15 March 2011

Mighty tough territory

There are four scenes within The Great Movie Ride that allow for guest, or should I say Cast Member, interaction. We touched upon the Underworld sequence on Friday, where a gangster hijacks the vehicle for their getaway. The others include the scene where the villain gets there comeuppance at the statue of Anubis and the back-and-forth banter with the Wicked Witch of the West. The final scene of interactivity is one of those rare glimpses not seen very often these days.

Once upon a time, The Great Movie Ride ran each movie tour with two sets of vehicles, which meant there were two vehicles had to be commandeered by scum and villainy. The scene most guests are familiar with today, the Underworld, was achieved with the second vehicle being ‘stopped’ by the red light. The exchange between The Great Movie Ride tour guide and the gangster known as Mugsy allowed for the first vehicle to sweep into the Old West and find its own predicament.

In the Old West takeover, the tour guide hears that someone is robbing the bank and springs into action. In the moments that follow, the tour guide rushes into the bank, the sheriff begins his shoot-out, and the bank robber blows up the bank before taking the tour vehicle hostage. Just like Mugsy, the bank robber will receive their retribution at the statue of Anubis, and the guests will continue on with the show.

The bank robbery scene is still run at The Great Movie ride, only with fewer performances; so few, in fact, that I felt it had every right to be discussed in a history article. To be clear, in all the trips I have taken to Walt Disney World and Disney’s Hollywood Studios since the Gazette began I have not once seen the Old West scene, and only once have I been on the ride when there were two sets of vehicles running for the bank robbery to even take place. Sadly, the sight seen below is not as common as it once was, but I guess every great western ends with a ride off into the sunset.

5 comments:

Ellen said...

Thanks so much for this great post!! The wild west scene with the bank robber in the room with John Wayne was my favorite scene. The last two times I've been to WDW, I only got the gangster scene and I thought it was just because of the vehicle I was in. I had no idea they only show the western scene on a limited basis, but now it all makes sense. It'd be great if they could switch it up more.

Andrew said...

I spoke with a CM in February when we were there and asked specifically for a cowboy scene. We were told to come back the next day about an hour after park opening and do the same thing. We spoke with the CM at the front door of the ride and he called ahead confirming the CMs necessary were in place. When we got to through the queue with everyone else we informed the CM controlling access that we were looking for the cowboy sequence and we were held until that tram came through.

Apparently there are far fewer people trained on the much more elaborate Bank Robbery sequence (can you say fireball?!) and now are only there a little after park opening and, depending on crowds, only stick around for a few hours.

Just an FYI!

Mini-V said...

Funny you should write about this since my husband and I recently had a "discussion" about the two hijackings. He didn't believe there was a western themed skit and it was only recently that we happened to experience it again.

Bean Bell said...

The last time I rode the ride was in Sept 2005. My family rode 4 times and just by luck we got each scene twice. And I know we were at the park 2 different days during our week stay - sounds like they were running it more frequently not too long ago.

The flame effects were really cool!

DrenHopkins said...

I was just there on Sat. March 19, 2011 and had the bank robbery scene.

This was my second time riding it and I didn't know there was multiply scenes. I guess I was lucky.