Hi everyone I heard rumors about how Disney considered replacing superstar limo with a goofy or a muppets ride. Is this true? is there any concept art of this?
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Superstar Limo replaced by Goofy/The Muppets?
- Thread starter The Grand Inquisitor
- Start date
Homemade Imagineering
Well-Known Member
This was considered, when Disney wanted to renovate the attraction to Goofy’s Superstar Limo, which would’ve repurposed many of the animated window figures from the various Disney Stores across the country. The Muppets scenario would’ve redone the attraction to become Miss Piggy’s Superstar Limo featuring the Mupets commenting on how bad the previous attraction was as it was being constructed. None of these ever came to fruition, but were considered at some point.
Wow ! That's really interesting. The Goofy ride seems lame. The Muppets idea sounds great!
Brer Panther
Well-Known Member
To be more specific, the idea for Miss Piggy's Superstar Lio was to start with Disney putting an ad in the paper reading "Yeah, we know Superstar Limo stinks, but don't worry, we've got the best guys on the job of redoing it" accompanied by an image of Bunsen and Beaker in hardhats. Then they would reopen Superstar Limo as is, but as guests went through the attraction they would see Bunsen, Beaker, and Muppet construction workers working on the ride and snarking about how lame it was, while the animatronic celebrities would be swapped out for Muppets over the course of a few months, the main draw being that folks would come back and reride it to see which Muppet had been added this time.
I would highly recommend reading this article about Superstar limo, its development, and its potential replacements:
www.parkscope.net
I would highly recommend reading this article about Superstar limo, its development, and its potential replacements:
Wish Upon a Blue Sky, The Top 30 Disney Attractions Never Built #30: The Long and Confusing Saga of Superstar Limo
There’s always a point in every major news story, be it politics, sports, local news, what have you, where a single off-hand quote or bizar...
TP2000
Well-Known Member
That's fascinating!
The ride did sit there empty for several years, roughly 2002-2004 before it finally got Monsters Inc. approved to go in for a 2006 opening.
I bet the discussions on what to do with Superstar Limo circa 2002-03 were fun to be a part of!
That ride was such a horrible turkey. Not even bad-good, just bad.
Homemade Imagineering
Well-Known Member
Wow! Thanks for sharing that article, that was a fantastic read! Two things I never knew: They were going to incorporate the Monsters into a Monsters Inc. does Hollywood type scenario... geez, that sounds like the most disjointed idea to ever come out of WDI, and two, that they actually tested the pooh vehicles on the Superstar Limo's busbar system. I wish there were video of that, it would be so strange seeing a pooh vehicle running throughout the show-space.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
No kidding!
And then the mists of time seemed to part.... @Darkbeer1 help me out on this. Wasn't that a huge controversy 15+ years ago that a bunch of sourpusses who hated Al Lutz (can you even imagine sourpusses on an Internet discussion forum?!
) were making fun of Mr. Lutz for? Lutz had claimed they were testing Pooh vehicles in Superstar Limo in one of his updates, and a few armchair Imagineers claimed that was impossible.The whole thing was used as an example trying to debunk and dethrone Mr. Lutz when he was climbing to Internet fame back in the 00's.
But now we apparently have confirmation from a very thoroughly researched article from 2016 that they did in fact test Pooh vehicles inside the closed Superstar Limo building in 2002.
There's not much point to this. But it's just funny how some mini-scandals from years ago can come rushing back into view.
Someone else out there must also remember that whole "Testing Pooh Vehicles In Superstar Limo" thing that was supposed to prove how Al Lutz was a complete fraud. @Darkbeer1, @FerretAfros? Someone tell me I'm not making that up.
Wow! That sounds awesome!To be more specific, the idea for Miss Piggy's Superstar Lio was to start with Disney putting an ad in the paper reading "Yeah, we know Superstar Limo stinks, but don't worry, we've got the best guys on the job of redoing it" accompanied by an image of Bunsen and Beaker in hardhats. Then they would reopen Superstar Limo as is, but as guests went through the attraction they would see Bunsen, Beaker, and Muppet construction workers working on the ride and snarking about how lame it was, while the animatronic celebrities would be swapped out for Muppets over the course of a few months, the main draw being that folks would come back and reride it to see which Muppet had been added this time.
I would highly recommend reading this article about Superstar limo, its development, and its potential replacements:
Wish Upon a Blue Sky, The Top 30 Disney Attractions Never Built #30: The Long and Confusing Saga of Superstar Limo
There’s always a point in every major news story, be it politics, sports, local news, what have you, where a single off-hand quote or bizar...
FerretAfros
Well-Known Member
I came around to the online community just a little too late to be able to confirm or deny that rumor, but I can certainly attest to that being the prevailing narrative at the time. Whether it's true or not, I don't know, but I like to imagine it actually happened.
The idea of testing something in the Superstar Limo building certainly stuck around in the zeitgeist of the early forums. It was so pervasive that it led to a running joke that whatever the latest rumor-du-jour was, they were testing it in the old SSL building. The things being tested ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime, with the more outlandish ones being my personal favorites. They were typically phrased roughly in the following format:
- I hear they're testing the over-the-shoulder-restraints for Mr Toad in the SSL building
- Did you know the loop for the new Space Mountain track is being tested in the old SSL building?
- Someone told me that WDI is testing the seaworthiness of the submarines in the SSL building
- The disco ball atop the Matterhorn that the HoJo webcam spotted leading up to the 50th fireworks? It's being tested in the old SSL building
That said, it really is a marvel how nimble and agile Disney was in those days. At the time it felt like an eternity between SSL's closure and Monsters' opening, but in reality it was only four years. Within mere months of the park's opening, they had already determined it hadn't connected with guests, brainstormed ideas, built new facilities, and opened some relatively major additions, including Disney's Electrical Parade in summer (complete with new parade barn), Who Wants to be a Millionaire...Play It in fall (in another new building), and LuminAria for the holidays (in a venue with no show infrastructure), with more in the pipeline to follow.
Compare that to modern WDI, which is currently taking 5+ years to renovate the Universe of Energy into the GOTG coaster, after already having fully developed plans. Or continuously pushing off updates for the deeply flawed Journey into Imagination with Figment after nearly 2 decades of operation. Or spending years building Harmonious in plain view of guests, in a park that already has extensive nighttime show infrastructure. Not to mention their habit of announcing projects like Avatar and the Splash redo before even finalizing the concept, knowing it will be the better part of a decade before they're open to paying customers.
And of course that agile, nimble team was working with far tighter budgets than the current crew, whose budgets seem to begin at $100M and rapidly increase from there. In year-of-expense costs, the aforementioned GOTG coaster will be nearly as much as all of DCA on opening day. While there were plenty of issues with DCA1.0, it's hard to say that they didn't get a ton of stuff for the money they actually spent on it.