Icon in the Distance

If you quickly glanced at the photo above, you would think I’m going to talk with you about the streetmosphere brigade of Disney’s Hollywood Studios known as the Citizens of Hollywood. It’s true that there are several characters seen in the above photograph, including who I believe is Roman Holiday and Honey Darling (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) standing front and center. However, what I really want to focus on is what is standing at the end of the street.

Yep, it’s the Sorcerer’s Hat that has blocked the castle of Hollywood, the Chinese Theatre, for almost a dozen years. Before you go and think that I’m going to weigh in on the hat itself, I want you to take a long, hard look at the photograph again. Do you see it?

If you think that the hat looks a little brighter, or a bit out of place, you’d be absolutely right. This is, in fact, a concept photograph showing off what a completed hat would look like for the 100 Years of Magic celebration. Disney needed to find a way to cover up the theatre for legal reasons and erecting an icon as part of celebrating 100 years since the birth of their namesake, Walt Disney, seemed like a great idea. The concept and promotion of the hat certainly seems filled with the same glitz and glamour as the Citizens of Hollywood do here, even if it’s only a computer rendering.

Oh, and the balloons, do you see the Mickey on a golden star balloons? Yeah, those were some great shiny balloons.