The Great Movie Ride was a dark ride located at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, United States. Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, the attraction employed the use of Audio-Animatronic figures, practical sets, live actors, special effects, and projections to recreate iconic scenes from twelve classic films throughout motion picture history. The attraction—which debuted with the park on May 1, 1989—was located inside the park's replica of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, one of Hollywood's most famous movie palaces.
The Great Movie Ride was originally developed by Disney as a cinema-themed pavilion for the Future World section of Epcot. Under the direction of Michael Eisner and Marty Sklar, the concept was expanded into a new theme park devoted to motion pictures that included the dark ride as its centerpiece. To accurately represent a broad spectrum of American film, Disney also incorporated films from outside of its own library, mainly through its licensing agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and later Turner Entertainment. Turner subsidiary, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) sponsored the attraction for the final two years of its operation, with TCM film historian Robert Osborne serving as the attraction's host during that time.
The Great Movie Ride closed on August 13, 2017, becoming the park's last opening-day attraction to permanently close. The attraction was replaced by Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, which still uses the Chinese Theatre replica.
History The Great Movie Ride directly inspired the creation of Disney's Hollywood Studios. In a Walt Disney Imagineering book, it was revealed that The Great Movie Ride was originally planned as the main attraction in a show business themed pavilion at Epcot, which was to be called "Great Moments at the Movies". However, the newly assigned Disney CEO Michael Eisner and WDI president Marty Sklar decided the idea was strong enough to lead an entire new theme park. The idea for the ride was expanded, and the Disney-MGM Studios went into official development. The attraction used the likenesses of numerous living and deceased actors to be recreated as audio-animatronics. Chad Everett provided the voice for John Wayne's figure at the behest of Wayne's family. Lee Marvin's inebriated character of Kid Shelleen from Cat Ballou was planned to be included in the Western segment but was replaced with one of Clint Eastwood, as Marvin's family believed that particular portrayal was inappropriate to showcase.
Plans called for The Great Movie Ride to be the main attraction for the Disney-MGM Studios Europe theme park, which was scrapped due to the early financial difficulties of the Euro Disneyland Resort. Years later when the resort began turning profits, a show business themed theme park went into development again, and the Walt Disney Studios Park opened in 2002 at the Disneyland Resort Paris, although minus The Great Movie Ride. A show called CinéMagique was built in lieu of the ride due to claims by Disney management that the French preferred shows to ride-through attractions.
Three separate attempts were made by Walt Disney Imagineering to bring The Great Movie Ride to California. First were plans to incorporate the attraction into the proposed “Disney-MGM Studio Backlot” project, a film studio themed retail and entertainment district that was planned (but ultimately never built) for downtown Burbank, California during the late 1980s. Several years later, plans called for the ride to serve as the centerpiece of the proposed Hollywoodland at Disneyland, which would have been added to the park during the planned Disney Decade in the 1990s. Due to budget cuts, however, Hollywoodland was canceled. Later, plans called for the ride to be built as part of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area of the Disney California Adventure theme park at the Disneyland Resort. But budget cuts in the park's original development planning forced the ride's projected cost to be spent on smaller, original and less expensive attractions.
An early concept was supposed to be called Great Moments at the Movies, presented by Sears Roebuck & Co. The Walt Disney Company and the retailer (then the largest in the world) announced a 10-year joint marketing and licensing agreement on November 19, 1987. Sears would sponsor the park's signature attraction and a Hollywood Showcase Store. However, these plans were scrapped before the park's opening. Coca-Cola stepped in as the attraction's sponsor, and it became The Great Movie Ride to reflect it was a ride, not a movie, despite being housed in a replica of a famous movie theater.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Disney was interested in purchasing Jim Henson's Muppets. Walt Disney Imagineering developed a Muppet-themed land for Disney-MGM Studios called Muppet Studios. The land was to feature two main attractions; one was Muppet*Vision 3D and the other was The Great Muppet Movie Ride, a parody of The Great Movie Ride featuring Muppet characters such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Gonzo re-enacting scenes from famous films such as Frankenstein and Peter Pan. However, after Henson died, the deal fell apart and Disney cut back on the Muppet-themed area to just Muppet*Vision 3D.
On the park's opening day, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Roger Rabbit and other Disney characters placed their signatures, footprints, and handprints in front of the façade of the Great Movie Ride.
Unlike many Disney dark rides that feature separate embarkation and debarkation areas, the Great Movie Ride had only a single combined unloading and loading area. The last people to exit the vehicles often passed the next group of guests waiting to board the vehicles. At the time the ride was designed (the mid to late 1980s), it was common throughout the theme park industry to have all major rides exit into a store selling merchandise associated with the attraction. The Great Movie Ride, however, did not exit directly into a store and instead allowed guests to directly exit back outside into the park.
In 2014, as part of an exclusive programming deal with Disney, Turner Classic Movies agreed to become the sponsor of the attraction. The attraction underwent a refurbishment in 2015, with the addition of a new pre-show and post-show hosted by Robert Osborne, who also provided onboard narration to the ride. The changes were unveiled on May 29, 2015.
On July 15, 2017, it was announced that The Great Movie Ride would be permanently closed in order to make room for its replacement, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. The attraction had become outdated over the years as the animatronics were starting to age, in addition to Disney's Hollywood Studios changing its theme from show business to popular Hollywood movies. Last rides were given at 9:30 PM on August 13. By the next morning, the signs were taken down and a photo opportunity of Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway was installed near the former exit.
There are three references in Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway that pay tribute to The Great Movie Ride. A poster that says The Great Moving Ride can be found in the carnival scene between Horace's popcorn stand and Donald's hot dog stand. The tornado scene contains a mailbox with the iconic No Place Like Home quote. Prior to the factory scene, an alley cat sound effect can be heard in the back alley which was also used in The Great Movie Ride.
Modifications
Footlight Parade The first sequence of the ride, Footlight Parade, was plagued with engineering and technical problems from the beginning. When the ride was newly opened, the Footlight Parade segment was different from what it later became. The entire portion following the neon lighted entrance was fleshed out. All the walls leading up to, around, and beyond the "cake" were painted in art deco style patterns as seen in "By A Waterfall". Approximately three "diving boards" with three mannequin "dancers" wearing capes were perched on the right-hand side of the wall as you enter the ride segment. The five-tiered "cake" was prominently displayed at a left-hand turn. It was in the open air illuminated with an array of animated lights. During this pass through the Footlight Parade segment, riders would hear a "loop" of "By A Waterfall" (a song featured in Footlight Parade) lasting approximately 40 seconds as bubbles fall from the ceiling.
For approximately the first year, the "cake" actually rotated and was adorned with water jets as seen in the film. Allegedly, the rotating "cake" mechanism was constantly breaking down, causing frequent repairs and downtime. In addition, the water pumps would constantly fail, flooding the ride path. Park operations believed it was much cheaper and less problematic to leave the "cake" in place with lighting effects used to provide what Imagineers term as "kinetics" to the segment.
When it closed, this segment was still the "opening act" of The Great Movie Ride, but significantly toned down. The guests entered a segment with its lighting significantly diminished. The outer walls were dark with practically no art deco recreations from the film set. The "diving boards" had been replaced with art deco style wall sconces. Instead, guests passed through a deco inspired archway to find themselves facing a large scrim-lined proscenium decorated with gray/blue clouds and remnants of the art deco set designs. Throughout the segment, three large rotating projections of Busby Berkeley-style kaleidoscope dance sequences appeared on the scrim (from By A Waterfall, Dames, and Shadow Waltz). These disappeared to expose the "cake," which was behind the scrim and was simultaneously illuminated with washes of light and reflective water effects. The caped dancers on diving boards were located to the far left of the "cake" behind the scrim. The art deco style wall panels still resided behind the "cake". The looping song segment and bubbles remained.
The Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz scene did not have major structural changes, but Imagineering replaced the original A-100 Wicked Witch audio-animatronic character with a newer-design figure utilizing Sarcos technology. The Sarcos-equipped audio-animatronics are capable of a great deal more movement possibilities than the original "limited animation" figure designs and can move much more quickly. As a result, they were made much more lifelike.
Attraction
Theater facade
The Great Movie Ride was located inside a recreation of the famous Hollywood landmark, Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The park's Chinese Theatre is a full-scale replica of the original building; Imagineers used the original building's 1927 blueprints in the construction of the park's theatre. At the time the attraction opened, the actual theater's name was "Grauman's Chinese Theatre" and later "Mann's Chinese Theatre", however, the park's proper name for this version of the building is simply "The Chinese Theater". From 2001 to 2015, the theatre façade was obscured from view (when looking from the park's entrance), when the Sorcerer's Hat was situated directly in front of the attraction. The Chinese Theatre facade and courtyard remained after the attraction's closure and was retained for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway.
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