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MGM...not what it used to be!
- Thread starter BwanaBob
- Start date
imagineersrock
New Member
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
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
imagineersrock~
I agree with you 120% I can't understand why, if this is the Disney studios, we haven't seen more Disney Channel support. Sure you have in house shows (a la Playhouse Disney Live) but nothing that is being produced there that would make you go home and say "gee, I remember going by that set."
I am in total agreement with you. I could go on and on....but I think most people would want me to be a tad bit more quiet
I agree with you 120% I can't understand why, if this is the Disney studios, we haven't seen more Disney Channel support. Sure you have in house shows (a la Playhouse Disney Live) but nothing that is being produced there that would make you go home and say "gee, I remember going by that set."
I am in total agreement with you. I could go on and on....but I think most people would want me to be a tad bit more quiet
Abercrombie Kid
New Member
MGM Studios hasn't lost it's magic! When I first went to MGM I was really dissapinted (and the rest of my party was to) u see it wasn't the disney theme park full of great rides it was a disney theme park with nothing interestinf for us to do. Yeah tours bof studios are ineresting but those attractions simply arn't rides you would go on every time you go there,unlike say TOT. For me MGM is still full of magic, yes it could be updated here and there but dosn't every theme park. The addition of a high energy stunt shw is awesome, espicially since it will add something that can take away the tired Indy stunt show away for a future Indy thrill/dark ride atttraction. Indy woud reviatlize that area of the park just as Star Tours did after MGM opened. I have complete faith that the MGM will continue to be a magical Disney place. Just believe.
WOW!
I really wasn't expecting 3+ pages from this thread!
Imagineersrock- I couldn't have said it better myself.
Please understand everyone, I too fell in love with MGM when it first opened. Having a production and acting background, it was the best of two worlds for me (WDW and Hollywood!)
It just disappoints me to see the gradual decline in the park in terms of "production".
I like the shows, but thats not the reason I go to MGM. Too many now?
I love the rides, ...but...
Truth be told, it's a half-day park now, period. I also do not make MGM a "must see" park anymore. Fantasmic? Sure...every once in a while. But at this time, I'll take RoE and Wishes over Fantasmic any day...just because overall, I will BE in one of those two parks 9 out of 10 nightly visits.
As a side note; do you think people would respond the same way if you could tour the PIXAR studios?:lol:
I really wasn't expecting 3+ pages from this thread!
Imagineersrock- I couldn't have said it better myself.
Please understand everyone, I too fell in love with MGM when it first opened. Having a production and acting background, it was the best of two worlds for me (WDW and Hollywood!)
It just disappoints me to see the gradual decline in the park in terms of "production".
I like the shows, but thats not the reason I go to MGM. Too many now?
I love the rides, ...but...
Truth be told, it's a half-day park now, period. I also do not make MGM a "must see" park anymore. Fantasmic? Sure...every once in a while. But at this time, I'll take RoE and Wishes over Fantasmic any day...just because overall, I will BE in one of those two parks 9 out of 10 nightly visits.
As a side note; do you think people would respond the same way if you could tour the PIXAR studios?:lol:
JBSLJames
New Member
They show the PIXAR studios on some of the DVD extras. Talk about an enviroment that encourages freedom in thinking. I've seen pre-schools that have more discipline.
As for Great America...it is a Paramount park. Paramount operated Kings Dominion in VA (Volcano rocks), Carrowinds in NC, Kings Island in OH (Beast #1 Coaster IN THE WORLD), Canadas Wonderland in Toronto, and Great America in CA. As far as Star Trek rides...I know that Kings Island used to have the Klingons walking around but there were no rides.
imagineersrocks, excellent post! I have been thnking this park is getting worse and worse over the years to the point that besides RnR and ToT there isn't too much substance to this park anymore.
Disney owns so many differnt production compaines in all forms of media they really need to start using production facilities that are still availiable in this park and add more).
I know it's been said they nobody wants to film in florida but that is actaully not true. Florida filming has been on the rise over the years and more and more films are being filmed here. Three recent films I can think of are Too Fast Too Furious, Bad Boys II, and Out of Time. Te big kicker is that there never was a big enough push to use the soundstages availiable here (and not many were built either) and the production facilities were never expanded to offer what the filmakers really were needing.
My feeling is build a world class studio enviroment, pre and post production facilities, and even encourage your own studios to start using the production facilites offered, even if they shoot elsewhere, you could have a real success story.
It would require a true investment and expansion of the park but they could make alot of money from it in both the production use and attraction sides of it.
I admit Florida isn't another Hollywood but there is no reason that a world class studio couldn't exist if you have the drie to make it happen. Disney owns ABC and it's affiiliates, Several major studios, The Disney channel itself, etc. There is simply no reason that the park didn't make it as a production studio and was expanded to offer more to the guest other than just wanting to not spend the money on it.
Disney owns so many differnt production compaines in all forms of media they really need to start using production facilities that are still availiable in this park and add more).
I know it's been said they nobody wants to film in florida but that is actaully not true. Florida filming has been on the rise over the years and more and more films are being filmed here. Three recent films I can think of are Too Fast Too Furious, Bad Boys II, and Out of Time. Te big kicker is that there never was a big enough push to use the soundstages availiable here (and not many were built either) and the production facilities were never expanded to offer what the filmakers really were needing.
My feeling is build a world class studio enviroment, pre and post production facilities, and even encourage your own studios to start using the production facilites offered, even if they shoot elsewhere, you could have a real success story.
It would require a true investment and expansion of the park but they could make alot of money from it in both the production use and attraction sides of it.
I admit Florida isn't another Hollywood but there is no reason that a world class studio couldn't exist if you have the drie to make it happen. Disney owns ABC and it's affiiliates, Several major studios, The Disney channel itself, etc. There is simply no reason that the park didn't make it as a production studio and was expanded to offer more to the guest other than just wanting to not spend the money on it.