Hollywood Inspirations
Icons from the golden age...
This new Hollywood Boulevard has an almost endless list of inspirations. With many of the sets lifted from the Hollywood Boulevards at Disney's two other studio-themed park areas, built over an entire decade apart, the development has a ready-made collection of fun facts and secrets to tell.
The key inspiration from Imagineering past is certainly the main boulevard of Hollywood Pictures Backlot, Disney's California Adventure (DCA). Built in 2001, this street introduced the concept of using a giant "backdrop" to frame the scene. Although, in reality, this also served as a unique way to hide the giant building of the park's Hyperion Theater - the backdrop is applied directly to the building. In Paris, the similar Hollywood Hills backdrop will be free-standing.
The idea to use a series of movie set façades as a themed area for guests to explore comes from Disney-MGM Studios, and before this, Universal Studios Hollywood.
The buildings featured mix of a wide variety of Hollywood styles, from the more exotic Pueblo buildings surrounding the Pueblo Deco Hollywood Tower Hotel to the skyscraper Art Deco of the First National Bank and the more East Coast (New York City) appearance of the Broadway Building apartments.
Unlike the nighttime Hollywood Boulevard of Disney Studio 1, however, which features a collection of simpler indoor façades from across 50 years, the sets on this new outdoor Boulevard are due to remain within one, single timeframe: the 1950s. This puts the street set at around 11+ years following the closure of The Hollywood Tower Hotel behind.
More inspirations for each location can be found in their descriptions to the right >>
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The Locations
What was once an uninspiring piece of tarmac between Disney Bros. Plaza and Studio Tram Tour is being transformed into a Hollywood Boulevard as only Hollywood could imagine it. Colourful and detailed façades will nestle along the street and around Tower of Terror to create a truly magical "Boulevard of Dreams".
This new series of Hollywood facades and landmarks will be a real tribute to not only Tinseltown's greatest architecture but the ability of its filmsets to bring worlds to life in even the most fictional backlot developments. The sets may be two-dimensional and odd seen from the wrong angle, but when you're down there rubbing shoulders with other cast and crew, you're a part of Hollywood history.
From DCA = Disney's California Adventure (CA), MGM = Disney-MGM Studios (FLA), WDS = Walt Disney Studios
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Gone Hollywood
From: DCA; Completed: Under Construction.
Gone Hollywood, an almost exact replica of the very same storefront at Disney's California Adventure, will fill the length of the Art of Disney Animation queueline with its sleek Art Deco façade. At DCA, this is used as the entrance to an actual store behind.
The storefront features an iconic neon sign with the words "Gone Hollywood" - a good introduction for guests to the land - and a typically Deco clock atop its roof. The ground floor windows will be filled with movie memorabilia and countless hints to Disney's Hollywood history.
Inspiration Photos: [1] | [2] | [3] |
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Sweet Success
From: MGM; Completed: Under Construction
The furthest edge of the new development is occupied by a building inspired by the 'Sweet Success' candy store on Hollywood Boulevard at Disney-MGM Studios, a building in the Spanish Colonial Revivial style. Like all of the buildings on this corner of the boulevard, the Mediterranean-inspired architecture makes it a good companion for the Pueblo Deco Tower of Terror behind.
Whilst the MGM version also features an adjoining section with a curved roof, at WDS the building is a single, square tower. A further change is the additon of a huge red, rusted dome atop the WDS version.
As the largest (in floorspace/dimensional terms) of all the Hollywood Boulevard sets, it seems perfectly possible that this building could feature some kind of food retail.
Inspiration Photos: [1] | [2] |
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Argyle Building
From: DCA; Completed: Under Construction
Next door, we skip across the USA to Disney's California Adventure and its popular Argyle Building, which features a peaked roof, a balcony first floor and a store below - "Ben Hair". It's unknown whether this theme element in particular will remain for the WDS version, or if DCA's trademark bad puns will remain inside the gates of DCA.
The Argyle Building is actually also joined to its WDS parter, La Brea Carpets, in DCA. However, both buildings are placed directly next to each other, whilst at WDS they will be placed facing slightly away from one another on the corner of the boulevard.
Inspiration Photos: [1] |
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La Brea Carpets
From: DCA; Completed: Under Construction
This unusual façade has three stories, a large wooden entrance door, large arched windows and balconies along its top floor. Its height will be increased further at WDS with a large billboard atop its roof.
This row of façades will enclose La Terrasse from the main walkway and parade route across the centre of the park. As the heart of Walt Disney Studios, this particular area will also house the main Tips Board (which features wait times, show times, etc) next to a long-awaited water feature - only the second in the entire park.
It is unlikely the four wildly-designed window canopies will remain the same for WDS, since whilst the DCA Hollywood Pictures Backlot is very much a modern Hollywood, the Parisian version will have strictly a 1950s time theme.
Inspiration Photos: [1] | [2] |
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Off the Page (La Terrasse Entrance)
From: DCA; Completed: Under Construction
The eleborate façade of 'Off the Page' is that of a full boutique at Disney's California Adventure, with a large sign featuring Disney characters across its front. In Walt Disney Studios, this signage will not appear and the main entrance tower will be replicated as a stand-alone building.
Its arched entrance (hidden by the characters signage at DCA) will serve as a grand entrance to the La Terrasse food court area in WDS, located behind this row of façades. A vertical sign featuring the letters "La TERRASSE" will decorate the front. La Terrasse itself has been given an overcoat in a similar sandy yellow style, with more turqouise details.
Inspiration Photos: [1] |
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First National Bank
From: Designed for WDS (Real-life Hollywood); Completed: September 2007
The first set here entirely unique to Walt Disney Studios, this is one of two "skyscraper" façades to stand tall either side of the boulevard at its junction with the street leading past The Hollywood Tower Hotel. The inspiration is the First National Bank on the real Hollywood Boulevard, a real Hollywood landmark and a wealthy location that should sit well next to The Hollywood Tower.
Inspiration Photos: [1] | [2] |
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El Capitan Theater
From: Designed for WDS (Real-life Hollywood); Completed: September 2007
The famous movie palace on the real Hollywood Boulevard, bought and restored by The Walt Disney Company in the late 1980s, is seen in forced perspective just before the horizon. Features a dark green vertical sign with yellow "El Capitan" lettering and a neon radio tower atop its "roof".
Inspiration Photos: [1] | [2] | [3] |
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Broadway Building at Hollywood & Vine
From: Designed for WDS (Real-life Hollywood); Completed: September 2007
Across the building, more forced perspective will go to play to recreate the famous 'Broadway Building', located at the junction of Hollywood & Vine - the location to see and be seen back in the 1950s.
The real building was formerly a famous department store, and has recently been refurbished into stylish apartments following years of neglect.
Placing this famous building just moments from The Hollywood Tower Hotel signifies that the hotel is right at the heart of the glitz and glamour, "just off Hollywood & Vine!".
Inspiration Photos: [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] |
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Hollywood Hills Tunnel
From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction
The Hollywood Hills Tunnel is one of the most unique features about this Hollywood Boulevard. Whilst Disney has struggled in the past to fill the void between the real street and its fictional backdrop (see Hollywood Pictures Backlot or MGM's San Francisco street), the problem will be solved at Walt Disney Studios with a large tunnel leading into the famous Hollywood Hills behind.
The tunnel will become the main entrance to Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic.
Tunnels like this wind their way through countless areas of the real city, and one has already been at the park since 2002 - on the far right of the huge mural at the exit of Disney Studio 1 you can see a tunnel almost identical to this hidden away. A strange coincidence or a secret hint to the future? |
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Hollywood Hills Backdrop
From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction
Filling the sky behind the entire development will be a huge new backdrop of the famous Hollywood Hills themselves. The backdrop will likely replace the current billboard entrance sign of Studio Tram Tour itself, standing above the queue area below. |
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From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction
The shining star of Hollywood Boulevard that appears to have lost its sparkle... Whilst the rest of the boulevard is filled with the glitz and glamour of the 1950s, a forgotten hangout for Hollywood greats, closed in 1939, lies on a side street just off the junction of Hollywood & Vine. For over 10 years, no-one has been in or out... until now!
As visitors enter the hotel with all the optimism of the 50s, the mood is quickly darkened - not least by the screams echoing from the 13th floor above...
Full Guide » |
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Tower Hotel Gifts
From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction
The main boutique on Hollywood Boulevard, the stylish Tower Hotel Gifts can be found in the grounds of The Hollywood Tower Hotel selling a wide variety of merchandise and souvenirs recovered from the hotel's more affluent history.
Also the place to pick up souvenir photos from The Twilight Zone. |
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Luggage Concierge / Fastpass
From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction
On the corner of The Hollywood Tower Hotel nearest Hollywood Boulevard, a convenient bus stop and luggage drop/pick-up area has now been reserved for new guests to pick up their so-called "Fastpass" tickets to the hotel next door. The Fastpass machines themselves are themed entirely to stacks of baggage from around the world.
DCA Photos: [1] |
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The Locations 