Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show
From Disney's Hollywood Studios Wiki
The Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show is a live stunt show, with some audience participation elements, at the Disney's Hollywood Studios. It is based on the original show, Moteurs... Action! Stunt Show Spectacular at Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Resort Paris. Many scenes of the show were inspired mainly by two films: Ronin and The Manchurian Candidate. The show had its soft opened on May 5, 2005, as part of the Happiest Celebration on Earth. It is located at the very back of the park on the Streets of America.
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[edit] Show Synopsis
Revolving around a series of high-octane stunts featuring automobiles. The show runs for just under 35 minutes and includes pyrotechnics, jet ski chases, gun fire, loud noises, and physical stuntwork among the car work. The cars are followed by cameras (there are also several cameras hidden within the set), and the film shown to the audience on a "Jumbotron" television screen is both shot during the show and pre-recorded, and many shots are even from the Disneyland Resort Paris version of the show. This is to make the show appear as if it were a real movie shoot.
Herbie, from The Love Bug, makes an appearance in an intermission in the middle of the show, much to the delight of the audience. Within another intermission, a volunteer is chosen from the audience to "drive" one of the cars. They claim that it is a full size remote control car, hand the volunteer a remote, allow them to "drive" for a while, only to reveal that there is a driver on the side of the vehicle.
[edit] Arena
The show arena features Mediterranean Village scenery, similar to the ones in the south of France. The arena's construction forced the Studio Backlot Tour at the theme park to be almost halved in length, as the arena was built inside the backlot tour's attraction footprint, over the infamous Residential Street, and caused part of the tour to become the Streets of America.
[edit] Vehicles
The show has more than 40 vehicles featured in the show and backstage in the maintenance garage. The hero car is a custom-built design for the show, while the pursuit cars are Opel Corsas. The 3 different hero cars are all painted red, while the pursuit cars are black to easily allow guests to tell the difference between them. The show also includes specially designed cars that look identical to the others used in the show, two of which are red "hero" cars. One has the interior situated backwards to allow the driver to appear as if he's driving in reverse, and the other has a seat and steering wheel bolted onto the side of the car, giving the appearance that the car has no driver in the driver's seat. One of the black "pursuit" cars is cut in half behind the front doors to give it the appearance of exploding during a scene in the show.
The cars, while they appear simple and plain, are reinforced with rally car roll cages for driver safety. The cars are powered with 1,300 cc, 150 hp, motorcycle engines mounted directly behind the driver's seat. The cars have 4 gears in forward drive and 4 gears in reverse, allowing the drivers to accelerate to high speed going backwards. The car has a bump shift, meaning you simply have to bump the gear shift to change gears, in contrast to an average car where you have to manually release it with a thumb button, for easier gear shifting. In order to go in reverse, the driver twists the top of the shifter and bumps it forward, or backwards. The emergency brake automatically releases when the driver lets go. The show cars weigh just 1,322 pounds.
The drivers must wear driving suits just like professional racecar drivers. Because of this combined with Florida's notorious heat, a cooling system in the rear of the car pumps water through a series of tubes and into the driver's suit to keep him cool.
The show also features jet skis on the small canal at the front of the theater, and motorcycles which maneuver around the cars.
[edit] Attraction facts
- Soft opening: March 14, 2005
- Grand opening: May 5, 2005
- Show length: 33-35 min
- Stadium Capacity: Approximately 5,000 guests
- Show Space: 177000 sqft show area
- Sponsor: Brawny/Georgia Pacific
