THINK. Believe. Dream. Dare.
“First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare.”
Walt Disney
Monstropolis
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Attraction Concept and design​​​​
Monsters inc in the disney parks
Monsters, Inc has proven to be one of most enduring and beloved franchises and arguably remains a little underrated outside of the core fan base. The original debuted to very positive reviews back in 2001 and ended up grossing $559 million worldwide. Inflation adjusted, that is over the magical $1 billion level in today's money, and at the time made it the second highest grossing Disney animated picture, behind only the iconic The Lion King. 2013's prequel Monsters University would add another $743 million at the worldwide box office, again a little over $1 billion when adjusted for inflation. The list of Disney animated movie franchises with more than one (inflation adjusted) billion dollar movie is as short as it is distinguished, with Monsters, Inc joining only Frozen, Inside Out, The Incredibles, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo.
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Mike and Sulley are two of the most unique and beloved characters in the Disney universe, and they have been near permanent characters in the Parks since the original movie's success. However, actual attractions based on the franchise have been somewhat limited, with just three in place around the world, and only one of those - Monsters Inc Ride & Go Seek in Tokyo Disneyland - being a truly original attraction, rather than a somewhat makeshift redo of something that already existed. Monstropolis at Hollywood Studios will represent a significant step up in both size and scope and finally give fans of this franchise a place to really step into the Monsters, Inc universe.
Door coaster attraction design and story
We've been hearing stories about the prospect of a "door coaster" for some time now with the original source being this piece from the legendary Jim Hill. Fittingly, as a tribute to Jim's detailed story telling style, we need to go back almost 20 years to tell even the abbreviated history of this attraction. As Jim recalls in this episode of I Want That Too, ​Imagineers had planned to add a Monsters, Inc attraction to Pixar Place, joining the incredibly successful Toy Story Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios. This was supposed to go public in October 2008 to coincide with that year's WDW anniversary announcements, but in July a two-minute promotional video was accidentally uploaded to the cast member portal for a brief period - long enough for many cast members to immediately relay everything they saw to Jim! In the period between that internal leak and the proposed announcement, the financial world collapsed and Disney understandably questioned whether it was the right time to make major additions to the parks. Toy Story Midway Mania would of course go on to be absorbed into the new Toy Story Land, announced in 2015 and opening in 2018, thus ending the possibility of the proposed Monsters Inc ride ever happening as originally proposed.
It's a well cited trope that good ideas never die at Disney Imagineering though, and sure enough, the door coaster idea stuck around, and we're now set to get Disney's first inverted coaster within Monstropolis. Perhaps because this ride has been in the concept phase for years, I wonder if some of the design kinks have already been ironed out, as Disney have been unusually forthcoming with specific design elements early on in the project. We already have a nice piece of concept art, a model of the track layout, and even a rendering of how the proprietary ride loading will work:​​​​​​​
Jack over at DSNY Newscast shared the below graphic, which is an approximate sketch of the track layout based on that great model we saw at D23:
A final source to consider is the "Let's Ride" episode of the excellent We Call It Imagineering on YouTube which gives us a couple of juicy quotes to consider:
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"You're going to see other trains throughout the building and to see that kind of energy very much mimics the sensation that we saw in the actual Monsters Inc door vault."
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"Guests will go up in the air and hit the first boost zone and get shot into the door vault"
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These two elements together, along with Jack's helpful track layout projection suggest a couple of ride elements to me. The Imagineers refer to the first boost zone, which suggests there are multiple boost zones in the attraction. This is an important nugget of information as it potentially answers a couple of concerns I had when this project was announced. Indoor rollercoasters generally need pretty huge show buildings - as with Cosmic Rewind and Rock 'n' Rollercoaster - and so these buildings tend not to be heavily themed (as theming costs money). This puts Disney in a tough spot as they potentially need to either spend a ton of money theming a big box to house their attraction, or build a smaller box (which is cheaper to theme) but then lack space to build a rollercoaster of sufficient length. How would multiple "booster zones" help this potential issue? These zones could allow trains to slow down in certain scenes, allowing the ride to have an improved story telling element, yet still maintain a thrill element because they can accelerate again to the next scene. This isn't, of course, possible if your rollercoaster is powered by gravity alone.
Splitting the track into block sections would also potentially help with capacity and help create the energy that the Imagineers reference above. In rollercoaster designs, each "block" of track can only have one train it, and these sections need to be ended with an element that can stop a train (brakes, chain hill etc). By including ride elements which slow the train down as part of the story (only to accelerate again), you can create not only a thrill for the guests but also help add more trains to what might be a relatively short track.
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Design elements in the rest of the land
As we've seen above, Disney have been unusually forthcoming with information on Monstropolis' main attraction, yet have remained more typically tight lipped with what the rest of the land will look like. Part of me wonders if this suggests we'll see a phased opening of the land with a second attraction / restaurant coming online later, but more likely it's probably just a result of the aforementioned fact that the "door coaster" has essentially been in development for a decade and so it's no wonder they had some detailed designs ready to roll out.
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Glob Theatre
So what do we think is in the rest of the land? The most obvious element is the large building which used to house one my all time favourite attractions, Muppet*Vision 3D. The updated artwork shows that the theatre has been rebranded as the "Glob" - presumably a nod to the historic Globe theatre in London - with the widespread assumption that we're getting a new stage show in this location. Details, however, have been more than limited, to the point of being non-existent, which again makes one wonder if this part of the plan isn't yet firmed up:
​I have seen some commentators referencing a live "theatre" but I personally wonder if this is assuming too much based on the name of the building, which seems more like a quick pun rather than a clear indication of what will go in this building. "Live" shows are comparatively expensive, requiring multiple full time cast members, and we understand that Disney is already going to need to hire folks for the meet and greets going elsewhere in the land (more on this shortly). With that in mind, my own assumption was that this would be a screen based attraction, with perhaps a few animatronics (ala it's tough to be a bug) or perhaps one or two live characters to complement the show (ala Sweetums in Muppet*Vision 3D). A couple of factors support this idea:
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the building is already setup for a screen based attraction and so the sight lines and acoustics already work
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a live show likely needs a bigger stage and back stage area for performers to get ready
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a short, roughly 10-minute film would add a significant amount of capacity and becomes the kind of attraction that, even when new, can be experienced by all guests, without needing lightning lanes.
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That said, producing new movie content would also be potentially expensive too as they'd need to bring in stars like Billy Crystal and John Goodman to reprise their roles as Mike and Sulley, although the former's appearance at the D23 announcement of this new land suggests he at least would be game.
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As an aside, we did get an interesting update from Hong Kong, where we are getting a new "immersive theatrical experience celebrating the joy of friendship and the power of play" which based on the sole piece of concept art will feature of favourite monsters Mike and Sulley. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Now, I don't think this is a "Monsters Inc" show, so we're not saying that they are producing something new that can be leveraged in both parks, but it's an interesting nugget of information that shows that the Monsters Inc characters work on a live stage, and that Disney are currently spending money to develop some kind of concept in that universe. Could this be leveraging some of the work they are doing for the Studios? Possibly not, but it is interesting timing.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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There is some suggestion that this building could be used solely as a character meet and greet location but this seems like a missed opportunity to me given the size of this space. It could be a very immersive meeting / retail location like Anna and Elsa's Royal Sommerhus at EPCOT but this location would be significantly larger than even that very large meeting space (the Muppet*Vision theatre is around 23,000 sqft versus around 14,000 for the Royal Sommerhus). Having said that . . .
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Character Meet and Greet / Play Area
There almost certainly will be a character meet and greet somewhere in this land, and if it isn't in the new "Glob Theatre" then where could it be? With Harryhausen's shown in the concept art where we currently have Mama Melrose's, it seems almost certain that this will be a restaurant. Could it be a character dining location? Very possibly, but that being the only place to see Mike and Sulley does seem unlikely. ​
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A couple of other spots bear mentioning:
In the updated concept art (above middle) we can see a covered area, behind Harryhausen's and in front of the main Laugh Factory building. It isn't clear from the new concept art what this location is - it could certainly be a meet and greet area or just a sitting area - but if we look at the older artwork (above middle) we can see that the Imagineers at least originally intended this area to be a playground, and so the covered areas are probably more likely to be a playground, which has been covered to account for the ever increasing summer temperatures in central Florida.​
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The other possible locations for something in this land would then be the covered pavilion in the centre of the square (above right), and then any possible space in the former PizzaRizzo location - which is itself a large dining location. It seems very possible, even probable, that this land could justify two dining locations: one presumably sit down and quick service - but it's also possible that they could borrow a portion of that PizzaRizzo space to carve out a meet and greet area, while still preserving the theatre for a second attraction. This question seems a bit circular in that if the land does have two attractions then it possibly needs two dining locations, but has less space for them, whereas if the land is really just the door coaster and a meet-and-greet then we'd suddenly have loads of space for dining, but wouldn't necessarily have the constant foot traffic to support it (especially recalling that this part of the map is a dead end, and you don't pickup guests on their way to other parts of the park).
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​One final foot note to add here was a fun anecdote from Jim Hill on an episode of the I Want That Too, who called attention to the guest in the concept art who seems to be carrying a small monster in a baby carrier. Jim noted that this isn't just a funny easter egg in the art, but is based on a merchandise idea that will have guests being able to buy "baby" monsters to customize. These smaller elements suggest that Imagineers are definitely leaning into the idea of Monstropolis as a "land" rather than an attraction with a bit of theming in the surrounding area. Again, to me this suggest we're getting two attractions, but we'll what the future announcements bring. ​​​
​​​Timeline and progress
Disney seem to be moving fast on this project, with the existing area already closed to the public and demolition underway. I imagine that losing the capacity from Muppet*Vision 3D plus revenue from two dining locations is a good motivation to move quickly. ​
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
Muppetvision 3D closes
Construction inside and outside the park
Construction Updates
2025
SEP
More updates this month from @bioreconstruct, showing that the groundwork looks pretty complete and we have some outlines of foundations going in. I'm intrigued by the circular beginnings of a structure in the middle left of the picture, which per the concept art is I guess around the town centre area. Perhaps this is some king of gazebo? We understand the original location of the Miss Piggy fountain is staying where it is so this doesn't seem likely to be another water feature. We'll see how this one develops in the next few months.
Circular structure
Fountain fixtures
2025
AUG
Another update here from @bioreconstruct, showing the complete demolition of the Stage 1 Company Store which begins to open up the middle of the new land. We can also see some additional progress in the back stage area, with some initial groundwork on the new coaster building.
2025
JUL
The great @bioreconstruct had an early update for us in July 2025, showing what we assume is the show building outline in the former parking lot.
