Changes
/* Attraction History */
The original plans for the Great Moments at the Movies, called for the pavilion to be placed in between [[The Land]] and the [[Journey Into Imagination]] pavilions<ref name= "Studios"/>. The basic plot for the attraction which was to be housed within the pavilion would not only have given guest an inside look into how films were made, but it would have also allowed them to enter the films themselves<ref name= "Studios"/>. The façade for the new pavilion was to feature a movie set backdrop with a ticket booth for an entrance. The façade was intentionally designed to look fake as a commentary on Hollywood itself. After seeing the Great Moments at the Movies concept, Michael Eisner decided that the attraction was strong enough to build a whole new park around<ref name= "Studios"/>. Eventually, Disney decided to create the Disney MGM Studios, with the Great Moments and the Movies attraction as the new park’s centerpiece<ref name= "Studios"/>.
Since The Great Movie Ride (as it was now called) was now going to be the focus of a new park, Disney Imagineers decided that they needed to create a new façade for the attraction. Because the Disney MGM Studios were set in the golden age of Hollywood (the 1920s-1930s), Imagineers decided to house the attraction inside one of Hollywood’s landmarks, Grumman’s Chinese Theater. Furthermore, since the attraction was no longer going to be housed in Epcot, Imagineers also decided that The Great Movie Ride’s plot would focus less on education, instead taking guests on a journey through various classic films. When talking about their preperation for the attraction, Show Designer Eric Jacobson noted: {{Quotation|"Our team researched all those movies that we included in the ride, over and over again. We read books and watched them on video. Back in the 1980s the equipment that we had to work with wasn't as sophisticated as it is now, but we printed out black and white frames from a lot of movies so that we could really slow it down and look to see, for example, exactly what the Wicked Witch of the West's costumes looked like" <ref> Veness, Susan. The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World: Over 600 Secrets of the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2009. Print. </ref>}}
During the development of the attraction there were a few changes to the ride's plot. Originally, the room that eventually became the Fantasia scene was going to house the Tornado scene from the Wizard of Oz <ref name= "Korkis"> http://allears.net/ae/issue802.htm </ref>. Likewise, the final scene in the attraction was also going to be an extension of the Wizard of Oz scene <ref name= "central"> https://web.archive.org/web/20080623221337/http://www.greatmovieride.com/originalconcept.html </ref>. In this scene, guests would have come face to face with the Wizard, who would say his famous line “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”<ref name= "central"/>. Following this, the curtain would open showing that the bandit (or gangster) who had hijacked the ride earlier was still alive<ref name= "central"/>. Finally, guests would approach a large platform where models of all of the Audio Animatronic characters seen earlier in the ride would reappear and take a bow<ref name= "central"/>. Eventually however, Imagineers learned that they did not have the rights to use more of the Wizard of Oz then had already been used <ref name= "central"/>. MGM had originally agreed to let Disney use audio from the film's munchkin scene, the Wicked Witch of the West's dialog, and a small amount of Dorothea's dialog when she finds the Emerald City <ref name= "central"/>. With MGM unwilling to give up more rights for free, and Disney unwilling to pay, the ideas were eventually scrapped. Instead, a suspiciously windy Fantasia scene replaced the Wizard of Oz's tornado, and the montage of films replaced the Wizard finale<ref name= "central"/>.
* Lee Marvin's character from the 1965 western, Cat Ballou was originally going to be included in The Great Movie Ride's western scene. When Marvin's children refused to sign the waiver however, Clint Eastwood was added to the scene instead <ref name= "Korkis"/>.
Construction on the Great Movie Ride began in 1986 <ref name= "Studios"/>. When creating the replica of the Chinese Theater that would house the attraction, Imagineers used the original blueprints of the 1927 Meyer and Holler building for reference <ref name= "Korkis"/>. Furthermore, when building the theater Imagineers chose to create the building to scale and not use forced perspective <ref name= "Korkis"/>. When the building was being constructed, the 22 ton central roof was built separately and then placed atop the structure <ref name= "Korkis"/>. Finally, the Great Movie Ride opened with the Disney MGM Studios on May 1, 1989 <Ref> http://www.thisdayindisneyhistory.com/Disney-MGMGrandOpening.html </ref>.
