Disney's Hollywood Studios: Will Monsters, Inc. Land Replace Muppets Courtyard or Animation Courtyard?

Aug 13, 2024 in "Monsters Inc. Land"

Forum Forums Tweet Share Tweet Share

Gallery / 3 Photos
Monsters Inc. Land Concept Art

Posted: Tuesday August 13, 2024 9:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

When Disney Parks Chairman Josh D'Amaro announced that Disney's Hollywood Studios would be home to the very first Monsters, Inc. land, one crucial detail was left unanswered: where exactly will it be built?

Disney Parks Chairman Announces Monsters, Inc. Land

While Walt Disney World is known for its vast expanses of available land, Disney's Hollywood Studios faces a unique challenge due to its limited size, constrained by surrounding roadways. As a result, the new Monsters, Inc. land will almost certainly need to replace an existing attraction, with two likely candidates emerging.

Disney even presented two different pieces of concept art that show the Monsters, Inc. Land in what appears to be the two courtyards in question - Animation Courtyard and Muppets Courtyard.

MuppetVision 3D and Grand Avenue

Monsters Inc. Land Concept Art

MuppetVision 3D and its surrounding area has emerged as the most likely location for Disney to build its new Monsters, Inc. land and the long-awaited indoor suspended door coaster.

In this scenario, the new land would occupy everything in the former Muppets Courtyard, including the MuppetVision 3D show, Mama Melrose's, Studio 1 Shop, Days of Christmas, and PizzeRizzo.

Building in Muppets Courtyard would be a significant loss for the park, given that MuppetVision 3D is home to the Muppets at Walt Disney World and one of the only attractions in Disney's Hollywood Studios that does not rely on Lighting Lane, a Virtual Queue, a height requirement, or a lengthy standby wait. It is arguably the best 3D movie experience that Disney has ever created for a theme park. It also occupies a place in Disney history as one of the last projects that Muppet creator Jim Henson was involved in before his passing in 1990.

MuppetVision 3D

Animation Courtyard

Monsters Inc. Land Concept Art

The Animation Courtyard has been a neglected space since the opening of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, when all interest in Star Wars Launch Bay fell by the wayside, leading many to believe that this area is ripe for redevelopment and a likely candidate for the new Monsters, Inc land.

The area appears to have enough space for the land but faces some challenges in relocating the office space utilization behind Launch Bay in the former Animation building and integrating the adjacent Little Mermaid theater, which will soon host a new version of the show.

Animation Courtyard also appears to be earmarked for another upcoming and so far unannounced project.

While Animation Courtyard seemed to be the early front-runner, our latest information suggests that Disney has selected Muppet's Courtyard as the site for the new Monsters Inc. Land. Unless there are any last-minute changes, an official announcement from Disney is expected in the coming weeks.

Monsters Inc. Land Concept Art

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

EagleScout6101 hour ago

Where's the Incredibles rumor?

celluloid1 hour ago

It is interesting, from a marketing perspective a huge benefit to this push in timeline has been for SEO with Monsters at Universal. So when monsters theme park land is searched. You will see The Search engine results of Monsters Inc Land at WDW in the mix

WondersOfLife1 hour ago

No its not. i wasnt looking for a re skin. i'd think otherwise with how often its down. Interesting.

WondersOfLife1 hour ago

Agreed. I dont know why everyone consistently thinks I am against common sense logic. But Disney has moved past common since so I'm just trying to think of solutions in Disney's head that would keep muppets. And with Rockin's consistent maintenance problems and downtime, and it already having the big coaster building, I thought it'd make sense. Who's to say we couldnt get something ELSE new in Launch Bay???

doctornick3 hours ago

That's an even worse idea than it replacing MV. Also, wouldn't really make any sense as the door coaster concept if a completely different roller coaster design than RNR so would basically mean just tearing it out and completely replacing which would defeat the purpose of using RNR. Nothing wrong with RNR's ride system that would warrant tearing it out. That being said, insiders have hinted that RNR is getting an Incredibles theme at some point down the road.

MisterPenguin4 hours ago

1. It violates the law of "don't replace, add," albeit that's just a fan law that Disney doesn't care about. 2. It *could* replace RnRC if and only if you remove the existing track. Monsters is a hanging coaster and the RnRC track is incompatible with that. I'm sorry for veering off topic and talking about Monstropolis.

Mr. Sullivan5 hours ago

I gotta echo @ToTBellHop I don’t think what they’ve done to EPCOT (bar CommuniCore Hall) is ugly, it just is a very mostly nondescript modernist design. I rather like the trees and garden. I also can’t say that area of EPCOT was a visual marvel to start with (the awnings were especially unsightly). Less an ugly downgrde more a lateral movement with some small patches of improvement.

Sneaky5 hours ago

AT THIS TIME OF DAY, AT THIS TIME OF YEAR, IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY, LOCALIZED ENTIRELY WITHIN YOUR STUDIO THEME PARK? In all seriousness, I am 110% down. Bring it on.

SoFloMagic5 hours ago

I believe this is the chilled water plant for Epcot. I don't imagine they'd love to move that. And we all know WOL is gonna be PLAY! any day now... 😂

UNCgolf5 hours ago

I think this is the issue more than Zootopia itself -- while I don't care about Zootopia as an IP, I'd have no problem with it going into DHS. The Shanghai ride looks mediocre, though, and it's hard to imagine they'd design a completely new attraction when they could just reuse that one. I think most people are not especially enthusiastic about that ride or the idea of it coming to WDW over something else.

Brer Panther6 hours ago

Apparently, Disney also wants to put... ugh... The Simpsons in Hollywood Studios.

doctornick6 hours ago

If I had my way, I would not put it in the ToL - ITTBAB is great and doesn't need to be changed - and would just put a land at DHS. I think Zootopia actually is a good choice for a well fleshed out single IP land, but it needs to be in the correct park (which would be DHS and definitely not DAK). Whatever DHS gets after Monsters Inc though should be something with multiple attractions. The park desperately needs smaller things that aren't scheduled shows to "round things out".

ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨︎ ᗩζᗩᗰ6 hours ago

That makes too much sense! So naturally, Never gonna happen.

ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨︎ ᗩζᗩᗰ6 hours ago

It was considered in the past, yes. Who knows now. I think parking it in DHS is still the top contender. Definitely the fan favorite at the moment but what fans what and what Disney wants are two very different things. Could you imagine Zootopia in the Land Pavilion? Crazy to think.