Every bit as qualified as EPCOT Center’s best, the Great Movie Ride was indeed a wonder, and the “thesis” attraction for the Disney-MGM Studios. And brilliantly, it seemed to exist at a perfect crossroads between the park’s ideologies. Aboard the Great Movie Ride, were we seeing “behind-the-scenes” of how these Hollywood classics were made, stepping on set and viewing a practical timeline of innovation? Or were we entering into the movies, becoming immersed in the magic of cinema and seeing our favorite worlds from within? Or was it both? That’s the truly astounding thing about the Great Movie Ride – no matter from which angle you viewed the park, the Great Movie Ride could stand as its “thesis.”
But what happens when the park’s thesis changes?
In 2008, the “MGM” name was dropped from the park entirely (though the MGM film properties present within the Great Movie Ride were licensed separately and thus, remained). The renamed Disney’s Hollywood Studios was – even then – a park at a crossroads.
The era of the “studio” park was waning. Digital effects, DVD extras, and the Internet had more or less removed the mystique of moviemaking, the “untouchability” of stars, and the “glamour” of a park stocked with big, boxy, tan showbuildings. A new generation of parks (led by Animal Kingdom and Universal’s Islands of Adventure) made Disney’s Hollywood Studios look like a cheap cop out…
Which is why few were genuinely surprised when it was announced in 2015 that Disney’s Hollywood Studios would gain two brand new themed lands: Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Dispensing entirely with seeing “behind-the-scenes” or cashing in on the “studio” motif, these would be fully immersive, cinematic lands that let guests step into these films with all the magic and surrealism of Cars Land, New Fantasyland, or The Wizarding World of Harry Potter… no lighting rigs, soundstages, or production schedules in sight. Disney’s Hollywood Studios was changing. Would The Great Movie Ride change with it?
Curtains rise…
Despite the park changing around it, fans collectively breathed a sigh of relief when, in 2014, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) signed an exclusive programming deal with Disney and, as part of that agreement, took over sponsorship of The Great Movie Ride.
In 2015, TCM’s updates went into effect. First, a new pre-show and on-ride post-show were added, each featuring narration by TMC’s film presenter Robert Osborne. Unfortunately, Osborne’s disembodied voice (not exactly “familiar” to those outside of TCM’s classic film afficiando base) also took over a good portion of on-ride narration and exposition (as seen in the point-of-view video earlier). By taking away some of the interaction with our in-car tour guide, Osborne’s presence actually diminished the experience quite a bit, tantamount to a Jungle Cruise skipper having some of her best jokes taken by a pre-recorded spiel.
Still, at least TCM’s presence and funding seemed to signal that – despite the park changing around it – the Great Movie Ride would remain a fixture…
…and fall
The Great Movie Ride closed forever on August 13, 2017 – the same day as fellow Lost Legend: Universe of Energy at Epcot. (Coincidentally, both rides used the same imaginative moving theater ride systems, and their simultaneous closings would make the ride system extinct.)
The ornate doors of the Chinese Theater gained new signage advertising the next “blockbuster” the building would host: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Smartly, the new attraction would at least cast the Chinese Theater in the role played by its real-life counterpart: as a first-run iconic movie palace known for its lavish and star-studded red carpet premieres.
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway had its premiere March 4, 2020, inviting guests into the theater for the debut of a new Mickey Mouse short (stylized after the new, modern, acclaimed Mickey Mouse shorts series that plays on Disney Channel, developed by Emmy-Award-winning Paul Rudish) called “Perfect Picnic.”
Naturally, things don’t work out quite as nicely as intended, with guests being catapulted into the short themselves.
What follows is a zippy, laugh-out-loud journey through the kinetic, saturated, animated world of the new shorts with Mickey and Minnie racing along in an attempt to stop our ruaway train. Presented in “2½-D,” the ride is visually stunning, sensational fun, and a truly enchanting attraction and comes with its own singalong song, “Nothing Can Stop Us Now.”
In short, Runaway Railway is a musical, exciting, technologically-charged, and feel-good family attraction certain to be a fan-favorite for decades to come.
And though we lament the loss of the Great Movie Ride – the epic dark ride through the history of the movies – there’s no denying that somehow, Runaway Railway feels right in the Chinese Theater… so much so that, when a copy of the ride opens in Disneyland’s Toontown in 2022, it’ll feel a little odd to see it out of the Chinese Theater’s grand, central, iconic context.
Curtain call
The closure of the Great Movie Ride in 2017 might’ve conceptually been the last nail in the coffin of the “studio park” era for Disney, with each of the park’s additions since– from Galaxy’s Edge to Runaway Railway – serving as not-so-subtle hints as to the new direction. To that end, we have to look at Hollywood Studios the way Disney Imagineers seem to: a blank slate. Perfectly aligned with the IP-focused mandates of the 2010s and 2020s, this is a park begging to be populated by Disney properties – including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ABC, 20th Century, The Muppets, and more…
Not coincidentally, the park even got a fresh, new logo and branding in 2019, downplaying “Studios” and emphasizing “Hollywood”…
After more than 28 years, “it’s a wrap” for the Great Movie Ride. Was it infallible? Perfect? No. Yet in a way, you might say the Great Movie Ride was one of the few remaining attractions born of the EPCOT era – epic, educational, and massively-scaled in a way we’re unlikely to see from Disney again soon.
One after another, these Audio-Animatronic-packed ’80s attractions flicker out of existence, growing closer and closer to extinction. The Great Movie Ride was a treasured classic, and the epic 22-minute dark ride put it on par with EPCOT Center’s best… That’s what we’ll miss. And that’s why the Great Movie Ride lived up to its name for so long.
If you enjoyed your spectacular journey into the movies, don’t forget to visit our Lost Legends collection to set course for another closed classic.
Then, use the comments below to tell us: What do you think? Could the Great Movie Ride have realistically remained in a park determined to shed its “studio” roots? Was it so out of sync with the park’s new “immersive” lands that it had to go? Is a park themed to the movies really telling us the whole story if it only features Disney movies? Will Mickey and Minnie offer a worthwhile replacement? What does it mean that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is now losing yet another attraction… and this time, its thesis?