May 19, 2011
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M gee M!
What? Another entry? Yes, indeed loyal readers, I have returned to continue the Disney adventure. But I must say, after seventy-two weeks of rain, I feel gloomy. So let’s see if these Disney pictures will spark memories of sunshine and happy days!
Our third day was spent at MGM Studios. I’d never been there, for, just like Animal Kingdom, it did not exist 25 years ago. It’s a movie-themed park, mostly famous for The Tower of Terror (did that twice) and The Rocking Roller Coaster. (And also other stuff, but it was a nice segue!) Mom had never gone on the Rocking Roller Coaster since it was an upside-down ride. But, I talked her into it. Before we got in line, we considered taking pictures in front of the ride where the big guitar is. “Wait,” I said, “Let’s wait until AFTER the ride, and then we can get your reaction to what you thought of it!”
She LOVED it! (and so did I)
Next we went to the 3D Toy Story ride. I’m not sure of the exact name, but it was lots of fun! You and your seat mate both don 3D glasses and have guns. The ride takes you to various 3D shooting galleries, and you blast away. Both of us were fairly pathetic shots, but Mom beat me both times we went on the ride.
I don’t really remember a lot of rides at MGM. Maybe there aren’t that many? But we had a good time taking pictures outside of the Toy Story area. We had more fun than…
Well, you get the idea!
Mom really, really wanted a Slinky Dog. I noted that MGM Studios probably has the largest percentage of Slinky Dog sales of anywhere in the world.
Choose me! Choose me! We only lacked The Claw.
One show I was eager to see was Beauty and the Beast. It was a half hour version of the show. Now, last time I saw it was onstage at State High, and Nathan was Gaston. And guess what? Even with this not-nearly-as-handsome Gaston and people I didn’t know, it STILL made me cry!
We made late lunch reservations, so for a while, we just walked around MGM. They have it designed in parts to resemble a movie set with false-front buildings and streets painted in perspective and all. We are posing in front of a flat-panel background. Pretty neat, eh?
This wasn’t painted. It was real… or was it?
I thought it would be fun to go see the Narnia thing. Wasn’t sure what it was–a ride? A show? Turns out it was about a 15 minute preview of Prince Caspian. Sorry. Already saw the movie. Not interested in seeing it in clips. The best part of it was the set. It was designed to look like the broken stone table. And after the movie clip was finished, they turned on the fog machine. Most people left the room, but I stayed for some cool pictures.
What was cool about the lion below was that although it looks like it was carved into the stone (or at least permanently there), it was just a trick of photography. During the show, the image changed into other figures which also looked carved into the rock, or there was no image at all.
It seemed like a gazillion, bazillion years before we got to have lunch. I was a crabby pants. But finally we got to go to the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater. It was darkish and all the tables looked like cars (no roof) which all faced a big movie screen in the front which was showing clips of old cartoons and previews of black and white, very B, horror flicks. Evil Catwomen from Mars, Killer Robots from the Moon… epic!
But what I most wanted was food and drink!
After I was fed, I was much less crabby and was able to enjoy myself again. We decided to take the back lot tour. I’m not sure of the official name, but you get on a bus/tram thing and ride through the MGM back lot where they show you props of things they used in Disney movies. They also had a scene where a truck would catch on fire and there would be a waterfall thing and a bridge would shake. It was neat.
We had a lot of fun in the gift shop. Awards? For us? Oh, yes! What would YOU give us Oscars for?
After the excitement of posing with little, gold men, Mom decided to head back to the hotel for a nap. I stayed to finish out seeing things at MGM. First thing I did was the Indiana Jones show.
Then, I went to a show on Disney animation. There were only six people watching the presentation, which was just crazy! After I stayed to ask a question about animation: Is it done all by computer now or is some done by hand? (answer: Both. Case in point, the two movies which are coming out this summer. Cars 2 was 100% computer animated. Winnie the Pooh movie was done by hand.) I walked out to the display area to see what they had, and…and… THERE WERE CAPTAIN HOOK AND MR. SMEE!!! Now, if you had asked me who the only Disney character I wanted to see was, I would have said, “Captain Hook.” And I got to see the Disney princesses the night before, so I figured, “Oh, well. You got to see something.” But there they were! In a random exhibit in MGM Studios! I got in line all by myself and explained myself to the grandma and child in front of me. (Yes, I’m 41, but, IT’S CAPTAIN HOOK!) Captain Hook “kissed” my hand and posed nicely.
And then, there was Mickey Mouse, too! I also got to witness Captain Hook going off-duty come over to Mickey Mouse and both of them did some sort of complex hand gesture, hip-shaking dance thing which probably meant, “I am getting off in 10 minutes. I cannot wait to escape this suit and elderly fans. Let’s go get a beer.”
But wait…there’s more! The night had yet to happen!
Comments (1)
I’m really enjoying your Disney saga. I was just there in Orlando last week, and Hollywood Studios was my favorite park. The rock and roll ride was amazing…I was scared of the upsidedown thing at first but during the ride, I pretty much never knew that it was happening.