As Disney theme park fans wait for the other shoe to drop, speculation has been running rampant on where Walt Disney World will place the recently announced Monsters Inc. Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The two leading contenders are the Animation Courtyard area and the “Muppets Courtyard” area. According to one report, Disney hasn’t decided on a final location for the highly anticipated “doors coaster” that will put guests in the middle of an action-packed scene from the Monsters Inc. movie.
Recently, friend of the site Bioreconstruct took to the skies over Walt Disney World to get an updated look at a few points of interest from the air. Aerial views of Walt Disney World provide a unique perspective that allows for a more fulsome understanding of the logistics required for any given project. Whether it’s backstage support facilities, or understanding the footprint of an attraction, viewing Walt Disney World from above is a lot different than our on-the-ground reporting.
Animation Courtyard
We’ll start with the location that just about everyone wants Monsters Inc. Land to land. Animation Courtyard is a shell of its former self. While it does provide a spot for Star Wars characters deemed out-of-timeline to meet with guests, the area is underutilized and ripe for new development.
That said, a lot of demolition would need to happen to fit a Monsters Inc. Land in this area (assuming it’ll even fit at all). Over the past number of years, the former Feature Animation building has been emptied of Cast Member offices. Another round of evictions started earlier this month, although it’s not immediately clear if the recent moves are indicative of this location being the spot where the Monsters Inc. Land will be placed or not.
So, what is Feature Animation? It’s a historical location that used to be a working animation studio. Movies such as Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, and Brother Bear were primarily developed at the Hollywood Studios location, while support work for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Pocahontas, and more animated works were also completed at the studio.
In the aerial photo below, we can see the multi-story building in the upper-middle of the frame, with the Animation Courtyard area in the lower middle-right.
Zooming out a bit, we can see the show building for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster in the upper right of the image below, the Chinese Theater in the lower left, and Sunset Boulevard in the lower right.
If Monsters Inc. Land were to be built in this location, it would likely require the complete demolition of the feature animation building (center, below), and possibly other backstage buildings such as the tan L-shaped building near the top of the photo. It’s also possible that modifications might have to be made to the current Little Mermaid theater and/or the Walt Disney Presents complex.
Turning to the concept art to showcase our theory for this location, we’re going to use the elevated concept art below, with the current Star Wars Launch Bay serving as the main entrance, and the facades at the right being added to the current Disney Junior Dance Party location.
I’m not the best at mocking things up in Photoshop, and I’m sure the scale is off here, but the image below gives you an idea of the proposed layout for the Animation Courtyard theory.
The aerial photo below represents a reverse view of the photo above, showing the scope of the demolition that would need to take place to support the Monsters Inc. Land and the door coaster show building. Essentially, you’d enter the land through the Hollywood Studios archway in the upper left of the photo below, and the Monsters Inc. facade would sit roughly at the edge of the existing courtyard. A large show building would then sit on the current site of the Star Wars Launch Bay and Feature Animation plots. It’s unclear how much this might impact the sightlines from the nearby Toy Story Land and Sunset Boulevard. At the very least, the show building would be visible from Sunset Boulevard. The current Feature Animation building is visible from Toy Story Land already.
Muppets Courtyard
Turning our attention to the much-better Muppets Courtyard location, we can see how the roller coaster would be a better fit here, but it would likely require the removal of MuppetVision 3D. The 3D show is a fan favorite, and has its own revered place in history as one of the final great works of Jim Henson – creator of The Muppets franchise. MuppetVision’s place in history is significant, and losing it completely would be a shame. Disney has certainly heard the outcry on social media to save the MuppetVision 3D show, but could saving it mean relocating it to still take advantage of this underutilized corner of Hollywood Studios?
Turning to aerial photos, we’ll start with a tighter view before zooming out and understanding how this location is certainly far more ideal for Disney (from the outside looking in). To get our bearings a bit, the building with Kermit’s face on it is the Studio 1 store that is only used a few times per year for special merchandise releases. To the left in the light pink is the MuppetVision 3D building. To the lower right of Kermit is the Mama Melrose restaurant and kitchen for PizzeRizzo. PizzeRizzo is the weathered building above Studio 1, and Star Tours is the dark gray building on the other side of the backstage alley. As far as we know, Star Tours is safe for now given how far away from the Muppets Courtyard it really is.
In this wider shot, we can see the Rise of the Resistance building to the left of Muppets Courtyard, and the Disney’s Hollywood Studios Cast Member parking lot “behind” Muppets Courtyard. Other notable locations include the white Runaway Railway building in the upper middle of the photo, and the Echo Lake/Indiana Jones Stunt Show area in the upper right of the photo below.
Zooming out even more, we can start to see how Disney might start to look at the Cast Member parking lot to the right of the existing boundaries of Hollywood Studios as an expansion area. The parking lot is not fully utilized, and even more spaces are now available (lower, center) with the closure of the Star Wars: Galactic Starcrusier. Guest parking is seen in the upper right of the photo below and is sufficient for 98% of the year.
Pushing back in on Muppets Courtyard a bit more, it’s a bit easier to see how the Monsters Inc. Land could fit in here. The Studio 1 building would be demolished to make way for a central park in front of the Monsters Inc facade and door coaster show building, which would require the demolition of Mama Melrose. The show building would then extend beyond the (recently paved, but likely easily movable) perimeter road and into the Cast Member parking lot.
Looking at the concept art above, I believe that the Monsters Inc. doors roller coaster entrance would be roughly where Mama Melrose sits today, with Studio 1 demolished for the park space, and PizzeRizzo retained and rethemed to a new eatery. This way, Disney is able to keep a kitchen space and they can modify, demolish, or retheme the MuppetVision 3D space into either a second attraction, shopping space, or other use to fully flesh out the Monsters Inc. Land. Here’s a rough idea of what might be possible, using the recent aerial photos to get a better idea of placement (even if scale is way off).
Pushing the building into the Cast Member parking lot allows for sightlines to be preserved from within Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Today, you can actually see the MuppetVision 3D building from within Batuu. If Disney needs to preserve the perimeter road, they can build a tunnel like they did for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT. The loss of parking spaces would be negligible and probably not even play a factor in their decision making.
Wildcard: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
For a wildcard, we could also imagine a scenario where the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster building is repurposed for the doors coaster. Seen below, the queue and launch tunnel building could be demolished for the Monsters Inc. Land courtyard and building facade, with the blue show building gutted (and maybe extended) to support the door coaster.
For this proposed location, we’re going to go back to the elevated concept art below. In this theory, the facades at right would be the repurposed Lightning McQueen Racing Acadamy.
Going back to my wildly inadequate Photoshop “skills”, here’s what I could envision in terms of placement. This wouldn’t intrude on sightlines any more than Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster currently does, and the nearby Lightning McQueen Racing Academy (greenish building, bottom middle) could be repurposed once Cars receive a presence in Magic Kingdom.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
