This is a glaring example of how radically differently the two American theme park properties operate.
The DHS Studio Backlot tram tour, the very reason why there was a theme park there in the first place as a direct rip-off of the original (and still operating and wildly popular) Universal Studios Hollywood tram tour, has just been shut down. And without so much as a Tweet from TDO's cheeseball paid Twitterers about what/how/why/when. And the WDW fan base just sort of shrugs their shoulders and says "Oh well".
If any major attraction shutdown had happened at Disneyland there would be massive upheaval in the fan community and lots of park events planned for the last day. Or, God forbid, Universal Studios Hollywood were to shut down their famous tram tour and eliminate the entire reason for the theme park being there in the first place, headlines would scream from the front page of the Los Angeles Times about it.
But TDO closes the tram tour at DHS without announcement or replacement, and on the importance scale with online fans it ranks somewhere between new cell phone charging stations at the Tangled restrooms and the latest rumors on a refurbished gift shop.
I know for the last 20 years the whole DHS Backlot Tram Tour was a fake series of aging props and half-lies about "filming" in a place the film industry abandoned during the Clinton years, but what the heck is the point of a "Studios" theme park if they can't even pretend to have fake studios any more? What is the reason DHS now exists?
At the risk of getting excoriated for referencing Jim Hill, he discussed this pretty candidly on the last podcast. Disney is throwing in the towel on the studio/theme park combo. In a nutshell, no one really wants to film there, and pretending it's a working studio has really tied their hands theme-wise. The upcoming name change is meant to reflect the new direction they are taking. And since I'll probably get skewered anyway, I'm going to admit that I'm okay with this. I think they were smart to admit with DCA that they made a mistake and did a complete redo, and I think the same thing could happen here.Check out that "last day" video @tjjwelch kindly added to this thread earlier. The recorded spiel on the tour makes some very carefully worded references to "filmmaking" and production activities and the "cast, crew and equipment" in the "soundstages" on the tour. Except nothing is actually happening, and nothing really has happened there for more than a decade. And the visuals and environment found along the tour look very sterile and staged and, well, fake.
But they were trying to play it off like it was a working studio up until the end. And the tram tour spiel worded things very carefully to make it seem like it actually is a working studio, but if you dissect the wording they aren't claiming anything that is untrue. But if you are only half-listening like most tourists, especially the dumber and less sophisticated folks on the tour might actually believe they are seeing "Show Business!" in action, when all they are really seeing is basic theme park operations making employee uniforms and seasonal decorations inbetween a fake Herbie The Love Bug and a slightly inappropriate Pixar Planes overlay to war planes used in an old and unloved movie about the Pearl Harbor attack.
Watching that video, and mulling it over, maybe it's for the best that this "attraction" was put out of its misery.
But still I have to wonder, what's the point of Disney's Hollywood Studios now that the tram tour is closed and any tenuous connection to movie making, if not outright lies about a mothballed production facility, is no longer being presented to clueless tourists? Why not just call it Disney's Fun-Fun-Fun Five Rides Land instead?
Well then that's great. The people I know who work at DHS have said it is most prob. going to close. Nothing official, just what the bosses there are saying.
Finally found what I'm talking about in one of the videos from today (13:40 mark) .
Thank you for posting that video. I enjoyed it but it made me sad. I watched it with two of my children and they said they want to ride it again. Not anymore.
Just go to your local Hallmark or f.y.e. Store where you can get a life sized cardboard standing cutout of Anna and Elsa for just $40.00.
I always kind of just saw it as it was purposely pretend, and that was what they were trying to tell the story of. I mean, the Jungle Cruise isn't really a tour of some jungle river with animals and stuff. But they were creating that story.
Universal Studios Japan
