Walt Disney World resort has announced on September 19th, 2014 to their cast members that on September 27th, 2014 the Studio Backlot tour will closed.
There has been no confirmation of what will take replace the attraction but there have been rumors for the past few months that Cars Land, but also an possible expansion of either Pixar or Star Wars. The report of the closure does not come to us as a shock as we’ve been expecting a possible closure since the rumors started about a possible new land taking of the area.
The backlot tour has been part of the park since it opened back in 1989. Since 2003 of the backlot tour has been reduced, When the residential street was walled off from the tour and demolished and was replaced with the stadium for Lights, Motors, Action! And then the tour has been reduced since it debuted as a major attraction, the most recent change that occurred with the ride was when they replaced the Live narrators with it be recorded spiel.
The original attraction was a two part experience that while still taking guests though the tram tour portion of the attraction also took them to various other buildings. Guests saw how a special effects water tank operated, visited the Jim Henson Creature Shop and how the puppets for television and films where made. Guests then learned how green screens worked and did a screen test with the bumble bee from the movie “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”. Guests also got to see what post-production facilities look like with various recoding booths, edit bays and had videos explaining it all by stars such as Mel Gibson and Pee-Wee Herman. Unfortunately, television and film production slowed down to a stand still as production companies found it was cheaper to do all their productions at there main lots in Hollywood, California.
Nothing has been announced to what will be replacing the attraction, but given the space the attraction takes up, we can certainly see a new land coming to Hollywood Studios. This announcement has come on the heels of Maelstrom at Epcot closing and being replaced by Frozen, and it’s also worth noting that on the same day that the attraction will close will also be the same day that Maelstrom closes at Epcot.
Stay tuned for more tourism information about the Walt Disney World area, and be sure to follow along with us on Twitter @BehindThrills for the latest updates.
