is a
Theme Park at
Walt Disney World Resort in
Lake Buena Vista, Florida ,
USA . The third park to open at the resort, it debuted on
April 30 ,
1989 . 135 acres (546,000 m&
2) in size, the park's theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of
Hollywood in the 1930s and '40s.
The only affiliation
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has to the park is via contracts that allow Disney to use the MGM name and
Lion Logo in marketing, and separate contracts that allow for specific MGM content to be used in
The Great Movie Ride .
On
August 9 ,
2007 , Walt Disney World President
Meg Crofton announced that the park's name will be changed to effective January
2008 . New Attractions, Experiences at Disney’s Hollywood Studios http://www.wdwpublicaffairs.com/ContentDrillDown.aspx?DisplayItem=d21bc3e8-024e-458c-babc-da017bc25c34 In announcing the name change, Crofton said, "the new name reflects how the park has grown from representing the golden age of movies to a celebration of the new entertainment that today's Hollywood has to offer—in music, television, movies and theater." Disney Announces Name Change For MGM Studios http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2007/8/9/mgm_studios_name_change.html
The idea which led to the Disney-MGM Studios began at its sister park,
Epcot . A team of Imagineers led by
Marty Sklar and Randy Bright had been given an assignment to create two new pavilions for the park's Future World section. The fruits of the brainstorming sessions were the
Wonders Of Life pavilion and the Great Movie Ride pavilion. The second of the two was to have sat between the Land pavilion and the Journey Into Imagination pavilion, and was to look like a soundstage backdrop, with a movie theater-style entrance in the middle. The actual attraction is very similar to the plans for the equivalent at Epcot, only, when newly-appointed CEO
Michael Eisner saw the plans for the pavilion, he requested that, instead of placing the ride in an already existing park, it should be surrounded by a brand new theme park which extended the showbiz, Hollywood and entertainment theme.
According to Internet urban legends, while Michael Eisner was working for
Paramount Pictures , he saw the early plans for the
Universal Studios park in
Florida (Paramount has always been closely associated with Universal, and Paramount provided much needed finance into the Universal Orlando Resort). After moving to Disney, he took some of these ideas and used them in early plans for the future Disney-MGM Studios. As Disney-MGM narrowly opened before Universal (as mentioned above the park and its resort had finance problems), it was seen that Universal copied Disney-MGM—or was it the other way around? Some reports say that, in a coincidence, both Universal and Disney planned studio/theme parks at the same time without knowing of the other company's ideas in the beginning and both rushed to finish their respective parks when they heard the news.
The park consists of five themed areas. Unlike the other Walt Disney World parks, the Disney-MGM Studios does not have a defined layout; it is more a mass of streets and buildings that blend into each other, much like a real motion picture studio would. The layout of the park, however, did have an interesting design characteristic. If you look at an older version of the Disney-MGM Studios map and turn it upside down (or look at an old aerial photo oriented due north), you will see a
Hidden Mickey in the overall layout of the park. Recent construction and changes to the park have eliminated much of this image.
The park's major attractions are listed below.
Hollywood Boulevard is lined with shops selling Disney merchandise and food. This is also the location of the "Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade." Michael Eisner, who had a major part in the park's creation ever since the earliest development, demanded the opening land operate on the same principle as
Main Street, U.S.A. —a street lined with shops and food, but in a style more fitting to the Studios.
The park's Backlot section includes the former New York Street set, which was part of the Backlot Studio Tour originally. Now known as the ''Streets of America'', it has been opened to foot traffic and includes additional set pieces representing
San Francisco and
Chicago .
]]
- Star Tours , a Motion Simulator ride set in the Star Wars universe.
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! , a live-action performance showing how movie stunts are done. The show re-enacts various scenes from '' Raiders Of The Lost Ark ''.
- ''Sounds Dangerous!'', a 3-D Audio presentation featuring comedian Drew Carey .
- Jim Henson's Muppet---Vision 3D , a 3-D Movie experience featuring Kermit The Frog , Miss Piggy and other Muppet characters.
- Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show , a behind-the-scenes look at how vehicle action sequences are created for films, adapted from a similar show at Walt Disney Studios Paris .
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure, an oversized playground based on the movie '' Honey, I Shrunk The Kids ''.
Mickey Avenue runs adjacent to the old Soundstages 1, 2 and 3. It is currently being re-themed and will reopen as "Pixar Place" along with Toy Story Mania in 2008.
- The Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour , showing how movie special effects are created. Guests see a movie scene set on the Special Effects Water Tank filmed using volunteers from the audience and various special effects. The audience sees this final sequence edited all together in an action sequence called ''Harbor Attack''. Guests board trams and are taken through ''Catastrophe Canyon'', to see fire and water effects, and are driven past large-scale movie props. The backlot tour used to include the facades of buildings used in shows, such as "The Golden Girls". They were torn down to make room for Lights, Motors, Action!.
- Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, a museum-like walkthrough attraction that explores the life of Walt Disney and his legacy through photos, models, rare artifacts and a short biographical film narrated by Julie Andrews as well as archival audio of Walt himself.
- Journey Into Narnia: Creating The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe , a walk-through interactive attraction featuring props from the movie and an appearance from the White Witch .
- The American Film Institute Showcase, a rotating exhibit of movie props and memorabilia.
- Toy Story Mania! , an interactive attraction inspired by classic carnival midway games and featuring popular Pixar characters, will open in 2008 .
- Voyage of The Little Mermaid, a live performance using puppets, lasers, movies, human actors, and water (mist). The show recreates the animated Little Mermaid movie, in an abbreviated form.
- The Magic of Disney Animation, a short presentation showing how animated films are made.
- Playhouse Disney Live on Stage!, a live performance featuring Disney children's television characters.
Sunset Boulevard was the first expansion to the Disney-MGM Studios, opening in July 1994.
attraction.]]
The Disney-MGM Studios has featured numerous forms of in-park entertainment throughout its history. During its early years, the park featured the "Star Today" program, with a daily celebrity guest. The celebrity would often be featured in a motorcade along Hollywood Boulevard, or would take part in a
Handprint ceremony at the Great Movie Ride's entrance, or even participate in an interview session.
At other times, Disney has imported characters that were not part of its own library of films and television shows. Some of these characters have included the .
Many of the park's costumed entertainers are not related to any particular film or TV show. Instead, they are live-action caricatures of figures from Hollywood's history. These characters, dubbed "streetmosphere" by Disney, appear at random throughout the park. Some of these characters include directors, talent scouts, young starlets or handsome leading men, and will often take part in streetside shows that will include audience participation.
Today, guests are treated to a wide array of characters and performers, many of which make their only Walt Disney World appearances at the Disney-MGM Studios. Some examples include characters from ''
Jojo's Circus '', ''
Little Einsteins '' and ''
Kim Possible ''. Similarly, characters from new Disney and Pixar animated features will make their Walt Disney World debuts at the park, such as those from ''
Meet The Robinsons '' and Pixar's ''
Ratatouille ''. Live musical acts, such as the
Cover Band Mulch, Sweat and Shears and the
A Cappella Quartet Four For a Dollar, will perform on the park streets or as pre-show entertainment at the larger shows.
Like the Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom parks, the Disney-MGM Studios also runs daily parades down Hollywood Boulevard. The "Disney Stars and Motor Cars" parade features the park's characters riding in specially decorated cars, themed to match their characters. Several times each day, the "
High School Musical Pep Rally" will travel Hollywood Boulevard before performing a live street show in front of the Sorcerer's Hat.
The Disney-MGM Studios hosts a number of events during the year that often draw thousands of fans to the park.
- '' ESPN The Weekend'' (late winter) features commentators from the Disney-owned cable sports channels as well as sports celebrities. The next event is scheduled for February 29 , 2008.http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/parks/specialEvents?id=ESPNSpecialEventPage
parade near the Sorcerer's Hat during Star Wars Weekends.]]
- ''Star Wars Weekends'' (June) bring " game was played where the game begins with Greedo answering questions and a Gamorrean Guard in the audience cheering him on, followed by a typically played game featuring all Star Wars questions.
- '' ABC Super Soap Weekend'' (November) pays tribute to the legions of fans of ABC's long-running Soap Opera s. Guests can meet stars from All My Children , One Life To Live and General Hospital . This year's event is scheduled for November 10 and 11 , 2007 .http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/parks/specialEvents?id=SuperSoapWeekendSpecialEventPage
- ''The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights'' (November-January) take over the Streets of America during the holiday season.http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/parks/specialEvents?id=OsborneLightsSpecialEventPage The display features over five million Christmas Lights on more than 350 miles of wire.
The Walt Disney Company's original concept of the Disney-MGM Studios was to operate it as a full fledged television and motion picture production facility, not just a theme park. When Disney-MGM opened in 1989, the studio/production facilities housed two major components, the first of which was
Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida , where Disney produced a number of projects, including ''
Mulan '', ''
Lilo & Stitch '', ''
Brother Bear '', and sequences from other
1990s -early
2000s Disney animated features. The second, larger, component was Walt Disney Studios Florida, which consisted of three soundstages used for various Disney projects including
The Disney Channel 's ''
Mickey Mouse Club '' and ''
Adventures In Wonderland ''. Several third party productions also used the Studios, including ''
Superboy '' (first season only, from 1988-1989), ''
Thunder In Paradise '', one season of ''
Let's Make A Deal '', special broadcasts of ''
Wheel Of Fortune '' and airplane interior sequences for the feature film ''
Passenger 57 ''. In addition, a number of music videos and several tapings for
World Championship Wrestling were also shot there. Even The Post Group had a Florida-based post-production facility located on the Studio lot throughout the 1990s. All these production and post-production facilities were constructed to be an integral part of the theme park's Backstage Studio Tour as well.
During the closing credits of the ''Mickey Mouse Club'' (later, ''MMC'' in its final seasons) and ''Adventures in Wonderland'', the lit Disney-MGM water tower appeared on the screen and one of the cast said, "(insert show title here) was taped at the Disney-MGM Studios at the Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Florida." Disney management (including CEO
Michael Eisner ) decided to downsize Disney's Florida operations by closing the animation studio, laying-off personnel and then moving the operations to the main animation studio in
Burbank, California .
A radio studio is also located on the lot, appropriately behind "Sounds Dangerous". It original housed the first children's radio network
Radio Aahs which rented the studio. Later, Disney founded
Radio Disney and essentially forced Radio Aahs out of business. Radio Disney decided it was no longer profitable to operate in Florida so they moved all of their shows from the Disney-MGM Studios to the Radio Disney headquarters in
Dallas, Texas and the once bustling Disney Studios Florida radio studios are now used as remote studios for radio shows that are visiting Disney or the Orlando area and need a facility to broadcast from.
In
1988 ,
MGM/UA filed a lawsuit against
The Walt Disney Company claiming Disney violated a
1985 licensing agreement by operating a working movie and television studio at the Florida theme park. Disney later filed a countersuit, claiming that MGM/UA and MGM Grand had conspired to violate Disney's worldwide rights to the MGM name in the theme park business and that MGM/UA would harm Disney's reputation by building its own theme park at the
MGM Grand hotel and casino in
Las Vegas, Nevada .
On
October 23 ,
1992 , Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe ruled that Disney had the right to continue using the Disney-MGM Studios name on film product produced at the Florida facility, and that MGM Grand had the right to build a Las Vegas theme park using the MGM name and logo as long as it did not share the same studio backlot theme as Disney's property. Variety.com, ''Disney, MGM winners at trial's end'', October 26, 1992
The 33-acre
MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park opened in
1993 at the Las Vegas site and closed permanently in
2000 .
Currently, Disney is contractually prohibited from using the ''Disney-MGM Studios'' name in certain marketing contexts like the free Walt Disney World vacation-planning kit; in those instances the park is called ''The Disney Studios''.
On August 9, 2007, Meg Crofton, president of the Walt Disney World Resort, announced that effective January 2008 Disney-MGM Studios will be renamed Disney's Hollywood Studios.
As with any amusement or theme park, older attractions are sometimes renovated or removed.
- ''Superstar Television'' was an interactive stage show where guests could re-enact famous scenes from television history. Using Chroma-key technology, the on-stage guests would be shown on TV monitors in the theatre appearing opposite famous celebrities. For example, a female guest would play Ethel Mertz alongside Lucille Ball's Lucy Ricardo in the famous candy factory scene from '' I Love Lucy ''. In another example, a guest would appear on the set of The Tonight Show being interviewed by Johnny Carson . The theatre, now renamed "The ABC Theatre," stands empty, except for use during special events, such as Star Wars Weekends.
- ''The Monster Sound Show'' was another interactive stage show, this time involving sound effects. Guests could become volunteer Foley Artist s and add various sound effects to a short comedy film starring Chevy Chase and Martin Short . "Sounds Dangerous" now uses this theatre.
- ''The Magic of Disney Animation'' attraction originally allowed spectators to watch Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida artists at work on actual Disney productions. From behind glass panes, visitors were allowed to peer into a small section of the studio, aptly called the "fishbowl". At least one sequence from every WDFA film from '' The Rescuers Down Under '' to '' Home On The Range '' was produced in Florida; films created primarily at this facility were '' Lilo & Stitch '', '' Brother Bear '', '' Mulan '', and the Roger Rabbit shorts '' Roller Coaster Rabbit '' and '' Trail Mix-Up ''. WDFA Florida was shut down in January of 2004, after the release of ''Brother Bear.'' The attraction has since been renovated to include interactive games and exhibits, along with meet-and-greet areas for the Disney and Pixar characters.
- '' Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It! '' became one of the first attractions to make use of the former production soundstages. It was closed in 2006, and its soundstages are currently being renovated for Toy Story Mania, set to open in 2008.
- The current Playhouse Disney Live On Stage theatre was formerly known as the Soundstage Restaurant, a counter-service establishment that, for a time, was designed to look like a "live set" for the animated feature films '' Aladdin '' and Beauty And The Beast (1991 Film) , and before that the live action film Big Business .
Disney-MGM Studios has a sister park at the
Disneyland Resort Paris called the
Walt Disney Studios Park . Originally, a
Disney-MGM Studios Paris was to open in 1996, but plans were scrapped when the resort underperformed. Plans for a film-themed park were revived when the resort finally made a profit in
1995 .
The two parks share the same basic theme (the entertainment industry) and have even provided attractions to each other. The French park debuted with a Backlot Tour that included a version of Catastrophe Canyon, and later received a duplicate of Florida's Rock N Roller Coaster. For the Happiest Celebration on Earth in 2005, a state-side version of Walt Disney Studios' popular auto stunt show was built at the Florida park, now known as ''Lights! Motors! Action!''.
See Also: Incidents at Disney parks
The Disney-MGM Studios park has had its share of controversy, including the hospitalization of some guests, and at least one death. ''See
Incidents At Disney Parks for more information.''
