>A "Great" Ride through the Movies

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They announced information about the Fantasyland Expansion this past week. The plans they have for these new areas of Fantasyland look pretty neat. Before the Disney Hollywood Studios was built, Epcot was undergoing some expansion and one of the pavilions they were going to add, was a movie pavilion. This of course became so big that it became its own park, Disney MGM Studios. When it first opened, this Park was very different than it is today. For one thing it was a working movie studio. Another thing was that

they didn’t really have any attractions, just shows to go see. The only two attractions they had were the Backlot Tour, and the Great Movie Ride. The Great Movie Ride was found in what would have been considered the Park’s weenie when it first opened, a replica of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. (Every one of the Disney parks has a weenie, a place that the eye finds and you walk toward when you first enter the park). The Great Movie Ride is still found in the Chinese Theater, although the Park’s weenie is now the Sorcerer’s Hat. If you haven’t been on the Great Movie Ride, it is something that you should ride. Even the queue pays homage to Hollywood’s history.

As you walk through the queue, there are props from different movies such as a carousel horse from Mary Poppins. When you get further into the queue, you actually walk into what looks like an old time movie theater. As you wind your way through the line, they show openings and previews from some of the greatest movies through history, and some that weren’t so great.

Once you get to the front of the line you are ushered into a long movie theater row. When everyone is seated, these rows make up your ride vehicle. Your

Tour Guide, who states they are the biggest movie buff ever is very excited to get you on your way into the “World of the Movies”. You start out going through some of the all time great musicals with a large tip of the hat to Mary

Poppins. You then ride into a dark area in a bad part of town. Here you can hear the soundtracks for some great James Cagney Movies and there are gangsters all around. Your ride vehicle gets high-jacked by one of the mobsters during a shoot out. (For a thug, he’s pretty good at knowing how to drive the row of movie seats.) He takes you into the scene of a Western, where you will see the Duke himself, John Wayne. From the Western, you move into a scene from Alien, which is a little creepy. Your Tour guide joins you again, during the next scene when they “get rid of” the Mobster that had high-jacked you earlier.

Overall there are 59 audio-animatronics figures. With many of them showing up in a tribute to the Wizard of Oz. There are also tributes to horror movies, Tarzan and one of the greatest scenes ever in the movies, the Airport scene from Casablanca. This scene though is home to an urban legend that isn’t true, but does have a neat explanation. The legend says that the plane used in this scene is from the movie, Casablanca. It is not. However, there is some Disney Imagineering Magic that comes into play here. The front of the plane that is used is a full sized Lockheed Martin plane, which Disney bought to use in the attraction. The backend of this plane is over in the Magic Kingdom. It can be found on the Jungle Cruise, near the African elephants. It is actually referenced by the boat captains when they talk about how they got their jobs as boat skippers.

There is some other Imagineering Magic as you go through the attraction, also. In the Indiana Jones room, there are hieroglyphs of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, R2-D2 and C3PO. And when you first stop in the crime neighborhood, during the shoot-out, the license plate on the car that rides past you makes reference to the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, which happened on

Feb. 14, 1929. The Plate number is 021-429. There are also a few Hidden Mickeys throughout the ride, but my favorite is in the clouds in the one scene.

Some people don’t think much of the Great Movie Ride, and others have never been on it as they think it isn’t anything spectacular, but in the middle of the summer, late in the afternoon, this is a wonderful attraction to visit. Not only is it fun and the ending film montage outstanding, but it is a twenty two minute ride through an air-conditioned building that houses some of the greatest movie scenes of all time. I recommend it, if you haven’t been on it and if you have, go through it again and look for the extra magical details that the Imagineers added for your enjoyment.

>A Great Shot.

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 With Twitpics, Facebook photo albums, and text messages with a picture, it is so easy to share a picture of even a video with a friend or loved one. When you go to Walt Disney World, you could spend all day sending pictures to people. Of course any picture from Walt Disney World can make for a Magical Experience and help you remember your trip months and even years later, But if you are a new visitor to Disney, what picture should you take and where should you take it? There are some places that everyone gets a picture at, in front of Cinderella Castle, with Spaceship Earth behind you while you are looking at the World Showcase, in front of the Tree of Life, and on Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Sorcerer’s Hat. But there are some really great places that many people don’t get pictures at because they don’t know about them or rush by
 them. So, today I offer the Unknown Magic of the Other Great Places to get
Pictures.

One of my favorite places to have a picture taken is not in a park. It is in the Polynesian Resort’s Grand Ceremonial House. As you walk into this great building, you are transported into a tropical paradise. The lobby even smells tropical. But the most wonderful object in the building is the waterfall in the middle of the room. This is such a great place to take a picture.

Another great spot to get a picture without going into a park is at the ticket and transportation center. They have topiaries there of the Disney Characters that slowly spin. They are in planting areas that have seats all the way around them. They make for a very neat picture.

Besides the places listed above, there are wonderful Unknown places to take pictures and make Magical Experiences, in the parks. In the Magic Kingdom, some of the best places to get a picture for first time visitors are in front of the attractions. The problem with this is that you probably won’t be able to get a clear picture with only your family in it. So, instead of in front of the attraction, try getting a picture with some part of the attraction that is out of the way; for example, at Splash Mountain, take the picture near the big Splash Mountain Pole or even after the ride at the Brer’ Rabbit Sign, where he is all wet. A picture here will remind you of how wet Dad got on that ride and how you all laughed about it for a few hours.

If you have your little Princess with you, a great place is at the Cinderella Fountain or the Cinderella Wishing well. The Fountain is found behind the castle, and the wishing well is off one of the side paths that leads to the castle and is near where the meet and greet for the Tangled Characters is. Both of these Cinderella themes are great places for a picture with your daughter even if she isn’t wearing her Princess dress. Of course any of the places where you can get the Haunted Mansion or Space Mountain in the Background are great and in the queue for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, if you can get a picture with Buzz it’s kind of fun.

Over in Disney Hollywood Studios our favorite place to get a picture is in Toy Story Midway Mania! There are quite a few neat places throughout the queue to get a picture of your family or children, but the best of them is in front of Mr. Potato Head. If you haven’t been through this attraction, I’ll share a secret about it with you; there is a rather large Mr. Potato Head Animatronic figure that talks to you as you are in the queue. He actually interacts with the crowd and tells jokes and makes comments. As you pass by him, there is a space where you can stop and get a picture with him.

Following a close second to this is getting a picture of your kids putting their hands in Mickey or Goofy or Donald’s hands in the cement in front of the Great Movie Ride. This is just a fun little thing to do when the kids are younger that can make for a great picture and a Magical Experience and most people just walk right by the castings in the cement without giving them a second thought. Other great places are on the Streets of America, with San Francisco in the Background and anywhere around the Muppet Theatre.

In the Animal Kingdom, there are so many different little paths and wooded areas that you can take great nature pictures of your family, but great places to get pictures are in the Tree of Life, while waiting for it’s tough to be a Bug and with Mount Everest in the background before you get too close to it.

In Epcot, there are many neat spots to get a picture; with the trolls in Norway, on the steps of the pyramid in Mexico, or even in front of the statue outside Mission Space. But some of the ones that get overlooked are my favorites. Outside of the Seas with Nemo and Friends there is a wonderful display, that has Nemo and his friends in it, this is a wonderful place to get a picture.

One of my favorite pictures we have taken in Epcot comes from Great Britain. There are English phone booths off to the side of the main walkway around the World Showcase. These are neat to get a picture in. We recreated this Magical Experience of my son from years ago, this past summer when we were in Epcot.

A place that is often overlooked is in Canada. There are some great Totem Poles that can make a great background for a family picture.

One of my favorite pictures we have of my wife and I in Disney comes from Morocco. As you walk around inside the Moroccan pavilion, there is a place where you can sit and get your picture taken, that has a street scene behind you. The street scene is from the Aladdin movie, it is very neat to have this as a background.

So, now you know, there are some great places to take pictures, which are Unknown Magical places. To create these Magical Experiences that you can treasure forever, you just have to keep your eyes open and your camera handy. You never know, you may even find a great picture just walking through the parking lot.

>Explosive! Endings

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Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show started in Disney Hollywood Studios in 2005, as part of the 50 year celebration of Disneyland opening. It was originally a show in Disneyland Paris. When this attraction first came to Walt Disney World, we were in Disney that summer. My son to be, (if you haven’t read his story, go over to Growing Up Disney  and take a look) loved cars and everything to do with them, so of course we had to go see this stunt car show. We all liked it and I think it still registers as one of his favorite Magical Experiences from our first trip to Disney together. This show is not really an attraction per se, but it does have a Fantastic Finish. This past week I wrote about some of the Fantastic Finishes in the Magic Kingdom. Throughout the rest of the Walt Disney World Resort, there are other attractions that have Fantastic Finishes like the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. Some of the attractions have calm endings, some wet and some you need to recover from, but over in Disney Hollywood Studios, not only are the Finishes Fantastic, but like the stunt show, they are Explosive! Today’s Unknown Magic is the Explosive! Endings in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

If you have never seen the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, I will not ruin the show for you, but as I said this ending is Explosive! All of the action that takes place during the rest of the show culminates with an exciting chase scene that ends with pyrotechnics and loudness. If you go with younger children, you may need to have them cover their ears as the car comes out of the big building. If you have a child that loves cars this is a really great place to create a Magical Experience.

The Children may also have to cover their ears throughout the show at the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. This show features many explosions as they retell the story of the Indiana Jones’ Saga. They do ask for volunteers from the audience for this show, you may get lucky enough to be in the show here.

Another place where the ending is awesome and kind of Explodes with sound and sights is at the end of the Great Movie Ride. If you haven’t been on this attraction, the ride winds through some of the greatest movies of all time. Everything from the Wizard of Oz, to the Alien Saga is represented. There are two different versions of this ride, but both end up at the same place, in front of a huge movie screen, kind of like a very large drive-in movie screen. When both groups that went through the attraction get here they stop your ride vehicle and starting with what seems like the beginning of movie making, show you clips of movies from the last hundred years or so. It is very neat not

 only to see the movies they are showing, but to hear people try to guess which movies they are and who the actors are. This is one of my wife’s Magical Experiences as she likes to see the movies and actors at the end of this ride.

The best explosion in the Disney Hollywood Studios may take place at the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, but the funniest is at Muppet Vision 3-D. The show moves along with the one character being told that he is in the way and throughout the show all he is trying to do is help. He gets very upset and decides he will leave the show. As the other Muppets try to find him, they think they come under attack, at this pointy the whole show Explodes into Mayhem and the Muppet Theatre get a little redecoration. There are bombs and cannon blasts and a whole lot of craziness, but in the end, everyone come

out of it ok. At the very end of the show, after the biggest cannon goes over your head, look behind you at the back wall of the theatre for a special Unknown Magic that many people miss.

So, now you know, there are not just Fantastic Finishes in Disney Hollywood Studios, there are Explosive! Endings that can help your family to have Magical Experiences.

>The Magic is in the Details, part II

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When I wrote “The Magic in the Details” a little less than a month ago, it probably shouldn’t have had that title. It should have been called the Magical Details in Epcot or something to that effect, because the whole article was about Epcot. So, today’s post will be sub-titled, the Magical Details in Disney Hollywood Studios.
Disney Hollywood Studios has some neat details, like the license Plates on the cars in Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, spelling out messages like H8TRFFC, BUHBYE and 2FAST4U. Other great details can be found in Toy Story Mania’s queue. The idea that you are in Andy’s room is wonderfully brought back to you time

and time again with the props all around you as you are waiting for the ride. Things like the nightlight, you would find in any kids room, just inside the entrance to the attraction. But these are details that everyone sees and notices. The Unknown Magics in Disney’s Hollywood Studios are the Magical Details that you need to slow down and look for, that many people miss.

Little Magical Details like when Mulch Sweat and Shears, the landscapers that rock out during their break, start to play on the back of the truck, inside the cab of the truck, there is a Gene Simmons Kiss Mask. Or the Detail that The Poster that says “Come Together @your Library” on the door of the Public Library that they are playing in front of is an actual American Library Association Poster from a National Library Week. The Disney Imagineers are wonderful at adding details that would make things seem more real and these two help you to think you are on a real street, not a backstage, in Hollywood Studios.

Another detail that can lead to Magical Experiences is the handprints outside of the Great Movie Ride. There are some of the Greatest Actors and Actresses of all time and if you take the time to look, you may find your favorite ones. If you are really into the Televison and its Stars, you can also check out The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame Plaza. This Plaza has bronze busts of Television Legends. It is a pretty neat place to take a picture.

A really great detail that most people miss is the traffic sign, at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Prospect Ave. The traffic sign is a working 1930’s traffic

sign. Instead of changing red to green, it changes from stop to go. It adds to the authenticity of the setting on Hollywood Boulevard.

My favorite Magical Details in Disney Hollywood Studios come in the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theatre Restaurant. For anyone that has never been, this is one of those Disney Advance Dining Reservations that you want to make soon after you figure out your itinerary for your trip. It is always crowded, but it isn’t because the food is wonderful, it’s because it is such a neat place to eat. What makes it so neat is, that it’s a restaurant set up as if you are eating in a car at a drive-in movie back in the 1950’s. The tables are actually cars and the entire restaurant is set up so you think you are outside under the stars watching movies. They actually don’t show the entire movies, what they do is show shorts and trailers from different movies. It is a very cool place. Some of the great details that make it an even more Magical Experience are the stars that twinkle above you as you are eating or the “refreshment stand” at the back of the “yard”. Another neat detail is the fact that all the “cars” have their parking lights on.

Some other great details that make for a Magical Experience are found at the Character meet area for Lightning McQueen and Mater. They actually are found at Luigi’s Casa Della Tire, behind the back stage door of the Muppet Theater and off of the streets of America. The details added to this character meet are very cool. They actually have the cars making sounds and the Casa Della Tire building is a pretty good replica of Luigi’s from the Movie, Cars.

So, now you know, just like Epcot, there is an Unknown Magic in the Details at Disney Hollywood Studios. You just have to slow down and take the time to enjoy them.