Celebrities really are just like the rest of us.
It’s no secret that Disney fans are an… opinionated bunch. Many feel strongly about the company’s theme parks and rides and have no qualms about making their feelings known. Turns out, that applies to celebrity fans as well, at least in the case of Ariana Grande. The child-actress-turned-international superstar recently spoke out in passionate defense of the legendary Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
According to Entertainment Weekly, while appearing on the Las Culturistas, the Wicked star got into a discussion with hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers about the Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and how the Disney California Adventure version of the attraction had been re-themed into Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout back in 2017.
According to Grande, she does like the Guardians version, saying of Mission Breakout, “… it’s a beautiful thing, it’s great, it’s impressive, it’s amazing. I’m a big Baby Groot person. I don’t remember much about her, but I love her,” however the Glinda actress went on to say that she felt a “real desperation to protect and preserve what is the Tower of Terror.”
She went on to read an “open letter” she’d crafted to Disney on the subject, which said in part, “Perhaps this message comes prematurely, but I would be remiss if I did not reach out with a potential matter of grave concern. In the wake of the most recent alterations that have befallen your historic park in California — yes, I’m referring to the calamitous loss/makeover of the Tower of Terror ride here — I humbly implore you to not follow suit. Please allow the iconic and tremendous Tower of Terror to stand tall, permanently, in the name of historical preservation, spooky honor, and good, old-fashioned fun. I hope that you’ll consider this humble plea from a passionate fan.”
At this time, Disney has made no indication that the original Walt Disney World version of the Tower of Terror — which opened at the then-MGM Studios in 1994 and is heralded by many as a classic of Disney Imagineering — would be re-themed to Guardians of the Galaxy or anything else any time soon. However, we love seeing a celebrity at the level of Ariana Grande speak out in its defense all the same. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on celebrity theme park fans.
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Would you like to see the Disney World version of Tower of Terror rethemed? Let us know in the comments below.
I’ve never seen anyone use the pronoun “her” in reference to Baby Groot before, so I’ve always assumed – perhaps wrongly – that Baby Groot is male. Did I miss a gender reveal in the movie, or is Ariana Grande making an incorrect assumption of her own?
That’s a direct quote from Ariana Grande.
With EPCOT already having a Guardians of the Galaxy ride, I doubt ToT will be rethemed like the version at the Disneyland resort was.
However, there is a lot at Marvel that is still on the table for Disneyworld because Universal does not use it (like how Disney got to use GotG). Things that would fit into the spooky atmosphere of the current ToT building like Blade or Agatha Harkness.
With Generation Z and Gen Alpha having no idea what the Twilight Zone was (and that it was an actual TV show), we should be prepared for a retheme at some point, but probably not until all the things that were announced at D23 are built.
She seems to think Groot is female.