Lights, Camera, Action!: A Blue Sky, Armchair Imagineered Redesign of Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park

Walt Disney Studios

Walt Disney World has a Walt problem… by which I mean, the resort is at once eager to nominally lean on Walt’s quotes and imagery to contextualize things like EPCOT, decorate construction walls, and posthumously approve changes because of a thing he once said… but at the same time, Walt Disney World seems reluctant to discuss the real Walt Disney. Surely, part of that is Walt’s own resistance to becoming a mascot. (The “Partners” statue was only added to Disneyland after his death.)

But a park that begins and ends in a historic, idealized Hollywood feels like the perfect place to dive deep into Walt’s history and legacy in a really respectful and exciting way. Especially since I had a small piece of land between Metroville and the Toy Story Land space, right against the Hub, I felt that the perfect opportunity had presented itself.

Walt Disney Studios is a mini-land recreating a version of the studio building on Hyperion Ave. that the studio moved into in 1926. This is the studio that saw the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons up through the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (The success of Snow White is what prompted Disney to move its studio campus to Burbank in 1940. (Some of the Hyperion buildings made the move, but most were razed for a supermarket. That’s Los Angeles for ya!)

From the Hub, guests would enter the land through LILLIAN’S GARDENS – a lovely little plaza filled with Lillian Disney’s favorite flowers, roses.

Disneyland features “Partners” – a bronze statue of an older Walt and Mickey surveying their life’s work. A sort of “prequel,” California Adventure has “Storytellers” – a bronze statue of a young Walt and Mickey just arriving in California. For this land, I thought it would be nice to commission a new statue, “BROTHERS” – a young Walt and Roy standing proudly together before their brand new studio.

Entering the studio campus proper, I kept things very low key. Like Metroville, I wanted to include a relaxing, shaded green space – THE GREAT LAWN – which this park needs far more of. (This would also make a great viewing space for a continuous projection show on the flat, beige studio building at night, perhaps displaying clips from “Silly Symphonies” and early “Mickey Mouse” cartoons.

Adjacent in an art deco studio building (the ornate, soundstage-style structure on the right in the photo above) would reside WALT DISNEY PRESENTS… For many years, rumors have persisted that Disney was developing a “black box” dark ride – basically, an evolution of those “Sneak Peeks” that pop in and out of resort 3D theaters to give guests a promotional look at up-and-coming Disney films. On a “black box” dark ride, you could essentially turn a film trailer into a 2-minute ride-through experience, using projection mapping alone to give guests a “next generation” sneak peek in the parks.

I thought that “Walt Disney Presents” might be able to instead turn this experience into a walk-through. My idea was that the building’s first floor would be a permanent install – a “One Man’s Dream” style interactive, historic walkthrough focused on the art of animation from the ’20s to today. Then, the building’s second story would immerse you in whatever film Disney is promoting at the time. This second floor exhibit might switch out quarterly, with scenic pieces, props, projections, and even a dedicated meet-and-greet space swapped to promote up-and-coming animated films.

In the studio offices would reside THE WALT DISNEY STORY – a ride-through biopic of Walt’s life and career from his childhood to his dreams for the Florida Project. I feel like this might be the “Director’s Cut” of a ride I envisioned for my built-out California Adventure, but use the same style: flickering film reels, newspaper cut-outs, projection mapping, and television clips of Walt, perhaps narrated by someone like Julie Andrews.

I think such a ride – simple as it may be – is something both U.S. Disney Resorts are missing, and this park (and particularly, this small Walt Disney Studios land) feel like such natural places to help turn Walt from some mythological figure whose name is more corporate than personal into a real person whose real story is worth sharing as many times as needed.

The photograph above is actually one taken from the commissary at the Burbank campus that opened in 1940. But I love the idea of the STUDIO COMMISSARY as a quick service eatery in the land. Consider it a Golden Age equivalent of the park’s real life ABC Commissary – a ’90s label slap that, I guess, supposes you might run into Ellen Degeneres, Tim Allen, or Melissa Joan Hart. Taking its spiritual place in the park’s quick service lineup, this restaurant would instead highlight Walt’s “Nine Old Men” – the original animators he assembled roundabout the Snow White era.

In the real Disney’s Hollywood Studios, both the Metroville and Walt Disney Studios lands could theoretically exist today just by sacrificing Animation Courtyard (home to the closed Little Mermaid show, the existing “One Man’s Dream,” and the outright embarrassing Star Wars: Launch Bay) plus the accessory backstage facilities around it. If they were dropped into place today, Walt Disney Studios would connect up to Toy Story Land. But not in my Blue Sky version of the park! Instead, passing under the Hyperion Bridge would lead somewhere new…

Mickey’s Steamboat Springs

Background

Sorry to be a spoiled sport, but I just don’t like Toy Story Land. I know, I know. Those who like it say it’s cheerful; those who don’t say it’s cheap. They’re both right, of course. In Toy Story, Disney found the perfect Venn diagram overlap of a widely-appealing and universally-recognized IP, and one that can come in form of lightly-decorated, off-the-shelf carnival rides that can quickly and inexpensively add family capacity to under-built parks. I guess you’d call that a “win-win.”

And Hollywood Studios does need that capacity, as evidenced by multi-hour waits for an outdoor family coaster – one of the park’s few genuine anchor attractions for kids under 12. A park without supporting family flat rides and Lightning-Lane-free B-Tickets is (as evidenced by Hollywood Studios on a daily basis) a disaster. So even though I’m not a fan of Toy Story Land’s aesthetic or scale, it does represent something needed for the park. I just think there’s a better way to do it.

Build-Out

My replacement for Toy Story Land is Mickey’s Steamboat Springs – a living cartoon port city plucked from classic Mickey Mouse shorts. I imagine this as a “Toontown” equivalent for Walt Disney World – a whimsical waterfront village, harbor, and pier populated by Mickey and friends.

Here’s the fun part – I think this land could either go full 1920s immersive (a very bold proposal might be that the land is entirely in black and white, including black-and-white, pie-eyed, land-exclusive meet-and-greet characters, and that at night, projection mapping might wash the land in color) or you could fully use of the aesthetic of the newer, fantastic Paul Rudish shorts (whose style is used in Runaway Railway) to place these characters in a whimsical, wacky, wild port. I’ll let you choose your own adventure!

(A very bold proposal would be to literally build this land entirely in black-and-white, introducing land-exclusive early, pie-eyed, black-and-white versions of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto for meet-and-greets; perhaps as the sun sets, projection mapping could then see Steamboat Springs “colorized” before guests’ eyes; an equivalent of Cars Land’s sweet neon lightning moment each evening.)

Either way, arriving from Walt Disney Studios (appropriately, the place where these historic cartoons were drawn!), guests would first see the Steamboat Willie itself, bobbing to and fro in a new miniature “lagoon.” The path would split between the village and the pier.

The village – a sort of nautical counterpart to Toontown – would contain ROGER RABBIT AND THE CASE OF THE STOLEN JOKES. At one time, Roger Rabbit was meant to have his own land at the Disney-MGM Studios, so bringing a modified version of his Disneyland dark ride here feels like a shoe-in. When Roger’s filing cabinets of punchlines are stolen, he takes off into the steaming underbelly of Steamboat Springs to find them, taking us along for a wild ride.

Of course, the main attraction in town would be MICKEY & MINNIE’S RUNAWAY RAILWAY. Here, as in Disneyland’s Toontown, the ride would be accessed through a seaside nickelodeon theater. Don’t get me wrong – I actually love the Chinese Theater-to-cartoon-world transition, but Runaway Railway makes sense in the context of this land and frees up the Chinese Theater for a Great Movie Ride return, which is hard to argue with.

(Like I said, it’s also fun to imagine that if you opted for this land to be pie-eyed, 1920s-style Mickey & friends, could you do the same with Runaway Railway? Could each scene begin in black and white, then spring into color as the train rolls through?)

Meanwhile, the boardwalk across the lagoon is home to a live music BANDSTAND, the classic-character-themed GAMES OF THE BOARDWALK, and two classic, fanciful flat rides: the SILLY SYMPHONIES SWINGS and MINNIE’S MELODY-GO-ROUND – a cartoon carousel of animated horses, cows, and hay carts as an homage to the short “Get a Horse!”

Obviously, the only attraction in common with Toy Story Land is MICKEY’S MIDWAY MANIA! Now accessed from the boardwalk and placed in a copy of California Adventure’s Victorian ballroom facade. Mickey was intended to be the ride’s “host” before Toy Story snuck in, and setting this ride in the context of a cartoon boardwalk actually adds to its charm. Now, its classic carnival games would be hosted by animated characters like Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

The final area within Steamboat Springs would be the old docks, where Pete has set up shop. PETE’S CONSTRUCTION COASTER would be an off-the-shelf Vekoma suspended family coaster with an extended, enclosed, tire-driven section between the station and lift hill.

Basically, the ride would send guests through a brief dark ride section of ne’er-do-well Pete as he switches on a crane, rumbling to life and startling Minnie and Mickey as they enjoy a construction site picnic. With the mice caught in the madness, Pete would lift riders to the top of the ride’s hill, then send them sliding through demolished buildings, swirling around sky-high piles of rubble, and dipping beneath a wrecking ball, all while passing vignettes of Minnie and Mickey barely escaping disaster.

I chose a Vekoma suspended coaster for a few reasons. First, because it has a much, much smaller footprint than Slinky Dog Dash, packing a lot into a compact space. Sure, it’s a one of dozens of copies of the same physical ride layout, but – second – there’s something novel about the suspended ride and how exciting it would look swirling through steel girders and piles of rubble – a good way to “disguise” its supports with an in-universe purpose.

Wedged right up against the construction site, I salvaged one of Alien Swirling Saucers’ two turntables for PETE’S JUNKYARD JAMBOREE – a ride benefitting from its placement adjacent to the coaster’s demolition zone. This would obviously wrap the ride as toon junkyard cars and halve the ride’s capacity, but with two additional flat rides and two additional dark rides in the land, it feels like a worthy loss.

Obviously, Steamboat Springs is a massively built-out replacement for Toy Story Land, and there are many different stylistic directions that this Mickey-themed land could go – be it classic Mickey, ’90s Toontown Mickey, or modern Paul Rudish Mickey. Either way, this super-packed land would be a huge capacity boost for the park, and with more to do, more places to eat, and more places to shop than Toy Story Land fits in the same footprint.

Especially paired with Walt Disney Studios, it’s a one-two punch of classic Disney which I realize may be too much for some people. But as we round out this park’s second half, I think you’ll like the changes I’ve made and the new lands I’ve brought to this movie park…