The Muppets and opening day cast celebrate 35 years of Disney's Hollywood Studios

May 01, 2024 in "Disney's Hollywood Studios"

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Disney's Hollywood Studios 35th celebration

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Posted: Wednesday May 1, 2024 11:40am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney's Hollywood Studios marked its 35th anniversary today with a celebration moment in the Theater of the Stars and a special anniversary merchandise event.

Disney's Hollywood Studios 35th celebration

Miss Piggy and Kermit opened the show and were joined by Vice President Jackie Swisher, the Disney Ambassadors, opening day cast members, and a host of Disney characters on stage to recognize the moment.

Disney's Hollywood Studios 35th celebration

Watch the video below to see the full celebration moment. (4K YouTube)

At Stage 1 Company Store on Grand Avenue, guests had a unique opportunity to purchase limited-edition 35th-anniversary apparel, collectibles, and pins specially designed to commemorate this milestone.

Disney's Hollywood Studios 35th anniversary merch

From MGM to Galaxy's Edge: 35 Years of Hollywood Studios

From its inception on May 1, 1989, as Disney-MGM Studios, this iconic park has entertained millions in the glitz and glamour of the golden age of cinema and beyond.

Launched initially as both a theme park and an active production studio, Disney's Hollywood Studios was a bold venture into the world of movies, television, animation, and entertainment. The park opened its doors with the aim of giving guests a behind-the-scenes look at the making of their favorite films and shows, a revolutionary concept at the time.

Over the years, the park has shifted focus from its original concept as a working studio to becoming a place where cinematic fantasies come to life. Attractions such as The Great Movie Ride gave visitors a tour through classic films, and the Studio Tour took guests through working soundstages, backlots, and production facilities.

Today, the park is home to some of Disney's most cutting-edge attractions, including Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, widely celebrated as one of Disney's greatest attractions.

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Cinderella8624May 04, 2024

There is a Sid's loop on epcotlegacy.com.

The Empress LillyMay 03, 2024

Happy 35th Disney-MGM! More than any other this park has seen multiple versions of itself. We all have our favourite, and mine isn't the current park but I hope it is for those visiting it now. My DHS at its best I loved it as much as the MK and EPCOT, which are the parks of my formative years, ate my youth and adult escapes and secret gardens, and so this was something impossible to pull off, and yet it managed. Indeed, there have been trips where I enjoyed this park the most. I simply like it there, it doesn't have to be perfect to be magnificent. 💛

HauntedPirateMay 02, 2024

I'm not aware of any audio available from Sid's. Others probably know more than I do. Mousebits has the Hercules 'Zero to Hero' parade as part of the WDW40 - MGM-DHS collection. It could be available elsewhere, I've never looked.

aladdin2007May 02, 2024

going to do the same after reading that,,, is there any source audio somewhere from the hercules parade and the loop from sids?

HauntedPirateMay 02, 2024

I'd have a very difficult time arguing against any of that. Radiator Springs in general was just so well done as an area. Rise has an impressive queue but it feels like a queue with props in it. The Tower queue feels like you're walking around on the grounds of the hotel. It's my happy place, one of the last left in the entire property. In fact, I'm going to go listen to the queue loop right now.

pengMay 02, 2024

I've seen multiple youtubers who could do a better kermit too (though I do agree with you on that). Surprised they did some custom muppet stuff, even if said custom stuff totaled around a minute (then again, Disney isn't using the muppets for much these days, honestly they should sell them back to the Hensons or another party at this point).

TrainsOfDisneyMay 02, 2024

Tower on the east and Indy on the west were the last true WDI masterpieces with Radiator Springs Racers as close consideration.

ToTBellHopMay 02, 2024

Even with some wonky effects on the ride, it still has a scale we just don’t see any more. I continually think, “they did all of this for a drop tower?!”

HauntedPirateMay 02, 2024

Agreed. It’s the last standing near-perfect WDI creation. I could stand in the queue easily for an hour and enjoy it all.

ToTBellHopMay 02, 2024

I still feel like I’m 10-years old every time I turn down Sunset toward what I still find to be WDIs greatest achievement in Florida. I love some of the more recent builds, but my Tower is still tops for me. I can’t believe it turns 30 in a couple months!

TrainsOfDisneyMay 02, 2024

Very well said…. For unique reasons, the Disney MGM Studios park was actually the first Disney park I ever visited (we also visited MK and Epcot on that trip, but we started at MGM) - I still remember Sounds Dangerous and the animation studio tour and of course the original studio tour with catastrophe canyon which may have been my favorite thing at Disney on that first trip. Later I’d grow up watching the citizens of Hollywood, Hollywood public works, comedy warehouse holiday special and see the Osborne lights. That park was so quirky - I miss it. Note - on my last visit to Disney world I spent at day there - I watched Indiana jones for nostalgia, waited forever to ride slinky, Had a perfect lunch at brown derby and ended with seeing the new Fantasmic. The park is still enjoyable of course…. But I do miss the original!

Tha RealestMay 02, 2024

That’s kind of the most baffling aspect of the Chapek era. The studios decline kind of makes sense given it was out of his wheelhouse. But consumer products was his core competency and the merch has been so generic and uninspired since he took over.

Animaniac93-98May 02, 2024

Happy 35th anniversary to The Disney-MGM Studios. To The Great Movie Ride, Catastrophe Canyon, the OG Muppet Crew, the animation staff who made so many animated movies possible, the MMC kids, Adventures in Wonderland, the kitschy restaurants and shows and everything else that made "the Hollywood that never was and always will be" You were a strange, underbuilt park, that never really got the whole studio things to work, but you gave us Tower of Terror and helped launch some actual entertainment careers. If nothing else, you had a lot of shows and were not like the rest of WDW. That's more that can be said about the Star Wars/Toy Story park that exists now with less to do between rides.