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

[orky8]

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.

Fastpass doesn't effect capacity. Does create painfully slow standby lines, though, especially for omnimovers

 

[Mike S]

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?

Thankfully crowds have actually decreased this year so far

 

[Biff215]

Thankfully crowds have actually decreased this year so far

But thanks to price increases unfortunately.

 

[doctornick]

Can you specify which park? Not sure where something this large would go in DL without closing significant amounts of something.

Just a total guess on my part, but if it were to come to DLR, I would worry about the subs -- they've tried to close that ride for years and they could easily fill the water in and make a Mickey ride that's part of Fantasyland in that space.

 

[RSoxNo1]

For what it's worth, it looks like The Great Movie Ride building is about twice as large as Pooh's Hunny Hunt.

 

[PorterRedkey]

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.

Or at Launch Bay in the Animation courtyard,

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Will this be one of the first projects that has started to work its way through the WDI pipeline under Weis?

 

[Cesar R M]

I've heard from a very reliable source inside Turner that The Great Movie Ride Sponsorship Deal (Only a 3 year contract was signed) is not up for renewal. This was not a TCM Decision, it was Disney's. Evidently they have plans for a new attraction to take the location. The current ride will be shut down shortly after the deal ends and planning for a replacement attraction has already begun. Can anyone else speak about what this replacement attraction will be? PM me if you can't talk much about it. Personally I find it sad that Great Movie Ride is closing, but I can kind of understand why, the more I think about it.

Isnt it a bit stupid? they had just refurbished and made it decent looking again!

 

[doctornick]

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

Mickey's Once/Twice Upon a Christmas get heavy play around the holidays and are probably recognizable by a lot of folks.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

While a better choice by far than GOTG or most other IP's, this still evicts a classic ride (of the sort you don't see built anymore and probably never will again) and offers no gain of additional rides. And as Martin hinted, it's unlikely to be even half as long as GMR (we'll be lucky if it's a third).

I'll somewhat hold my judgement until we see the final product, but i've other concerns as well. In the proper hands, with the proper budget and with the right execution, this obviously has the potential to be an awesome ride. But I have serious concerns about budget and execution. Budget was already mentioned to have been somewhat reduced in an earlier post, so that's off to an unpleasant start already.

I also feel somewhat troubled by @marni1971 hinting at a heavy presence of video screens. While a great ride, Mystic Manor IMO is already a bit too screen-centric for my tastes. And while I may be attacked for saying this, even the POTC at Shanghai (in spite of being a good ride with well implemented screens) went overboard on screens with too few animatronics for my tastes. Ratatouille looks like it completely crossed my threshold of tolerance, wouldn't like something like that at all.

I miss the detailed setpieces and huge AA population from rides like Splash Mountain, following that ride's type of showscenes are what I would have wanted out of a Mickey Mouse ride. I'm even more concerned that they'll use CGI instead of traditional animation for the video (something they tried to do with Little Mermaid initially, and even recently for a Snow White's scene at Shanghai), which would be extremely inappropriate for classics.

 

[Cesar R M]

I find that hard to believe. Bob Weis is the one who wanted the Chinese Theatre to be the centerpiece of the park.

dude, I already had a dream.. I seen the future.. the Theatre will be replaced by a giant Olaff Statue or a Death Star shaped store.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Based upon the size, I'd think this should be roughly as long as Mystic Manor (and HM and our PotC). 7 or 8 minutes? Nice for a 2016 E ticket anyway. Screens and practical effects (and AAs I hear).

 

[MOXOMUMD]

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/hollywood-studios-park-wide-changes-incoming.915948/page-2#post

Post 38

View attachment 154441

(kicking myself)

 

[Rteetz]

I'll bet Mickey LPS goes in DCA at Paradise Pier. Under the Mickey head or close.

BTW- I'd just love a trackless Haunted Mansion one day. Maybe in the next Magic Kingdom...

They built a trackless haunted mansion. It's called mystic manor...

 

[seabreezept813]

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!

This.


It's hard to be excited about new, appealing attractions when it requires the demise of the classics..

 

[Rteetz]

Based upon the size, I'd think this should be roughly as long as Mystic Manor (and HM and our PotC). 7 or 8 minutes? Nice for a 2016 E ticket anyway. Screens and practical effects (and AAs I hear).

Well I'd hope there are AAs.

 

[PizzaPlanet]

Hold on... I thought Universal had the theme park rights to Mickey Mouse? Or is that only west of the Mississippi?

 

[Cesar R M]

It's getting very hard to stand with Disney after these awful decisions they've been making lately.

Its weird that almost all of the good decisions are going overseas.

 

[Cesar R M]

You guys are so easy to bait...

aaa yes.. the classic "Jokes on you, I was just pretending".

 

[RoysCabin]

While a better choice by far than GOTG or most other IP's, this still evicts a classic ride (of the sort you don't see built anymore and probably never will again) and offers no gain of additional rides. And as Martin hinted, it's unlikely to be even half as long as GMR (we'll be lucky if it's a third).

I'll somewhat hold my judgement until we see the final product, but i've other concerns as well. In the proper hands, with the proper budget and with the right execution, this obviously has the potential to be an awesome ride. But I have serious concerns about budget and execution. Budget was already mentioned to have been somewhat reduced in an earlier post, so that's off to an unpleasant start already.

I also feel somewhat troubled by @marni1971 hinting at a heavy presence of video screens. While a great ride, Mystic Manor IMO is already a bit too screen-centric for my tastes. And while I may be attacked for saying this, even the POTC at Shanghai (in spite of being a good ride with well implemented screens) went overboard on screens with too few animatronics for my tastes. Ratatouille looks like it completely crossed my threshold of tolerance, wouldn't like something like that at all.

I miss the detailed setpieces and huge AA population from rides like Splash Mountain, following that ride's type of showscenes are what I would have wanted out of a Mickey Mouse ride. I'd also be concerned that they'd use CGI for any screens, which would be extremely inappropriate for classic Mickey cartoons.

I think there are ways to make them work, but I think your opinion is well-taken.

Very often when I'm experiencing a theme park ride, one of my first thoughts involved as my brain processes and judges it is "am I experiencing something I couldn't experience elsewhere?" I'm not saying every ride needs to be some grand escape from reality, but if I'm going to pay all that money to go to a place like WDW, I'd like to feel like I'm seeing and experiencing things that make such a trip worthwhile, that make taking a lot of time, energy, and resources and putting them toward that.

Overuse of screens kind of hurts that judgment for me, in large part because, well...our 21st century experience is highly screen-centric already, so the idea of going on a ride that makes a lot of use of them kind of bores me. I don't mean to use that as a blanket statement: I'd love to ride Mystic Manor one day, and there are exceptions to every rule, but as a gut reaction, "screen heavy" makes me think "but I already watch screens at home, why do I need more here?" Meanwhile, I don't get to see animatronics at home, so I don't mind going out of my way to see them on display at WDW.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

By the way, I don't know if this has been mentioned or not, but this idea is quite similar to the 90's videogame Mickey Mania. Each level takes place in a Mickey cartoon, starting with the oldest and reaching up through the newer ones from the 90's. Steamboat Willie, The Mad Doctor, Moose Hunters, The Lonesome Ghost, Mickey and the Beanstalk and The Prince and the Pauper.


I'd be extremely shocked if we don't see Steamboat Willie in the ride. The game's level even used a neat effect in the second level to "magically" transition the graphics from black and white into color, which would be very cool to see done in a ride (probably could be with some sort of digital mapping effect. Would love to see Lonesome Ghost and Mickey and the Beanstalk adapted into the ride as well. Would also be quite surprised if Sorcerer's Apprentice isn't included (and it should be, i'm dying to see a proper physical showscene of Mickey on the cliff calling forth the seas and heavens). There's almost limitless potential here with the vast library of classic Mickey cartoons.

And yes, that is me sounding slightly excited for a change, wanting desperately to be optimistic. In spite of everything that is already questionable about this project, and all that could end up going wrong in the end... Can't I be hopeful for once without being sorely disappointed by the end product?