The skill of misdirection is in The Walt Disney Company’s arsenal of magic tricks. The company has convinced every pop culture fan that Disney’s Hollywood Studios has only one major update in progress. That’s obviously Star Wars Land, whose every news tidbit, image, and video demands attention on the internet.
As the media feeds the frenzied, a second land quietly evolves. It’s growing in stature from a single Place to a complete Land. Let’s take this opportunity to look at the Turning Point that Disney is hiding in plain sight: the addition of Toy Story Land.
It started with a carnival game
Image: DisneyThe original themed park in question is, of course, Pixar Place. Built to resemble the actual Pixar Studios in Emeryville, California, this location opened in 2008. Back then, its only attraction was an immediate hit.
Toy Story Midway Mania! has become one of the most popular rides at all three parks where it resides: Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Tokyo DisneySea, and Disney California Adventure. Its demand at Hollywood Studios has remained so intense over the years that Disney eventually added a third ride track in 2016, eight years after its opening.
The appeal of Toy Story Midway Mania! is the elegance of its simplicity. Anyone who can pull on a cord repeatedly is capable of scoring lots of points in this game. It’s a marvelous marriage of old-time amusement games and high-tech computer electronics. Many guests don’t appreciate that Imagineers consider this attraction as one of the most technologically complex at any of the parks. Theme park tourists simply like to compete for the highest score.
Image: DisneyThat’s the genius of Pixar Place. It’s a very small section of a half-day park. It doesn’t have a store or restaurant of note. It’s just one terrific ride and a few interactive events. The best of them is when the toy soldiers from Toy Story walk around, interacting with guests. The cast members who portray these roles are among the best costumed employees at drawing huge smiles out of park visitors. It’s simple fun AND pure joy.
Pixar Place mirrors Pixar Studios in this way. It has no greater ambitions and doesn’t try to be anything that it’s not. The themed land does one thing, and it does that thing brilliantly. Pixar Place is modest, humble, and endearing.
The expansion era
Image: DisneyAnyone familiar with the history of Disney’s Hollywood Studios understands that it’s one of the great misses out of all Disney parks. Don’t get me wrong. It’s wonderful for what it is, but Disney and MGM went to war soon after they introduced the park. It’s the child of a combative divorce. For that reason, it’s always seemed a bit incomplete.
Even the signature landmarks that Disney has tried to give Hollywood Studios have failed to stand the test of time. First, Disney gave up on the Earffel Tower in 2001, 12 years after its introduction. Then, they realized that the Sorcerer’s Hat built in 2001 wasn’t any more interesting. So, they tore it down in 2015. Interestingly, the Earffel Tower outlived its replacement by a year, as it was deconstructed in 2016.
The attractions at Hollywood Studios are shockingly great. There just aren’t many of them. In addition to Toy Story Midway Mania!, Two E Ticket attractions are among the best on the entire Disney campus. Those are Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. Two other rides are almost as good. Star Tours – The Adventure Continues is one of the best motion simulator rides in the world. And The Great Movie Ride is a marvelous celebration of the golden age of Hollywood cinema.
Image: DisneyWhat’s the problem with Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Well, that’s five rides, all of which most people would classify as somewhere between good and otherworldly. On an average day, someone using the FastPass system can ride everything worthwhile at the parks in three hours. Sure, plenty of shows and walkthroughs are available for movie lovers and fans of Walt Disney in particular. It’s just not a lot of quality attractions.
Disney finally addressed the issue in recent years. The big story is obviously Star Wars Land, which could and most likely will single-handedly elevate Hollywood Studios the same way that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has done for Universal Resort Orlando. This is the Big Idea Disney needed to reverse the fortunes of a park that’s seemed unlucky, maybe even doomed, for 20 years now.
Still, no matter what Star Wars Land brings to the table, it’s only going to add two new attractions. Even the most diehard fans of the Force will probably spend only three or four hours in this area. Adding the existing three hours of entertainment at Hollywood Studios, that’s still not a full day park. It needs more.
The French solution
In 2010, another struggling part showed some gumption. Walt Disney Studios Park, a part of Disneyland Paris, expanded an existing themed land called Toon Studio. They added Toy Story Land to this section, introducing three new attractions along the way: RC Racer, Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin, and Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop.
This addition was such a hit that three other Disney parks mimicked the idea. The first was Hong Kong Disneyland, where Toy Story Land debuted in 2011. Shanghai Disneyland, which already featured Toy Story Hotel, was a natural location for this expansion, too. The most intriguing iteration of Toy Story Land for North American theme park tourists, however, is the one at Hollywood Studios.
The Americanized version of the French park will share several of the same themes and ideas. The 11-acre expansion will show what the human world looks like from the perspective of the toys. In other words, basic elements of your child’s playroom will seem gigantic in scope. Disney promises giant building blocks and toy pieces from various games. In other words, Imagineers will bring to life the set pieces from Andy’s room in the Toy Story movies.
The selling point here is simple. Disney already knows that Pixar Place is a wonderful recreational area for fans of Toy Story characters. Park planners will now build out the concept a great deal more, adding a full section of Toy Story memorabilia. What Star Wars Land is to fans of the force, Toy Story Land will be to Pixar fanatics. By adding a second type of franchised intellectual property to Hollywood Studios, Disney will finally provide a long overdue identity to the park. It’s the place people who love Star Wars and Pixar movies will go for some glorious escapist entertainment.
What’s Disney building?
The entire Disney’s Hollywood Studios expansion will take place over 25 acres of land, making it the largest addition to an existing park in the history of the company. 44 percent of the expansion is Toy Story Land. Obviously, it’s going to have a lot of new inclusions, the most important of which are the two new rides.
The more attention-grabbing of these new attractions is a roller coaster. A children’s ride at Disneyland Paris called Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin is quite popular with kids. That’s because of its novel ride design. The park guest effectively gets inside a Slinky Dog and rides it around a track. It’s a fun concept for children, although its appeal to anyone over the age of 10 is up for debate.
Rather than build a ride with such a narrow target demographic, Disney is expanding the idea for Hollywood Studios. The new version of the Slinky Dog is a twisting, turning roller coaster that seems like a kindred spirit to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The individual coaster trains don’t twist and turn like Mine Train, but it’s that sort of looping coaster concept.
Image: DisneyDisney had originally announced that the tracks would run straight to the ground, as if the rider were going through a trench. It also promised sections that looped over, around, and through some of the Hollywood Studios walkways. Judging from the tracks placed thus far, Disney’s since scaled back on those plans. You can see the artist’s rendering in video clip above, though.
Slinky Dog Dash will still skew young, of course. It’s not intended as the thrill ride that the Aerosmith roller coaster is. Instead, it’s all about fun. It’s a rare outdoors roller coaster at Walt Disney World, one that should offer amazing views of the rest of the park, particularly the neighboring Star Wars Land.
That’s not the only fun-based attraction at Toy Story Land, either. Alien Swirling Saucers will celebrate one of the greatest gags from the original movie. The Claw is the infamous device that chooses which of the three-eyed aliens is worthy of ascension into outer space, the land beyond the dome.
Image: DisneyIn the Toy Story vernacular, The Claw “chooses who will go and who will stay”. Disney’s constructing an entire attraction around that concept. Park planners have indicated that it’ll use similar technology to the existing Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree at Disney California Adventure. You’ll get to feel like one of the Little Green Aliens, trying to get grabbed by The Claw. It’s another silly but joyous concept that theme park tourists will find endearing and pure.
That’s the underlying theme of the entire Toy Story Land expansion. Disney is adding to the existing Pixar Place, changing the entrance to Toy Story Midway Mania! to put three thematic attractions in one section, and opening the doors to an entirely new section of the park. The only goal is to make something entertaining enough that it’s worthy of the Toy Story name. It’ll siphon traffic from tired guests of Star Wars Land while providing folks who currently don’t spend much time at Hollywood Studios with another reason to visit. It’s not getting the media attention that Star Wars Land has and will, but Toy Story Land is a crucial part of the future of Hollywood Studios.
