MY 2 CENTS:
maybe we should add some more movie based---- oh crap theres an idea!
look, i remember from early on, the park had that amazing working-studios feel... as a child who would most likely never get the opportunity to visit the real-life hollywood, it was like the real thing- just an hour's drive away! looking down hollywood blvd, as street actors cracked small audiences up, looking down towards that amazing chinese theater, seeing the incredible indiana jones show, going on a tour through a real-life animation studio!!, taking a tour, seeing how all these awesome special effects worked and then boarding a tram, riding through working prop and costume facilities, and then experiencing the increible catastrophe canyon!, from seeing real-life shows and movies being taped, to stepping inside the gorgeous chinese theater and experiencing what was easily one of if not my favorite dark ride of all time! the overall feeling of the park was unbelievable, magical, and transported me to a completely different world...
fast forward to 2004.....
you walk in, and are greeted by an enormous and tacky hat completely blocking the once beautiful chinese theater... you notice the attractions that let you experience audio/visual technology are gone, the awesome place i used to be able to watch real-life animators making real-life movies i would later brag about seeing being made.... gone. The films in the once magnificent GMR now seem old, out-dated, i can no longer watch tv shows i'd seen on tv being taped.. there is no longer a 1 1/2 hour-long tour showing me incredible forms of televison and film special effects, its gone, gone, gone, all gone. that amazing feel of the park has been lost, and the little that is left is slowly degrading... the park used to be about the real-working studio aspect.. and now its become nothing more than a real-working.... theme park.
it saddens me, and i think that the park really needs to bring that overall feel it used to have... and it is actually do-able.
bring business back to the park! -maybe its just me, but while owning several tv channels, owning in some shape or form practically every major film company, a radio network, for god-sakes can't you find something to bring to florida and produce there!? even if it's just some of your stupid little disney channel shows, bring them to florida! most of the people on these sitcoms are little, unheard of actors, who in my opinion shoudnt have much say in, but rather be greatful to have a job, pack up their suitcases and head out for taping in florida; its your studios- no one to pay for that, it's your network, same thing... the only thing you have to worry about is making money from park-goers whose children are excited to see the taping of a show they know and love from the disney channel..... i dont see who looses here..?
I think it just needs to be one giant support system in which the networks promote the parks, and the park promotes the heck out of all of its other forms of entertainment -whether that be disney channel, radio disney, or the ever-infamous ABC. The point is, i see no excuse for not having the 'working studio' be a WORKING STUDIO.
as a young child this was probably my favorite park, and now that I'm older it still remains a favorite, however now for a very different reason; from an imagineering point of view. I spend hours at a time drawing, writing, and creating attractions, tours, and scripts that could turn this park around and move it once again into the direction it should be. I feel that the addition of the new streets, stunt show, etc are a step in the right direction, and hopefully things will progress in this direction from here on out.
sorry for the unusually long reply but as you can tell, this topic means alot to me.
thanks for listening