Great Muppet Movie Ride: Never Built Disney Studios

Never Built Disney Studios

Muppet Vision Original Facade Disney World

In the early days of Disney MGM Studios, Disney was in the process of acquiring the Muppets, who were also much more popular than they are today. Because of this, they had ambitious plans for their newest acquired property in their newest park at Disney World.

They had plans for an entire Muppet land, with restaurants, a show, and notably an elaborate dark ride based on the characters.

Wicked Witch Animatronic Great Movie Ride Wizard of Oz Scene Disney's Hollywood Studios

The dark ride was set to be a parody of the iconic main ride of the park, the Great Movie Ride. This ride, The Great Muppet Movie Ride, would see the Muppets parody the main ride of the park by performing iconic scenes from classic Hollywood movies from Frankenstein to Peter Pan and more.

This ride would have been smaller than the massive scale of the Great Movie Ride, but just as elaborately themed. It was to be one of the most elaborate attractions in the land and feature tons of animatronic Muppets dressed as classic Hollywood characters. It would have existed alongside Muppet Vision to give the land both of the major outputs by the Muppets at the time, a Muppet Show style show and a parody of classic stories.

This attraction was fully designed and about to start construction when unforeseen circumstances would prevent it from ever getting built.

Statler and Waldorf Muppet Animatronics Disney's Hollywood Studios

Jim Henson unexpectedly passed away, and that put an end to plans for Disney to purchase his namesake company. Disney's relationship quickly deteriorated with the new management and only the already complete MuppetVision film ended up going into the area intended to hold a full Muppet land.


It is interesting to imagine what would have become of this attraction, especially in the advent of its inspiration's closure. A dark ride inspired by the Muppets would surely have been a hilarious attraction that sadly died with Jim Henson.

This was just one of the many parts of the proposed Muppet Studios for Disney MGM Studios, so be sure to come back every week as we explore this never built land. Also, check out the whole Never Built Disney Studios series so far here.


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