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  • Welcome to TPMvids Disney beat where we talk about all things Disney. If this is your first

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  • Sound speed. Camera’s rolling. Aaaaand action!!

  • In 1989, Walt Disney World opened its third theme park at the resort, Disney-MGM Studios.

  • The park was designed to be a working film studio in addition to the theme park. Now

  • MGM’s affiliation with Disney was solely for Disney to use MGM name and lion logo in

  • marketing, and separate contracts allowed specific MGM content to be used in The Great

  • Movie Ride.

  • As you walk down Hollywood Blvd at the park, you can’t help but notice whats an exact

  • full scale replica of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Disney wasn’t able

  • to secure licensing rights to use the Grauman’s name, so the theatre is simply referred to

  • as The Chinese Theatre. The Chinese Theatre is the home to the Great Movie Ride which

  • was one of two original rides that opened with the park on May 1st, 1989, the other

  • being the Backlot Tour. With a ride time of approximately 22 minutes, The Great Movie

  • ride takes riders through iconic scenes from 12 classic films in motion picture history,

  • using animatronic figures, live actors, special effects and projections. At the D23 expo in

  • July of 2017, it was announced that The Great Movie Ride would close on August 13th, 2017

  • to make way for the first ever ride based on Mickey Mouse called Mickey & Minnie’s

  • Runaway Railway. So today were going to pay tribute to a great classic Disney ride

  • that is surely going to be missed at Disney Hollywood Studios. So here are the top 10

  • Great Movie Ride Secrets and Facts!

  • Number 10- Original Concepts The Great Movie Ride wasn’t always intended

  • to be an attraction at the formerly named Disney-MGM studios, it was actually meant

  • for Epcot. When Michael Eisner was appointed CEO of the Walt Disney Company in 1984, he

  • became very involved with Imagineering. He was presented with an idea for a Hollywood

  • studio themed entertainment pavilion in future world at Epcot. The pavilion was to feature

  • an attraction called Great Moments at the Movies, which would take riders on a movie

  • magic journey; sounds kinda familiar huh? The pavilion idea kept growing into a grander

  • idea until it became so big that it was able to be its own theme park.

  • It should also be noted that in 1982 Michael Eisner, who at the time was the CEO of Paramount

  • Studios, was approached by Universal to join the theme park project in Orlando, but Esiner

  • declined. While Esiner stepped into the CEO position at Disney in 1984, the Universal

  • Studios project was in the back of his mind. When he saw the ideas for the movie pavilion

  • at Epcot grow larger and larger this really pushed him to slap together an entire studio

  • theme park to rival the Universal Project in Orlando, and just like that The Great Movie

  • Ride found its home in Disney MGM Studios.

  • Number 9- Hollywood Handprints Like we said earlier, the Chinese Theatre

  • is the home of the Great Movie Ride and its an exact replica of what you would see in

  • Hollywood California, right down to celebrity foot and handprints in the cement of the theatre’s

  • courtyard. From 1989 to 1995 Disney-MGM studios would hold handprint ceremonies for celebrities

  • to leave their mark in the pavement. Now, every celebrity who's handprints can be seen

  • at Disney Hollywood studios can also be seen in Hollywood, California, expect for one person;

  • Audrey Hepburn.

  • So She attended a press preview of the park in April of 1989, and when she was creating

  • her hand prints, she began to cry. She was getting so emotional she said because no one

  • had ever asked her for her hand prints before, ever. Grauman’s Chinese Theatre got wind

  • of what happened and tried to invite Audrey to leave her prints in Hollywood, but she

  • declined. Now, Disney Hollywood studios is the only home of authentic Audrey Hepburn

  • handprints and this one of a kind piece of film history lives right in the park.

  • Number 8- The Footlight Parade This is The Great Movie Ride’s show building

  • and the track layout covers all 95,000 square feet of the building. As the ride begins you

  • travel out of the load area, under the neon lighted marquee and into the movie musical

  • segment. The first scene the ride vehicle pulls up to is The Footlight Parade; a 1933

  • film. Now the Footlight Parade scene on opening day was much different than what riders came

  • to know it as. When the attraction first opened, the five tiered cake could be seen rotating

  • with spraying replicating the scene from the film. It was all out in the open with an array

  • of lights dazzling the scene.

  • A year after the attraction opened, this scene started to experience some problems. The mechanical

  • rotating platforms kept breaking down and the plumbing from the water features on the

  • cake would cause the ride path to constantly flood. Park management thought it would be

  • less problematic if they discontinued the rotating cake and water features. So, the

  • cake became permanently stationary around 1992 and they would add a scrim in front to

  • help disguise that it wasn’t moving. Seeing as how this was the first show scene the ride

  • vehicle pulled into, the original incarnation was much grander than the bland non rotating

  • scrimed scene we were stuck with.

  • Number 7- Seal of Approval After the Footlight parade scene the ride

  • vehicle continues into the world of movie musicals, and you see the famous dancer, Gene

  • Kelly, featured in his most iconic role as Don Lockwood inSinginin the Rain”.

  • Now Disney had acquired licensing rights from MGM to have some of its film properties represented

  • in the ride, however, using the likenesses of famous actors also required licenses from

  • the celebrities or their estates. Apparently, the Imagineers wined and dined Gene Kelly

  • before showing him his audio animatronic. As soon he saw the figure he signed off immediately

  • and it was shipped off to Florida. Every other actor represented in the ride had to give

  • approval before the ride could make it’s official debut. If an actor had passed away

  • then a representative from the family would make the call, but not everyone approved right

  • away.

  • The family of late actor James Cagney was not happy with what he was originally wearing

  • in the gangster scene from "Public Enemy,” so the family donated Carney’s actual tuxedo

  • so he would appear moreclassy.”

  • Number 6- Show A and Show B After you pass Mary Poppins and Bert, the

  • ride vehicle heads into what’s called the underworld and this is where your experience

  • might be different from other guests. Now the Great Movie Ride has two different versions

  • known asShow A” andShow B” or you could call Show A the Cowboy Scene and

  • Show B the Gangster scene. A majority of people would probably only remember the Great Movie

  • Ride having the gangster shootout since show B was most commonly used. Show A takes place

  • in a Wild West bank robbery with the ride vehicle getting taken over by a bandit and

  • some really cool pyro of a bank catching fire.

  • Now when the park isn’t busy, only the gangster show B runs and you’d know this cause there’s

  • only one set of vehicles on the loading dock. If there’s two sets of vehicles on the loading

  • dock, the front vehicle will give you show A (the cowboy scene), and the back vehicle

  • will give you show B (the gangster scene). Using this diagram, well show you how the

  • ride would operate if both scenes were running in the same show. So vehicle A is riding along

  • the track, it moves a bit quicker to get ahead of vehicle B. It passes right through the

  • Underworld gangster scenes and parks in the Wild West Bank section, all while vehicle

  • B slowly moves into place for the Gangster shootout. Once vehicle A’s show is finished

  • it proceeds ahead and vehicle B also proceeds ahead, eventually going through the wild west

  • but doesn't stop.

  • Even when both shows are running Show A typically only shows up in one or two of the five sets

  • of vehicles through the queue, it was definitely considered the more rare show scene of the

  • ride. Now cast members would know which ride vehicle would be stopping for which scene

  • and if you wanted to see a particular one you could just ask the cast member and they’d

  • be able to seat you in the appropriate ride vehicle.

  • Number 5- Imagineer Crew Members The first scene you pass through after your

  • vehicle is taken over by the gangster or bandit is Alien which is one of the larger show scenes

  • on the ride. The Great Movie took many imagineers countless hours to construct and the Alien

  • scene pays homage to these imagineers. On the left hand side, there’s computer screens

  • that list crew members who are missing, but these crew members are really just the imagineers

  • and the roles they played during its construction of the ride. Its hard to make out the names

  • of these specific imagineers but you can make out the roles ofStill Programming the

  • Witchandinterior detail expert.” Its a neat little detail added to the ride.

  • Number 4- The Casablanca Airplane After passing through the jungle….hey Tarzan-

  • you would approach Casablanca. In the scene there’s a full size Lockheed Electra 12A

  • airplane along with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. When building and designing the Great

  • Movie Ride, Disney was looking for that exact model of the plane since it’s the model

  • used in the film. Disney ended up finding this airplane in the ownership of a man from

  • Hondo, Texas. Through the airplane’s serial number, they’d be surprised to learn that

  • it was in fact used in films during the 1940s, but despite Disney’s claims that this was

  • the actual plane from Casablanca, it wasn’t, since no real full size Lockheed Electra aircraft

  • was actually used in this scene of the film.

  • Warner Weiss, creator of Yesterland.com, has claimed that this plane Disney obtained could

  • have been used for insert shots in the film but not in the actual scene with Humphrey

  • and Ingrid. That plane was a scaled down model used on set. In the end, it created a good

  • buzz though for the marketing of MGM Studios at the time. And when you ride by youll

  • notice that only one half of the airplane was used on the Great Movie Ride. So where’s

  • the other half? Well it can be found on the Jungle Cruise at Magic kIngdom.

  • Number 3- True to Scale The Great Movie ride was home to over 50 audio

  • animatronics that brought many famous actors to life. Each actor’s animatronic on the

  • ride was true to scale expect for one, Humphrey Bogart. He was actually an inch shorter than

  • Ingrid Bergman in real life, but you can see here that he’s clearly taller than his female

  • counterpart. In the film world, it’s a common practice for actors to stand on raised platforms

  • to appear taller and thats what happened while filming Casablanca. The audio animatronic

  • is taller than Humphrey Bogart was in real life, and is the only animatronic from the

  • Great Movie Ride that is not the actual height of the actor.

  • And here’s another little fact about this scene: remember how we spoke before about

  • Disney needing a license to use the actors likeness? Well they also needed a license

  • to use the actors voice, so in the Casablanca scene Ingrid does not speak because her family

  • would not give Disney permission to use her voice.

  • Number 2- It’s a Twister! As you leave Casablanca, youre faced with

  • Sorcerer Mickey from Fantasia but what a lot of people don’t know was that this scene

  • was supposed to be the twister scene from The Wizard of Oz. At the time, MGM had only

  • given Disney the rights to use about 3 minutes of the film's audio. It included the Munchkin

  • song, the Wicked Witch’s dialogue, and a few lines of Dorothy discovering the Emerald

  • City. This didn’t include the additional tornado scene Disney wanted to use and they

  • were’t willing to pay more for these rights since building MGM studios was happening on

  • a very tight budget.

  • The kicker of all of this is that Disney had already built the Tornado scene. You can see

  • the tornado outline and how the wizard scene would have fit in here perfectly. So imagineers

  • went back to the archives of Disney films, found the scene from Fantasia and shoehorned

  • it into the already built set.

  • Number 1- The First Animatronic The final big show scene in the Great Movie

  • Ride is the Wizard of Oz. At the time the ride opened in 1989, the Wicked Witch of the

  • West animatronic was the most advanced audio animatronic built by Walt Disney Imagineering

  • to date. It was the first A-100 figure at any Disney Park.

  • Really is amazing how quickly and how life like the movements are of the figure. It can

  • move much faster and stay more stable. Its a figure that has the most movement in the

  • show. I think it has 17 different body functions. The next A-100 figure to be installed at Walt

  • Disney World was Captain Jack Sparrow in the update and refurbishment of Pirates of the

  • Caribbean. And, Pirates of the Caribbean was one of the

  • films represented in the finale montage of the Great Movie Ride, and just like that the

  • movie journey is over and a major Disney theme park chapter is closed. The great movie ride

  • will definitely be missed but won’t be forgotten. The new Mickey ride is said to take place

  • in The Chinese Theatre so at least the facade of this beloved attraction, and who knows

  • what else, should hopefully live on as a reminder of the once great attraction that was the

  • Great movie ride. Thats a wrap!

  • So which scene from the great movie ride will you miss the most. And what’s your opinion

  • on Disney replacing the Great Movie ride? Leave a comment bellow and start a conversation!

  • If you have any videos from the Disney Parks that you’d like to share with us to be used

  • in future videos follow the link in the description below.

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Welcome to TPMvids Disney beat where we talk about all things Disney. If this is your first

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