Episode 778 - The Great Movie Refurb

Authored by: SusanDS on Monday, September 27 2010 @ 07:41 AM CDT

I would still advocate for Star Wars. I know a lot of people who can not ride star tours and it is classic.

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Authored by: Brian on Monday, September 27 2010 @ 08:19 AM CDT

I would hate to see GMR take out all the movies from before the 50s, as Len suggested on the show. A great deal of movie history comes before the 50s. Not sure that knocking out all of those movies from before the 50s because young kids don't know them is a good idea. Those movies are what makes the mythology of Hollywood so rich and fun.

I would like to see them add a more recent movie or two--something from after 1981 would be nice. :) I've never thought the Tarzan scene really fits in there--they could take that out and not really change much.

I doubt if they'd be willing to spend the $ they'd have to spend to (a) get the rights to use other movies and (b) build new sets/etc. for GMR, anyway. Look at how run down the rest of DHS is now--the Backlot Tour is a shell of what it used to be, Fantasmic doesn't run nightly like it should, dining continues to suffer, etc.

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Authored by: kerrythomas on Monday, September 27 2010 @ 09:59 AM CDT

I've often thought the Busby Berkeley scene should be replaced with Steamboat Willie. That's where it all started, for Disney at least. I agree that the Aliens and Tarzan sets just don't fit. (Maybe if they'd used the Bo Derek version of Tarzan..nah!) and I simply don't like the whole "gangster hijacks the ride" idea. It's lame. Overall, there would be a difference if it was called the Classic Movie Ride instead of the Great Movie Ride. I'd also like to see something like the Maltese Falcon (a real prop) and other classic props hidden along the ride. Keep the final montage of film scenes, though. It's great.

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Authored by: AquaViola on Monday, September 27 2010 @ 12:45 PM CDT

The French version is Cinémagique - see http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x23n...agique_fun for a teaser and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKN2MdELQVc for the full thing (though nothing can replace actually being there).

It's interesting what DLP regard as Great Movies - black and white movies? (Laurel and Hardy - Alice in Wonderland - The Jazz Singer)

Non-American movies - Les parapluies de Cherbourg? Robin Hood? (" Because, unlike other Robin Hoods, I can speak with a British accent".) Henry V?

However, I agree that the end montage should stay - but I also always watch the beginning 10 minute montage, even if there isn't a queue.

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Authored by: McDuck on Monday, September 27 2010 @ 01:50 PM CDT

Listening to the show now, but had to smile at the comment about Kordell Stewart, as he was in my high school graduating class.

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Authored by: disney_tweets on Monday, September 27 2010 @ 09:32 PM CDT

I agree that there the ride is probably due for an update, but I don't believe in getting of ALL the movies before 1950s. I think that it was said and we have to remember that some of those movies help shape what we see today. Seeing those movies gives us an of orientation of how this great movie industry got started, evolved and grown. This in turn helps us understand the entertainment industry we see today. It's like going to a history class, learning about politics, but never learning about the constitution. You have to learn about the Constitution to begin to understand politics and government. (Notice I said begin.)

If we take the position that the ride should incorporate movies that are associated with a significant achievement, then the one movie I did not hear mentioned that should be considered based on how it swept the awards after the final movie came out is THE LORD OF THE RINGS. If I correctly remember, they took every category at I think it was the Oscars.

Interesting discussion for the podcast that displayed a few surprises from some of you. Thought provoking while entertaining. (Cue up Bugs Bunny ending credit music. Porky Pig says: B thats, B thats, B thats you guys!)

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Authored by: JediMick on Tuesday, September 28 2010 @ 06:31 AM CDT

Guys,

Don't you think that if Disney was to put in the time and money neccessary to update the Great Movie Ride that they'd want to do some actual updating? Pretty much all of the movies you guys suggested were movies that could've been included when they built the ride in the first place. If they didn't make the cut then, what makes you think they will now?

Either way, we could argue for hours and hours about which scenes should go and which movies should come, but in the end you'd never, ever make everyone happy (especially Disney fans). I just think that it's hard to call it the Great Movie Ride when there are no great movies from the last 20 years included.

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Authored by: WIWDWFAN on Tuesday, September 28 2010 @ 10:23 AM CDT

With regards to the Wizard of Oz scene. I remember hearing something from Jim Hill or David Konig (sp) that their was a stipulation in the contract between Disney & Turner that only allowed about so many minutes in tribute to a film. If they kept the tornado scene in the scenes woulad have been too long resulting in Disney paying so much money to turner they just put in the Fantasia scene.

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Authored by: Thorpeedo on Tuesday, September 28 2010 @ 03:25 PM CDT

Still playing catch up from my holiday to WDW so only just about to listen to the show. I went on this attraction for the first time in a long time and it wasn't as bad as I remembered.(dammed by faint praise!) Regarding the point about licensing - When this attraction and the park were both new, I can understand Disney needing it to reflect well on the park and perhaps be willing to shell out a few bucks to make sure they got the absolute right films in there to support the whole movie ride and studios park concept. They should now be able to argue, they are basically offering free advertising for the next however many years, and want rights for pretty much free, they take sponsorship pretty much everywhere else! Now the ride and park is that well established, and there's always arguments about which film is the classic representation of a genre, less scenes would be quite as fundamental. You'd hope that if they can't reuse a film, they are able to refurb around the existing scene under the original agreements if they feel it's fundamental. Disney could afford to leave odd films out that really should be in there, working round it in the narrative. "You all remember film "x" well heres film Y which was another classic of the same genre." so long as it's not too bad they'd get around it.

P.S In no way am I advocating the inclusion of Sex and the City under any circumstances.

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Authored by: TiggerRay on Wednesday, September 29 2010 @ 12:32 AM CDT

I had heard that that tornado scene being dropped had more to do how much of the movie they could showcase without having to pay more for the rights than whether the technology worked or not.

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Authored by: LudwigVonDrake on Wednesday, September 29 2010 @ 04:07 AM CDT

Great, thought-provoking episode. I agree more with Matt than Len about the topic, though. I am all for freshening up the attraction, or even switching out some scenes, but to ignore the roots of the movies in an attraction/theme park meant to celebrate Hollywood history would be a shame. There weren't many kids in 1989 watching Busby Berkeley musicals or Citizan Kane either. However, I couldn't have been the only kid who, as they grew up, came across some of those classic movies on television or in history classes and think "Hey, I remember that movie from the ride at Disney World."

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Authored by: BrerJeffries on Thursday, September 30 2010 @ 08:23 AM CDT

My fear of a "Great DISNEY Movie Ride" rehab--Lilo and Stitch, Lilo and Stitch II, and Stitch: The Movie taking over the whole ride.

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Authored by: richard on Thursday, September 30 2010 @ 07:47 PM CDT

I think of GMR as the Spaceship Earth of the Studios. Nothing wrong with people and kids actually learning something about older movies, as long as it's entertaining. I agree that Alien can go, and with Mike about the John Wayne scene. But Wizard of Oz was made in the 30s, and everyone still likes that scene, so let's not judge films by their age.

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Authored by: ErwinM on Thursday, September 30 2010 @ 08:13 PM CDT

My wife and I have talked about this at some length, and there are a number of ways to look at it.

One interesting approach would be to take some of the existing scenes and turn them into "then and now" contrasts. Three scenes would benefit well from this: the underworld/gangster scene, the Western scene, and Tarzan. Given the way the track goes in those three scenes, what you would have is: as you come in, the genre is introduced, with some classic examples and/or a scene being played out from a classic movie of that genre. As the turn is made, you see a more modern take on the same genre. So, you would have something like:

Underworld -- Move James Cagney to the left side of the track doing his thing, and as you turn to the right, you've got a scene from The Godfather or GoodFellas playing out on the opposite side.

Western -- Move John Wayne to the right side of the track (and mention the movie by name!), and have the shootout be from a modern Western.

Tarzan -- This one's more radical, and here's where you can bring in POTC. Flip the scripting from the other two examples here, though -- you start off with Captain Jack on the deck of the Black Pearl where Maureen O'Hara is, and across the track he's facing off against Errol Flynn as Captain Blood, since without that movie, you wouldn't have pirate movies the way we know them.

Alien probably does need to be replaced, though script-wise, it's a good transition to the adventure/horror section (since it's a horror movie first and a science fiction movie second). A tribute to war movies wouldn't be out of place, though, and you could even keep the cheesy lines from the current script. "Things can't get any woise, though." *airplane strafes the track with little bullet pops going across* "It's woise."

Ah well, we can all dream, can't we?

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Authored by: Paul B on Monday, October 04 2010 @ 01:13 PM CDT

regarding the issue of whether movies are familiar to younger folks, I'm not sure that should be an issue. After all, classic movies or classic movie genres are history. Heck, maybe a youngster will go home and rent or download Casablanca!

And, what about something like Tower of Terror? Think all those teenagers have seen The Twilight Zone shows?

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Authored by: Jeanine on Thursday, October 07 2010 @ 05:32 PM CDT

I don't agree with the rationale that old movies need to be removed because they're not relevant to younger people--I think the movies are represented there because they were significant achievements/genres in cinematic history, whether they proved to be technically groundbreaking or not. If people haven't seen the movies, then maybe they'll seek them out, because they saw them in the ride (remember the whole infotainment concept?)

Additionally, how could you know which movies won't come back again? Not so long ago, no one under the age of 30 had ever seen a pirate movie, because the whole genre was dead and buried. All it would take is Johnny Depp signing up for a Busby Berkley remake, and we're in like Flynn.

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