Image: Disney

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."

So, what happens when the park’s thesis changes?

Image: Disney

Therein lies the problem faced by Disney Parks fans. There’s no mistaking it. 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, safe). 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…

Image: Disney / Lucasfilm

Which is why few were 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. But these weren’t “behind-the-scenes” lands. No. They were fully immersive, cinematic lands that will let guests step into these films with all the magic and surrealism of Cars Land, New Fantasyland, or Mysterious Island… no lighting rigs, soundstages, or production schedules in sight.

Rise…

Image: Disney

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 another 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.

Image: Disney

 

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. In this case, guests will be invited 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. Once through the movie screen (in what's likely to be an impressive queue effect), guests will experience a “zippy, zany, out-of-control adventure” aboard Goofy’s train.

Image: Disney

Rather than an idling trip through Audio-Animatronic populated scenes narrated by a live host, Runaway Railway's premise of being “2½-D” is meant to imply that guests won’t need 3D glasses… but screens are likely to be the main medium on board on this first-ever dark ride themed to the Mouse himself.

We have no doubt that Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway will be a sleeper hit and a surprising must-see that fans clamor to have cloned at their local resort (it's coming to Disneyland's Toontown in 2022). Is it the right ride to inhabit Hollywood Studios' park icon? A good star for a park tied to the power of the movies? Would it have been smarter to place the ride in the long-abandoned Animation Building that currently houses the Star Wars Launch Bay exhibit that isn't destined to long outlive Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge's opening? We'll let you decide.

In 2019, the park even got a fresh, new logo and branding, downplaying "Studios" and emphasizing "Hollywood"… fitting, since remnants of its “studio” origins were quickly and purposefully disappearing. And if Disney’s Hollywood Studios is now becoming an immersive, Magic-Kingdom-style park of fully-realized fantasy lands… what role could the Great Movie Ride have played? A montage of old Hollywood hits (the most recent being Raiders of the Lost Ark… 35 years old!) has little purpose in a park supported by whatever blockbuster hits were currently topping the box office.

Curtain call

Now, after more than 28 years, it’s a wrap for the Great Movie Ride.

Was it infallible? Perfect? No. Despite its prominent placement and our assertion (which we stand by) that it was the park’s “thesis statement,” there’s a very real consideration that The Great Movie Ride was a sometimes-odd montage with nothing much to say about the movies.

Image: Disney

Still, it occurs to many Disney Parks fans that we’re unlikely to ever see another ride like The Great Movie Ride built again, and that’s a real loss. It seems that Disney is no longer in the business of epic, animatronic-heavy dark rides… they’re simply a relic of a bygone era, which means that as each flickers out of existence, the genre grows closer to total extinction. Especially as Disney pursues a method of operation closer to Universal (with IP-based dark rides whose lifetime popularities are measured in seasons, not decades), we expect most future rides to be screen-based… not necessarily a bad thing, but certainly a sad end to an era.

Speaking of eras, it seems that, with the closure of The Great Movie Ride, the end of Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the age of the “studio” park is in sight. But even if the “studios” aspect falls away in favor of stepping into the movies, doesn’t The Great Movie Ride still work as a foundation of film? How can a park claim to celebrate cinema without a tribute to the classics? Can a true “Hollywood” themed park exclusively showcase modern films owned by Disney and its subsidiaries?

Image: Disney

And perhaps we ought to mention... until Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway opens, Disney's Hollywood Studios has exactly six rides, putting it in absolute dead last in our surprising look at Disney and Universal Parks by Ride Count. Is a park with six rides worth the same price as Magic Kingdom or Epcot? That's a choice for guests to make.

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 In-Depth Collections Library to set course for another Lost Legend.

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?

Then, be sure to make the jump to our Legend Library to set course for another classic Lost Legend!