Our last park to conquer was Disney Hollywood Studios. The last time Becky and I were here it was called Disney-MGM Studios. Here the boys are posing in front of a large replica of Mickey's sorceror hat in the middle of the park.
We modified our touring plan a bit based on when some of the live shows were scheduled, but we still headed off first to the Great Movie Ride. The entrance looks like the Chinese Mann Theater in Hollywood and the huge car took our group through an animatronic sampling of movies, from gangster films to westerns to Indiana Jones and Alien. It ended on a happier note with a recreation of the title song from Singin' In the Rain and the hero ensemble from The Wizard of Oz. It was a great introduction to the theme of the park.
From there we went straight to the Backlot Tour which showed up how they film a wartime naval action sequence with members from the audience and practical special effects, like water cannons to simulate nearby shell explosions. Then they took us on a driving tour of the backlot which did contain props from several different movies. They told us we could sneak the tram into a lot that they were preparing to shoot a scene from Catastrophe Canyon, but soon we found ourselves facing a flash flood down the canyon walls with a tanker truck getting washed over and exploding - all special effects of course.
While we skipped the violent Indiana Jones Stunt Show this time and avoided the scarier Tower of Terror and the turbocharged Rock-n-Roller Coaster, we were able to make it to a Beauty and the Beast stage show which was very well done.
Near Radiator Springs, the boys were tickled to get to Mater (like T'mater, without the "Tuh") from the Cars movie. We heard that Lightning McQueen might be by later, but we never made it back to check.
Lunch was a lot of fun at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. We sat at kitchen table replicas and "Mom" came by to serve us, though we had to help set the table. We ate classic 50's meals like fried chicken, chicken pot pie, and chicken sandwiches (Go Chicken!) while classic B&W clips played on nearby TVs.
We split up again and Aaron, Grammy, and Grandpa saw Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney shows. Becky, Alex and I ran to the Star Tours ride which is a simulated flight through a Star Wars dogfight. We loved it so much that Alex and I rode it again. In the gift shop we got Aaron a T-shirt that had Yoda being turned away from a ride due to height restrictions - on the front it said "Judge me by my size, do you?"
We got separated from the other half of our group by the Pixar Block Party Bash parade that cut through the middle of the park featuring many of the stars from Pixar's films. It involved the crowd and featured trampoline artists also - a very high energy parade.
They've built a new huge stadium near the backlot where we got to see the new Lights! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt Show where we saw many of the techniques used to drive and film stunt cars as they set up several different action sequences with cars, motorcycles, and jetskis. Very cool for the kids (and the big kids :)
After posing by a Miss Piggy fountain, we saw the Muppet-vision 3D show - another of Disney's great 3D shows.
Before dinner at Pizza Planet (yes, from the Toy Story movie), the kids climbed around on the Honey, I Shrank the Kids Playground where they wrestled an ant into submission.
We capped the evening with the most anticipated features. The Animation Tour. The've really scaled back the tour from whe we were last here because they have not produced a animated cel feature since Brother Bear came out - they've all been digitally rendered since then. However, Alex, Grammy, Becky and I got to take an alternative class for budding animators and learned how the animators draw Goofy. We got to practice at our own lighted tables. Alex has been drawing more and really enjoyed this opportunity.
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