Rides That Need To Be Renovated

[MadEye]

The Great Movie Ride has no connection really to the deal with MGM.

True. Most of the movies in the ride are MGM or Warner Brothers (ironically most of the MGM releases when GMR opened are now property of WB. But there is also Paramount (Raiders), 20th Century Fox (Alien), and of course Disney (Mary Poppins and Fantasia with the latter being Plan B because MGM only allowed a certain amount of time for OZ). All of the Western scene is not based on any one movie.

[MadEye]

Do you mean the built the stages but they never put in the figures/finished it?

Nope. They planned to as it was being constructed (look how far the vehicles are from the sides of the finale room) but the stages were never built. Never would have worked either because the Gangster/Bandit would have to literally run backstage from Finale to hijack another vehicle (Gangster scene is behind the left Finale wall) and it would have taken too long to get there.

[mindflipper]

The Great Movie Ride has no connection really to the deal with MGM.

True. Most of the movies in the ride are MGM or Warner Brothers (ironically most of the MGM releases when GMR opened are now property of WB. But there is also Paramount (Raiders), 20th Century Fox (Alien), and of course Disney (Mary Poppins and Fantasia with the latter being Plan B because MGM only allowed a certain amount of time for OZ). All of the Western scene is not based on any one movie.

Raiders, like Star Wars, is Lucasfilms. Disney has their agreement with Lucasfilms. Paramount's limited agreement with Lucasfilms does not assign them any rights over characters, titles, etc. And anyhow, Paramount's deal with Lucasfilms has expired, which is why they waited so long to do Indiana Jones 4.

As for the music, that's covered under a deal with John Williams, which is why they are also able to use E.T. The Extra-Terrestial music as well as Universal Studios.

[Amy]

Do you mean the built the stages but they never put in the figures/finished it?

Nope. They planned to as it was being constructed (look how far the vehicles are from the sides of the finale room) but the stages were never built. Never would have worked either because the Gangster/Bandit would have to literally run backstage from Finale to hijack another vehicle (Gangster scene is behind the left Finale wall) and it would have taken too long to get there.

That is interesting, I have never heard of that before. They could have had another set of gangster/bandit though to avoid them having to make the run.

[mindflipper]

I wonder why they haven't thought about revising the ride to eliminate the need for human actors to play the bank robber/gangster?

[MadEye]

I wonder why they haven't thought about revising the ride to eliminate the need for human actors to play the bank robber/gangster?

Because the vehicles are made in such a way that they can't be changed to run automatically, especially if the doors to the next scene don't open...

[Wizzard419]

I'm guessing they can't just have an another person play the bandit/gangster for the axed ending because all the workers don't look exactly the same.

I wonder how that would impact the actual timing for the cars? If a person has to follow along for the entire route rather than just for a portion of it then you would need more people (theoretically).

I'm actually surprised they haven't done away with the tour guide all together since they did that with the land. The vehicles more or less steer themselves and the guide only trigges it move/talks right?

[mindflipper]

I wonder why they haven't thought about revising the ride to eliminate the need for human actors to play the bank robber/gangster?

Because the vehicles are made in such a way that they can't be changed to run automatically, especially if the doors to the next scene don't open...

I didn't say they had to get rid of the tour guide; but they could eliminate the gangster/bank robber and have the ride move continuously without any change of guides...

[MadEye]

I'm actually surprised they haven't done away with the tour guide all together since they did that with the land. The vehicles more or less steer themselves and the guide only trigges it move/talks right?

I didn't say they had to get rid of the tour guide; but they could eliminate the gangster/bank robber and have the ride move continuously without any change of guides...

No. The vehicles themselves trigger the scenes (in the cases of Casablanca, Tarzan, the mummy scene representing Horror, Raiders, Footlight Parade, Singing In The Rain and Mary Poppins the vehicles trigger the sound) and doors via magnets in the track and on a certain place on the vehicle. The vehicles are only aware of themselves on the track and are unaware of any other vehicles so if one breaks down (weekly if not daily) they don't know it and keep going until they bump into the vehicle in front causing an E-Stop on both vehicles, thus causing a traffic jam and guests go no where. The reason the vehicles stop and change "drivers" is so they can recharge the batteries that run them and to keep the pace between the vehicle ahead (it would be weird to enter Gangster when the shootout is already happening or the alien from Alien attacking the vehicle ahead of you wouldn't it?

[mindflipper]

I don't know if entering a scene in progress would make a difference to the PTB at Disney. Just get the guests in and out and management can about overlook everything else. Look how long the Footlight Parades hasn't worked (I think it probably rotated during its first year and hasn't since). GMT needs a little TLC and it's at the bottom of the list it seems. And after you have riden a few times, there's not much left to it that makes it any more interesting to ride again and again. I think the ride could use a renovation. I think they could find a way to revise the ride still to do away with the change of drivers and eliminate the recharge option there (just have the recharge occur during disembarking & boarding).

[momeja]

I think without the guide, the ride would lose what minimal appeal it has. Look at Livin' with the Land. How much less fun is that ride now that they've replaced the guide with a canned recording.

[theBIGyowski]

I LOVE Living with the Land...but because everything is done with a pre-recorded track I wonder how much I would like it after going through the Behind the Seeds Tour. The big draw is the greenhouse...but if the tour gives you more information, the boat ride would seem a little lame...maybe.

What are the thoughts of the folks who have done the tour and then ridden the boat with the pre-recorded narration?

[momeja]

I LOVE Living with the Land...but because everything is done with a pre-recorded track I wonder how much I would like it after going through the Behind the Seeds Tour. The big draw is the greenhouse...but if the tour gives you more information, the boat ride would seem a little lame...maybe.

What are the thoughts of the folks who have done the tour and then ridden the boat with the pre-recorded narration?

Well, I fell asleep last time we rode it, but it could have been the hour. DH and I did a late emh at Epcot, so we rode it around 11:30. Wasn't as fun as with a person, though.

[Satchel T]

I'm not being negative as I truly love Disney and this type of thread may have been previously posted. However, in my opinion here are some rides that need to be renovated:
1. Space Mountain-To me, the ride itself just is so anti-climactic. I know the queue is just been renovated but the ride is the same. This should be the greatest roller coaster in North America and it's not even on the list. It's a minor roller coaster in the dark. Rock and Roll Roller Costar is much better in my opinion.
2. Dinosaur-my neck still hurts when I think about this ride. This ride is really LOUD and really jerky. The queue was great but the ride was disappointing.
In your opinion, What other rides, shows or presentations could use a good renovation?

I'll completely agree with you on the Space Mountain renovation. Question ... didnt DisneyLand do just that. I thought they renovated not just the que and whatnot but updated the ride itslef a bitt alos. If so I'd be curious as to what they did?

Then Dinosaur ... I love it the way it is but ... it is way too LOUD.

[Satchel T]

The Great Movie Ride has no connection really to the deal with MGM.

True. Most of the movies in the ride are MGM or Warner Brothers (ironically most of the MGM releases when GMR opened are now property of WB. But there is also Paramount (Raiders), 20th Century Fox (Alien), and of course Disney (Mary Poppins and Fantasia with the latter being Plan B because MGM only allowed a certain amount of time for OZ). All of the Western scene is not based on any one movie.

I gotta say though ... the Oz scene in the Great Movie Ride is probably the coolest "looking" scene out of them all. It really feels like you've just strolled onto the set.