The Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios will get some tweaks, and classic Disney productions will find a new cable-TV home through a corporate partnership announced Wednesday.
Turner Classic Movies will air a collection of Disney shows and movies a few times a year —some of them making their television debut. It will also sponsor the Great Movie Ride, one of Disney's Hollywood Studios' original attractions.
"Overall, we're both two brands that are a part of the history of classic movies in very different ways — Disney with the incredible library, the incredible content they've produced over the years … and then we are a brand that likes to bring all of that history to life," said Charlie Tabesh, TCM's senior vice president for programming and production. "It just feels like a great fit."
TCM will work with Disney Imagineers to give the ride's finale, a giant film montage, a makeover. It will also install a classic movie-themed scene in which visitors can have photos taken.
Boarding the ride, visitors will see digital displays of movie posters. TCM host Robert Osborne will appear in a pre-ride video.
Osborne will also provide audio for the ride, including more in-depth explanations of the film genres it explores.
Changes should happen by spring.
The montage will feature up to 200 high-definition clips from a broad range of movies, about half of them ones not already represented, said Pola Changnon, TCM's creative director. The montage is still in production. Examples of what it could feature, Changnon said, include segments such as dance sequences from the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers classic "Swing Time" juxtaposed with "Saturday Night Fever."
The Chinese Theatre facade will remain the same, Changnon said. "This is a beloved ride. We didn't want to surprise people to the extent they didn't know a good friend anymore," Changnon said. "This more about a refresh that adds an extra layer of context and depth."
Early next year, the towering sorcerer's hat that blocks the view of the Chinese Theatre will come down,.
ThemeParkInsider.com editor Robert Niles described the ride's changes as a good start but said more dramatic ones could help make it more of a must-see attraction.
Still, Niles said, the announcement is one of the "rare things that has happened recently that everybody seems to be in agreement about, that, yeah, this is cool."
On television, TCM next month will launch "Treasures from the Disney Vault." The occasional special will include live-action features such as "Treasure Island", animated films like "The Three Caballeros" and special episodes from "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color."
It will be the first time some of the content has ever been on TV, Tabesh said, and "some of it will not have played since it first aired on television."
The new programming "will definitely bring in some younger people who didn't notice us before because they're interested in what Disney's done in the past," Tabesh said.
The specials will air at 8 p.m. and run for about 10 hours.
The first will premiere on TCM on Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. The opening night will include the holiday and winter animated shorts "Santa's Workshop," "On Ice" and "Chip An' Dale," followed by The Disneyland Story. The night will also include "The Reluctant Dragon," Disney's 1941 film that combined a live-action tour of the Walt Disney Studios facility with animated shorts.
Financial details of the five-year deal were not disclosed.
This is not TCM's first time working with Disney. It has hosted TCM cruises on Disney ships, with special screenings, panel discussions and appearances by stars such as Debbie Reynolds.
