror'? 'The Haunted House'?
Several of the classic shorts are featured in Epic Mickey and would be recognized by younger audiences (I hope). Oswald, too.

 

[Coaster Lover]

Actually, I'd be curious to know what modern-day Disneu considers Mickey's greatest moments... "Sorcerer" and..."Steamboat" and...?

...if you ask my kids? Sadly, it would be Micky Mouse Clubhouse (oh Tootles!)

 

[PorterRedkey]

I know people will say I am exaggerating, but this is on par with the removal of Horizons from Epcot.

Horizons was about the future and encompassed the spirit of Future World as a whole.
The Great Movie Ride also encompassed the spirit of DHS. In a park about movies, this is a crowning achievement. A 22-minute journey into the movies. I hope the people who are happy with this realize we will NEVER get another attraction with this scope and length again. NEVER!

RIP the long form dark ride.

Sure GMR, Maelstrom, Horizons, WoM and JII needed updating, but a complete redo with a new theme was not necessary.
Imagine if the money for the Frozen ride was put into a Maelstrom update. What a cool ride that would have been!

 

[flynnibus]

Disney has been making me feel so empty... GMR celebrated things that generations now can't be bothered to learn about so I'm not too shocked, but certainly disappointed.

Unless the ride system adds some new different re-ride possibilities or unique unbelievable experences I really could care less about trackless or not. UoE, Imagination and SSE rocked my socks off and not because I worried about a rail or not!

 

[RSoxNo1]

So the news finally breaks.

I love the new ride concept but hate its proposed location; I'd almost rather an LPS ride through the movies that are already in the GMR. Despite its age, I appreciate the GMR for introducing me to classic films. If it weren't for that ride and its movie clips, I wouldn't have been interested in Alien, The Searchers, or Amadeus.

In a perfect fan boi world they do a thorough update of Great Movie Ride and build this Mickey attraction elsewhere in the park. With that not happening though I am very pleased with this as a GMR replacement. I am not a fan of the current GMR even after TCM's updates. The ride needs 50% of the scenes swapped out and every scene needs substantial upgrades.

 

[PorterRedkey]

@marni1971 has already said the budget has been reduced for this project. So the plan is to take out a crowd eating, 22-minute long, dark ride and replace it with another ride that will most likely be 6 or 7 minutes at most? This move seems to reduce capacity instead of adding to it. DHS needs all the rides they can get. Building the Mickey dark ride as a new ride will help capacity.

 

[SpaceMountain77]

Good riddance! I cannot recall the last time Footlight Parade had movement and bubbles, Singing in the Rain is occasionally just signing, and, for whatever reason, in May, Fantasia was without its shooting stars.

Also, with all of the theater majors that enroll in the Disney College Program, I cannot understand, for the life of me, why the moving theater car cast members are so theatrically inept and cannot project their voices.

Ring . . . Ring . . . MGM, you want your show scenes back? Done!

 

[brb1006]

...if you ask my kids? Sadly, it would be Micky Mouse Clubhouse (oh Tootles!)

It's almost been 10 years since Mickey Mouse Clubhouse began now that I think about it.

My first exposure to Mickey cartoons was House Of Mouse, and "The Spirit Of Mickey" from 1997 on VHS. The theme song "Hey Mickey" still brings back fond memories of pre-Clubhouse Mickey Mouse.

Does anyone remember owning "The Spirit Of Mickey" VHS besides me?

 

[Coaster Lover]

@marni1971 So the plan is to take out a crowd eating, 22-minute long, dark ride and replace it with another ride that will most likely be 6 or 7 minutes at most? This move seems to reduce capacity instead of adding to it. DHS needs all the rides they can get. Building the Mickey dark ride as a new ride will help capacity.

Out of curiosity, how much of the actual capacity of GMR is typically used? I mean the ride can be a people eater, for sure, but are they really running the ride at full capacity currently? I mean, if the ride can take 2500 pph and is actually sending through that many people, that's one thing, but if only 1300 pph are actually riding, than replacing the ride with something that would do 1500 pph and will run at full capacity for quite some time would actually be an upgrade. The same comparison could be said about UOE... that ride can take a TON of people, but currently it's not actually putting through it's full capacity.

 

[Dizney Crew]

Love the idea of finally getting a Mickey themed ride, long overdue. Honestly I think DHS needs this ride the most out of all the parks. Also it would be great if this was a DHS exclusive ride and not something that will pop up on the west coast in a carbon copy form.

 

[SpaceMountain77]

For those that never seen it.

Whenever I see the Partners statute in Magic Kingdom, I wonder how long until it is replaced with Bob Iger holding Magic Bands in one hand and stock shares in the other.

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

Out of curiosity, how much of the actual capacity of GMR is typically used? I mean the ride can be a people eater, for sure, but are they really running the ride at full capacity currently? I mean, if the ride can take 2500 pph and is actually sending through that many people, that's one thing, but if only 1300 pph are actually riding, than replacing the ride with something that would do 1500 pph and will run at full capacity for quite some time would actually be an upgrade. The same comparison could be said about UOE... that ride can take a TON of people, but currently it's not actually putting through it's full capacity.

According to this website, GMR hourly capacity is 2.4k. When they run with 1 car on a slower day, it would be 1.2k. (This was backing your statement)

If they replaced GMR with a lower capacity ride with a lower ride time, it would not do the park much good. It needs a people eater that holds them for 15 mins with a capacity of 2k+.
My opinion, they have plenty of room over by Indy to place a good people eater.

 

[alphac2005]

Just imagine if they build just a few omnimover attractions without FastPass and what that would do for capacity. Now that you've imagined it, that's where it will stay because doing something so logical is the antithesis of this current company culture. Based on @marni1971, we're looking at the best case scenario of a ride that is half the running time of the current attraction.

 

[Phil12]

Bigger is not always better..

I agree. In this case however DHS needs a big icon. In all of the other WDW parks there are major icons that not only serve as symbols of the park but they're also designed for easy navigation for guests. In EPCOT for example, Spaceship Earth can be seen from most locations in the park and it's easy for guests to gauge their location in the park based upon that landmark and it makes navigation through the park easier. Same thing is true for the castle in MK and the tree in AK. At 135 acres DHS is bigger than the MK.

With tiny parks such as Disneyland or DCA, large landmarks are not really needed since it's hard to get lost in such cramped spaces. But the bigger parks in WDW really benefit from large landmarks such as the BAH they used to have in DHS. Knott's Berry Farm has a huge tower as another example.

The Chinese Theater at DHS is only a front facade and it's insignificant. How about a huge tub of buttered popcorn for an icon?

 

[doctornick]

There still might be hope. Hopefully after SWL opens they turn to animation courtyard and build some new attractions. And maybe when the new Indy movie is a huge success, we will finally get a ride.

Yes, I'd like to think that the current Launch Bay footprint as well as the IJ stunt show and space around it would be slated for demolition and use for actual expansion once TSL and Star Wars opens. I can understand the argument of not being able to close those down now due to the lack of total "things to do" until the new offerings come on board (though the same argument applies to closing GMR, so....) but one would hope

Whatever happened to the $2.8B that was once budgeted for DHS? Even as poorly as Disney spends money, it doesn't seem like the announced/rumored additions add up to that budget.

 

[Biff215]

I agree. In this case however DHS needs a big icon. In all of the other WDW parks there are major icons that not only serve as symbols of the park but they're also designed for easy navigation for guests. In EPCOT for example, Spaceship Earth can be seen from most locations in the park and it's easy for guests to gauge their location in the park based upon that landmark and it makes navigation through the park easier. Same thing is true for the castle in MK and the tree in AK. At 135 acres DHS is bigger than the MK.

With tiny parks such as Disneyland or DCA, large landmarks are not really needed since it's hard to get lost in such cramped spaces. But the bigger parks in WDW really benefit from large landmarks such as the BAH they used to have in DHS. Knott's Berry Farm has a huge tower as another example.

The Chinese Theater at DHS is only a front facade and it's insignificant. How about a huge tub of buttered popcorn for an icon?

Haven't heard any talk about a new icon. We've been there and done that, no need to go backwards.

 

[doctornick]

Tell me about it. It seems TDO has Disneyland syndrome. We don't have enough room to keep all these rides in this park AND offer new rides, all this has gotta go. um... Bob, we have 40,000 acres to work with. I don't care, tear it down.

Yes, it is crazy given desperately DHS (and WDW in general) needs far more guest space and attraction capacity to accommodate the increased crowds over the years.

The parks need more than headliners. Now, I know opinions on GMR will vary, but at the very least it was a nice compliment to the more thrilling (and height restricted) rides that the park otherwise had. Sounds like the replacement will also be that way, but y'know "why not both"? If the crowds come for Star Wars as expected, they are going to need all the help they can get in the park.

Does the desire to replace over build new come from TDO? I have got to wonder if it is driven by a desire to limit operational costs -- more rides means having to pay for more maintenance and pay CMs to run it. And GMR was probably among the worse offenders there given that it involved life participants in the ride itself.

I think you can justify replacing GMR with a high quality Mickey ride as part of the park redo -- it just shouldn't be one of the major "additions". The park desperately needs a real, fleshed out Phase 3. Is there any chance they dust off Monstropolis and put it somewhere in DHS once the dust settles from the current stuff? Or, even better, a more generic Pixar Place featuring multiple C- and D-tickets?

 

[toolsnspools]

Love the idea of a huge Mickey attraction being at the center of a remake of the park with no theme. One of the few lasting memories I have of my first trip was riding the GMR because it is a great and memorable attraction. It is however in need of a complete makeover. I'd love to see them rebuild GMR from scratch with refreshed scenes and the latest tech in a new location. Giving Mickey a home at the center of the park is absolutely appropriate though, even if it has to replace the severely out-dated GMR.