Muppet Studios at Disneyland Park (Wrap Up)

So I have been highlighting different areas of the new Muppet Studios for you, but I feel it's time to wrap up my summary.

HISTORY
There has always been talk about expanding the Muppets presents in the parks. Muppet Vision 3D, Muppet Mobile Labs, and the 2009 volunteer promo featuring the muppets. An entire land similar to this new on in Disneyland was even designed at one time during a Disney-Muppet merger but fell through. When phase 2 of the DCA expansion was developed, imagineers re-designed the back stage area int he Hollywood Picture Lot at DCA to become Muppets Studio (to go along with the hollywood theme) and replacing the Monsters Inc ride with "The Great Muppet Movie Ride". However as the themeing of DCA headed towards 20s/30s, muppets just didn't seem to fit any longer. That's when it was decided to take over Toontown. Plus the idea of re-using much of the existing structers and themeing cut down on an already low budget.

LAY OF THE LAND
The east side of the land was left nearly as it was before. With an exception of gutting out and re-building the inside of all the buildings bordering the east of the land. This made way for the E-Ticket ride "The Muppets Movie Ride Studio Tour". The norhtern most part of the land was kept as-is as well with the exception of the inside of city hall and the addition of a show building behind it to house "The City Hall Of Presidents". Next to city hall was 3 foof locations which have all been combined into one, "Swedish Chef Cafe". Once again an audio-animitronic from DCA's Muppet Vision of the Swedish Chef was transplanted here at the Cafe. Throughout the day you can hear the Chef arguing, singing, and exploding things behind the kitchen doors. And every so often the Chef will make an appearance through the service window to his kitchen. Mickey and Minnie's houses were cleared to make way The Muppet Theatre. This attraction was orignally going to house a new Muppet Vision film. But instead houses a whole new film/stage show of the orignal Muppet Show. The show will consist of audio-animitroncs, 360 3D projections

The Hall of Presidents!

Well... The City Hall of Presidents... Presented by Sam Eagle!

That's right the Muppets are bringing the Hall Of Presidents to Disneyland! Replacing the Toon Town City Hall, Sam Eagle has patriotically decorated the entire place to pay tribute to the leaders of America with the "help" of Rizzo. They do their best to put on the best presentation for you which includes a semi-put-together video projection directed by Rizzo with a finally of a President "Audio Animitronic" which is puppeterred by Rizzo and Sam Eagle, with Sam providing the Presidents voice giving the great moments with Mr Lincoln speech as best he can.

The City Hall Of Presidents, is a fun quick stop in Muppets Studios. Food and drink are allowed so it is also a nice place to stop and eat like the Tiki Room. The show runs about 15 minutes every half hour.

A show building had to be built backstage in order to house the theatre for this attraction. When you talk through the literal "Hall of Presidents" with president's photos to get to the theatre you are actually crossing backstage. What started off as a cheap easy project to use up lost space with a simple overlay ended up being an expensive one. Imagineers went back and updated their original simple plans after the additional construction was approved.

The Muppet Movie Ride Studio Tour

Originally designed for the MGM studios in Walt Disney World, The Great Muppet Movie ride, would take you along a behind the scenes look a how movies are made by the muppets. In ways this ride is a parody of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World. It has been refreshed and revised for today's audience, and now is presented as a backstage tram tour going through muppet recreations of famous movie scenes. The tour is conducted by Kermit through LCD on board screens.

Ms. Piggy as the Wicked Witch of the West

A short portion of the ride will actually go out of the show building and into Disneyland's actual backstage area. The area that will be seen from the tram will still be decorated to the Muppets theme and will feature a special "Backlot Tour" moment.

The Muppet Movie Ride Studio Tour took over the building for Roger Rabbits Car Toon Spin, The Gag Factory, and connecting shops. The outside facade will stay basically the same except for all Roger Rabbit references being removed. This ride will not have an elaborate entrance like The Great Movie Ride in Florida, it will instead have a DIY style board, paper and tape entrance theme.

Gonzo The Great - Cannon Launch

In efforts to keep park costs down and to stay green by reusing as much as they can, Imagineers re-themed Gadgets Go Coaster into Gonzo The Great - Cannon Launch. This is exactly what they did over at DCA with Muhooland Madness, re-themeing it to Goofy's Sky School. A bnunch of Props were brought in and scattered around the attraction and new wood cutout billboard signs were added. The cars had to be completely re-done to reflect the Gonzo the Great's red white and blue cannon themeing. In re-doing the cars speakers were added to each vehicle allowing for a music track with sound effects to be added including the cannon explosion at the launch point. A large prop Cannon was added at the top of the lift hill with a smoke effect every time a car passes. (Guess where the cannon comes from?.. Transplanted from the penguin orchestra pit on Muppet Vision 3D)



Statler and Waldorf's Apartment Above The Firehouse

Disney Imagineering or RE-Imagineerings at it's finest. The lovable two old fools from Muppet Vision have been unbolted from their seats and transplanted to above the Muppet Studio Firehouse (Orignally Toontown Firehouse) in Statler and Waldorf's Apartment.

Disneyland fans know that Walt Disney kept an

apartment above the main street firehouse.

Every 20 minutes Statler and Waldorf have a 2-3 minute act where they joke, heckle and argue over things such as "You forgot to turn that oil lamp off again". They even kept a peice of their original dialog with "Look at the guy in the goofy mask!".

A Muppets Place At The Park

People have spoke of adding The Muppets to the parks for some time now. It seems that Muppets Vision 3D just isn't enough for the fans. There is quite some Muppet hype right now since the movie is coming out and all... So Disneyland fans eagerly await some Muppet/Park news.... And here it is!

Muppets Vision 3D will be closing down for good and leaving DCA.

What will be replacing it? No news yet on that.

But with the sad news comes a huge announcement... The Muppets Studio! A whole themed land coming to Disneyland Park. Creating a whole new land at Disneyland is nearly impossible with the money tied up in the DCA expansion/renovation. So Imagineers had to be creative and resourceful. There seemed to be only one piece of real estate big enough to house this entire land, Mickey's Toontown. That's right Kermit and the gang are sending Mickey and Friends packing to completely take over Toontown to bring the guess of Disneyland Resort to The Muppets Studio!

(The new entrance sign to Muppets Studio utilizing the existing signage)

As guest pass under the Disneyland Railroad they will see the familiar welcome sign refreshed with "The Muppets Studio" and their "On Air" sign which rotates throughout the day with different messages (In Air, On Air, Off Air, No Air, HELP!) paying homage to the original sign as well.

Imagineers painstakingly took apart Muppets Vision 3D at DCA in order to preserve as much of the ride and queue as possible to re-used at the new Muppets Studio.

Details of rides, attractions, and food service areas to come...