Things have finally started to fall into place within The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios following the partnership arrangement between TCM and Disney that was announced in November of 2014.
Not only has the exterior and interior changed to reflect the new partnership in term of new signage but Disney have also made a few adjustments to some of the more ageing elements of the attraction.
Changes to the pre-show and queue
As someone that has been on The Great Movie Ride many, many times, one of the element of the attraction that I disliked the most was the repetitive nature of the pre-show when queuing to get onto the ride itself. This is made a lot worse if you happen to be waiting during a time when the park is busy as you have to watch (or at least listen) to the show several times over before being allowed through the double doors onto the ride.
Disney have recognised this and have replaced the pre-show movie with one that is longer and takes guests through a range of different movie genres. The show features host Robert Osborne who describes the scenes playing.
Disney have also added digital movie posters throughout the queue that alternate and give guests something else to look at when they are waiting for the main attraction.
A brand new ending montage
Another repetitive part of the attraction is the montage of clips from some of the great movies that appears in the attractions finale. This has been replaced by a new montage (with some of the old favourites still present) and features clips from recent movies such as last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy (actually rated my personal top favourite movie of last year).
The fantastic guys at WDWmagic.com have already produced an awesome video of all of the changes, also included is a photo opportunity at the end of the attraction.
So what hasn’t changed?
It is important to state that there have been absolutely no changes at all to any of the scenery or audio animatronics that are present on The Great Movie Ride. This for me has to be phase two for Disney in updating this attraction. While it is great to see some of the awesome classic movies come to life in front of you as you ride the attraction, it is looking a bit dated and some of the scenes could be better replaced with either better audio animatronics or indeed different movie scenes entirely.
I for one would like to see scenes dedicated to movies such as:
- Star Wars
- Marvel (although currently impossible with Universal holding the rights in Orlando
- More horror! (yes we have Alien and the mummies but imagine Freddy Kruger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers in animatronic form)
- A few more classics from Disney’s animated history. Disney have done so well with the Seven Dwarfs animatronics, imagine the possibilities with other characters!
- The Muppets (part of the original plan for MGM Studios was to include The Muppets take on The Great Movie Ride
So what do you think of these changes to the attraction and what would you like to see change next? Let us know in the comments.
Ryan has been attending theme parks since as long as he can remember and his first proper memory comes from when he was just three years old sitting in Main Street USA drinking a Nesquik milkshake from a carton while the piano was being played outside Casey’s Corner.
