Disney-MGM Studios
From Freepedia
Disney-MGM Studios is a theme park in the Walt Disney World Resort, Florida, USA. It opened on May 1, 1989. 135 acres (546,000 m²) in size, the park's theme is Hollywood classic movies and popular TV entertainment.
The only affiliation that MGM has to the Disney park is via contracts -- contracts that allow Disney to use the MGM name and lion logo in marketing, and separate contracts that allow for specific MGM content to be used in a ride called The Great Movie Ride.
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Attractions
The park consists of five themed areas. Major attractions are listed below.
Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood Blvd. is lined with shops selling Disney merchandise and food. This is also the location of the "Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade." It could be seen as a Hollywood version of Main Street USA, as it operates on the basic principle.
- The Great Movie Ride, a dark ride paying homage to several classic films is located at the end of Hollywood Blvd.
New York St.
- Sounds Dangerous, a show following Drew Carey through a day as an undercover detective when his video camera fails and the audience is left in the dark, following his adventure through sound cues
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, a live-action performance showing how movie stunts are done. The show re-enacts various scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Star Tours, a motion simulator, identical to the one at Disneyland
- Jim Henson's MuppetVision 3D, a 3-D movie experience similar to Epcot's "Honey, I Shrunk The Audience"
Mickey Ave.
- The Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour, showing how movie special effects are done. Guests see a movie scene filmed using volunteers from the audience and various special effects. Guest board trams and are taken through Catastrophe Canyon, to see fire and water effects, are driven past large-scale movie props, and are shown residential streets made up of facades.
- Lights, Motors, Action!, an autocar stunt show that debuted at the Walt Disney Studios Paris
- Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It!, a theme park version of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? game show with real prizes for contestants. The current grand prize is a three-night cruise on Disney Cruise Line.
- Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, a biography film of Walt Disney's life narrated by Disney himself
Animation Courtyard
- Voyage of The Little Mermaid, a live performance using puppets, lasers, movies, human actors, and water (mist). The show recreates the animated Little Mermaid movie, in an abbreviated form.
- The Magic of Disney Animation, a short presentation showing how animated films are made.
- Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage!, a live performance featuring Disney children's television characters
Sunset Blvd.
- Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage, a simplified version of the film
- Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, an indoor roller coaster in the dark with three inversions
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a thrill ride which drops guests in an elevator
- Fantasmic!, a nighttime show with characters and fireworks held in the specifically-built Hollywood Hills Amphitheatre off Sunset Blvd
Studio operations and production
The Walt Disney Company's original concept of the Disney-MGM Studios was not only to operate it as a theme park but also as a full fledged television and motion picture production facility. The studio/production part would house two major television and motion picture production facilities, Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida, where a number of Disney animated projects, including Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear, and sequences from the other 1990s-early 2000s Disney animated features were produced, and the Walt Disney Studios Florida which consisted of several soundstages which were used for various Disney projects including The Disney Channel's All New Mickey Mouse Club, Adventures in Wonderland, and several third party productions including tapings for World Championship Wrestling and the TV series seaQuest DSV. Even Let's Make a Deal was taped here for the 1990-91 season.
A radio studio is also located on the lot which original housed the first children's radio network Radio Aahs which rented the studio until Disney founded Radio Disney and essentially forced Radio Aahs out of business. Unfortunately Disney management including CEO Michael Eisner decided to downsize Disney's Florida operations by closing the animation studio, laying-off personnel and then moving the operations to the main animation studio in Burbank, California. Radio Disney decided it was no longer profitable to operate in Florida so they moved all of their shows from the Disney-MGM Studios to the Radio Disney headquarters in Dallas, Texas and the once bustling Disney Studios Florida soundstages now sit vacant and unused.
In 1992 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company claiming they violated a 1985 licensing agreement by operating a working movie and television studio at the Disney-MGM Studio in Florida and Disney filed a countersuit saying that MGM Studios, the MGM Grand Hotel, Casino and Park and MGM Airlines had conspired to violate Disney's right to exclusive use of the name MGM at the Florida theme park and that it would harm Disney's reputation by building the MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park in Las Vegas, Nevada. On October 23 Superior Court Judge Curtis Rappe ruled against MGM and said that both the Disney-MGM Studios in Florida and the then under construction MGM Grand Theme Park in Las Vegas could use the MGM name as long as the MGM Grand does not carry a 'Hollywood' theme like the Disney-MGM Studios. MGM Grand has since dismantled their Las Vegas theme park and is using the land for hotel expansion.
Walt Disney Studios Florida
- The following section is temporary as, although relevant at present, it will cease to be relevant when the subject of the section has commenced.
[1] It is unknown about the future of the park's name, as the contract allowing the usage of the name "MGM" is said to expire in Summer 2005. With MGM being sold to Sony Pictures as of April 8, 2005, it is not expected that Sony will renew the park name contract. A sign of this pending transition is that many merchandise and other material already refer to the park as Walt Disney Studios.
Signage around the park proclaiming it as the Disney-MGM Studios has either been quitened down, or removed altogther. MGM has never allowed Disney to use the name in publicity material, but many signs around the park are already heralding the park as the Walt Disney Studios. There is a Walt Disney Studios park in Paris, and rumours of a Walt Disney Studios park to open in the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort within the next decade.
Trivia
- Each year, Star Wars Weekends bring Star Wars fans and celebrities for special park events. Star Wars Weekends are generally held for five consecutive weekends (including Fridays) through late May and early June; they feature a local Star Wars fan club parading through the park in Stormtrooper costumes, a "Star Wars Edition" of the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It!" game where the game begins with Greedo answering questions and a Gamorrean Guard in the audience cheering him on, two Star Wars actors appearing each weekend for photos and autographs, Jedi Lightsaber Training classes for kids, and other assorted events.
- Every holiday season, Disney-MGM Studios features the "Osborne Family Christmas", with five million Christmas lights on more than 350 miles of wire.
- As far as Internet urban legends go, while Michael Eisner was working for Paramount Pictures, he saw the early plans for the Universal Studios park in Florida (Paramount has always been closely associated with Universal, and Paramount provided much needed finance into the Universal Orlando Resort). After moving to Disney, he took some of these ideas and used them in early plans for the future Disney-MGM Studios. As Disney-MGM narrowly opened before Universal (as mentioned above the park and its resort had finance problems), it was seen that Universal copied Disney-MGM - or was it the other way round? Some reports say that, in a coincidence, both Universal and Disney planned studio/theme parks at the same time without knowing of the other company's ideas in the beginning and both rushed to finish their respective parks when they heard the news.
- The Magic of Disney Animation attraction originally allowed spectators to watch Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida artists at work on actual Disney productions. From behind glass panes, visitors were allowed ot peer into a small section of the studio, aptly called the "fishbowl". Films that were created at this facility include Lilo & Stitch and Mulan.
- Disney-MGM Studios has a sister park at the Disneyland Resort Paris called the Walt Disney Studios Paris.
External links
- Official Disney-MGM Studios website
- MGMStudios.Org - Source for hours, attraction descriptions and ratings, listing of special events, touring plans, and forums.
- Studios Central Radio - Listen to recordings from the Disney-MGM Studios
| The theme park and cruise line properties of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Jay Rasulo, president | |
| Disneyland Resort: Matt Ouimet, president | Disneyland | Disney's California Adventure |
| Walt Disney World Resort: Al Weiss, president | Magic Kingdom | Epcot | Disney-MGM Studios | Disney's Animal Kingdom |
| Tokyo Disney Resort: Toshio Kagami, president | Tokyo Disneyland | Tokyo DisneySea |
| Disneyland Resort Paris: Karl Holz, president | Disneyland | Walt Disney Studios |
| Hong Kong Disneyland Resort: Don Robinson, group managing director | Hong Kong Disneyland |
| Disney Cruise Line: Tom McAlpin, president | Disney Wonder | Disney Magic | Castaway Cay |
