It’s time to monkey around. 🐒 The Disney movie – based on the Newberry Award-winning novel by Katherine Applegate – The One and Only Ivan releases next Friday on Disney+ .
The film is about a silverback gorilla named Ivan who lives in a cage at the mall and stars Bryan Cranston, along with the voices of Sam Rockwell, Angelina Jolie, and Helen Mirren.
What’s the Lakeland connection? Back in 2018, the movie was filmed at several local locations , bringing $134,000 to Polk County in economic impact.
Filming locations include:
- Silver Moon Drive-in
- Dixieland Elementary
- West Palm Drive
- And Southgate Shopping Center (which saw quite a few changes during its transition to the Big Top Mall)
Want to experience the film’s magic for yourself? We collaborated with local artist Josh “Bump” Galletta to create a map, featuring these film locations for you to drive by for a visit. (Fun fact: Bump created the map with the help of his kids.)
Check out a few other “Reel-y” cool flicks that were shot in Lakeland here .