Disney’s Hollywood studios has received a major facelift over the last year with the opening of Toy Story Land and continuing into this year with the August 29th opening of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. As it celebrates it 30th birthday on May 1st, we look back on the history of this park and its very bright future.
May 1st, 1989
18 years after the opening of the Magic Kingdom and just 7 seven years after the opening of the Epcot Center, Disney debuted a brand new and different theme park called Disney’s-MGM Studios. The third theme park at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida began with an idea for a movie-themed pavilion, resembling a film soundstage. It was originally meant to be an expansion of Epcot. It has now morphed into a 135 acre tribute to movie making.
In its original conception, Disney-MGM Studios was to operate not only as a theme park, but also as a fully functioning television and movie production studio. Disney and Metro-Goldwyn Meyer joined together to create a licensing agreement that would allow Disney to use the name and extensive movie library in their new park. The Disney-MGM Studios had the ability to have working production studios for movies and TV shows.
The Great Movie Ride, along with Studio Backlot Tour, were the only two rides to open with the park.
On opening day in May 1989, Disney’s then-president, Michael Eisner, dedicated Disney-MGM Studios to Hollywood, which he called “not a place on a map, but a state of mind that exists wherever people dream and wonder and imagine.”
The Change – MGM No More
A lawsuit by MGM and a countersuit by Disney soured the relationship that brought this park into being. After a settlement by both parties, it was determined that Disney had the right to continue using the Disney-MGM Studios name on film product produced at the Florida facility.
On August 9, 2007, it was announced by Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton, that Disney-MGM Studios would officially be renamed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on January 7, 2008. This led the park into a new direction as in that same year, the former Stage 1 soundstage became home to Toy Story Mania! and the surrounding area was re-themed as Pixar Place.
Attractions
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular opened just a few months after the opening of the park, joining The Great Movie Ride and Studio Backlot Tour.
The Earffel Tower was the original icon of this theme park. This fake water tower with Mickey ears joined the Chinese Theater as the face of the park. 2001 changed that with the construction of the Sorcerer’s Hat, inspired from a segment of the 1940 Walt Disney film, Fantasia. This icon lasted until 2015 when it was removed from Hollywood Studios.
MuppetVision 3D and the Voyage of the Little Mermaid were added heightening the parks popularity. The first big expansion took place in 1994 with the creation of Sunset Boulevard and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
With Sunset Boulevard, came reconstruction of the original Theater of the Stars which first held 3 short-lived shows, before finding its permanent resident: Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage.
Fantasmic! is held in the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater that sits in between Tower of Terror and Theater of the Stars. The Hollywood Hills Amphitheater was built specifically for Fantasmic!, opening in October of 1998. It was built to accommodate a much larger capacity than that of Disneyland’s, with 6,900 seats and room for 3,000 more people to stand. Sunset Boulevard was “completed” in 1999 with the opening of Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith.
In the fall of 2001, Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream opened. It featured memorabilia of from Disney archives, as well as giving guests a glimpse into Walt Disney’s life and the history of the company. Also in 2001, Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage! was introduced at Animation Courtyard.
In the 2010s, Disney began phasing out the park’s “studio-like” attractions that headlined the park during its early years of operation. This included the closure of the park’s Studio Backlot Tour, American Idol Experience, and the Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow attractions in 2014.
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The park continued to close more studio-themed attractions; in April 2016, the majority of Streets of America—including the backlot street facades, the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, the Earffel Tower, and the remaining backstage areas—was closed and demolished in preparation for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land.
In 2017, the Great Movie Ride, the last remaining original attraction, and is slated to be replaced by Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in the Spring of 2020.
What’s To Come
Hollywood Studios has went through a lot of changes in recent years when Disney bought the Star Wars franchise. Adding Star Tours, the Launch Bay, and the stage show Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away.
However 2018 brought a massive addition in Toy Story Land and 2019 aims to be even bigger with Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. The 2 park expansions will bring a high crowd size but also give the park more much needed attractions.
Slinky Dog Dash gives Hollywood Studios its first roller coaster. Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run and Rise of the Resistance, 2 state of the art attractions also give the park a new flare that it lacked. Galaxy’s Edge will also be Disney’s first and hopefully not last all-interactive land.
Disney also just recently opened Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy and will unveil Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway next year.
These additions should help the least visited park at WDW surpass Epcot and Animal Kingdom in attendance numbers.
Placing the Star Wars Franchise in Hollywood Studios along with expanding Pixar’s footprint gives this park much more potential going forward to be a top notch theme park.
Celebrate!
Hollywood has went through more changes than maybe the other 3 parks combined over its 30 year existence. It has made and remade itself and continues to evolve.
Help us here at A Walk With The Mouse as we celebrate its evolution and its 30 year birthday. There are exciting things yet to come of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Stay tuned as we chronicle those changes.
