The Great Movie Ride what would have you changed?

[NickMaio]

1. I always thought the Sigourney Weaver animatronic was terrible. Trying to make animatronics that actually look like specific people has long been a mixed thing for WDW. Some are okay, some are terrible.


2. While Westerns were once a big staple of movies, they are somewhat rare these days. I just watched one of the old classic Westerns a few days ago and well, it was very dated on a number of fronts.

While it is possible to make a modern Western that isn't dated, well, social norms have changed a good deal since John Wayne's glory days.

So updating GMR would have been a bit tricky. Some folks would say most of the classic westerns were dated or offensive. Others would recall the best parts of westerns and be mad at WDW if they'd removed that part of the ride...

Donald Trump's anamatronic is amazing......
Oh and remember Ellen's.....ouch.

Why oh why.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Donald Trump's anamatronic is amazing......
Oh and remember Ellen's.....ouch.

Why oh why.

The first listed is because they had too.

The second is what was wrong with Ellen's. It sure beat the crap out of the original. I was not the highpoint of humor but it was truly Ellen and was cute and witty in my mind.

 

[NickMaio]

The first listed is because they had too.

The second is what was wrong with Ellen's. It sure beat the crap out of the original. I was not the highpoint of humor but it was truly Ellen and was cute and witty in my mind.

It looked nothing like either real person.
They were aweful looking compared to whom they were representing.
Nasty.

 

[Goofyernmost]

It looked nothing like either real person.
They were aweful looking compared to whom they were representing.
Nasty.

In fairness it looked much more like Ellen when it first opened, but like everything it doesn't always age well. The show itself was much more interesting and informative than the original which was a 40 minute infomercial For Exxon. I had to be restrained to not yell out "Remember the Valdez" when they were patting their own back for helping the environment to the point of Sainthood.

 

[ppete1975]

Remove nostalgia, and it didnt look that great. I would have closed it removed every figure and replaced them with all new state of the art animatronics and put in better effects. The idea was good and would have been successful for a long time.. but the execution to people without the nostalgia wasnt holding up.

 

[TheGuyThatMakesSwords]

I guess I would have updated it with new scenes, rather than gutting it for a fairly poor replacement .

 

[graphite1326]

It's my understanding that Disney had to pay yearly for the rights to show/display the movies in the ride. It was also my understanding that that was the factor in changing the ride. I may be wrong. However, why couldn't they have changed it to using Disney movies?

 

[PiratesMansion]

They MIGHT have had to pay yearly fees, but even if that was the case, it would have been pocket change to the modern WDC. They changed it because it wasn't Disney IP, and for whatever reason they didn't want to update the actual attraction without removal (probably because they didn't want to have to pay a CM for each ride vehicle-there used to be many more experiences like that, and DL still has several, but the only ones left are JC (tradition) and Safaris (necessary)).

I'm really happy it never became "Great DISNEY movie ride." You just know they would have put in dated crud because there are only so many Disney movies that are true masterpieces, especially the ones of newer vintage.

It would have turned into the internet saying "Let's make it the Great MARVEL Movie Ride!" or something like that.

 

[champdisney]

I enjoyed the new Mickey and Minnie attraction but nothing beats the Great Movie Ride. I miss it’s originality, charm, glory and overall amusing entertainment value. I was dreaming up of freshened scenes for the GMR 10 years prior to it shutting its doors.

Scenes included. Alien being replaced with a scene taken from Empire Strikes Back, where Vader reveals himself to be Luke Skywalker’s father.

Raiders of the Lost Ark replaced with a boiler room scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddy Krueger stalking Nancy.

Tarzan replaced with a scene from the original Planet of the Apes.

That’s to sum it up. With Disney buying Fox, they could have easily incorporated a lot of their content into the GMR. Instead of replacing Alien, they could have kept it. Planet of the Apes (the 1968 original) replacing Tarzan would’ve been a go. Raiders of the Lost Ark would have been replaced with a scene from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I would have incorporated Ben Affleck’s Daredevil somewhere in the ghetto, right after the Public Enemy scene and make him appear as a lone wolf similar to what they had done with Clint Eastwood’s AA.

Besides these Fox films, I also would have brought in The Muppets from 1979’s The Muppet Movie in honor of the never built Muppets Great Movie Ride. That’s it. That would’ve been my changes.

 

[The Aracuan Bird]

The Movie ride was great, but a lot of the films present didn’t feel like true classics. I’d consider Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Mary Poppins, Singing in the Rain, and Indiana Jones iconic classics that will remain timeless. The Fantasia scene was just bad (that was my “Mickey ride” as a kid). The rest weren’t as timeless.

Not sure how I would change the ride exactly, but there are quite a few films and actors that should have been there, but were missing for one reason or another.

Missing Iconic Films:
- Modern Times
- Citizen Kane
- The Adventures of Robin Hood
- The Maltese Falcon
- Any Hitchcock Film (Particularly Vertigo)
- Gone With the Wind (I get why it wasn’t. Maybe the scene with the red sky could have worked?)
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Godfather

Missing Iconic Actors:
- Jimmy Stewart
- Cary Grant
- Charlie Chaplin
- Buster Keaton
- Clark Gable
- Gregory Peck
- Sidney Poitier
- Katharine Hepburn
- Marilyn Monroe
- Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy

So yeah, definitely lots of potential to add. Although I’m sure the expense wasn’t appealing to them, it’s still a shame.

 

[UNCgolf]

The Movie ride was great, but a lot of the films present didn’t feel like true classics. I’d consider Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Mary Poppins, Singing in the Rain, and Indiana Jones iconic classics that will remain timeless. The Fantasia scene was just bad (that was my “Mickey ride” as a kid). The rest weren’t as timeless.

Not sure how I would change the ride exactly, but there are quite a few films and actors that should have been there, but were missing for one reason or another.

Missing Iconic Films:
- Modern Times
- Citizen Kane
- The Adventures of Robin Hood
- The Maltese Falcon
- Any Hitchcock Film (Particularly Vertigo)
- Gone With the Wind (I get why it wasn’t. Maybe the scene with the red sky could have worked?)
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Godfather

Missing Iconic Actors:
- Jimmy Stewart
- Cary Grant
- Charlie Chaplin
- Buster Keaton
- Clark Gable
- Gregory Peck
- Sidney Poitier
- Katharine Hepburn
- Marilyn Monroe
- Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy

So yeah, definitely lots of potential to add. Although I’m sure the expense wasn’t appealing to them, it’s still a shame.

I think the Godfather was "included" to an extent because they basically had catch-all scenes for gangster films and for Westerns. They were scenes from specific movies, but I seem to remember the spiel just calling out gangster films and Westerns in general. The Godfather is obviously a step above, though.

They were missing any scenes representing the swords and sandals genre. Ben-Hur or Spartacus would be the main options, although you could also go more modern and use Gladiator.

I think if you were doing it now you'd ideally want to incorporate the Lord of the Rings both to represent the fantasy genre in general and to showcase one of the best film trilogies.

 

[Walt Disney1955]

I loved that ride. Could have kept updating it in different ways. Should have been lots of room to keep it around. Going through a scene of a classic movie in an animatronic always seemed awesome to me.

 

[SteamboatJoe]

The Movie ride was great, but a lot of the films present didn’t feel like true classics. I’d consider Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Mary Poppins, Singing in the Rain, and Indiana Jones iconic classics that will remain timeless. The Fantasia scene was just bad (that was my “Mickey ride” as a kid). The rest weren’t as timeless.

Not sure how I would change the ride exactly, but there are quite a few films and actors that should have been there, but were missing for one reason or another.

Missing Iconic Films:
- Modern Times
- Citizen Kane
- The Adventures of Robin Hood
- The Maltese Falcon
- Any Hitchcock Film (Particularly Vertigo)
- Gone With the Wind (I get why it wasn’t. Maybe the scene with the red sky could have worked?)
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Godfather

Missing Iconic Actors:
- Jimmy Stewart
- Cary Grant
- Charlie Chaplin
- Buster Keaton
- Clark Gable
- Gregory Peck
- Sidney Poitier
- Katharine Hepburn
- Marilyn Monroe
- Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy

So yeah, definitely lots of potential to add. Although I’m sure the expense wasn’t appealing to them, it’s still a shame.

If licensing costs and brand provincialism weren't factors, this would be as good as list as any though I think you'd have to include some more modern blockbusters to balance it out and keep it relateable so it isn't just a showcase of movies that came out prior to majority of modern guests being born. In 1989 a good portion of guests were alive when the films featured came in GRM came out and thus they had an emotional attachment to them. By restricting yourself to pre 80s material, you lose that connection with current audiences.

 

[Robbiem]

Its a shame disney never revamped the GMR with properties they now own from fox, lucasfilm, touchstone, pixar etc off the top of my head a few additions could have been

sound of music and hello dolly in the musical section
titanic
avatar
predator, aliens
classic sci fi like day the earth stood still, planet of the apes fantastic voyage, journey to the centre of the earth maybe tron
some of the big epics like cleopatra or the robe
war movies like tora, tora, tora and the longest day
die hard
some of the jerry Bruckhiemer movies - PotC, Armageddon, con air
classic comedies with Marylin monroe, doris day
toy story

not only would some of these have saved on royalties they could have boosted some of the movies on disney plus.

bit of an own goal really

 

[The Aracuan Bird]

If licensing costs and brand provincialism weren't factors, this would be as good as list as any though I think you'd have to include some more modern blockbusters to balance it out and keep it relateable so it isn't just a showcase of movies that came out prior to majority of modern guests being born. In 1989 a good portion of guests were alive when the films featured came n GRM came out and thus they had an emotional attachment to them. By restricting yourself to pre 80s material, you lose that connection with current audiences.

While a fair point, I think it would be easier to create a ride with classics from the 20th century, that shaped cinema, and market it as such rather than constantly play a game of catch-up. Maybe a few modern influential titles and some 90s hits?

The biggest issue with the movie ride was that a bunch of the films were deep cuts, so their relevancy was always fleeting. When people called them dated, I don’t think it was because of stuff like Wizard of Oz or Casablanca, but rather, films like “The Public Enemy”.

 

[SteamboatJoe]

While a fair point, I think it would be easier to create a ride with classics from the 20th century, that shaped cinema, and market it as such rather than constantly play a game of catch-up. Maybe a few modern influential titles and some 90s hits?

The biggest issue with the movie ride was that a bunch of the films were deep cuts, so their relevancy was always fleeting. When people called them dated, I don’t think it was because of stuff like Wizard of Oz or Casablanca, but rather, films like “The Public Enemy”.

Yes, you'd certainly want to be very selective. Star Wars, Toy Story, Avatar would have been obvious choices given their impacts on the industry but they are their own thing now. Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, and the MCU are all iconic but alas, Universal Studios. So, tha said, Titanic and Lord of the Rings I think would qualify as the best candidates to represent the "modern" era.

 

[UNCgolf]

Yes, you'd certainly want to be very selective. Star Wars, Toy Story, Avatar would have been obvious choices given their impacts on the industry but they are their own thing now. Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, and the MCU are all iconic but alas, Universal Studios. So, tha said, Titanic and Lord of the Rings I think would qualify as the best candidates to represent the "modern" era.

The Lord of the Rings movies are about 150x better than the Harry Potter movies anyways. A Jurassic Park scene would be pretty cool though.

I like Harry Potter, but they're really not especially good movies outside of Prisoner of Azakaban. The later films don't even really work without knowledge of the source material, especially Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince which feel more like a series of vignettes pulled from the corresponding novel rather than an actual cohesive film.

 

[The Grand Inquisitor]

I enjoyed the new Mickey and Minnie attraction but nothing beats the Great Movie Ride. I miss it’s originality, charm, glory and overall amusing entertainment value. I was dreaming up of freshened scenes for the GMR 10 years prior to it shutting its doors.

Scenes included. Alien being replaced with a scene taken from Empire Strikes Back, where Vader reveals himself to be Luke Skywalker’s father.

Raiders of the Lost Ark replaced with a boiler room scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddy Krueger stalking Nancy.

Tarzan replaced with a scene from the original Planet of the Apes.

That’s to sum it up. With Disney buying Fox, they could have easily incorporated a lot of their content into the GMR. Instead of replacing Alien, they could have kept it. Planet of the Apes (the 1968 original) replacing Tarzan would’ve been a go. Raiders of the Lost Ark would have been replaced with a scene from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I would have incorporated Ben Affleck’s Daredevil somewhere in the ghetto, right after the Public Enemy scene and make him appear as a lone wolf similar to what they had done with Clint Eastwood’s AA.

Besides these Fox films, I also would have brought in The Muppets from 1979’s The Muppet Movie in honor of the never built Muppets Great Movie Ride. That’s it. That would’ve been my changes.

Ok now I want a planet of the apes ride that would have been perfect.

 

[CosmicRays]

Update the films- nothing older than say 1984 and change the actors portion so it wasnt like a 40s noir/gangster film- I loved that stuff and those films BTW just know a refresh could have kept it alive

 

[erasure fan1]

The key with the great movie ride is just figuring out the story you want to tell. There are so many directions you could go. If you just wanted a great Disney movie ride, that would work just fine. With Fox you have plenty of variety to flesh it out. Just because you have Avatar and star wars areas, doesn't mean you can't put scenes from them in. I would also take scenes from animated films as well. Things like Lady and the tramp with the spaghetti made into 3d would be great.

I would have loved to see the princess bride and giant head animal from the muppet movie added. Plus a scene from empire of luke and vader fighting .