Evidence continues to mount that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is about to undergo a major facelift…
With the Studio Backlot Tour now shuttered and most of the smaller offerings in the Backlot section of the park slated for demolition by early 2015, rumors are now circulating that the Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow attraction at the park has only a week left to live. The show opened in December 2012 to fairly poor reviews as most guests expected a full-blown attraction and were instead met with a confusing interactive projection show. In order to combat waits, Disney has offered this attraction by return times only for the past several months. Apparently things have not improved and/or Disney feels the space could be better utilized for something else now green-lit for the park on a verge of a full overhaul.
Rumors still persist that time is almost up for the Sorcerer’s Hat, but other than its usual exclusi0n from merchandise and a single map, there has been no solid information. However, older expansion plans for the park did include the removal of the current park icon, so if an expansion is coming, it would be likely that the Sorcerer’s Hat would finally be demolished.
Stay tuned as we will keep you updated as more information becomes available.
UPDATE: The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will close at the end of the operating day on November 6th, 2014. No other information has been released at this time.
I like the Mickey hat. Surprised so many people don’t. It’s big, it’s iconic, and it’s fun.
They should have put the BIG DUMB HAT outside the front as an entry icon and way to direct guests inside the park as to how to find Fantasmic (the worst show inside or outside of any park.) Whenever the hat goes it will be YEARS too late.
I have some solid sources (I used to work there) that say DHS Cast Members were told today about the hat coming down.
I really hope The Legend of Jack Sparrow stays I thoroughly enjoyed it a couple of weeks ago when I visited.
I liked it too! It’s too bad it didn’t work out. Johnny Depp seemed so real! My husband is a huge pirate fan, so this was definitely one of our favorite things to visit.
I think removing the hat is a bad idea. I know I’m not in the majority with my opinion. However, I see it as the best icon for this park. What other ideas are out there?
I was in one of the very first Concept & Design meetings (at Imagineering) when we began to answer Michael’s (Eisner) request to build a small studio (sound stages & back lot) in WDW. We went beyond and answered the question he DIDN’T ask, “What if we did a theme park on the “how to” …”behind the scenes” of media making. That’s why “Great Moments at the Movies” does not have finished ceilings in every scene …it’s a sound stage no actually Munchkin Land.
Putting the BDH (Big Dumb Hat) at the “top” of Hollywood Blvd. DESTROYED the scale of the entry experience. No longer was it a “real place” (Hollywood of the late 1940’s), the hat made it just another theme park. And the icon: Just another gift shop. What if the Cinderella’s Castle in the MK and Spaceship Earth, EPCOT, were also merchandise mausoleums? YUP. Then they would suck, just like the big dumb hat!!! Move it, blow it up, put it on top of the swan or dolphin.
I’d be glad to see the hat going. DHS’ unique value was supposed to be in experiencing movie magic. The hat is one piece of one movie in which magic was involved. Seeing it doesn’t make me feel like I’m in the movies or that I’m a movie star, so it’s only detracted from the park’s true purpose. Plus, it is quite literally an obstacle in getting through the main hub.
The focal point was and should return to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. It’s more tied into film than the sorcerer hat or the Earful Tower ever were, and it would be very easy to turn into an artistic park icon. It sounds like — at least in this regard — DHS is headed in the right direction … to its roots for a complete movie magic experience.
No way, the idea of this being a movie related park is dead. This is about it being turned into a theme park, and removing the illusion of it having anything to do with movie making. I heard they will also be renaming it to get “studios” out of the name. Star Wars and Pixar will take over the place when all is said and done.
Some would say the same thing about removing the illusion of the future from Future World in EPCOT. I hope the notion is wrong on both counts. Hollywood Studios and EPCOT are already both theme parks … the themes being movie magic and the future respectively (as they were originally conceived anyway). Where else are either of those themes being developed as Disney could do it? Nowhere.
Disney has the opportunity to capture something truly unique by building on the ideas that are already there…the “building on” and “ideas already there” being equally important. Different isn’t always better. ‘Mutatis mutandis’ (“If there’s a reason … change.”)
Well seeing how the Chinese Theatre is the original home of Star Wars and ppl still camp out for 6weeks prior to a new Star Wars movie opening there
not sure how true this is, but I thought the Sorcerers Hat was there to block the Chinese Theater on purpose. So if the hat comes down something needs to replace it right? or a change to the theater facade?
The hat was supposed to be a temporary inclusion to honor Walt for the 100 Years of Magic celebration. The reasons for keeping it were financial not legal. That’s just an old urban legend typical of the Disney fan community. If Grauman’s really had a problem with the Disney version of the Chinese theater then blocking the view wouldn’t be enough it would have to be torn down. Plus they helped Disney design it in the first place.
Actually disney pissed off Mann Theatre’s Big time,by going against the contract And allowing a car company to film a commercial using the theatre as a backdrop, said car company had approached Mann to film at the real theatre and were shot down, so they tried to do an end run and approached Disney about filming there instead, disney agreed. mann executives were furious and Disney lost the ability to use the theatres likeness beyond it being a theme park attraction.
I worked in the Mann corporate offices at the time. (Also the reason no Disney film played at the Chinese from shortly thereafter to just last year)
Now if they’d just remove Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, I’d be a happy man.