| Watch the on-ride POV |
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| The ride's facade | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Designer / calculations | Walt Disney Imagineering | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Capacity | 6 Vehicles seating 70 guests each | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hourly capacity | 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track length | 1,926 feet | ||||||||||||||||||
| Animatronics | 59 | ||||||||||||||||||
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The Great Movie Ride was a trackless Dark Ride formerly located at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States. Opening with the park on May 1, 1989, the ride focuses on highlighting moments from iconic movies and film, like Casablanca, Singing in The Rain, Fantasia, Alien, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Wizard of Oz, and many others. The ride was the main attraction of the park until its closure.
History
The Great Movie ride is directly what inspired the creation of Disney's MGM Studios. The ride originally saw its conceptual genesis as a Show and Business pavilion at the then-known EPCOT CENTER, to be located next to the Imagination pavilion's area. However, then current Disney president Michael Eisner saw massive potential in this idea, and he decided it should be a focus of an entirely brand-new park, based on the art of filmmaking, and cinema as a whole.
After conceptual thinking and concept designing, it was decided to have the ride be named The Great Movie Ride. Coca-Cola was chosen as the sponsor for the ride, funding the maintenance for the attraction in turn of placing advertising on the attraction. Constructed started in 1986 and ended in March 1989.
On May 1, 1989, The Great Movie Ride opened up with the rest of the park. Using the same technology as the Universe of Energy, the ride joined a tour guide as they took a look behind the greatest movie moments shown on film, ending with a finale with several iconic movie scenes playing on screens. The ride would receive some changes to the overall experience. In 1998, Coca-cola would drop their sponsor for the ride, leaving it with no sponsor. In 2015, Turner Classic Movies signed up to sponsor the ride, this time with Robert Osborne serving as the host for the attraction and temporarily taking over the ride-hosts, although this was quickly reverted.
On July 15, 2017, Disney announced that The Great Movie Ride would have its last rides by August 13, 2017. The ride would close permanently, after a final-ride sendoff, in order to be replaced with Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. The entire system and ride were gutted except for the queue, but the facade, which itself was a replica of the Grauman's Chinese Theater, was kept untouched.
Ride experience
The ride was a tour thru classic movies. At one point, the guide got hijacked by a gangster or cowboy (depending on your ride.) The ride went by the Alien scene, where the Xenomorph came close to the vehicles. Then the hijacker got burnt to a crisp in the Indiana Jones scene; the tribe leader was revealed to be the tour guide. There was a montage of other famous movies, such as Disney's own Toy Story, at the end.
Images
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The iconic theatre marquee at the beginning of the ride
