General
The entire front end of the park used to be a huge hidden Mickey before it was ruined by the additions of Sunset Boulevard and the
Sorcerer's hat.
Although the main plaza Hidden Mickey is well known, he has a friend: the entrance plaza outside the ticket booths forms a big Hidden
Pluto. You can see his face with eyes, nose, and mouth. This is clearly visible on the park map.
There are 6 simulators at Star Tours
Gertie the Dinosaur, on Echo Lake, pays homage to pioneering animator Winsor McCay and his revolutionary 1914 animated cartoon,
Gertie the Dinosaur.
Imagineers used the blue-prints of the original 1927 Meyer and Holler building for reference, when building the replica of Grauman's
Chinese Theater. The facade is built to full scale. The 22 ft central roof section was constructed separately and hoisted into place by
crane.
Films represented in the Great Movie Ride include Busby Berkeley's Footlight Parade, The Public Enemy, Singin' in the Rain, The Wizard
of Oz, Mary Poppins, Alien, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Casablanca.
The Hollywood Brown Derby pays homage to the second Brown Derby restaurant (1929), once located at 1624 Vine Street, just south of
Hollywood Boulevard.
Disney's Hollywood Studios is close to 135 acres. It is south of Epcot Center. Construction began in 1986. By the time the new theme
park opened in May 1989 (the changes in scale had delayed the scheduled October 1988 opening), total costs had accumulated to
more than $500 million.
The names on the windows on the Streets of America are those of the Walt Disney Imagineering people who designed the park
All of the Disney 3D Adventure Shows, such as Muppet Vision 3D, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience, It's Tough To Be A Bug, as well as
the since past show Magic Journeys all use the same principle of presentation. Unlike normal 3D show (red/blue lenses) these films
use a process of reverse polarization every other frame. The clear glasses are reversed polarized which allow your eyes to detect the
difference of angle between the two frames - this method is cheap for filming, and it can be added after filming is done. It also adds a
higher degree of control on the 3D effects.
A replica of the Colony Theater, New York, is at the Studios. The Colony Theater is where Steamboat Willie, Mickey's first starting roll,
debuted
The only place on Disney World Resort property where you can buy a photo of Walt Disney is at Sid Cahuenga's one-of-a-kind shop in
the Disney's Hollywood Studios where they sell for $4.00. Occasionally, the store carries an authentic autograph of Walt that can be
purchased for about $3,000!
The Sorcerer's Hat in the center of the park weighs an incredible 150 tons and stands 122-foot-tall.
Cast Member Secrets
In the Studios on the other side of the Brown Derby Restaurant there is a Cast Member only Cafeteria. It is called "Take Five Café".
In addition to the ATM's available to guests, there is another ATM machine for "Cast Members" but is not available for studio guest.
There is also a "Company D" store,where cast members can buy clothes/goods which have some kind of CAST designation on them...
Like a key-ring that says 'Team Disney'.
While the Studios may not have tunnels underneath them like the Magic Kingdom, they do have one of the most enjoyable ways for cast
members to get around: bikes. Since the park is almost round, with little guest access to the edges, CMs use communal bikes to get
around the parks on the outside.
Studios Cast Member IDs double as time cards, thanks to a bar code on the back. Cast Members clock in at Wardrobe in the back of the
park.
Inside the cast services building there is a fully functional hair salon for cast members.
Earfel Tower
The Earffel Tower is 130 feet tall. It is not a working water tower.
The diameter of the Earful Tower is 8 1/2 feet and translates into a hat size of 342 3/8. The reason for the hat size is because every
holiday season they usually top it off with a Giant Red Stocking Cap.
In 1995, the Earful Tower had blue goggles in honor of Orlando Magic player Horace Grant. The Magic went on to play in the NBA
championships, but they lost the series.
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
The golden idol is an exact replica of the one from "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
About 20 minutes before the show, cast members take guests from the audience to be "extras" in the next show. One person who is
always taken every time is a "guest" who turns out to be a professional stunt man who works for WDW. The way you can tell who this
person is by his clothing--he always wears a Hawaiian shirt!
The spears in the Indiana Jones Show come straight up. As where in the movie they came from the sides.
The spikes in the Indiana Jones show are activated by pads on the ground that the stunt man steps on to bring them up. Yes, they can
hurt someone.
The giant rolling ball weighs 440 pounds.
The moving sets weighs around 100 tons making them the largest moving sets in history.
The marketplace stage was used in an episode of the Hulk Hogan show Thunder In Paradise.
MuppetVision 3D
Muppet Vision 3-D is the only 3-D attraction at the Walt Disney World resort that the 3-D glasses are actually called 3-D glasses. At It's
tough to be a Bug they are called Bug Eyes, at Honey, I Shrunk the Audience they are called Safety Goggles.
You'll see a long brick wall to your right as you approach the ride from Star Tours. Along the top of the wall are planters with flowers and
such in them. If you follow them along to the very end, the last one has an ice cream sundae in it instead of the flowers.
This is not a hidden Mickey but it is a hidden Gonzo. As you are in the cue to enter the Muppetvision 3D and before you enter the building
it is on the brick wall. Look up as you snake along the cue. There is a large diameter pipe which sticks out of the brick wall and then
bends 90 degrees down towards the ground (in the shape of Gonzo's nose). Around this pipe, in chalk, the rest of Gonzo's face is drawn
in.
The first door on the right as you enter the turnstiles is the security office. It has a sign hanging, saying "Be back in 5 minutes, Key is
under the mat". If you stop and lift up the mat, there is a real key underneath embedded into the carpet.
During the Lobby Video (preshow) Test pattern as Scooter crosses one of the screens, there is a Hidden Kermit in one of the test
patterns.
In the pre-show area, there is a hidden Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. There is also a ball and a whistle on the top of the monstrous
projector in the back. The ball has glasses and the whistle has 2 bulging eyes. They look like Honeydew and Beaker.
Doors along the hallway as one enters the preshow for Muppet Vision 3D: "Muppet*Vision 3D and those clever folks at Muppet Labs"....
"Stress Testing Dept: Caution! Contents Under Extreme Pressure" "Institute of Advanced Chronology: 'Staying Ahead of the Times'"
"Division of Fashion Technology: 'Making Tomorrow a Prettier Place To Be'" and"Department of Artificial Reality: This is Not a Door" .
When Kermit says there will be a little show from Miss Piggy, she pops out of her dressing room and says, "Little?" To the right of her is
a fire pull station. If you look carefully, it is pulled.
The Fire Truck that enters when then the theater explodes is a Disney Fire Truck and has a castle on the license plate.
Streets of America
In James and the Giant Peach, when he lands on the Empire State Building and the camera begins to pan back, if you've been to
Disney's Hollywood Studios, you'll notice that the whole New York scenes where done right there in that area of Disney's Hollywood
Studios, as was Bette Middler's who did the short called The Lottery in the same area.
Disney makes snow fall on New York Street during the holidays.
There is an ATM in the Toy Story Pizza Planet Restaurant. Look for it, it is right where you order your food. It looks like a rocket ship.
Disney's Hollywood Studios Fast Facts
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