The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Disney's great movie ride at Hollywood Studios review

The Great Movie Ride is located on Hollywood Boulevard in Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. The attraction is for all ages, with no height requirements, although some of the action might be too intense for small children. It’s an indoor attraction that explores the history of movies and Tinsel Town.

The attraction begins as guests enter a life-size model of the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater. In the lobby, you’ll be able to view the actual props and costumes from famous movies.

These might include a dress from Shakespeare in Love, the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, Indiana Jones’ machete, or a carousel horse from Mary Poppins.

Next, visitors enter a vintage soundstage. Here, they board the open ride vehicles and begin their journey in the dark through scenes of historical films, with narration from the tour guide.

The first category explored is musicals, which include Singin’ in the Rain, Footlight Parade, and Mary Poppins. Next come the gangster movies, followed by classic Westerns. These are followed by science fiction, the Indiana Jones movies, horror movies, the Tarzan films, Casa Blanca, Fantasia, and The Wizard of Oz.

Live actors and realistic audio-animatronics create the action scenes, which include singing, dancing, shoot-outs, a bank robbery, a dynamite explosion, an encounter with the Alien monster, snakes, mummies, Munchkins, and more.

Some of the famous characters you’ll see in animatronics form are Indiana Jones, Gene Kelly, James Cagney, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Sigourney Weaver, Tarzan, Jane, Cheetah, the Wicked Witch of the West, Humphrey Bogart, and Ingrid Bergman.

Without giving too much away the guest are drawn into all this and become part of the action. Let’s just say there are some surprises and unexpected twist and turns.

In fact there are actually two different outcomes to this ride, depending on what ride car you happen to be in. So try to go on it a few times and see if you can take in both endings.

The ride finally ends with a mash-up of the best movie scenes shown to you. This is a wonderful attraction for any film buff, but even if you’re not a movie fan, this ride has enough action to hold your interest.