Disney renames Disney-MGM Studios to Disney Hollywood Studios

Doesn't that sound misleading as to where the park is located though? I think just "Disney Studios" would have been fine.

There was a period there in the late 90s where they were in court with MGM and I think due to uncertainty they made some changes to printed materials, vacation videos, etc that hid the MGM name or just referred to it as the Disney Studios.

But, I don't think the change was ever carried out on property with signage or anything like that. If memory serves the big push for the MGM moniker had to do with, specifically, the Great Movie Ride. I think they were concerned they needed some of the bigger MGM films such as the Wizard of Oz.

In fact, outside of the GMR I'm not sure where else MGM films are even referenced.

As for it being misleading? How many Italian restaurants have you eaten in that were actually IN Italy?

I thought that I heard they removed the wizard of oz scene from the great movie ride?

No, the Wizard of Oz scene is still in the Great Movie Ride. In fact, all of the original scenes are still in place when the ride opened with the park in 1989. The only thing that changes periodically is the final film finale, which adds more recent films into the mix.

However, with the loss of the MGM name, speculation is rising that the Great Movie Ride may get a makeover in the coming years.

The Great Movie Ride NEEDS a makeover. :)

As I said in the other thread (which will probably be deleted), the new name sucks. It's not easy to say, so I doubt people are even going to use it. The majority of people called the park "MGM" before or "MGM Studios". So, it's going to take a lot of marketing to "train" the general public. I'll just call is "The Studios" from now on. Hollywood Studios sounds weird and Disney's Hollywood Studios is just way too much to say. No one goes around saying "Disney's Animal Kingdom", so I doubt anyone is going to use this name in its entirety either.

This is the same scenario we all ran into when Busch Gardens took on their new names. Although, Africa and Europe in a theme park's name are a lot easier to understand. When you do look at it though, Universal Studios Hollywood is indeed in Hollywood, so I can understand how this may be confusing to the Disney and Universal theme park groupies. Regardless of the name change, it's always going to be MGM to me just as Geauga Lake has always been GL even though it went through several name changes.

But just as it was said up above... (and getting even more proper) how many people actually call it "Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park"? So many people visit Disney World, not The Walt Disney World Resort as it should be referred to.

I always called the park "MGM" for short. I probably still will.

Disney-Hollywood Studios is a mouthful. Disney Studios would have been just fine.

There is a nice article on Jim Hill Media here: http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2007/08/10/a-special-what-s-in-a-name-edition-of-why-for.aspx

I was especially interested in the article, though, because of what is says about DCA...er WDCA. (I hear a Village People parody coming on) ;)

I always say the Walt Disney World Resort or Walt Disney World and Disney's Animal Kingdom or just simply "Dac" and Disney-MGM Studios or just "the studios". But we I am "trained" WDWR Cast Memeber. Actually saying just "the studios" is bad because guests don't know which studios you are talking about. ^_^