Disney’s Hollywood Studios looks back and ahead on 35th birthday
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Walt Disney World celebrated the 35th anniversary of the opening of Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park Wednesday with Muppets, movies and memories.
The park opened May 1, 1989, just more than a year before the debut of Universal Studios Florida, and they helped launch a new “made in Orlando” film era.
Wednesday’s festivities included a 15-minute program in the park’s Theater of the Stars open-air venue co-hosted by Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. The latter insisted the water fountain topped by a statue of her was the real icon of Hollywood Studios, not Tower of Terror.
The event included appearances by multiple characters from the “Fantasmic” show, current Walt Disney World ambassador Serena Arvizu, Hollywood Studios Vice President Jackie Swisher and several cast members who worked at the park on opening day and are working there these days.
“For 35 years, we have been a place where you can let your adventures begin,” Swisher told an audience of cast members and park visitors.
“We opened by bringing our guests into the world of movie-making and television production. ‘Mulan,’ ‘Brother Bear’ and ‘Lilo & Stitch’ were all filmed here,” she said. “And many TV viewers got their first look at rising stars such as Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake in the all-new ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ filmed right here.”
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Disney World’s third theme park opened under the name Disney-MGM Studios with an iconic water tower topped with mouse ears and named the Earffel Tower. Attractions included the Studio Backlot Tour, Great Movie Ride, SuperStar Television and the Monster Sound Show.
As the park’s mission morphed, it was rebranded as Disney’s Hollywood Studios in early 2008. Now it’s the home to attractions such as Toy Story Land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
“Now we’re a place where our guests can really live that adventure inside the stories they love. So we really immerse you into the movies,” Swisher said after the ceremony.
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Tom Vazzana, director of creative development, said he visited Disney-MGM as a guest on opening day.
“I remember walking through the gates and feeling like I was immersed in Hollywood,” he said. “I felt like movies were alive. And I remember going on the Great Movie Ride and being like, ‘How are they doing this?’”
A few years later, Vazzana was cast in the park’s “Hunchback of Notre Dame” show.
“I feel like it was just really moments ago, and it really set the tone for my career,” he said.
Swisher and Vazzana said they were looking forward to an upcoming park addition, a stage show titled “The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure.”
“We’ve had the opportunity to refocus the telling of ‘The Little Mermaid’ story. It’s Ariel’s point of view. Ariel’s an empowered person with goals, and she makes her own destiny happen,” Vazzana said.
“We’re leaning heavily into beautiful technology so that everyone will be fully immersed in every scene both under the sea and on land,” he said.
The new show slides into the space previously held by “Voyage of the Little Mermaid,” a show that didn’t reopen after WDW’s four-month, pandemic-related shutdown in 2020. There will be new sights and sounds.
“We found the opportunity to add ‘Kiss the Girl’ [song], which I think adds so much heart to the story,” Vazzana said.
Disney has said the new show will debut this fall.
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