The Great Movie Ride- What Could Have Been
The Mickey Wiki takes a look at how different The Great Movie Ride could’ve been.
With the end of The Great Movie Ride’s run upon us, many have begun to re-examine the attraction’s place in Disney history. Perhaps the last great moment in the lineage of the Audio-Animatronic attraction, The Great Movie Ride was something unique in Disney history. The combination of live-show and dark ride, the unique “moving theater” ride vehicles, and Disney’s success in acquiring movie rights, helped to create an attraction that not only presented the great movies of American cinema, but also the ethos of Hollywood’s long-past Golden Age.
Others will debate Disney’s decision to replace Disney’s Hollywood Studio’s original flagpole attraction, and they will be much more eloquent than I could ever be. Instead, I want to take this moment of renewed attention on The Great Movie Ride to talk about scenes that were planned for the attraction but never saw the light of day. With that in mind, I proudly present the great moments in the movies that never were!
A Very Different Finale
Concept art by Imagineers Frank Armitage and Nina Rae Vaughn, show that early in the Great Movie Ride’s development, Disney planned on having a different spectacle for the finale. As opposed to the montage that was eventually created for the attraction’s final scene, early depictions show that at one time the plan was for guests to enter a dramatically lit room, where they would have been surrounded by some of cinema’s greatest characters. Here, guests would have come face to face with:
- R2D2 & C3PO (Star Wars)
- Rhett Butler & Scarlett O’Hara (Gone with the Wind)
- Rock Balboa (The Rocky Series)
- The Ghostbusters
- Mary Poppins
- Indiana Jones
- George C. Scott as General Patton
- Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles (Cabaret)
- Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood (Singin’ in the Rain)
- John Wayne
- Shirley Temple
- Mickey Mouse
While it’s unknown whether cost, lack of rights, or creative decisions led to this finale being scrapped, there was a time where Imagineers still envisioned a grand finale of Animatronic movie stars. In fact, later in the attraction’s evolution, there were plans for the finale scene to feature all the Animatronic actors featured earlier in the attraction, bowing to guests before they exited.
A Tribute to Comedy
While the final incarnation of the Great Movie Ride featured scenes depicting the genres of musicals, westerns, gangster films, science-fiction, and adventure movies, there was one glaring hole in this mosaic of movie history: comedies.
What may help explain this oversight is the fact that at one time, comedies were meant to be represented in the attraction. In fact, concept art by Gene Johnson shows that a chaotic scene dedicated to the screen’s great comics was envisioned fairly early on in the attractions development. This scene would have featured Audio-Animatronic versions of the Keystone Kops, W.C. Fields, Mae West, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin.
Although this scene was eventually cut from the attraction, it’s fun to think about the chaos that these characters could have created!
More Wizard of Oz
Even though the Wizard of Oz was certainly present in the final version of The Great Movie Ride, believe it or not, Disney originally intended for the movie to have an even bigger role in the attraction. Have you ever noticed how the Great Movie Ride’s Fantasia scene seems small and out of place when compared to the other grandiose scenes in the attraction? Well, there is a reason for that. It turns out that Fantasia was not Imagineering’s first choice for that room. Instead, they had planned on featuring the tornado scene from The Wizard of Oz.
In fact, not only was there to be a Wizard of Oz tornado scene, but initially, plans for the attraction called for guests to move deeper into the Emerald City, after being told to travel down the Yellow Brick Road. Entering another room, guests would have come face to face with the floating head of the Wizard, who would have uttered his famous line “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”. At this point, the live cast member, who had earlier been presumed dead, would appear from behind the curtain and bow.
So why did this epic finale never materialize? It turns out that MGM had only licensed the rights to about three minutes of The Wizard of Oz’s audio. This included the Munchkin’s singing “Follow the Yellow Brick Road”, the Wicked Witch’s dialogue and Dorthy's dialogue when seeing the Emerald City. With Disney unwilling (or unable) to pay for extended rights, Imagineers were left with two big voids to fill.
In an attempt to reuse some of the effects planned for the tornado scene, Imagineers decided to retheme the room to the Disney animated classic Fantasia. To showcase the film , Mickey was simply shown on a screen commanding the enchanted waters (thus allowing the wind-blowing effect to be used). In the attraction’s final room, Imagineers decided not to create a new scene, but instead created a large theater that would show a montage of famous film moments. By doing this, the attraction would have a fitting conclusion that would also be easy to update.
Lee Marvin Instead of Clint Eastwood
Imagineers had originally hoped to have Lee Marvin’s Kid Shelleen character from Cat Ballou, in the Great Movie Ride’s western scene. Although the late actor had won an Academy Award for his performance in the film, Marvin’s children were not comfortable with their father being depicted as the drunken gunslinger and they refused to sign the release form necessary to use the actor’s likeness.
Unable to put Marvin in the attraction, Imagineers had a problem. With time running out, they needed another figure for the western scene. Luckily, Disney CEO, Frank Wells, told them that he was friends with Clint Eastwood from when he (Wells) was in charge of Warner Brothers. Sure that Eastwood would enjoy seeing himself in the attraction, Wells told Imagineering to create an Eastwood Animatronic and he would get the form signed.
With the deadline for the attraction’s opening quickly approaching, Wells had still not gotten Eastwood to sign the form. Finally, 10 days before the Disney-MGM Studios was set to open to the public, Wells convinced Eastwood to fly with him to Orlando to see Disney’s newest park. At this point, Imagineers had created and placed the Animatronic Eastwood figure in the western scene, but without the waiver signed, they kept a bag over his head in order to keep his identity secret.
When they arrived in Orlando, Wells and Eastwood toured the rest of the Disney-MGM Studios before boarding the Great Movie Ride. In their own private vehicle, Wells and Eastwood rode the park’s flagship attraction, and Imagineers removed the bag from over the Eastwood Animatronic’s head, just before their car entered the scene. Much to the relief of the Imagineers who had been tasked with creating the attraction, Eastwood saw and loved the “Man with No Name” Animatronic that they had created, and he signed the release form right there on the attraction!
Well, that’s all folks. Thank’s for taking this trip through the Great Movie Ride that could have been with me. I’ll see you in the movies!
Justin Hermes (The Mickey Wiki) is a Columnist for the Boardwalk Times.
