Thursday, April 30, 2009

A Disney Hollywood Studios 20th Anniversary Celebration - Part Three - The Great Movie Ride original artwork and behind the scenes pictures



Hello, here is part three of this Disney MGM Studios series, and, as promised, the article is about the Great Movie ride with original artwork and great behind the scenes photos of imagineers at work.

Above is the artwork for something that was probably a mural painting, and below a rendering of the Chinese Theatre area.



Another one of the Hollywood Boulevard with the Chinese Theatre in the background.



Here is a rare rendering for the Singing in the rain scene.



And of course, this one is for the John Wayne scene.



Here is the artwork for the gangsters scene.



And this is the rendering for the final Wizard of Oz scene.



Before we have a look to some behind the scenes pictures, here is a great story told to me by a friend imagineer about the "Casablanca" scene of the ride, and more specifically about the real plane one can see in the decor:
"The Casablanca scene has the real Casablanca Lockheed Electra plane used in the movie - and the tail section is in the WDW Jungle Cruise. The plane was located by Malcolm Cobb of WDI/ California, in Texas. Malcolm got the Lockheed registry of all the planes and their history and present owners and set out looking. On this Texas plane, no one had any idea it was the real plane until they ran its serial numbers and found it had been registered to the movie studio that made the film at that time. This was done after the purchase was completed. When Malcolm found it, it had been sitting for some time and not running. Another owner nearby owned three of these planes and wanted much more money for his as they were flyable. Malcolm didnt need one that flew and bought the cheapest one, being the real on. When the man who owned the three planes found out what he had missed, he was pretty upset at himself, as it had been right next to his backyard."

The first behind the scenes picture below shows an imagineer at work on the Busby Berkeley opening scene.



When we think about an Indiana Jones attraction, we generally think about Indiana Jones Adventure, or the Epic stunt spectacular, or the Temple du péril but we often forget that there is a great Indy scene in the Great Movie ride! Here, one imagineer is at work on one of the giant Anubis statues.



Other imagineers at work in the same room.



Final touch to the Ark of the Covenant scene.



Inside WDI workhouse, an imagineer measuring the beautiful Ark of the Covenant replica.



Putting in place the Egyptian mummies...



Final touch on the same mummies...



Almost cheek to cheek between a beautiful imagineer and a quite well done mummy...



No, it's not Tarzan and Jane, but two imagineers at work on the vegetation of the Tarzan scene.




And for those of you living outside the U.S who never had the luck to ride the Great Movie Ride, here is the video of the full ride, in two parts.




The Disney Hollywood Studios 20th Anniversary tribute is still going on tomorrow, don't miss it!

All artwork and photos: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc.

Youtube video: copyright coasterimage.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not actually the plane from Casablanca. See Snopes.com for the background.

http://www.snopes.com/disney/parks/casablanca.asp

Alain Littaye said...

Ooops, thanks for the link, it seems that you're right...

Brian said...

Wow, seems to be a great ride! Only seems to be quite long, around 16 minutes, doesn't it? Never been there, I live near Paris, hope they'll be developing Walt Disney Studio's in becoming just as big and entertaining as Studios park in USA. Though I don't think they should build a Great Movie Ride in Paris, because Studios Tram Tour is kind of the same, but they could use some scenes of the Great Movie Ride in the Tram Tour!

Mark said...

Another terrific article! Thanks, Alain.
Mark
www.InsightsandSounds.blogspot.com

Kurt Miller said...

It's a shame what happened to the Busby Berkeley scene nowadays. The rig used to rotate, with each row in a different direction. That has since broken down and has never been fixed. There used to be bubbles cascading down on you from above - that also has been removed. Finally, there used to be water effects that added to the display, but they had some sort of a leak which led to that being removed. Sigh...

Very similar to the cave-in scene on Big Thunder Mountain, which used to have thunderous bass - this has also been broken for years without repair.