3 Best Things About Disney's Hollywood Studios

Times of discover News: If you haven't been to Disney's Hollywood Studios in the past decade or two, you probably won't even recognize the place. When it opened in 1989 under the name Disney-MGM Studios, the park focused on making movies. Its two main attractions on opening day were a Backlot Studio Tour, which took guests behind the scenes of a newly built studio that had never really been built all that much, and a nice dark walk for visitors through the fascinating stories of film, It probably took a little more time and slowly for Disney to become a real success. Both The Great Movie Ride and the Backlot Tour were successful, but neither one lasted until the park's 30th anniversary in 2019, and many other highlights of movie magic have come and gone over the past 10 as well.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse's first ride has several scenes where almost everything goes wrong, including our train falling victim to a tornado, waterfalls, urban construction and even an unexpected dance lesson from Daisy Duck. It's all presented with the almost glossy cartoon pop of recent Mickey shorts, a combination of practical sets, projections and audio-animatronics that bring that art style into the real world. These aren't screens, which is a misnomer among some theme park fans; these are custom-built sets onto which life-size images are projected, creating a wonderful and otherworldly feeling that one is actually surrounded by a cartoon. And the ride-on vehicles are trackless, like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and international Disney rides like Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Mystic Manor; this means they glide and spin around in unpredictable ways throughout each room, with your train compartments separating and joining together when needed. Depending on which car you sit in, you can have very different perspectives, so this is a ride that will reward repeated visits. The Brawl replaced the entire park's former central attraction, the beloved Great Movie Ride, with an inside recreation of the Mann Chinese Theatre, and yes, I do miss that unique journey through the movies. However, don't count it out on the lost railroads; it's a charming, creative, genuinely impressive ride that lives up to Mickey and Minnie's impeccable reputation.

This was a tough decision for me. Rise of the Resistance is phenomenal and amazing and it's Disney's most ambitious new ride in decades. However, I can't rank it higher than number two. The Rise brings together nearly everything we know about Disney's attractions. It's a master class in environmental storytelling and thematic design that combines audio-animatronics with real-life celebrity and actor cameos; Use multiple vehicles, scenarios, and ride systems to enhance realism and keep guests engaged and surprised; and captures the thrills and adventures of one of the most popular film series of all time in an adventure lasting about 20 minutes. It's not a perfect ride, but I wouldn't trust anyone who isn't impressed by its ambition and delighted by its action. And the Star Destroyer hangar reveal is as shocking as anything in the parks, although I've seen it four or five times by now. Its biggest criticism is that it's not the most reliable ride; it's gone out of service more often than Disney expected, which isn't surprising, given the complexity of the interconnected web of ride systems. And despite all that I still can't put it at number one, because that would be an insult to Disney Imagineering.

Yeah, not even Star Wars can beat the Tower of Terror. You can find rides named Tower of Terror in Disney parks around the world, but there's only one actual Tower of Terror, and that's the real one at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I'm not being pedantic or clumsy here; they may have the same name and theme, but in reality they're not the same ride. The original Tower of Terror doesn't just lift you up and down an elevator shaft for a few minutes. Your freight elevator starts on one shaft and then unexpectedly moves forward into a hallway where the opening credits of The Twilight Zone are recreated in real life before your eyes. You're then taken to another shaft, where all the lifting and falling happens. That dark ride segment isn't very long, but it's important to establish the surprising tone of the ride, building tension before the inevitable crash as you feel not only scared but confused.