How to Spend a Muppety Day in Disney's Hollywood Studios

[Scooterforever]

I think the Maroon Cartoon billboard is in the shopping district when you first enter the park. I think the Acme warehouse-themed store, which even has the hanging ton of bricks that Greasy drops on Roger, is near the lifesized Carbonite Chamber replica. I could see how you might miss it, and I didn't even notice until my brother pointed it out to me, but the ton of bricks is a dead giveaway. I'll bet it's like Muppet fan 123 was saying; it was probably meant to be a Roger Rabbit attraction until plans fell through.

The MV3D pre-show is great, and I love that Scooter has a big part in it, but you should really get to the ride a full ten minutes before the actual show starts to see it all. I didn't see much of the pre-show until seeing MV3D the third time around.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

The Maroon Cartoon billboard is near Echo Lake I believe, it's always been there. There were plans for a Maroon Studio area in the park's early years but all the plans fell through due to the mismanagement of the the franchise between Disney and Spielberg.

 

[mupcollector1]

There was going to me huge ideas that Jim had for Disney besides Muppet Vision 3D. There was going to be two rides, Gonzo's Pizza Polar I think and there was going to be this half ride / half show where The Muppets educate people on how movies are made and all the information is wrong. The Great Muppet Movie Ride. The Warner Bros theme park in Australia did something very similar but with Gremlins and hosted by Alf (weird combination). Maybe it's just coincidence, I don't know. Did the footage Jim filmed for The Great Muppet Movie Ride survive, Does it still exist?

This is the only footage I know about.

 

[Scooterforever]

Dude, I saw a video of the Gremlin's ride, and it looks awesome. So there was going to be a "Great Muppet Movie Ride?" Was the original "Great Movie Ride" going to have Muppets? I went on the GMR when I went to Hollywood Studios this year, I felt like it's in desperate need of an update, and putting animatronic Muppets in with the classic movie characters would be awesome. I'd love to see Miss Piggy take on a xenomorph from Aliens, Fozzy and Link in their "Bear on Patrol" costumes take on Jimmy Cagney and other movie gangsters, and Gonzo swinging through the jungle as Tarzan. We should start a petition. If Disney doesn't want to spend the dough for new animatronics, they could do what they did with the updated version of the Mexico ride in Epcot, which now features the Three Caballeros, and have screens with the Muppets in each section of the ride.

 

[brkndwnbus]

Here's some links about the "Great Muppet Movie Ride" and other Muppet things that could have happened at Hollywood Studios:

http://www.theneverlandfiles.com/tnf/disneyworld/muppetstudios.php

http://www.theneverlandfiles.com/tnf/disneyworld/greatmuppetmovieride.php

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Great_Muppet_Movie_Ride

http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/2968/the-greatest-rides-never-made

http://www.laughingplace.com/News-Previous-C-HILL.asp

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Yes. There was supposed to be a Great Muppet Movie Ride, a parody of the Great Movie Ride which is in the Chinese Theater (the building that hides behind Mickey's giant hat). TGMMR was supposed to be placed in The Muppet Courtyard along with a Muppet restaurant and MV3D, besides the two live shows they had daily there.

Unfortunately, after Jim's death the plans fell through and MV3D was the only attraction to remain. They started building in 1990 and the ride opened a year later.

As for the Great Movie Ride: Yes, they need to update at least some of it, but part of the problem is that they don't own the rights to a lot of the movies featured in there, since when the park opened it was a partnership with MGM-Studios. Basically, after that partnership fell through, but Disney was allowed to keep the MGM properties in the Great Movie Ride, AS LONG as they leave it the same. Disney cannot benefit or change (but they can remove) any of the MGM properties in the park. I guess they're thinking that they might as well leave them there, until they're fully ready to take out all the other non-Disney properties.

As for the Chinese Theater:
I really wish they would've taken Mickey's hat away right at the beginning.
The hat was built specially for the 100 Years of Magic celebration a few years ago and was meant to be temporary. Sure it's cool, but the main attraction was supposed to be the Theater.
It fit better with the theme, and the hat makes everything on Hollywood Blvd. seemed much smaller and cramped.

 

[BeakerJanice]

Aww I want also I will buy many many muppet things!!Here in Germany we haven't got many muppet things ;(