After Closing Muppet*Vision 3-D, Disney Revives It in the Strangest Way Possible
When Walt Disney World closed MuppetVision 3-D* last year, it felt like a quiet but final goodbye to one of Disney’s most beloved and longest-running attractions. For decades, the show had anchored Muppets Courtyard inside Disney’s Hollywood Studios, blending Jim Henson’s humor with animatronics, practical effects, and a brand of 3-D storytelling that never tried to be cutting-edge — only charming.
Its closure was not about dwindling interest. Instead, it was a calculated move to clear space for the future. That future is Monsters, Inc. Land, now rising behind construction walls where Kermit and Miss Piggy once welcomed guests. As Disney continues reshaping Hollywood Studios into a park defined by blockbuster franchises, the Muppets quietly stepped aside.
Or so it seemed.
Because months after the attraction closed, a small but unmistakable piece of MuppetVision 3-D* has found its way back into daily guest use — and not in any way Disney ever announced.
Guests visiting Toy Story Midway Mania recently noticed something unusual mixed in with the familiar orange 3-D glasses used for the ride. Scattered among them were light purple frames, identical to the ones once handed out exclusively inside MuppetVision 3-D*. These were not newly produced replicas or special-edition souvenirs. They were the original frames from the closed attraction, now quietly reused at another ride.
At first glance, it seems like a simple operational decision. Disney has always reused ride equipment when possible, especially with items like 3-D glasses that are costly to manufacture and easy to sanitize and redistribute. In the past, frames from closed attractions such as Captain EO and It’s Tough to Be a Bug! have reappeared elsewhere in the parks.
But this case feels different.
MuppetVision 3-D* did not close because it was outdated, unsafe, or unpopular. It closed because the land itself is being erased. Monsters, Inc. Land will completely replace Muppets Courtyard, removing nearly every physical trace that the Muppets ever lived there. As construction advances, that entire corner of the park is being rewritten.
Which makes the return of those purple glasses oddly symbolic.
They are not displayed as a tribute. They are not sold as memorabilia. They are not acknowledged by Disney at all. They simply circulate quietly through Toy Story Midway Mania, passing from guest to guest, unnoticed by most.
To casual visitors, they are just glasses.
To longtime fans, they are a reminder that MuppetVision 3-D* is not entirely gone — at least not yet.
The moment also says something about how Disney handles nostalgia. Closures rarely come with formal farewells. Attractions disappear, walls go up, and the next project moves forward. What remains is often found only in small details: a reused prop, a recycled fixture, a color that once meant something more.
Meanwhile, Monsters, Inc. Land continues to take shape, promising a suspended family coaster inspired by the door vault chase scene from Monsters, Inc. (2001) along with new themed spaces and dining. When it opens, very little will remain to suggest the Muppets ever called this area home.
Except, perhaps, for a pair of purple glasses.
And in a park always racing toward what comes next, that may be the strangest — and most fitting — kind of goodbye MuppetVision 3-D* ever received.
