On May 1, 1989 Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opened its gates to the world, bringing the magic of movie making to Walt Disney World Resort guests. What originally started as an idea for a new pavilion for the fledgling Epcot, grew into its own park with The Great Movie Ride at the center. Hosted by a live guide, this ride took guests on a twenty minute ride into the classic movies of yester-year.
At the D23 Expo this year, it was announced that The Great Movie Ride would be closing permanently on August 13th, 2017 to make way for the first Mickey Mouse ride in a Disney Park. The short notice and announcement of the closing of a classic attraction in general was met with disappointment from fans. Many were distressed they would not be able to make it to Florida for one last ride, and several former Movie Riders (the lingo we use for the Tour Guides) I know are extremely upset about the closing of their beloved attraction.
I am personally not a huge fan of The Great Movie Ride, which to some is sacrilege, I know. When you take any sort of Intro to Film class, you are inevitably forced to sit through a great number of “classic” movies. I have long been of the opinion just because something is a “classic” does not make it good. I’ve seen Citizen Kane at least five times, (yes, I know it is not on The Great Movie Ride, but it’s considered the best film of all time), and all I’ve done is develop a hatred for black and white films. My other problem with GMR (cast member abbreviation for The Great Movie Ride) is it is not The Great Movie Ride. It is The Great Movies We Have the Rights to Ride. I actually was happier with the Turner Classic Movies version of the ride than the previous version because the narration after your vehicle has been hijacked finally made sense.
I was fourteen when I visited Hollywood Studios for the first time, still under the name MGM. I assume I rode The Great Movie Ride because I can’t imagine we would have skipped it, but I honestly don’t remember it from that first visit. I’ve now ridden it a few hundred times, but with the Fastpass tier system in place at Hollywood Studios, The Great Movie Ride will always lose to Fantasmic on my Fastpass choices.
I’ve made two special trips over to Hollywood Studios since the closing was announced specifically to ride GMR. My friend Robert recently transferred there from Adventureland-Liberty Square and his parents were not going to be visiting in time to see his show, so I went to film it for him. I spent a lot of money on a fancy camera, someone might as well benefit from it. I made a second trip for video of the B show with the bandit instead of the gangster.
Some fun things I’ve learned about The Great Movie Ride over the years:
- The hand prints in the sidewalk in front of the Chinese Theater are authentic and actually done by the celebrities themselves. They are not recreations.
- Robin Williams had his kids leave their prints as well, and he pressed his nose into the concrete. I particularly like this fun fact because his daughter, Zelda Williams, is a voice actress on The Legend of Korra, so that means there is an Avatar voice actress in the concrete at Hollywood Studios.
Robin Williams’ hand print, and his daughter Zelda’s.
- Gangsters and Bandit cannot dispatch the vehicle with any blanks left in the guns. On one occasion my friend witnessed that this little rule led to a gangster shooting the red light six times because they came out late.
- The plane featured in the Casablanca scene is not the real plane from the movie despite the internet’s claims. However, the back half of that plane can be found on The World Famous Jungle Cruise. When it wouldn’t fit, they chopped it in half and dropped it in the jungle.
It’s not a long list, but as I’ve already stated this is far from my favorite attraction.
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