:king: I hope you all forgive my ramblings - I'm half in the bag from cough medicine, but I wanted to contribute...
I can tell you that the Disney-Pixar name is coming, heard it from a trustworthy source a while ago.
That same source also said that I should get my last rides on GMR while I can.
This comment reminded me of something:
Back when I was still in GR at the Studios (this situation was in early 2001), a coworker and very dear friend of mine (we'll call him Tom) was the tour guide for Paul Pressler. We were working on an upcoming property tour and he got called to be on tour for a couple days while Paul visited the parks. Now, I wouldn't say Tom thought he was a friend of Paul's, but he did spend a good ammount of time with him when he was on tour. And, as these tours were primarily for buisiness reasons, Tom was privy to hearing (and sometimes seeing) much more than the average hourly CM. And he told me a lot of that stuff when we worked together. At the time, I kept my mouth shut, because I knew the CM grapevine works faster than the internet to spread rumors (Many of you already know that), and also because Tom asked me to. Even when I left, and started posting more on WDWMAGIC, I didn't say anything because I still didn't (and don't) wand to get him in any trouble. However, once Pressler left, and Tom moved on in the Company, the news I started hearing from my other "connected" GR friends were that the plans Pressler had tried to put into action would not happen. So it was a non issue. Plus, it's really hard to sound like an authority when you can't name any names.
But, now and then, we hear rumors about the supposed re-branding of the studios. Some people dismiss them as completely false. I know that if I had told the story of what I knew at the time, 6 months later (give or take) I would have been "wrong", becasue those plans had changed. But they were true originally. I believe that's where all of the rumors, stories and half truths involvong the Studios come from. So many of the rumors now sound like the plans back then, with tweaks here and there.
Anyway, the plans I was told at the time involved the HAT. The story was that the reason they wanted the hat to obscure the view of the Chinese Theatre was so they could use it, and not the Theatre or Earful Tower, as the Park's Icon. Now, that part of the Hat story is fairly common knowledge, but the next few phases of this project involved MUCH more then that. They were going to take down the Chinese Theatre and add a new attraction (or a few - I don't remember exactly)in that area, The whole park was to be rebranded - it would be the first time that a Disney theme park was not only renamed (a la EuroDisneyland) but rethemed as well. The new them was going to be along the lines of "entertainment", and the different areas of the park would represent different forms of entertainment. They would have movies (of course), tv, music, radio?, Stage shows...you get the idea. Tom said a lot of the areas and changes were pretty fleshed out (he wasn't comfortable telling me EVERYTHING, unfortunately), and he even got to see a few early pieces of artwork. He tried to describe what he saw in the area formerly taken up by the Theatre, but he didn't have a lot to go on. There was some type of ferris wheel attraction (I have NO idea what that would function as) and a smaller building (either a theatre or a dark ride?). Some of the other themeing would remain, like Hollwood blvd and sunset, but some was to be changed to incorporate a theatre district, etc. All but one sound stage would be replaced by other attractions, and the backlot would go away, too. (this was all before LMA, of course). There was even talk of expanding the Theme park, and pushing the Production area across the street (Buena Vista?)
Obviously, little of these plans ever panned out. The way Tom talked, it sounded like Paul was very excited about all of the changes that were coming, and he was convinced that it was going to help tie the park together and make it make sense again. But, when tourism dropped after Sept. 11th, most of the plans were postpohned or canned. Which is a shame, beacue even though there will always be a place in my heart for "My Park", I think it really needs a lot of help. And I think these changes, if they had happened, would have gone a long way towards solving some of the Studios' problems.
