Sorcerer's Hat v. Grauman's Chinese Theatre Face-off

[HouCuseChickie]

First off to OP- cool pic!!!

I remember a trip to WDW while DHS (then MGM) was being built. I swear the "Earful Tower" was already up- and personally that is what I first associate with the park, but it's not as iconic as the main symbols of the other parks.

I don't love the hat- although location change would improve my opinon; however, I like it better than Grauman's. I undersand that Grauman's is the tie to Hollywood- and hence the name of the park, but it's tough for me to acknowledge it as the official symbol when it's a copy of a real non-Disney structure. i.e. the various castles (even if inspired by real ones), Spaceship Earth, and the AK tree have an originality about them. When I look at the DHS Grauman's - my mind immediately thinks- "it's cool, but I've been to the real one in California." It's like seeing a replica of the Eiffel Tower vs. going to Paris and seeing the real thing.

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

No problems with the hat at all... it blocks that ugly theater!

 

[Dwarful]

I don't mind the hat, but I hate the location. I never understood why they 'had' to put it right there. Personally, I think it would be better at the entrance.

But I won't complain Saturday..when we head over to either Epcot or the Studios after checking in at Yacht Club!

 

[_Scar]

Kill the hat now.

Burn it with fire.

 

[GoofyFan1]

Saw the park both ways and I'm still feeling love for the hat!:sohappy:

 

[ScorpionX]

The Earful Tower symbolizes Disney's Hollywood Studios better than the Hat. It is what Walt would have wanted.

 

[Xethis]

They should just move the hat out front.

Gah, you beat me to it. Thats exactly what I was thinking also. I like the view of theater from down the street when you first enter the park, but I don't think the theater is as iconic as the hat.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

The famed Disney theming is not about making things looke pretty, or 'fun' by oversizing everyday objects.

Theme is about placemaking, about creating a world and transporting the guest there. The theatre moves the guest to a Hollywood that never was and always will be.

Whereas the hat breaks any theme. The placemaking function of the hat is limited to denoting 'amusement park'.
The hat gets away with it because the rest of the area is well themed. Put it in a park made up entirely of hat-like theming, and you end up with a dismal, failed park like the Paris studios.


Move the hat to the plaza just outside the entrance if it must stay.

 

[GoofyFan1]

The Earful Tower symbolizes Disney's Hollywood Studios better than the Hat. It is what Walt would have wanted.

How does anyone know what Walt would want in a park established 30 odd years after his death?

 

[WDWFigment]

This topic is actually the subject of this week's TouringPlans.com Foto Face-off Friday blog: http://blog.touringplans.com/2010/07/16/foto-face-off-friday-studios-icon-throwdown/

 

[Chrononymous]

That's a really killer photo!

For me it's just a matter of bad feng shui.

The road was built to lead to the theatre, all the momentum goes forward...and then smack there is this big obstacle in the way, sitting on a big concrete slab, that you have to go around.

Move the hat to a new place...say the backlot, and I would be so happy to have that perfect Old Hollywood view again.

 

[rct247]

My first visit since the hat was added was just last year. I hated the hat.

But, after working there on my Disney College Program and seeing it day after day, I actually like the hat now. It represents directly Walt Disney's Fantasia which as the trailer in The Great Movie Ride states was an incredible new idea of the time that really was to show what Walt Disney animation could do to such beautiful music. Beyond that, the hat also ties in to Fantasmic and the themes of magic of show business, animation, film, and music.

The "big blue sorcerer hat" is also much easy for guests to remember and find in a sometimes confusing park layout.

Even to this day, I hate how it blocks the Chinese theater, and I hate how the hat doesn't fit with Hollywood Blvd, but if you really think about it, a European castle doesn't fit at the end of a turn of the century American main street.

I'd like to see the hat removed, but if it isn't, I could live with it being there for quite some time. I don't want to see it moved because moving it anywhere else inside or outside the park will ruin that area of the park and its scale. The only place there is room is out front, but that really doesn't make much sense to put it there either.

 

[Grizzly Hall 71]

I'm saying I'll keep the hat if we get the red trolley cars DCA is getting . I call that a win-win situation.

 

[mrsdanalind]

I am partial to the hat, I think of it when I think of Disney Animation. It's iconic of the depth of imagination that is part of the Disney Magic. I love the Graumans Chinese Theater ( as a theater owner and a movie buff) but the hat is Iconic of all Disney Movies.
BTW. I really love the photo, how did you do it?
Dana:king: