- Dec 24, 2015
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As of today, not a single Universal attraction has a female lead.
Feel free to point it out if I'm wrong, but as far as I'm aware, females are only secondary characters to male leads at all of the Universal attractions.
There's a few small exceptions:
But, there are many male leads in all the major attractions: Shrek, Spider-Man, Hulk, The Mummy, Dr. Doom, Popeye, Dudley, Gringott's, Fallon, Poseidon, Barney, MIB, Curious George, Fievel, Woody... Even Evac (Transformers) is voiced by a man, and that's a character made up entirely for the ride, which could have easily been She-Vac instead (I'm kidding... sorta...). This also is true with (the now closed) Disaster attraction, which Universal made up a male character (director Kincaid, played by Christopher Walken), a part which could have went to a woman.
Disney doesn't seem to have this issue... at least not to the point that Universal does. Disney has Frozen, Cinderella's Castle, Little Mermaid.. and umm... ... I'm sure I'm missing some?... anyway...
I'm not asking for them to create a crap ride for the sake of it... there are plenty of IPs which have some potential:
TLDR: My question is - when will the current trend at Universal be broken? What IP could break this trend?
Final side note:
I'm not trying to be a social justice warrior and I'm not saying Universal is intentionally doing anything wrong. If I were to guess, Universal just went with the most popular IPs and the ones which were easiest to translate into an attraction at Universal while not alienating any of their core audience. It just so happens that a majority of the media is male dominated... especially the media with action packed thrills you'd expect to find at Universal.
In addition, unfortunately our society feels that having a male lead is more gender neutral than a female lead. For example, SpongeBob is "for kids," but Disney Princesses are "for girls." This is not Universal's fault, and I can understand if Universal chooses to shy away from an IP like Hello Kitty for fear that it may alienate a portion of their audience. They have to do what's going to make them the most money, after all.
Feel free to point it out if I'm wrong, but as far as I'm aware, females are only secondary characters to male leads at all of the Universal attractions.
There's a few small exceptions:
- Storm-force - Does Storm even speak on this? No one can reasonably count this.
- Murder She Wrote - Closed for years, so no longer counts.
- Many rides with females (Despicable Me, Fast and Furious, Forbidden Journey, etc.) - While females may play a strong role, none of these have a "lead female."
- Potter 'shows' including Frog Choir, Triwizard Spirit Rally, Singing Sorceress, and Tales of Beedle the Bard - These shows are so small that you can hardly count these. Though, I do find it funny that all four of these have female leads... was this on purpose?
- Jurassic Park - so... technically the dinosaurs are female.
- HHN - As Shiekra38 pointed out, HHN has had female leads in the past years.
- EDIT - Kong: I was counting Kong as the lead. but it's argued that "Kate" (the woman who appears in scene 1 and 2, but not in scene 3 or 4) is the "lead."
But, there are many male leads in all the major attractions: Shrek, Spider-Man, Hulk, The Mummy, Dr. Doom, Popeye, Dudley, Gringott's, Fallon, Poseidon, Barney, MIB, Curious George, Fievel, Woody... Even Evac (Transformers) is voiced by a man, and that's a character made up entirely for the ride, which could have easily been She-Vac instead (I'm kidding... sorta...). This also is true with (the now closed) Disaster attraction, which Universal made up a male character (director Kincaid, played by Christopher Walken), a part which could have went to a woman.
Disney doesn't seem to have this issue... at least not to the point that Universal does. Disney has Frozen, Cinderella's Castle, Little Mermaid.. and umm... ... I'm sure I'm missing some?... anyway...
I'm not asking for them to create a crap ride for the sake of it... there are plenty of IPs which have some potential:
- Hello Kitty - Uni already has a partnership so this one seems easy
- Bride of Frankenstein - Could have an attraction at Fantastic Worlds as part of their Monsters section
- Betty Boop - Possible Toon Lagoon addition?
- Pitch Perfect - I'm not a fan, but it was rumored at one point
- Charlie's Angels - Reboot coming 2019 (Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures), franchise has good overall name recognition
- Tomb Raider - Big name recognition, I think it'd be a fine stunt-show. But the last movie didn't do as well as they had hoped so might be less likely
- Alita: Battle Angel - Probably not since it's owned by Fox, which is being bought out by Disney
- Ugly Dolls - Unlikely since Uni has enough first party CGI movies to choose from
- 50 Shades - Just kidding
- Ghost Busters - Considering this reboot tanked and the next movie is ignoring this one ever happened, I'd say this is highly unlikely
- Lucy - Made by Uni, decent success (460 million worldwide), could potentially get a sequel... but overall doesn't seem likely
- Hunger Games - No because it's too depressing (even though Terminator is as well), it's no longer relevant, and the theme park rights already went to Motiongate Dubai
- Poppy could be the lead in a Trolls attraction.
- Peach's Castle could be an actual attraction at Fantastic Worlds.
- MIB Alien Attack could get an update for the new MIB International movie (2019), replacing Will Smith with Tessa Thompson...
TLDR: My question is - when will the current trend at Universal be broken? What IP could break this trend?
Final side note:
I'm not trying to be a social justice warrior and I'm not saying Universal is intentionally doing anything wrong. If I were to guess, Universal just went with the most popular IPs and the ones which were easiest to translate into an attraction at Universal while not alienating any of their core audience. It just so happens that a majority of the media is male dominated... especially the media with action packed thrills you'd expect to find at Universal.
In addition, unfortunately our society feels that having a male lead is more gender neutral than a female lead. For example, SpongeBob is "for kids," but Disney Princesses are "for girls." This is not Universal's fault, and I can understand if Universal chooses to shy away from an IP like Hello Kitty for fear that it may alienate a portion of their audience. They have to do what's going to make them the most money, after all.
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