Could a seasonal Tim Burton celebration soon be coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park?

Jim Hill

12 years ago

Troy P. writes in to ask:

Hi Jim! Love your website.

I was in Minneapolis this weekend
and I attended the annual nighttime Halloween festival at ValleyFair, a local
theme park here in the Twin Cities. “ValleyScare” was a fun event
with creepy theming, chilling music, tons of fog machines, and about 8-10
walk-thru haunted houses. Combine that with ValleyFair’s great collection
of thrill rides, and it made for a great night.

But the whole time, I couldn’t help but think about a missed opportunity at
Walt Disney World. I kept daydreaming about what it would look like if
the Imagineers and Entertainment Department were given free reign over
Hollywood Studios and allowed to “spook it up” for all of us adult
fans.

So why for hasn’t Disney thrown its
hat into the ring? Sure they’ve got the market cornered with Mickey’s
Not-So-Scary. And good for them. Totally appropriate. But
there’s a whole other crowd out there, a whole other market that they aren’t
tapping into at all. From the looks of it, Universal seems to be making a
mint off of their Halloween Horror Nights, so I’m really surprised that Disney
hasn’t been more aggressive in trying to get their share of that cash flow.

Any reason why this hasn’t happened? Any thing you know about it? Has the
idea ever been seriously considered?

I’ve always heard those rumors about
“Tragic Kingdom” / Villains Parks for the 5th theme park one day.
Not sure if that’s even a possibility but, if so, then doing a nighttime
event at DHS could be the perfect way to test the waters for that, right?

Thanks!

Troy —

Photo by Jim Hill

Thanks for your kind note. As the
folks at Disney World looking down I-4 and then envying the amount of money that
Universal Orlando hauls in with its after-hours Halloween Horror Nights event
… Yep, you’re right. Over the 20 years, the Mouse has periodically explored
the idea of putting together a second hard ticket event for the month of
October. Something would be a bit darker and scarier than Mickey’s Not-So-Scary
Halloween Party. With the idea that this event would be held during the latter
part of October at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

“Why only during the latter
part of October and not in both September & October, like with Universal’s
Halloween Horror Nights?,” you ask. To be blunt, it’s because — during
September and the first part of October — Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween
Party typically doesn’t sell out. And since there are still tickets available for
this seasonal after-hours event at the Magic Kingdom … Well, why waste money
to create a Halloween-themed event that would then be in direct competition
with Mickey’s Not-So-Scary?

No, the period of time that WDW’s
Entertainment staff and event planners are most interested in are those last
two weeks of October. Which is when Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
begins to consistently sell out. Which means that there’s then pent-up demand
on property. Guests who are more than eager (more importantly, would be willing
to pay top dollar) to take part in another
Halloween-themed after-hours event at the Resort. Which — ideally — would be
held at the Studios.

Of course, what further complicates
this whole matter is that — beginning in the month of August and continuing
right through much of November — a good-sized chunk of Disney’s Hollywood
Studios is off-limits to Entertainment & event planners due to all the wiring
work involved with transforming that theme park’s Streets of America section
for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.

And since that seasonal attraction
has a huge impact on DHS’s attendance levels during the holiday season (There
are a lot of Orlando-area locals who
have now made a trip to the studio theme park part of their family’s holiday
traditions. Just so they can then welcome Christmas by walking through that
part of the DHS Backlot and just being dazzled by those thousands of dancing
holiday lights overhead) … Well, there’s just no way that Walt Disney World
officials are ever going to allow a 10 day / two week-long Halloween-themed
event at Hollywood Studios to possibly compromise the set-up and/or operation
of Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. Which — this year — is running
from November 9th through January 6, 2013, nearly 8 1/2 weeks.

And then when you factor in that the
back half of Disney’s Hollywood Studios is reportedly about to become a
construction site. What with all of those persistent rumors that this theme
park’s Pixar Place section will soon be doubling in size with the construction
of that long-delayed Monsters, Inc. -themed coaster as well as a WDW version of
DCA‘s super-popular Radiator Springs Racers attraction.

Taking into account that one-two
punch (i.e. Disney doesn’t want anything going on at DHS that would possibly
compromise the annual set-up of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights
AND the northwestern-most corner of this theme park is going to be wall-to-wall
construction walls) … I just don’t see
WDW doing anything about getting a second Halloween-themed, after-hours hard
ticket event going until after construction is complete on all these additions
to the studio theme park. Which I hear will take ’til late 2015 / early 2016.

That said, I did (just this week)
hear from someone fairly senior on the Entertainment side of things at Walt
Disney World. And what with this past weekend’s release of Tim Burton‘s new
stop motion movie, “Frankenweenie” … Well, there’s supposedly this
proposal making the rounds at the Walt Disney World Resort. One which calls for
Disney’s Hollywood Studios becoming the home of a Tim Burton Celebration during the latter part of October.

This celebration would supposed to
be modeled after that theme park’s highly successful Star Wars Weekends. With
screenings of Burton’s Disney-owned shorts (i.e. 1982’s “Vincent” and
1984’s “Frankenweenie“) and feature films (i.e. 1994’s “The
Nightmare Before Christmas,” 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland” and
2012’s “Frankenweenie”) in the Sounds Dangerous Theater, displays of
props and costumes from Burton’s films in that in-park display space that’s
soon-to-be-home to the “Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow” exhibit. Not
to mention a daily Burton-themed park as well as appearances by various actors
who’ve appeared in Tim’s movies. Who then make themselves available to Guests
for photos & autographs.

I know, I know. This sounds like
kind of a weird idea. But given all of those people who — late last month — stood
in three hour-long lines just so that they could then get their pictures taken
with the face character versions of Jack Skellington & Sally at Downtown
Disney‘s “Frankenweenie Weekend” (not to mention how the plush
version of Sparky has been flying off of store shelves in both Anaheim and
Orlando) … There seems to be a sincere belief among some WDW managers that a
Tim Burton-themed event like this (whether it’s held during the day and open to
all DHS Guests like Star Wars Weekends OR done after-hours as a hard ticket like
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party) would finally address that persistent
Guest comment (i.e. “Why doesn’t Disney do something dark & weird like
Universal does for Halloween?”).

Mind you, there is one wee little
stumbling block to this idea becoming a reality. And that’s Tim Burton himself.
Disney have to approach this acclaimed filmmaker directly and then ask for his
blessing. Not to mention getting Tim’s permission to use his name on all of the
promotional materials that they’d then have to create in order to hype this
proposed celebration.

And just in case you’re wondering
… This Tim Burton Celebration proposal that’s allegedly making the
rounds does reportedly take into account
that the back half of Disney’s Hollywood Studios is basically off-limits (at
least while the Monsters,Inc. coaster and Radiator Springs Racers is being
built). Which is why all of the exhibits and entertainment venues are
supposedly being proposed for the front part of DHS, from Echo Lake all the way
back to Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

Copyright Disney / Lucasfilm LTD & TM

So what do you folks think? If the
Walt Disney World Resort were to present a Star War Weekend-like event during
the latter part of October that then celebrated the various films & shorts
which Tim Burton has directed / produced for Walt Disney Studios, would you
then scheduled a special trip to Orlando just to take part in this sort of
seasonal event?

Your thoughts?