Possibilityland. If you’ve been with us long enough, you may have traveled with us to this spectacular place where never-built attractions are alive once more. In fact, our Possibilityland series is packed with in-depth tales of never-built rides from around the globe. But once in a while, our trips to Possibilityland take a detour. From time to time, we like to step back and walkthrough entire parks as they could’ve been if one person said “yes” instead of “no.”
So far, our “What If?” Walkthroughs have taken us through the Magic Kingdom that almost was; an alternate reality Future World with its cancelled pavilions restored; and an epic journey through Disneyland’s could-be-classics. And today, our trip through Possibilityland brings us to the Pan-Pacific Gates of a park you may hardly recognize… Welcome to the Disney-MGM Studios that never was.
Disney’s Possibility Studios
When the Disney-MGM Studios opened in 1989, it represented an early look into the mindset of the still-new CEO Michael Eisner and President Frank Wells. Born and bred in the world of filmmaking, Eisner and Wells (hailing from Paramount and Warner Bros., respectively) were brought into Walt Disney Productions in the early ’80s as a “Hail Mary” attempt to save the company. Without their uniquely-cinematic leadership, it’s likely that Disney would’ve been sold for parts with its assets and brands scattered to the winds.
Instead, the duo jump-started Disney animation, revitalized their live action division, created the more mature Touchstone Pictures banner to diversify the studios’ products, and began acquiring IP and media companies that would eventually build into the Walt Disney Company we know today.
The Disney-MGM Studios was Eisner’s love-letter to the movies; a celebration of the romance and magic of Tinseltown; a distinctly-’80s/’90s opportunity to see “behind the scenes” at “how the magic was made;” to “Ride the Movies”! Only at this new kind of theme park (a “studio”) could designers do away with tried-and-true rules of Disney Parks and instead mash together the hottest characters of today; to dispense with themed lands and instead house rides in barren backlots and beige soundstages! Yes, the Disney-MGM Studios was an oddity… which makes it particularly interesting to visit its “alternate reality” form here in Possibility World, where its never-built attractions weren’t never-built after all..
While Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened with just two rides and has grown and shrunk in fits and starts since then, here in Disney’s Possibility Studios, anything is possible… So let’s tour the could-be classics of this alternate-reality park to see what might’ve been…
1. Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood
Project: Mini-land
Location: Sunset Blvd.
“Opened”: 1994
Though Disney may not have been churning out hits yet in the late-80s, that doesn’t mean they didn’t have any viable, fresh, hot properties to bring to their studio park. Even if 1989’s The Little Mermaid is commonly celebrated as the start of the “Disney Renaissance,” there’s arguably another movie whose premiere a year earlier had started to turn the ship… 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released through Touchstone Pictures (created by Eisner to diversify Disney’s offerings with more mature content), but the Academy Award-winning film was a Disney milestone nonetheless.
In fact, Roger Rabbit was envisioned as a de facto mascot of the Disney-MGM Studios! That’s why he was elevated to “fab five” level at the park’s 1989 opening! The exit of the Backstage Studio Tour even dropped guests off in a Toontown warehouse to explore props from the film. But here at The Disney-Possibility Studios, in the early ’90s Maroon Studios finally came fully to life! Built in a backlot right off of the then-new Sunset Blvd., this haywire 1940s film campus of cartoon stars would be where animated characters “clocked in” and got to work in the sometimes-seedy business of making the cartoons we love.
Nestled into the cartoon hills is the TOON COASTER, a mile-a-minute family coaster based on the 1990 “Roller Coaster Rabbit” short (wherein Roger “babysits” Herman… and loses him aboard the Florida State Fair’s towering scream machine) . Zipping to-and-fro, this wild ride darts in and out of the “terror tunnel,” zips down the “Giant Slalom,” crashes through setpieces, and more!
Meanwhile, BABY HERMAN’S RUNAWAY BABY BUGGY RIDE might be imagined as a modern take on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Queueing guests would reportedly pass by Baby Herman’s trailer, only to hear the grizzle-voice star insisting some no-good extras be rounded up for the dangerous stunts needed to film the 1990 “Tummy Trouble” short.
Guests would be loaded into zippy baby strollers and set loose in the short’s Toontown Hospital, zooming through the sets, rumbling down stairs, crashing through doors and bouncing over patient beds. And in total “Hollywood” standard, on-ride image capture would give guests the chance to take home a souvenir of their wild stunt-stroller drive… with baby bonnets placed on their head.
Still, the land’s true centerpiece has to be TOONTOWN TROLLEY. An evolution of the Rediffusion ATLAS simulator tech already in use aboard the Lost Legend: STAR TOURS, this attraction sends guests into the Toon world as never before. Riders take a seat inside of Gus the Bus, a municipal Toontown transit bus with dreams of making it big, tired of his same-old route through the city. And luckily, when Benny the Cab pulls up to let him know of auditions today, Gus heads off on a short-cut trip to the studios with guests in tow!
The first surround-screen simulator, this incredible attraction gives guests the chance to see not just where they’re going, but where they’ve been. Along the way, they end up swallowed by Monstro, crash landing from skyscrapers, and saving Jessica Rabbit from a burning fireworks factory. What a thrill!
If you’re counting, that means that Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood contains three substantial attractions, which are sorely needed in a park that opened with only two rides to begin with! Paired with the rest of Sunset Blvd., this early-’90s expansion gave the Disney-MGM Studios a new, fresh, exciting lease on life; a cool, hip park filled with the stars of today, plucked fresh from the multiplex! Speaking of which…
2. Dick Tracy’s Crime Stoppers
Project: E-Ticket ride
Location: Sunset Blvd.
“Opened”: 1994
Since 1931, the tough-talking Chicago detective Dick Tracy had been a staple of the weekly comic strips. Even still, Tracy changed with the times. In the 1940s, he gained a walkee-talkee watch; in the ’50s, he faced off with a fictionalized Al Capone; in the ’60s, he briefly switched to solving crimes on the moon; by the ’70s, he was back on Earth, and with a hippie sidekick to boot. The cool, hard-nosed private eye and detective had faced his share of baddies and been spun off into radio operas, full comic books, novels, and feature films.
But Disney’s 1990 adaptation would be the biggest yet. Directed by and starring the legendary Warren Beatty with Al Pacino and Madonna, as well as an all-star ensemble cast of star-studded cameos. Disney reportedly imagined Dick Tracy as a heroic action blockbuster that would rival Warner Bros. 1989 film Batman and its $400 million box office haul and fuel a long-running film franchise.
Okay, so, technically, the film wasn’t the franchise-fire-starter Disney hoped. Disney prepped for a $60 million write-off on the film after its domestic run with then-Studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenburg commenting, “We made demands on our time, talent and treasure that, upon reflection, may not have been worth it.”
Earning less than half of the equally-expensive Who Framed Roger Rabbit had made two years prior, Dick Tracy was quickly written off as a dud. Luckily, rather than abandoning the IP, Disney Imagineers figured out how to put it to good use. You don’t have to know much about Dick Tracy to enjoy DICK TRACY’S CRIME-STOPPERS. This revolutionary ride was the first to use Disney’s groundbreaking EMV (Enhanced Motion Vehicle) technology.
On board, guests find themselves in the seedy underbelly of Chicago in the 1930s, careening though the city’s streets, warehouses, and wharfs hot on the tail of gangsters. If you can believe it, this tour through the mean streets of the 1930s also equips guests with their own in-vehicle tommy guns to take on gangsters, trigger special effects, explode cars, pop the lids off of trash cans, and more.
As you can see, Disney’s Possibility Studios isn’t afraid to tackle the blockbusters of the day. This is a different kind of Disney Park. It’s cool. It’s fresh. It’s edgy. It’s cinematic. And that goes double for the ride waiting at the end of Sunset Blvd… Let’s hop back on the Red Car Trolley and take it to the street’s end, where a haunted old hotel looms. Nope, not that one… Read on…
3. Hotel Mel
Project: Family dark ride
Location: Sunset Blvd.
“Opened”: 1993
Sunset Blvd. had been in the works since shortly after the park opened. Frankly, the Disney-MGM Studios had proven more popular than anticipated, so the extra ride capacity and breathing room of a new land would work wonders. And while Toontown and Crime-Stoppers would certainly be gotta-see-’em headliners, Disney was anticipating a big name connection to truly bring Sunset Blvd. to life. Roger and Dick would be joined by Mel.
As the story goes, Imagineers were tasked with incorporating the “horror” genre into the park in a meaningful way, and even toyed with attractions themed to Friday the 13th, Halloween, or the works of Stephen King. Ultimately, they all came across as too violent or horrible, even for the more “mature” and “edgy” studio park. The solution? A horror-comedy. And of course, no one knows horror-comedy like Mel Brooks, director of 1974’s cult classic Young Frankenstein.
Working with Mel Brooks, Disney Imagineers began to craft a new dark ride through the ruined remains of a once-luxurious Hollywood hote, now being used as the hot set of a monster movie. Of course, HOTEL MEL invites guests into the dilapidated structure to go behind-the-screams.
Inside, you might catch Frankenstein in his movie trailer, the Mummy leaving the bathroom with his bandages trailing behind, Dracula in the makeup chair, and more. Like the Haunted Mansion, it’s meant to be a frightfully funny trip through the making of a monster movie, culminating in guests’ big breakthrough role, screaming into the camera.
4. Copperfield’s Magic Underground
Project: Immersive restaurant
Location: Hollywood Blvd.
“Opened”: 1995
If you had to guess which solo performing artist had sold more tickets than any other, who might you guess? Michael Jackson? Madonna? Beyonce? Celine Dion? Elvis? Nope. At least as recently as 2006, the answer was David Copperfield.
The illusionist is by far the most commercially successful magician in history, grossing over $4 billion in ticket sales over his career and earning 11 Guinness World Records, 21 Emmy Awards, and “Living Legend” status conferred by the U.S. Library of Congress. Copperfield’s most famous trick was a 1983 televised special wherein he seemingly made the Statue of Liberty disappear. So heading into the ’90s, Copperfield was a world-renowned star.
Mix that in with another star of the era: the rise of “themed family dining.” The very same day that the Disney-MGM Studios opened, Eisner’s equally cinematic Pleasure Island launched, defined by a “reused warehouse” design aesthetic layered with embedded backstory and hosting immersive clubs, restaurants, and bars. It’s likely that Pleasure Island’s attractions (like the Lost Legend: The Adventurers Club) spurred the ’90s proliferation of the Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, Johnny Rockets, and the Rainforest Cafe, each becoming regional attractions in their own right.
Sensing a winning combination, a pair of venture capitalists pursued Copperfield, ultimately licensing his name and brand to develop COPPERFIELD MAGIC UNDERGROUND! Though the first location opened in New York City’s Times Square, the second at Disney’s Hollywood Studios was a perfect fit for the park. Constructed alongside Fantasmic!, the restaurant was wedged between the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater and the park’s entrance. Cleverly, that allows the restaurant to serve guests both inside and outside of the park (a formula later reused for Animal Kingdom’s Rainforest Cafe).
Inside, guests find themselves in a warehouse of oddities, stacked wall-to-wall with library books, crates, ornate metalwork, camera rigs, and giant props and illusions. Like its “immersive family dining” peers, the cavernous, kinetic interior is truly home to a high-capacity, high-volume restaurant.
But rather than being surrounded in jungle animals, robotic dinosaurs, celebrity ephemera, or classic cars, a trip to Copperfield Magic Underground allows you the chance to see real illusions performed right in front of your eyes; to get an up-close look at Copperfield’s most compelling magic (while never revealing the trick); to dine among giant props and signature elements from his career, like a balcony built around the torch of the Statue of Liberty, magically relocated here.
Copperfield’s Magic Underground gave the still-young Disney-MGM Studios an out-of-this-world family dining experience long before the Be Our Guest Restaurant or the Three Broomsticks would make it standard. And while it’s operated by an outside conglomerate (just like Rainforest), it feels right at home at the park, cementing its growing identity as a place packed with the celebrities of the day, the magic of television, and the power of seeing behind-the-scenes.
5. Backstage Studio Tour additions
Project: A new Studio Tour scene
Location: Backstage Studio Tour
“Opened”: Unknown
It’s no surprise that Disney didn’t invent the “Studio Tour” formula. Quite the contrary, they intentionally and unapologetically stole it! Disney’s decision to whisk guests through their studio’s backlot on trams was lifted directed from Universal Studios Hollywood, and allegedly served as a preemptive strike against Universal’s plans for a Florida park. The real highlight of Disney’s tram tour, however, had always been its single staged special effects demonstration, Catastophe Canyon.
Given that the Backstage Studio Tour was one of just two rides at the park when it opened (and the only way to see the entire production facility half of the park), it makes sense that Imagineers quickly got to work expanding it. In the mid-90s, a mountain rose over the park’s backlot. But unlike the mountains at other Disney Parks, this one is halved and hollow, held up by wooden supports. As trams drive into the craggy peak, they’re actually entering a soundstage for a “creature feature” encounter pulled right from Universal’s tram-tour classics.
As the tram skirts through ancient rock chasms and icy corridors of frigid temperatures, they at last emerge into an underground world. Molten pools of bubbling, bursting lava and oppressive heat signal our arrival at the center of the Earth. Ancient Atlantean ruins appear to sink down into the geothermal pools while the tram drives cautiously over the floating peninsula of rock, passing under odd, stone arches…
… but wait, those arches are… moving? And as the tram drives deeper and deeper, they appear to transition from molten rock supernaturally circling around the roadway into armored plates, almost like an exoskeleton…
Unsurprisingly, this whole set up has been leading to something big. With the tram coiled in the pressurized grip of a subterrean worm creature, guests find themselves face-to-face with its hideous alien head as it rears back hissing. Of course, our path out of the center of the Earth opens up ahead, allowing the tram to make a quick escape back to the backlot, but that was one heck of a creature encounter!
Still, that leaves us with two of the biggest, most well-known never-built Studio projects in history… Read on as we explore two more headliners of Disney’s Possibility Studios…
6. Muppet Studios
Project: Land
Location: Near New York Street
“Opened”: 1992
“It’s time to play the music! It’s time to light the lights!”
Welcome to Muppet Studios at the Disney-MGM Studios! Yes, This wild and wonderful backlot belongs entirely to Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie and the gang. It’s a kinetic and pun-filled paradise for Muppet fans of all ages to explore. In fact, this sensational land is so incredible, we traced its origin story and what awaits within in its own in-depth Possibilityland: Muppet Studios walkthrough! But here are the basics.
Of course, Muppet Studios is home to MUPPET*VISION 3D, a cutting edge exploration into the newest creations at Muppet Labs… including the world’s first computer-generated Muppet! Naturally, chaos ensues in this “4D” show, completely destroying Muppet Studios’ grand and palatial theater right before guests’ eyes.
But here in Muppet Studios, that’s only the beginning. Guests can dine in THE GREAT GONZO’S PIZZA PANDEMONIUM PARLOR, where (and this is real), food is delivered to the tables by Audio-Animatronic rats (see above). Or, swing by SWEDISH CHEF’S COOKING SCHOOL for a one-of-a-kind interactive cooking class / meet-and-greet attraction.
Still, the biggest draw to Muppet Studios by far is THE GREAT MUPPET MOVIE RIDE. What would happen if the Muppets tried to recreate the most legendary films in history?
This laugh-out-loud tour through the soundstages of Muppet Studios includes all the mayhem and hijinx you’d expect from a production of Frankenstein starring Beaker or Peter Pan with Miss Piggy hoisted high as Tinker Bell. But even cooler, this full-fledge, Audio-Animatronic-packed dark ride gives the Disney-MGM Studios a whole new anchor attraction for families.
7. Monsters Inc. Door Chase
Project: Family coaster
Location: Pixar Place
“Opened”: 2010s
Monsters Inc. is one of those Pixar films packed with such imagination, it feels like a new kind of story. One by one, the employees of Monsters Inc. work their way through a quota of scares, summoning kids’ closet doors as portals to gather screams that power Monstropolis. It’s all in a day’s work for these well-meaning monsters who merely train to be scary… until a human child, “Boo,” sneaks her way back to Monstropolis revealing that the monsters themselves are more terrified of humans than the other way around.
Naturally what follows is a mad race to return Boo, eventually revealing the inner workingsof Monsters Inc.: a cavernous, automated, sunlit warehouse where closet doors are stored and retrieved, sliding, zooming, forking, and dipping along rails. The sensational setting and high-energy scene immediately illicits the idea of a ride… And spectacularly, Disney’s Possibility Studios has one.
Yes, the MONSTERS INC. DOOR CHASE coaster was built in one of the unused soundstages near Toy Story Midway Mania, making the park’s “Pixar Place” a more complete land. Inside, guests get their own tour through the interior of Monster Inc.’s grand lobby before making their way to the Scare Floor and hopping aboard a suspended roller coaster train of hanging doors. As the coaster is lifted up and propelled into the interior of Monsters Inc., it becomes a swinging, sliding, zipping journey through the chaotic warehouse, dipping and spiraling along spinning door carousels, through “portals” and past scenes of Mike & Sully’s rescue of Boo.
The Monsters Inc. Door Chase coaster gives Disney’s Hollywood Studios a family coaster that’s well-themed, bright, and – best of all – indoors! It’s a perfect way to expand Pixar Place and keep the Studios rolling toward the future by keeping fresh, evergreen movies at the forefront.
Back to reality…
Our tour through Disney’s Possibility Studios reveals no less than seven major projects that could’ve been. And trust us, there are plenty more where those came from… from silly asides themed to flavor-of-the-week movies to Villains rides, an entire never-built Star Wars lands, or Cars Land, there’s plenty that Possibility Studios has left in production…
But for now, it’s time to face facts: even if these seven projects could’ve been, they weren’t. Why didn’t each of these could-be-classics make their way to the real Hollywood Studios? We’ll break down the reason for the cancellation of each on the next page…
What really happened…
Okay, depending on your tastes, our tour through the never-built rides of the Disney-MGM Studios may leave you heartbroken for what we lost… or happy to return to the Studios you know. To be fair, Disney’s super-charging of the Disney-MGM Studios in the ’90s and 2000s did happen, yeilding a park that’s certainly uneven, but that’s almost entirely made up of E-Ticket headliners!
So since we know that none of the attractions in “Possibility Studios” actually came to be, the question becomes… why not? Let’s revisit each of these attractions one-by-one to explore the real stories behind these cancelled could-be blockbusters…
1. Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood
Despite relatively little being known about Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood, fans have a good sense of why it never came to be. For one thing, Disney doesn’t wholly own 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. To finance the risky, $50 million picture, the Robert Zemeckis film was co-produced by Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Entertainment. It’s said that Eisner and Spielberg developed a contentious relationship surrounding ownership of the film’s characters and their use in the parks. But an equally likely story is that the Disney Renaissance simply supercharged Disney’s catalogue with fresher films to inject into the Studios.
Neither the Studios’ Roger Rabbit land nor Disneyland’s Hollywoodland came to be, but Roger Rabbit did get his very own land… in a sense. When Disneyland’s Toontown debuted in 1993, the land was stylistically based on the Fleischer cartoon style of Roger Rabbit, and Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin was the land’s starring dark ride. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, meanwhile, remains a fantastic ’80s classic, but has largely been left out of the pop culture prominence that Disney’s enduring ’90s Renaissance films have enjoyed.
2. Dick Tracy’s Crime-Stoppers
Unlike in Possibility World, in the real Disney-MGM Studios, the tepid response to 1990’s Dick Tracy film cooled any pursuit of a dark ride. It’s the double-edged sword of the studio park… If you wait to see if your film’s a hit, you’re too late to build an attraction; build too soon, and you might theme a ride to a flop. If Crime-Stoppers had gone forward, it would likely be a favorite ride today far moved from its source material. But it didn’t.
3. Hotel Mel
We’re guessing you know what became of Hotel Mel. Though Disney and Brooks toyed with the idea, it’s reported that neither party was ultimately happy with the end result. No one could quite figure out the tone of the ride… Was it funny, or frightening? Were guests “extras” on set, or trapped in the hotel? Were the monsters actors on set, or was the hotel really haunted by ghouls? (The description we gave was “funny,” “extras,” and “actors” respectively, but try any combination in your head!)
Though Hotel Mel was abandoned (no pun intended), the idea of a derelict Hollywood Hotel merged with Eisner’s call for more thrills, and Imagineers’ concept of using an Intamin First Generational Freefall drop tower (once planned for the never-built Discovery Mountain).
Thankfully, Disney didn’t activate on the rudimentary ride system (which would seem entirely barbaric by today’s standards, with elevators rattling down a metallic scaffold tower and sliding out at the bottom with riders ending up on their backs). Instead, they held out for a more advanced ride system and an IP that perfectly balanced “horror” and “sci-fi” without any blood or gore. Yep, we traced the full story of Hotel Mel’s transformation into one of Imagineering’s best rides in the Lost Legends: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror feature.
4. Copperfield’s Magic Underground
Our friends at Theme Park University detailed the entire story of Magic Underground’s rise and fall, but it mostly came down to finances that had nothing to do with Disney. The Times Square location had raised $20 million through investors and had begun construction when Copperfield allegedly stepped in. He wanted more control over the attraction to ensure his brand and illusions were respected, necessitating major changes halfway through the process. To raise more money, the company turned to Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia (the same prince who effectively owned controlling shares of EuroDisneyland).
Ultimately, the Time Square location was reportedly 85% complete and $34 million in the hole when construction stopped. No earth had been moved in Orlando, making the project easy enough to cancel outright. We’ll leave it to you to decide if Magic Underground would still be around today even if it had been built.
5. Muppet Studios
By all accounts, Jim Henson liked the idea of selling The Muppets to Disney and the promise of taking on a creative role for the brand rather than a business one. However, Henson died unexpectedly on May 16, 1990 – just a year after the opening of the Disney-MGM Studios. The Henson family quickly rallied and retracted, pulling out of the relationship with Disney.
In fact, the Henson family allegedly sought to scrap Muppet*Vision until legendary Muppeteer Frank Oz screened the finished film for the family and begged them to allow the world to see Jim’s last project. Muppet*Vision ended up debuting on May 16, 1991 – the first anniversary of Jim’s death. It took more than a decade, but in 2004, Eisner finally oversaw the acquisition of The Muppets, launching two theatrical films, the Muppet Babies TV series, a few parks appearances, the Muppets Now Disney+ series, and a short-lived Muppets Courtyard rebrand at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
As a matter of fact, we traced the full facts behind the park’s “Muppetational” never-built land in a full, standalone Possibilityland: Muppet Studios feature – a great place to dig deeper into the story!
When Disney California Adventure opened in 2001, a good portion of its “backlot” section was themed to the Muppets (above), but it’s long-gone today. Muppet Studios – and in particular, the Great Muppet Movie Ride – feel like attractions that would still make sense at Disney Parks. But since the acquisition of The Muppets was immediately overshadowed by Disney’s purchase of Pixar and the ensuing influx of Pixar, then Marvel, then Star Wars, and then 20th Century Studios), chances of a big budget Muppets resurgence are slim to none…
6. Monsters Inc. Door Chase coaster
A suspended family coaster based on Monsters Inc. was one of the longest-running rumored projects in Disney Parks history… In fact, insiders seemed so sure that the coaster was coming that it practically ranked among Disney’s “worst kept secrets.” Until it didn’t happen, of course…
Then-Vice President of the resort Dan Cockerell later discussed the never-built project with WDWRadio. There, he confirmed that though the attraction was in development (and spearheaded by Pixar’s then-COO John Lasseter), it just didn’t fit the needs of the Studios at the time, which Cockerell percieved as more family-friendly attractions to balance existing thrills. The death of the Door Chase was likely sealed when Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, unthinkably surmounting Pixar to become the must-have brand of any extensive Hollywood Studios reimagining.
Cockerell’s refusal of the Door Chase coaster concept in Florida probably also knocked down a second domino: plans to duplicate the ride in California. In the early 2010s, insiders were certain that that formerly-Muppets-themed leftover “backlot” section of Disney California Adventure’s Hollywood Land (the only area not touched during the park’s five-year reimagining) was set to become a full Monstropolis land with the Door Chase as its centerpiece… but we’ll save that for a Possibilityland tour through the California Adventure that never was…
7. Backstage Studio Tour
While Imagineers were developing plans to evolve the Backstage Studio Tour and continuously grow its offerings, they faced a major issue: the Disney-MGM Studios’ backlot wasn’t growing; it was shrinking. Right off the bat, it became clear that the “real, working” movie studio constructed for the park wouldn’t turn Orlando into a “Hollywood East.” The New York Street set (once accessible only via the tram) was opened to pedestrian traffic just to alleviate the pressure of crowds, beginning the shortening of the Studio Tour.
Simultaneously, evaluation suggested that while folks liked the Disney-MGM Studios, they unanimously agreed that it needed more rides. Suddenly, “plussing” the Studio Tour felt like a fool’s errand. Instead, all resources were shifted toward Sunset Blvd. and its projects (like Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood, Dick Tracy’s Crime-Stoppers, Hotel Mel, and later the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror) which would add rides and capacity.
What’s more, Michael Eisner reportedly didn’t like the early scripts drafted for a Journey to the Center of the Earth movie and quietly cancelled the film, meaning a tie-in on the Studio Tour wouldn’t be worth its development costs.
As we know, the Studio Tour continued to shrink year after year after year, embarassingly outlasting any semblance of actual moviemaking by decades – a story we told in our Declassified Disasters: Backstage Studio Tour feature. But as they say, “good ideas never die at Disney.”
Imagineer Scott Sinclair and his plans for the deep-earth encounter were brought along to the team designing Tokyo DisneySea’s Modern Marvel: Journey to the Center of the Earth, resulting in what many call one of Disney’s best modern dark rides… thanks in part to its molten encounter with one of the best Audio-Animatronics on Earth.
Possibility Studios
Movies are all about making the impossible real… so it’s only fair that Disney’s Possibility Studios makes real all of the never-built attractions that could’ve been stars… Without a doubt, some of these never-built projects would still make sense today! Others were clearly of their time. Some would probably have weakened the park more than helped it… And therein lies the fundamental flaw in the studio park style: how do you bring blockbusters to life when the box office always moves on? How do you make a park feel evergreen when films and celebrity stars are part of its foundational identity?
So while fans may daydream about the never-built projects of yesteryear, perhaps our tour through Disney’s Possibility Studios is a wake-up call… The grass isn’t always greener. The real Disney’s Hollywood Studios may not be a perfect park, and several of these projects might have made it stronger in their respective times or even unto today… but frankly, the push and pull of Hollywood is destined to make any “studio” park subject to the whims of pop culture anyway.
Put another way, even if the never-built attractions we detailed here had come online, they’d likely be overlayed with Marvel, Pixar, or Princesses by now, anyway, if they wouldn’t have already been bulldozed. And that’s the heartbreak and the fun of Possibilityland, where’s anything’s possible…
