Earffel Tower | |
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![]() Hollywood Studios' Earffel Tower and Topiary tribute in 2008 | |
Disney's Hollywood Studios | |
Area | Studio Backlot |
Coordinates | 28°21′24″N81°33′46″W / 28.35667°N 81.56278°W |
Status | Removed |
Opening date | May 1, 1989 |
Closing date | April 29, 2016 [1] |
Replaced by | Slinky Dog Dash (Toy Story Land) |
Walt Disney Studios Park | |
Area | Front Lot |
Coordinates | 48°52′24″N2°46′34″E / 48.8732°N 2.776°E |
Status | Operating |
Opening date | March 16, 2002 |
Closing date | Spring 2025 |
Ride statistics | |
Attraction type | Water tower |
Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
Height | 40 m (130 ft) |
Height (Paris) | 50 m (163 ft) |
The Earffel Tower [2] is a faux water tower located at Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris in Seine-et-Marne, and formerly at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. [3] Adorned with a set of Mickey Mouse ears, it is inspired by the real water tower located at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. [4] A pun on the Eiffel Tower, it is based on water towers commonly found on Hollywood studio backlots of the first half of the 1900s, which were originally a safety measure to douse fires on highly flammable wooden film sets. However, the Earffel Tower has never contained water. [4]
The first, 130-foot tower was located in the Studio Backlot Tour area of Disney's Hollywood Studios, [3] known as Disney-MGM Studios when the park opened in 1989. It was the park's original icon, with The Great Movie Ride—a life-size replica of Grauman's Chinese Theatre—serving as the visual centerpiece. Both were displaced from icon status by the Sorcerer's Hat, which stood in the park's central hub from 2001 until its removal in 2015. [5] The Earffel Tower was removed itself on April 29, 2016, to facilitate the construction of Toy Story Land. [6] Since then, the Hollywood Tower Hotel has been the representative icon in marketing, with the Chinese Theatre (which now houses Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway) restored as the centerpiece.
The second, 163-foot tower at Walt Disney Studios Park debuted in 2002 and has served as the park's icon ever since.
The Walt Disney Studios, located in Burbank, California, United States, serves as the corporate headquarters for The Walt Disney Company media conglomerate. The 51-acre studio lot also contains several sound stages, a backlot, and other filmmaking production facilities for Walt Disney Studios's motion picture production. The complex also houses the offices for the company's many divisions, with the exception of Pixar Animation Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios, which remains on its namesake lot in nearby Century City as tenants of Fox Corporation.
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. Based on a concept by Marty Sklar, Randy Bright, and Michael Eisner, the park opened on May 1, 1989, as the Disney–MGM Studios Theme Park, and was the third of four theme parks built at Walt Disney World. Spanning 135 acres (55 ha), the park is themed to an idealized version of Hollywood, California, and is dedicated to the imagined worlds from film, television, music, and theatre, drawing inspiration from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is a vacation timeshare program owned and operated by Disney Vacation Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Disney Signature Experiences, a division of Disney Experiences, a segment of The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying a real estate interest in a DVC resort via a flexible points-based membership system. There are an estimated 220,000 club members.
The Great Movie Ride was a dark ride located at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, United States. Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, the attraction employed the use of Audio-Animatronic figures, practical sets, live actors, special effects, and projections to recreate iconic scenes from twelve classic films throughout motion picture history. The attraction—which debuted with the park on May 1, 1989—was located inside the park's replica of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, one of Hollywood's most famous movie palaces.
Walt Disney Studios Park is the second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France. which opened on 16 March 2002. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. Upon opening, it was dedicated to show business, movie themes, production, and behind-the-scenes, but in the 2010s, in a similar manner to Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida, it began to distance itself from the original studio backlot theming and entered a new direction of attraction development inspired by iconic Disney stories. In 2019, the park hosted approximately 5.2 million guests. The park is represented by the Earffel Tower, a water tower with Mickey Mouse ears similar to the one formerly located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, which in turn was inspired by the water tower at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.
Fantasmic! is a nighttime show at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The show formerly operated at Tokyo DisneySea. It features fireworks, characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, audio-animatronics, searchlights, decorated boat floats, and mist screen projections. The narrative of Fantasmic! is a voyage through Mickey Mouse's imagination that culminates in a battle against the Disney Villains.
The Sorcerer's Hat was a structure and the thematic icon of Disney's Hollywood Studios, the third of four theme parks built at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, from 2001 to 2015. The structure was inspired by The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment in Walt Disney's 1940 animated film, Fantasia. Mickey Mouse's gloved hand and ears underneath the hat are visible emerging from the ground. With its opening on September 28, 2001, it replaced the Earffel Tower as the park's icon in marketing material. It was used as a venue for pin trading and sales, and also served as a backdrop to many special events and shows. High School Musical Live culminated several dances from several Disney Channel shows that performed several times daily in front of the hat. Disney characters made meet-and-greet appearances around the hat throughout the day.
The Studio Backlot Tour was an attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It was a combination of a walking and tram tour of the backlot area of the park.
Front Lot is a themed land or studio lot at Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris, based on the glamorous administration areas of Hollywood movie studios from the "golden age" of movies in the 1930s. It serves as the main entrance area of the park, similar to Main Street USA, with park services and several boutiques. Earffel Tower, the park's icon, is located in this area.
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) is a separate-admission Halloween-themed event held annually during the months of August, September, October, and November at the Magic Kingdom theme park of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, near Orlando, and at Disneyland Paris Resort outside Paris, France. The party began as a response to the Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Studios Florida. Disney's event caters to a traditional family atmosphere, whereas Universal's has more of a "fright-centered" event with their monsters.
Star Wars Weekends was a festival held annually at the Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park of the Walt Disney World Resort. Included with park admission, the event typically occurred on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for four consecutive weekends in May and June and featured appearances by cast and crew members from Disney's Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. Many original Disney characters also appeared dressed as Star Wars characters, such as Jedi Mickey, Minnie as Leia, Donald as a stormtrooper, Goofy as Darth Vader and R2-MK. The festival began in 1997 and had been held in 2000, 2001, and annually from 2003 until 2015. In November 2015, Disney discontinued the event due to construction of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and the larger daily presence Star Wars will have in the park onwards.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a themed area spanning three theme parks—Universal Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida and the upcoming Universal Epic Universe—at the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida. The area is themed to the Harry Potter media franchise, adapting elements from the film series and novels by J. K. Rowling, in partnership with Warner Bros. Entertainment under an exclusive license agreement. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was well received and significantly boosted attendance at the resort.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a chain of themed areas at Universal Destinations & Experiences based on the Harry Potter media franchise, adapting elements from the Warner Bros.' film series and original novels by J. K. Rowling. The areas were designed by Universal Creative from an exclusive license with Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Fantasia is an American media franchise owned by The Walt Disney Company that commenced in 1940 with the theatrical release of the film of the same name.
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is a themed area inspired by the Star Wars franchise, located in Disneyland Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. It encompasses 14 acres (5.7 ha) at each park, and is set in the village of Black Spire Outpost, on the remote frontier planet of Batuu, featuring attractions, shops, restaurants and entertainment.
Star Wars Launch Bay is an interactive walkthrough attraction based on the Star Wars franchise at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort, and formerly at Shanghai Disneyland Park and Disneyland at Disneyland Resort.
Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular was a nighttime show at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World. The show is based on the Star Wars film series and features fireworks, projection mapping, fire, lasers, fog effects, and searchlights. During the show, Star Wars imagery is projected onto the park's Chinese Theater facade and surrounding buildings around the park's hub on Hollywood Boulevard. The show had its celebrity-filled World Premiere on Friday, June 17, 2016, replacing the park's similarly-themed display, Symphony in the Stars: A Galactic Spectacular.
The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic was a short lived nighttime show at Disney's Animal Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort. The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic was located in the park's Discovery River. The show was limited-time engagement and filled the space of the delayed Rivers of Light night-time show, presumably until Rivers of Light was ready. The show featured music from the film, adding an Indian influence. The show opened on May 28, 2016, with a soft opening the night before.
The Disney Skyliner is a gondola lift system, part of the Disney Transport system, that opened on September 29, 2019, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The system is composed of five stations that serve four resorts and two theme parks, with a fleet of over 250 gondola cabins that can accommodate up to ten guests per cabin, or up to six with an open wheelchair or other mobility device. Guests sit on twin, inward-facing, wooden benches.
The Warner Bros. Water Tower is a historic water tower located at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Built in 1927, it stands 133 feet tall. The tank, which had a capacity of 100,000 U.S. gallons (380,000 L), is no longer used to hold water. It is decorated with the WB shield on either side and serves as a company icon.