Once upon a time, Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park — once the MGM Studios — was all about the classic films of all types (not just Disney related). Now, it feels a bit more like a Magic Kingdom extension, with nearly every ride being based on a Disney or Disney-owned feature. Once, it was heavily inspired by the filmmaking experience. I can recall a few former experiences I still hold dear to me: “Sounds Dangerous!” (an in-the-dark comedic skit that plays on sound mixing and editing, featuring Drew Carey), the “Studio Backlot Tour” (exactly what it sounds like), and “Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show” (a tribute to stunts of all sorts originally from Disneyland Paris). If you look up the list of now-defunct attractions, you can see what I mean. So much of the cinema side of the theme park is now gone. In case it wasn’t clear, this theme park was always my favourite (of Disney World, Disney anything, any theme park), especially as a young cinephile being molded by his surroundings. It was here that I began to love more than just films as a kid. I loved the idea of films — perhaps more than specific films — and the entire movie-making process (hence my passion for films about filmmaking).

The biggest draw for me was “The Great Movie Ride”, which is sadly now on that ever-growing list of former attractions (as of 2017). It was the last remaining ride (or attraction) from the opening day of MGM Studios in 1989. It remained mostly the same from its creation until its closure (I will get into that later on in the article). The basic premise was that you took part in a different type of backlot tour (so, very dissimilar to that other “Studio Backlot Tour” that also was in the theme park previously). A tour guide would be in your car to detail all of the sights you would see. It was really straight forward. The ride took place inside a replica version of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

However, what set “The Great Movie Ride” apart was the interaction with the guests, the sights and even the tour guide. You see, you didn’t just drive around props and artifacts from films; if anything, you saw these waiting in line to get into the ride (including Dorothy’s red slippers from The Wizard of Oz and various Mary Poppins items, amongst others).The actual ride itself tried to put you inside the actual films it was detailing, over the course of cinematic history. You were on the runway from Casablanca, in a shootout from The Public Enemy, and traveling the yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz. Dated-yet-charming animatronics of cast members would pop in and talk, sometimes directly to you. This is where it gets very interesting. The tour guides would talk with these machines sometimes, while giving the tour. Maybe we needed to know how to get out of a scene, so we could ask the Munchkins how to leave (the answer is obvious).

When the guide gets his tour hijacked by a villainous character midway through the ride.

There was a tremendous moment during the ride that I always looked forward to: the breaking of the ride’s fourth wall. You’d see a living person amidst the animatronic characters — a gangster, to boot — that would hijack your ride and kick your tour guide off. They would then take you through different scenes without much knowledge of these scenes, and it put a major emphasis on experiencing such an attraction with someone knowledgable, versus someone uninformed. Luckily, your tour guide would show up later on, trap the villainous new guide, and would steer your car back in the right direction. During the detour, you would enter some more dangerous territories, including the final showdown in Alien. “The Great Movie Ride” had a fantastic sense of how to toy with your emotions, much like a film of its own.

After your tour concludes its rounds, the cars would all line up (like a drive-in movie theatre) and would watch a final film compilation. This was the only thing that changed a little frequently (every few years, just to have additions of scenes from newer films). Otherwise, the ride for the most part was always the same song and dance, and I loved it. I wanted to know every single one of these films. I needed to see Singin’ in the Rain. I got mad for thinking the James Cagney film featured was White Heat (still a perfect gangster film) when it was The Public Enemy, because that was one less film I could tick off the list. I needed to discover westerns, to see if I would be more of a John Wayne or a Clint Eastwood kind of guy (spoiler: I’m one thousand percent a Clint Eastwood guy). In all honesty, this was where my fascination with Alien began. Being surrounded by droning sirens, damp fog and chilling temperatures made me need to see the film. The set was exactly how the finale feels, and this ride led me towards one of my favourite horror films ever.

The Alien portion of the ride. — The *Alien* portion of the ride.

As a kid, I always wanted to be that tour guide. I could spew out all of this film knowledge, and show off some acting capabilities by interacting with famous figures (in mechanical form) and partaking in the whole hijack-hero storyline. I seriously was in love with that particular job. That had to be me. I needed to know every single film in the finale compilation (even when it kept getting updated). Sure, some other rides were much more thrilling, but this was the one that I felt the most zen in. Ever. I felt consumed by the lights and sounds of a film geek coasting through film history and even having fun with it. Once I learned who Ingrid Bergman or Gene Kelly were, the ride became better and better for me.

So, the inevitable end truly hurts to discuss. Eventually, Walt Disney World and Turner Classic Movies partnered up to spice the ride up a tiny bit. Film historian legend Robert Osborne — famously attached to TCM — now narrated the ride in audible form through the cars. The tour guide had less of a major role in the experience from then on. The ride still did really well, but now you had Osborne, a tour guide (technically two at some points) and animatronics bubbling over each other. This took away from the immersion of the experience. Even before any of this change happened, I brought up that little change happened for decades. Why? Well, think about the rights issues related to any of these featured films. Especially when MGM parted ways with Disney, there was a lot of stuff there that Disney didn’t own. Well, it’s Disney. Surely they could afford it. That wasn’t the issue. It was more to do with why should they have to bother with this.

With the transformation into a park that celebrated all Disney offshoots, “The Great Movie Ride” was the final fossil meant to be ground up, hence the lack of a need to fix the new format that just wasn’t working. Plus, Disney owns so many properties that there’s no way they couldn’t make a park entirely about them. With Robert Osborne’s passing, Disney’s accumulation of many companies, and the ride now being the outlier in a park it once was greatly a part of, the assimilation was completed late 2017. “The Great Movie Ride” was replaced by “Micky & Minnie’s Runaway Railway”. The realization that cinema is heavily favoured as a popcorn experience over a historical and artistic engagement was fully here in literal form. The new ride is still in the Chinese Theatre, with the handprints of industry icons still present, but that isn’t a celebration of film in that lot. I haven’t been on the new ride and would love to give it a chance the next time I am in Orlando, as I am sure it is a lovely attraction. However, I feel emptier knowing that my favourite passive ride ever has been replaced. I’d like to think I have become that tour guide outside of the attraction, and in my every day life. I think starting my own film website is enough of an indication that this has happened. Either way, the ride may be gone, but the conversation will never die.

Please enjoy a video recording of the entire ride below, thanks to the YouTube channel iThemePark. It may be difficult to hear some of the interactions, but this footage is hopefully enough for you to see what I held dear to my heart for my entire childhood.

Also, here is a link to a gallery of the entire ride, courtesy of WDWMagic.com. Here are some of my favourite images from this gallery.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.

Growing Up a Cinephile: The Great Movie Ride