Here are two not so great shots of the Wicked Witch of the West as she appears near the end of The Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park in Florida. The guided ride mixes real actors with animatronic scenes from a variety of movies ranging from "Casablanca" to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Alien" with some generic gangster, mummy, western (including John Wayne on a horse) and Tarzan films. It's an okay ride with the longest queue to get on that I had to wait on while visiting the Disney parks last April. The animatronics are not that state of the art, and don't move much lending the whole thing the air of a wax museum. "The Wizard of Oz" Munchkinland scene that this was from was the best.
It's also not such a great ride for kids, not because it's too scary, (it does include an okay Alien pop-out bit of misdirection but otherwise is not too bad), but because they aren't going to know what any of the movies are except for maybe "The Wizard of Oz." The waiting areas could use more distractions as well. There are some nice costumes and props in the lobby (mostly from "Mary Poppins") but the main waiting area inside a seatless movie theatre required you to watch the same handful of poor quality movie trailers again and again and again and again.
It does seem a little dated now and many of the figures are not the best quality. If you have an amusing cast member as your guide they can make it more enjoyable. One to head for if its raining!
ReplyDeleteI took this ride when I visited Disneyworld in 2005 and I agree it needs an update. The ride itself was okay, but the wait time and "pre-boarding" area led me to expect more.
ReplyDeleteI'm really enjoying your Halloween countdown - thanks to you I believe I'll have enough movie suggestions to carry me through the next few Halloween seasons.