Comparing Features of Rival Tours

In addition to the similarities between Disney’s Catastrophe Canyon ride and Universal’s Hollywood Canyon ride (see main story), MCA contends there are similarities between other attractions in the original 1981 Florida studio tour plans and Disney’s tour . Among them are the following. Information used here comes from Universal’s presentation material and from Disney promotional literature, including tour brochures and the Disney-MGM Studio News, which illustrates tour attractions with photographs, maps and colored drawings.

Universal’s 1981 plans started with a ‘30s and ‘40s Hollywood Boulevard, palm-lined and “designed to re-create the exciting golden era of Hollywood,” according to the slide show.

Disney’s tour also begins with a palm-lined, 1930s-era Hollywood Boulevard, “inspired by the golden age of Hollywood.”

Both Hollywood Boulevard plans emphasize Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architecture. Universal used a slide of the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles as an example of that architecture. Disney’s Studio News says: “The auto gates and the main entrance areas of the (Disney) park borrow from the style used for Los Angeles’ Pan Pacific Auditorium.”

The Universal plans had a Sound Effects Theater that involved audience volunteers brought on stage to create sound effects for a short film. The results would be played back to the audience. The joke was that the film would be at a tempo difficult for volunteers to keep up with.

Disney Studio News on its Sound Effects Theater: “Individual guests will be brought on stage to test their skills as film sound-effect technicians--with predictably funny results the audience will enjoy during playback.”

Universal had a Screen Test Theater in which audience volunteers would be given costumes, scripts and a chance to perform in scenes to be edited into TV productions. The concept is used in Universal’s “Star Trek” show in Universal City and was used in several earlier shows.

Disney has a Disney Television Theater. “Volunteer and you’ll be escorted to a backstage ‘Green Room’ where you’ll be given costumes, scripts and stage instructions,” a tour brochure explains. “When the director starts the show, you’ll be a real live TV star in one of the great shows from yesterday to today.”

Universal had a “McHale’s Navy” set with miniature warships to demonstrate sea battles whipped up by special effects. Separately, Universal also had a life-size ship’s prow where guests would experience a storm at sea, via special effects. “The idea was to get guests up there in slickers and videotape them in the storm,” an MCA executive said.

Disney’s special-effects tour has a water tank containing a ship from “The Winds of War” TV miniseries to demonstrate sea battles. In addition, there is a rocking tugboat where guests can join Mickey Mouse in getting splashed by big waves.

Universal showed several backlot streets in its plans, including a New York street, Hollywood Boulevard and a street of residential facades from popular TV shows and movies.

Disney shows three backlot streets: Hollywood Boulevard, a New York street and a residential street.

Several independent theme park designers and engineers were shown MCA’s original plans and the Disney literature and asked to compare the two. (Because they work in the theme park field, they requested that their names not be used.) They found the plans to be similar, and two of them said that the similarities were “too close for just coincidence” and “extreme.”

Dave Schweninger, president of Sequoia Creations, spoke on the record: “I can’t deny they’re very similar,” he said. But he added: “People all over the country don’t have a lot of facts and breadth (knowledge about the movie business) and what they perceive is the palm trees, the architecture, all those kinds of things. They know there are sound effects and they want to see them (created).”

But Jay Stein, MCA’s chief tour executive, countered: “They (Disney) could have done sound effects a million ways. . . . There is nothing that is generic to a studio tour.”