Walt Disney World is gearing up to finally begin construction on the Monstropolis area at Hollywood Studios, which will feature the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster that had been rumored for decades. The latest developments concern demolition, a large area of the Cast Member parking lot being blocked off, and CFTOD updating its map to show the size of the big building that’ll house the thrill ride.
In case you missed it, MuppetVision 3D, PizzeRizzo, and Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano all permanently closed towards the beginning of June. Cast Members were the final guests to say goodbye to Muppets Courtyard, with the farewell party being held a few days later.
Construction walls are now up along the edge of Grand Avenue, and it’s expected that demolition will begin in earnest very soon. Stage 1 Company Store was originally going to be razed before MuppetVision closed, but that plan was revised to begin that work once the walls went up around the entirety of Muppets Courtyard. Prior to that building coming down, Disney has been removing elements from Muppets Courtyard.
Demolition of Stage 1 could begin any day, as Walt Disney Imagineering filed a permit for demo a while ago. The work is assigned to PCL Construction Services and the description is “demo, infrastructure prep and utility modification.” There’s really no urgency to demolish that building–the most time-consuming work is constructing the aforementioned gravity building and facade for the Door Coaster.
If you’re wondering what else will be demolished, that’s probably about it. All of the other buildings in Muppets Courtyard are being repurposed. The exterior of what was Mama Melrose is changing considerably to become Harryhausen’s, but we’re not sure “demolished” is the right word to describe what’ll happen there.
Let’s start with eye in the sky photos from friend-of-the-site bioreconstruct, the go-to source for aerial theme park photography (a highly recommended follow who graciously provided the helicopter shots here)…
From today’s new aerial images, we can confirm that the Miss Piggy Lady Liberty fountain has gone missing. Well, “missing” probably isn’t the right word, but I like the missing Miss Piggy wordplay. The fountain was removed prior to demolition being started.
As revealed in a recent concept art update (see below), this fountain is staying, but will be transformed into something more appropriate for Monstropolis. (Something tells me that Miss Piggy would not have approved of being treated as a monster.) The fountain continued to run after Muppets Courtyard closed, as the spray of mist peeking above the construction walls had been visible up until this weekend.
As for where the Miss Piggy Lady Liberty will go, the ‘wishful thinking’ answer is that it’ll move right along to Sunset Boulevard and be relocated to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets. That’s always possible, as the new attraction could be populated with props from the old one. I certainly wouldn’t expect it to be featured in a new fountain, though. Walt Disney World is allergic to new water features unless they’re absolutely necessary (the company is run by what you’d call “planter people” these days).
Another possibility is that it was tagged by the Walt Disney Archives, Muppets Studios or the Jim Henson Company as something worth saving. This is what I’d bet on, as the Miss Piggy Lady Liberty fountain is one of the most iconic features from this corner of the park. I’d expect it to turn up again someday, either at a D23 event or down the road in one of the parks. That, or John Stamos already bought it!
Miss Piggy isn’t the only thing that’s gone missing from Muppets Courtyard. There are also a bunch of trees that have been removed from their planters and around the Stage 1 Company Store. There’s also some construction equipment in the area, but nothing major.
Walt Disney World is going to need a lot of trees when all is said and done with its construction projects, and as Universal recently learned with Epic Universe, mature ones aren’t cheap. We’d fully expect that these have been transplanted elsewhere for future use.
Other than this, not a whole lot has been changed. That’s to be expected. It’s likely that assets are still being tagged and cataloged, with the Archives and other interested parties still determining what is going to be retained and by whom, what’s going to be sold off, and what’s going to be discarded.
Beyond that, the next big thing on the horizon is the aforementioned demolition of Stage 1 Company Store. Other than that, we’re not expecting to be a ton of work in this courtyard. It’s not going to be non-stop demolition and construction for the next few years. The biggest component of the project is, far and away, the construction of the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster–and that’s entirely on the Cast Member parking lot.
Speaking of which, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District updated its GIS map building data to reveal the size and exact location of the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster. It’s the one at the bottom of the image above, plopped into the parking lot.
For comparison, that’s Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance immediately above and to the left. The Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster building is a bit bigger than that–or any other show building at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s among the largest show buildings at Walt Disney World, almost on par with the big blue box for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT.
It’s also likely to be a tall and efficient show building, as it’s a suspended coaster with a lifting ride mechanism at the load and unload area of the attraction. This means that, at least in theory, there could be a lot of queue and pre-show that is literally under the roller coaster track. This is not the case with Cosmic Rewind, which is a combination retrofit in the old Universe of Energy building and a detached gravity building.
Between the massive size of the building and this potential efficiency, we’re now optimistic this will be a meatier attraction than first suspected. Hopefully this coaster will clock in at over 2 minutes longer–one of the (many) big advantages Cosmic Rewind has over TRON Lightcycle Run is a much more satisfying duration. It’d be nice if that’s also true of the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster.
It appears that work is set to start on the show building sooner rather than later, as another set of construction walls is up in the Cast Member parking lot located backstage. This is a massive area behind the park from Star Tours to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Once built, the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster won’t take up this entire parking lot–but the construction zone is much larger to allow for staging, site prep, and the work itself. Just to put things into perspective, the building with the big Kermit the Frog head on it is what’ll be torn down, creating a huge courtyard in front of the restaurants and Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster.
The entrance to the new roller coaster looks like it’ll be very close to Cypress Drive, which is the backstage road circling the park. On the updated concept art discussed below, the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster actually moved back to expand this courtyard a bit.
There are a few plausible theories as to why the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster moved back.
The first is fairly simple and straightforward–that Imagineering wanted to give the attraction more breathing room, and they were “given” more of the parking lot to play around with. A long approach is always better, especially if this ends up needing an outdoor overflow queue.
The second is that the extra space keeps their options open for future expansion. Not to Monstropolis, but for connecting the new land to another new land built behind Star Tours. A bigger courtyard keeps Imagineering’s options open, and might allow for the removal of this dead-end in a couple decades.
The third is a simple matter of sightlines. This is going to be a tall show building, so pushing it back will keep things clear from within Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Disney is very particular about sightlines from Batuu, which is why so much personality was removed from Muppets Courtyard back in early 2019.
Finally, it could be to offer enough clearance for an overpass above that backstage road. Or, if not the road itself, utilities or something that needs to be preserved there. My best guess is that it’s some combination of the above, with the exception of the overpass–I think the road will be rerouted.
We previously covered the concept art changes, but for reference, the in-park construction walls that went up in June 2025 feature new concept art with subtle differences from what Walt Disney World released late last year. First, here’s a look at the old concept art:
This was released when Walt Disney World first confirmed the location of Monstropolis, replacing Muppets Courtyard.
The new concept art was released in June 2025 when construction walls went up in Walt Disney World. Interestingly, this art only appears in the park–Disney has not updated its press release or distributed new high resolution concept art to media.
Anyway, here’s the new June 2025 Monstropolis concept art:
The art is about 95% the same–but the changes to the remaining 5% are curious, and appear to be purposeful. Here’s a partial list of what we’ve noticed:
- Wider and more open entrance area from Grand Avenue
- Repurposing of Miss Piggy fountain as opposed to eyeball fountain
- Monstro Theater now “The Glob”
- More colorful building facades between PizzeRozzo and Harryhausen’s
- Removed Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor billboard over colorful building facades
- Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster moved back to allow for bigger courtyard and outdoor extended queue
Most of these are relatively minor, either artistic iterations or tweaks likely made once operational realities set in.
Whatever the underlying motivation for moving the Door Coaster back to create a courtyard in front of it, we view this as a positive change. It should make the factory more imposing as it looms in the distance, with an approach similar to Tower of Terror down Sunset Boulevard, as opposed to a more cramped space.
Finally, another view of the former Muppet Courtyard. As previously mentioned, it’s our expectation that most of the buildings here will be preserved. The MuppetVision theater (top), PizzeRizzo (right), and Mama Melrose (lower) are all very clearly in the Monstropolis concept art. It stands to reason that these will be reimagined, but the venues will all still serve the same purposes, just Monsters, Inc. restaurants and a show. As mentioned above, the only structure being demolished is the Stage 1 Company Store.
Demolishing that and further opening the courtyard leading up to the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster is probably a net positive. While this is not a ‘pure’ expansion, that roller coaster will be a huge capacity-adding new build that should be an asset to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Although the park could really use a few lower-profile family-friendly rides (not shows), this should still be an asset.
The Door Coaster building is bigger than expected, which might also explain why this spot was chosen over Animation Courtyard. There is a lot of space back there, but not the ability to add as much buffer. There was already a lot of fan backlash about the gigantic Cosmic Rewind gravity building being built in the EPCOT parking lot. Imagine that instead plopped into the middle of the park, which would’ve been the case at Disney’s Hollywood Studios if Monstropolis were placed in Animation Courtyard. That could’ve messed up sightlines from Sunset Boulevard all the way to Toy Story Land.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the massive Monsters, Inc Door Coaster building? Hopeful that this plus its efficient load mechanism means this coaster is longer than 90 seconds? Theories on why the building was moved back? Are you looking forward to Monstropolis? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!