Goodbye to The Great Movie Ride

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  I love Hollywood Studios,  out of all 4 parks at Disney World, it is my favorite theme park.  Heck, I would go so far as to say that it is my favorite theme park.  That is why I own this shirt and this director Mickey plush.

And do you know why I love this park so much.  It is because of one ride, The Great Movie Ride. An Opening Day attraction that encompassed what Hollywood Studios used to be about.  The Great Movie Ride is easily in my top 10 of favorite Disney rides of all time.  I discussed this before but at D23, it was announced that The Great Movie Ride would be closing and would be replaced by this....

I know a lot of people are happy to have a Mickey Mouse ride and even moreso that it's based on the new shorts. I won't get into my opinion on the shorts here as that is what Another Mouseka-View is for, but when the announcement came, that The Great Movie Ride would be closing,  I was genuinely upset.  I know a lot of people like to chalk Disney Parks fan being upset by this news like this to us not liking change.  And there is a grain of truth to that but there is so much to it with The Great Movie Ride than that.  Because The Great Movie Ride is the sole reason that Hollywood Studios even exists as a theme park.  I'm not kidding.  To quote a big chunk of the Wikipedia entry.

The Great Movie Ride directly inspired the creation of Disney's Hollywood Studios. In a Walt Disney Imagineering book, it was revealed that The Great Movie Ride was actually going to be the main attraction in a show business themed pavilion at Epcot, which was to be called "Great Moments at the Movies." However, the newly assigned Disney CEO Michael Eisner and WDI president Marty Sklar decided the idea was strong enough to lead an entire new theme park. The idea for the ride was expanded, and the Disney-MGM Studios went into official development.

And this ties back into what was I saying about how The Great Movie Ride is the heart of what Hollywood Studios used to be as it was about the movies and experiencing them.  To quote Universal,  "Ride the Movies".   Well, that's what this ride did, and it gave you a history lesson on some of the greatest movies such as Mary Poppins, Alien, The Wizard of Oz, Fantasia, Footlight Parade,  and so many many more.  And seeing these scenes brought to life, in only the way that the Imagineers could was amazing. As you had the wonderful combination of movie magic and Disney magic.  And that was exciting.

 Reading this article from Matt Singer brought these emotions forward and made me realize how much I'm going to miss this ride as I started to get misty-eyed.  Has the ride seen better days?  Absolutely,  and I get that a refurb would cost more than Disney would probably want to spend on this ride but I am going to miss the hell out of this ride.   To quote my Top 6 Hollywood Studios Attractions list.

Each time, I go on this ride I fall in love with the art of cinema all over again. This is a beautiful tribute to classic films and if you ever get the chance to go to Hollywood Studios, I beg you to take the time to go on this ride. You may not love it as much as I do (I haven't found anyone that does) but you may understand my appreciation. At least for me, this is a MUST DO, whenever I go to Hollywood Studios. I've always held the belief that this beautiful wonderful ride is the heart of Hollywood Studios.

And this sums up why I have loved this ride for as long as I have and to lose it is just heartbreaking to me.  And sadly, the people that have never been to Hollywood Studios will never get to experience this ride.

It's hard to say goodbye and this isn't the first time that I've written an article like this as I did a similar one for Captain EO going away and while I like Captain EO, that was different.  That ride had already gone away and then came back.  As I said in the beginning of this article, this ride has been there since even before the park's conception.  Without this ride, there would not be a Hollywood Studios and to lose this ride feels like Hollywood Studios is moving further away from what it started out as.  And I know this goes back to what I brought up about change but it's just really hard to say goodbye.  But before I go, there is one other thing that I need to bring up, that I saw brought up by Robert Niles.  The Great Movie Ride much like The Jungle Cruise was a ride that was made by the cast member that you operating the ride as they could make or break the experience.

On The Great Movie Ride, the cast members got to be part of the show. Many attractions, such as Jungle Cruise and Disneyland's Storybook Land Canal Boats, require spieling. But GMR made its cast members a character within its performance, not just an observer commenting upon it, as CMs are in the Jungle and on other spieling attractions. Heck, on The Great Movie Ride, it was the cast member who got to be the focus of the ride's big twist.

That was of the other things that for me, made this ride so great.  I apologize in advance if I bored you with this article but I just needed to say goodbye to a ride that I have loved for so long.  Peace!