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View Full Version : How is "Monsters, Inc." Fitting Into the Theming of Hollywood Pictures Backlot?



animagusurreal
09-28-2005, 12:04 AM
Just wondering if anyone who's been since they put the facade up knows how the outside of the ride is fitting into HPB theming? I've only seen a couple pictures. What is it supposed to be, in the context of the land? A set? (that seems like kind of a cheat to me, if that's what it is. "It looks like a set - but that's okay...it's supposed to look like a set. Yeah...yeah, that's the ticket.") Or is it just kind of a stand-alone facade? Of course, I'll have to reserve judgement until I actually see it :D .

Since it's set in a factory, maybe they should have made a "City of Industry" land for it :D .

TP2000
09-28-2005, 12:27 AM
The only real thing that allows the new Monsters Inc. ride to "fit" into the theme of HPB is that the ride is based on a movie, and movies are made in Hollywood soundstages like the ones found in the themed area of HPB. Of course, Monsters Inc. was an animated movie, and computer animated at that, and was made on a computer in an office cubicle in Emeryville, 350 miles north of Hollywood. No Hollywood soundstages or traditional movie industry processes were used for Monsters Inc.. But still, it was a movie.

Very few of the things added to DCA since 2001 actually "fit" the original theme and purpose of that theme park. But at this point, very few people are still worrying about stuff like that. Most folks are just happy DCA is getting something to replace the long-shuttered Superstar Limo ride.

Who needs continuity and sense of purpose with the track record DCA has racked up in the last few years?

emmah
09-28-2005, 12:47 AM
Most folks are just happy DCA is getting something to replace the long-shuttered Superstar Limo ride.does anyone know why they got rid of the limo ride? i never got to ride it - by the time i got to DCA in 2002 it was gone. i've always wondered why.

hbquikcomjamesl
09-28-2005, 01:00 AM
It was cute, but a lot of the jokes were in questionable taste, and a lot of them were so esoteric (e.g., Madame Leota's fortunetelling parlor, as I recall) that only a Disney geek would get them. Plus, there were a lot of elements that were just plain obnoxious.

When I was standing in the outdoor queue at the passholder soft-open (just about the only time there WAS an outdoor queue), I was expecting something approximating a smaller version of GMR at WDW. Which is what HPB really NEEDS; all they'd have to do would be to gut the SuperStar Lemon building, the Millionaire building, and the long-shuttered food court, connect them, and maybe take out the south boarding area on the east tram loop, and there would be room for a pretty decent mini-GMR.

But as to Monsters, Inc. fitting the theme of HPB, well, IT'S A MOVIE, DAMMIT! The Animation Building is about movies. MuppetVision 3D is based on movies and TV. The Twilight Zone was a TV show.

animagusurreal
09-28-2005, 02:03 AM
But as to Monsters, Inc. fitting the theme of HPB, well, IT'S A MOVIE, DAMMIT! The Animation Building is about movies. MuppetVision 3D is based on movies and TV. The Twilight Zone was a TV show.


What I was most curious about in this thread is how the exterior would fit visually into the land. The Animation Bldg. has that kind of curvy retro Hollywood theatre exterior which fits in with the surroundings, and I read somewhere that they're going to make it even more retro Hollywood looking (though I don't know if that's true.) I think ToT is one of the great iconic structures of the park. I had to look up a pic of Muppet Vision to remember how it looked, (I haven't been into that part of the park much since they closed down Millionare.) Muppets is not my favorite park building, but it does have that kind of wacky labaratory look with the pipes and such.

The idea of a flat exterior facade (which is the impression I got from pictures and descriptions) that isn't supposed to be anything other than a facade reminds me of carnival attractions, even though I'm sure Disney's facade is much more well done.

I am happy there will be a ride in there, and I know this isn't Disney's first thematic breach (Fantasmic! has little to with a frontier river, but it's never really bothered me.) I imagine the inside of the ride will look like the factory from the movie, and that part of HPB has kind of an industrial look, so I guess that won't be so much of a thematic transition problem. I guess the idea of being "behind the scenes" of where monsters come from kind of goes with the theme of HPB, too, in a way...

It just occured to me that a ride of Warners' "Cat's Don't Dance" (an animated film set in the Hollywood heyday) would have gone well in HPB if only:

A) It was Disney
B) It was a hit
C) It was more recent

I'm tired and these are the kinds of thoughts I'm having :)

jrad32
09-28-2005, 08:20 AM
Very few of the things added to DCA since 2001 actually "fit" the original theme and purpose of that theme park. But at this point, very few people are still worrying about stuff like that. Most folks are just happy DCA is getting something to replace the long-shuttered Superstar Limo ride.

Very true, and the reason for this is because a California-themed park in California is among the stupidist ideas ever. The park needs a theme overhaul, and plenty more attractions to be anything more than the half day park that it is now. But this isn't new information to anyone who has visited DCA.

Shadowcat
09-28-2005, 08:20 AM
I'm hoping it's the first step in re-theming the whole place. DCA obviously needs a change because it is lacking in so many areas and people just don't like to go there at the price Disney is charging. If could change it, I'd scrap the whole "microcosm of California" idea and make it more fun. In fact, I'd turn DCA in something that looks like a giant Toon Town and move the Toon Town from Disneyland into it. So on one side of the street you'd have Disneyland - the classic, and on the other side of the street you'd have Disneyland's Toon Town which you make you feel you've just stepped into a living cartoon. They could keep the rides, but just re-theme EVERYTHING to give it that chunky brightly-color cartoon feel.

olegc
09-28-2005, 08:27 AM
I'm hoping it's the first step in re-theming the whole place. DCA obviously needs a change because it is lacking in so many areas and people just don't like to go there at the price Disney is charging. If could change it, I'd scrap the whole "microcosm of California" idea and make it more fun. In fact, I'd turn DCA in something that looks like a giant Toon Town and move the Toon Town from Disneyland into it. So on one side of the street you'd have Disneyland - the classic, and on the other side of the street you'd have Disneyland's Toon Town which you make you feel you've just stepped into a living cartoon. They could keep the rides, but just re-theme EVERYTHING to give it that chunky brightly-color cartoon feel.

I agree - and you won't see the magic shift with just one new attraction. it will be gradual - it may even take 3 years to do. However, the tie-in to Hollywood as a backlot will start to stretch and it will be more generically based on the movie industry as a whole IMHO. Which is how you get ties into anything to do with movies...

But - that's all speculation of course.

TP2000
09-28-2005, 12:40 PM
does anyone know why they got rid of the limo ride? i never got to ride it - by the time i got to DCA in 2002 it was gone. i've always wondered why.

It was simply a really bad ride. It was a funless, charmless dark ride populated by wiggling manequins (they were not even close to animatronics) of aging B and C List celebrities who had a connection to a Disney owned media property in the 1998-2000 time period when the ride was designed and built. It was already outdated and corny when it opened in 2001.

If Superstar Limo had remained open, it would have aged very, very badly. The celebrities featured in the ride included Drew Carey, Tim Allen, Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, Jackie Chan, Cher, Whoopie Goldberg, and Regis Philbin. All of those people have fallen off the celebrity map, which they were barely clinging to in 2001. Perhaps Regis is still there, simply because his talk show is still on television. But the rest haven't done anything succesful in several years.

And the argument that they would have "updated" the ride is weak, because they still haven't updated the closing montage of Golden Dreams that is several years behind and now lacking major California events. Film is a lot easier and cheaper to replace and edit than subtracting and adding wiggling manequins in a dark ride, so I'm sure we'd still have that pathetic collection of creepy celebs if Superstar Limo was still operating.

Superstar Limo opened February 9th, 2001, and it was closed forever less than a year later, on January 10th, 2002. It has to be the shortest run of any Disney theme park attraction ever. It was simply that bad.

potzbie
09-28-2005, 01:03 PM
Superstar Limo opened February 9th, 2001, and it was closed forever less than a year later, on January 10th, 2002. It has to be the shortest run of any Disney theme park attraction ever. It was simply that bad.

That is not what I remember as the REASON for the closure.

As I recall, the ride was shut down for legal reasons.
All (nearly) the locations pictured were protected by copyright.
You cannot display (for example) the HOLLYWOOD sign, nor CAPITOL RECORDS' building, nor the L.A. Coliseum, nor USC/UCLA logos, etc., without permission.
Well, Disney, as I recall the write-up, failed to get some key, obvious releases signed.
So, the places (the owners of the copyrighted images) sued.
I don't know what happened in the negotiations.
Maybe Disney didn't make them an offer they couldn't refuse?
I assume that Disney couldn't get permission for enough symbols, or at least could not compensate them monetarily a satisfactory amount.

What was left? A ride that could not depict but a dozen symbols of Hollywood, instead of a hundred symbols of Hollywood.

Yes, the ride was lame, and the ride was modest in its fancy-shmancy gadgets and gizmos, as dark-room rides go.
But why would you SHUT DOWN a perfectly fine-working ride, that takes guests off other queues?
Answer: You wouldn't, unless you were forced to.
You don't shut down a ride and replace it with nothing, just because of low-ridership.
If LOW RIDERSHIP was a factor, then PINOCCHIO'S DARING JOURNEY and SNOW WHITE'S SCARY ADVENTURES would have shut down in the 1990s. There is NEVER a queue for those two rides on the left-side of the Fantasyland area.
I don't know why ridership is low for those rides.
I don't know why the ridership is low for WINNIE THE POOH.
Perhaps the rides are lame, and the word-of-mouth has done them in.
But, Great Caesar's Ghost!, Disneyland management has not shut down those dark-room rides, despite the lack-of-ridership.
If you do shut down a ride, then you ususally replace it with something else.

This was not the case with LIMO. -- Nothing took its place--for years.

Vegitabeta
09-28-2005, 01:06 PM
Superstar Limo opened February 9th, 2001, and it was closed forever less than a year later, on January 10th, 2002. It has to be the shortest run of any Disney theme park attraction ever. It was simply that bad.


Yes, I saw the photos!