Yesterland

The Great Movie Ride

A Spectacular Journey into the Movies

Presented by Coca-Cola
The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the ride at the Chinese Theatre is Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. But at Yesterland Studios, it’s The Great Movie Ride.


Is it a great ride about movies? Or is it a ride about great movies? It’s both. It’s a great ride about great movies.

The place to experience all this greatness is the park’s version of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, arguably the most famous movie theater in the world.

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

Genuine movie artifacts in the queue

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2011

Actual carousel horse ridden by Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins

First, the queue winds through the lobby. Keep an eye out for Sam’s piano from Rick’s Café Americain in Casablanca, a pair of Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, and costumes from movies you’ve probably never seen.

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

Waitin’ in the Queue

The queue continues into the theater. Wind your way through. Movie trailers on the big screen provide previews of what you’re about to experience during the ride. If the movie loop repeats, the line is moving too slowly.

When the movie theater’s exit doors open, you’re directed to a row in a traveling theater car. There are two trains, each with two cars. Each train has a live guide to narrate your experience.

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2011

“Ready when you are, C.B.”

Get ready to ride into memorable scenes from classic movies representing the popular movie genres of the 20th century—musicals, adventure, science fiction, westerns, gangsters, animation, fantasy, and more.

Along the way, a depression-era gangster or a western villain will step out of a movie scene, hijack your moving theater train, and replace the tour guide. Eventually, the hijacker will meet a grisly fate, and your tour guide will return triumphantly.

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2012

Hooray For Hollywood!

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

Footlight Parade (1933)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood in Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013

Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins and Dick Van Dyke as Bert in Mary Poppins (1964)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Hijacking by a gangster

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers (1956)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Hijacking by an Old West bank robber

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Hijacker in place of the tour guide

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien (1979)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Cheeta the chimpanzee, Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane, and Timba the elephant in Tarzan and His Mate (1934)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Mickey Mouse as Sorcerer Mickey in Fantasia (1940)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2006

Traveling theater trains entering The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2015

Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

The stars of The Wizard of Oz on the Yellow Brick Road, with Judy Garland as Dorothy

The huge The Wizard of Oz experience—with the Munchkin Village populated by singing Munchkins, the amazing Wicked Witch animatronic who goes up in a puff of smoke, and the yellow brick road to Oz—is the final immersive scene, but your “magical journey through the movies” isn’t over yet.

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Movie clips as the finale

Both two-car traveling theater trains park side-by-side in front of a movie screen for a dazzling three-minute montage of clips from some of the greatest and best-loved movies ever made. It begins with Charlie Chaplin as the Little Tramp and ends with Star Wars. Along the way, Arnold “I’ll be back” Schwarzenegger, Robin “Good morning Vietnam!” Williams, and even Freddy Krueger make a brief appearance, along with countless others.

Your final stop is the same place you boarded.

When you get home, go to your local Blockbuster Video store and rent copies of all the movies on The Great Movie Ride. Don’t forget to rewind the tapes before you return them.


The Great Movie Ride was one of just two rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios when the park opened May 1, 1989, as Disney-MGM Studios. The other was the Backstage Studio Tour. Star Tours opened later that year on December 15, 1989.

Originally, The Great Movie Ride was going to be called Great Moments at the Movies, presented by Sears, Roebuck & Co. The Walt Disney Company and the retailer—then the largest in the world—announced a 10-year joint marketing and licensing agreement on November 19, 1987. Sears would sponsor the park’s signature attraction and a Hollywood Showcase Store.

Disney Sears Logo

© 1987 The Walt Disney Company

The Sears-Disney deal fell apart before the park opened. Coca-Cola stepped in as the attraction’s sponsor, and it became The Great Movie Ride to reflect it was a ride, not a movie, despite being housed in a replica of a famous movie theater.

With only two scenes of the ride based on Disney Movies—Mary Poppins and Fantasia—and with the park named Disney-MGM Studios, it was reasonable to assume that the other scenes were based on movies owned by MGM. Not so! With a few exceptions, for most of its existence, The Great Movie Ride was really The Great Movies That Are Owned By Warner Bros. Ride.

Footlight Parade was a Warner Bros. film, as was The Public Enemy, starring James Cagney. Raiders of the Lost Ark was a Lucasfilm production, released in the U.S. by Paramount Pictures. Casablanca was a Warner Bros.-First National Pictures film. Alien was made by Brandywine Productions Ltd. and released in the U.S. through Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.

What about the famous MGM musical, Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain? And the great MGM favorite The Wizard of Oz? After all, it was the biggest, most complex scene in the entire ride. And how about the MGM film Tarzan and His Mate, both starring Johnny Weissmuller?

These MGM classics were owned by Warner Bros., along with the entire pre-1986 library of MGM movies. Ted Turner bought MGM/UA Entertainment Co. in 1986, and quickly sold most of MGM/UA’s assets—including the MGM and United Artists trademarks. Turner kept the pre-1986 movies and television programs for his Turner Broadcasting System television empire. Turner merged with Time Warner (parent of Warner Bros.) in October 1996. In June 2018, after The Great Movie Ride closed, AT&T acquired Time Warner and renamed it WarnerMedia.

Some of MGM’s most valuable properties were never part of the 1987 contract between MGM and Disney that paved the way for Disney-MGM Studios. The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain were excluded from the contract and licensed separately.

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

Clips from Frozen (2013) and Finding Nemo (2003) added to the end montage

The Great Movie Ride did not change much during its run of slightly more than 28 years. The movie montage at the end received several updates, primarily to include some newer Disney movies.

The biggest change happened when Turner Classic Movies (TCM), became the sponsor in 2015.

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2015

TCM, the final sponsor of The Great Movie Ride

The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios / Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2016

TCM host Robert Osborne on the big screen in the queue theater

TCM host Robert Osborne appeared on-screen as part of the pre-show and provided recorded narration during the ride—although the tour guide and the hijackers remained. The end montage got yet another update. But the show scenes did not change. The TCM version only lasted slightly more than two years.

The Great Movie Ride closed permanently August 13, 2017, to make way for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2024

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, replacement for The Great Movie Ride

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2024

Riding in a trackless train car through a cartoon world

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2024

Jackhammer Pete in Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2024

Pluto, Mickey, and Minnie having a perfect picnic at Runnamuck Park

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opened on March 4, 2020. The popular ride immerses guests in a cartoon world. The two beloved mice have plans for a perfect picnic spot at Runnamuck Park. Engineer Goofy’s train cars become disconnected from his locomotive, sending guests on an odd journey. The style is based on the 21st century Mickey Mouse shorts by Paul Rudish.

If someone tries to tell you it’s the first ride-through attraction with Mickey Mouse, just remember he was in The Great Movie Ride too.


Click here to post comments at MiceChat about this article.


Backstage Studio Tour
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Home


© 2024 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks

Updated April 26, 2024