Universal's New Park/Site B Blue Sky Thread

[JaySalahi]

I would love to see Universal pull out at least one major original land in the new park.

 

[freshliciousflower]

I have a lot of good ideas for the fourth park. I would have it themed around animation, mainly DreamWorks and Illumination properties.


For the stuff from other Universal Parks, I would want versions of the Far, Far Away and Madagascar areas from Singapore. (I haven't gone to that park, but some of the rides there look awesome!)

The Far, Far, Away area would have all of the attractions from Singapore except for Shrek 4D.
I'm not too sure if Shrek 4D would be moved to this area, since it will close at Universal Hollywood for a Kung Fu Panda 4D show with updated technology. However, the Madagascar area would be not only based on the Singapore Madagascar area, but it would also have the Madagascar Mad Pursuit coaster from MotionGate Dubai's Madagascar area.

The next area that would be in this park would be Troll Village, based on the movie Trolls. This area would be reminiscent of Seuss Landing, since it would have kiddie rides as well as a dark ride based on the film.

i love DreamWorks' new Captain Underpants movie, and thought it would be awesome for a themed area. The area would be themed around the movie’s depiction of Piqua, Ohio. (Warning, under the spoiler tag are spoilers for the Captain Underpants movie. If you haven't watched it, do not click on the spoiler tag.)

Spoiler

The first ride, which would be a dark ride called Captain Underpants: The Origin Story. would be based on the movie, with a primary focus on George, Harold, and Captain Underpants/Mr. Krupp. (Melvin and Professor Poopypants would be absent from the ride due to them being the main characters of the second ride.)

The second ride I would do for this area is The Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants. This ride would take the riders into Professor Poopypants' Turbo Toilet 2000 as he tries to rid Piqua, Ohio of laughter. The ride would be perfect as a simulator ride, since the inside of the Turbo Toilet kinda would be perfect to replicate as a simulator.


Should the ride use a virtual queue, the waiting area would be themed around the Invention Conventi0n from the film. In this area, riders can look at and interact with various inventions that Melvin created. I have no idea for a way that riders would be picked to ride should the ride use a virtual queue.


Once in the preshow area, the riders are greeted by Melvin and Professor Poopypants. Professor Poopypants then explains that he has sent the riders here to help him out with his latest plan: to rid the world of laughter, and then he reluctantly retells the story of his humiliation at the Nobel Prize ceremony after Melvin asks him to explain why he did that. After this, Professor Poopypants shows the riders a safety video which he narrates. The riders are then escorted to the simulator.


The simulator has a screen and an animatronic of Professor Poopypants, similar to how C3P-O is inside the Star Tours: The Adventures Continue simulator. The ride begins with Professor Poopypants starting up the Turbo Toilet 2000 and taking it through Piqua, Ohio, before approaching Jerome Horowitz Elementary School. What follows is an abridged version of the final battle of the Captain Underpants movie, but the ride ends with George and Harold’s laughter destroying the lightbulb on the Turbo Toilet 2000, which causes the Turbo Toilet to malfunction and bounce the riders around while Adam Lambert’s cover of Think plays. When the Turbo Toilet shuts down, the simulator goes dark and we hear Professor Poopypants apologize to the riders, claiming that he will try to defeat Captain Underpants, George, and Harold himself.


This area also has meet and greets with George, Harold, Captain Underpants, Professor Poopypants, and Melvin Sneedly. It also has a children’s play area based on George and Harold’s treehouse. There are two quick-service restaurants in the area: The Cafeteria and Professor P’s Ice Cream Truck (which isn’t actually a restaurant, but like Bumblebee Man’s taco truck in the Springfield area of Universal Studios. The store in this area is called Store-O-Rama, and on the inside, is decorated with pictures from George and Harold’s comics.

As for a Illumination-themed areas, I would possibly do a Despicable Me area similar to the Super Silly Fun Land area in Hollywood, but bigger and with more rides. I would also do a Sing area, which would consist of a show, a ride called Gunter's Dance Floor that's similar to Disneyland's Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, and a restaurant where you can dine with Sing characters.

I also find it shocking that Universal hasn't incorporated The Land Before Time into their theme parks, so I would put a Land Before Time area into the park.

 

[zg44]

I have a lot of good ideas for the fourth park. I would have it themed around animation, mainly DreamWorks and Illumination properties.


For the stuff from other Universal Parks, I would want versions of the Far, Far Away and Madagascar areas from Singapore. (I haven't gone to that park, but some of the rides there look awesome!)

The Far, Far, Away area would have all of the attractions from Singapore except for Shrek 4D.
I'm not too sure if Shrek 4D would be moved to this area, since it will close at Universal Hollywood for a Kung Fu Panda 4D show with updated technology. However, the Madagascar area would be not only based on the Singapore Madagascar area, but it would also have the Madagascar Mad Pursuit coaster from MotionGate Dubai's Madagascar area.

The next area that would be in this park would be Troll Village, based on the movie Trolls. This area would be reminiscent of Seuss Landing, since it would have kiddie rides as well as a dark ride based on the film.

i love DreamWorks' new Captain Underpants movie, and thought it would be awesome for a themed area. The area would be themed around the movie’s depiction of Piqua, Ohio. (Warning, under the spoiler tag are spoilers for the Captain Underpants movie. If you haven't watched it, do not click on the spoiler tag.)

Spoiler

The first ride, which would be a dark ride called Captain Underpants: The Origin Story. would be based on the movie, with a primary focus on George, Harold, and Captain Underpants/Mr. Krupp. (Melvin and Professor Poopypants would be absent from the ride due to them being the main characters of the second ride.)

The second ride I would do for this area is The Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants. This ride would take the riders into Professor Poopypants' Turbo Toilet 2000 as he tries to rid Piqua, Ohio of laughter. The ride would be perfect as a simulator ride, since the inside of the Turbo Toilet kinda would be perfect to replicate as a simulator.


Should the ride use a virtual queue, the waiting area would be themed around the Invention Conventi0n from the film. In this area, riders can look at and interact with various inventions that Melvin created. I have no idea for a way that riders would be picked to ride should the ride use a virtual queue.


Once in the preshow area, the riders are greeted by Melvin and Professor Poopypants. Professor Poopypants then explains that he has sent the riders here to help him out with his latest plan: to rid the world of laughter, and then he reluctantly retells the story of his humiliation at the Nobel Prize ceremony after Melvin asks him to explain why he did that. After this, Professor Poopypants shows the riders a safety video which he narrates. The riders are then escorted to the simulator.


The simulator has a screen and an animatronic of Professor Poopypants, similar to how C3P-O is inside the Star Tours: The Adventures Continue simulator. The ride begins with Professor Poopypants starting up the Turbo Toilet 2000 and taking it through Piqua, Ohio, before approaching Jerome Horowitz Elementary School. What follows is an abridged version of the final battle of the Captain Underpants movie, but the ride ends with George and Harold’s laughter destroying the lightbulb on the Turbo Toilet 2000, which causes the Turbo Toilet to malfunction and bounce the riders around while Adam Lambert’s cover of Think plays. When the Turbo Toilet shuts down, the simulator goes dark and we hear Professor Poopypants apologize to the riders, claiming that he will try to defeat Captain Underpants, George, and Harold himself.


This area also has meet and greets with George, Harold, Captain Underpants, Professor Poopypants, and Melvin Sneedly. It also has a children’s play area based on George and Harold’s treehouse. There are two quick-service restaurants in the area: The Cafeteria and Professor P’s Ice Cream Truck (which isn’t actually a restaurant, but like Bumblebee Man’s taco truck in the Springfield area of Universal Studios. The store in this area is called Store-O-Rama, and on the inside, is decorated with pictures from George and Harold’s comics.

As for a Illumination-themed areas, I would possibly do a Despicable Me area similar to the Super Silly Fun Land area in Hollywood, but bigger and with more rides. I would also do a Sing area, which would consist of a show, a ride called Gunter's Dance Floor that's similar to Disneyland's Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, and a restaurant where you can dine with Sing characters.

I also find it shocking that Universal hasn't incorporated The Land Before Time into their theme parks, so I would put a Land Before Time area into the park.

Those are good ideas, and I'd assume that DW and Illumination would be huge parts of the next park because of how important they are to Universal's Studio properties. Outside of F&F and Jurassic Park, the largest Universal franchises are mostly in Illumination and DW.

I'm not sure though that it'd be exclusively animation themed; I think they realize that you need some big draws in any theme park and of the ones that they have, Harry Potter, Nintendo etc. will need space in the 3rd park.

 

[Imperius]

While it sounds like a good idea. No way they are only doing a park of just kids animated movies.

 

[Viator]

Those are good ideas, and I'd assume that DW and Illumination would be huge parts of the next park because of how important they are to Universal's Studio properties. Outside of F&F and Jurassic Park, the largest Universal franchises are mostly in Illumination and DW.

I'm not sure though that it'd be exclusively animation themed; I think they realize that you need some big draws in any theme park and of the ones that they have, Harry Potter, Nintendo etc. will need space in the 3rd park.

I would agree that I don't think they will focus on animation as the sole-basis of a theme park.

Could it have a large role? Yes, but I don't think we'll see anything like Toon Lagoon for Gate IV.

To me, I see Pokemon/Zelda; Fantastic Beasts; How to Train Your Dragon; Kung Fu Panda; original content; and even Jurassic Park as what would be for the next gate, along with potential expansion plots for the park.

 

[zg44]

I would agree that I don't think they will focus on animation as the sole-basis of a theme park.

Could it have a large role? Yes, but I don't think we'll see anything like Toon Lagoon for Gate IV.

To me, I see Pokemon/Zelda; Fantastic Beasts; How to Train Your Dragon; Kung Fu Panda; original content; and even Jurassic Park as what would be for the next gate, along with potential expansion plots for the park.

I like the idea of moving Jurassic Park into the 3rd park theoretically... but what would you replace it with in IoA or would it be like a separate supplement?

 

[quinnmac000]

I think people also need to look to Universal's film future and see what IPs they are developing such as The Cruel Prince, Mortal Engines, and I would even argue we may see Syfy properties come to the park such as Channel Zero.

As for Jurassic Park, we are for sure getting gyrosphere. Why you may ask?

Spoiler: Reason why we are getting gyrosphere

Its coming back in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Quite a few set pics with Bryce Dallas Howard in it

 

[Stitch_101]

I think people also need to look to Universal's film future and see what IPs they are developing such as The Cruel Prince, Mortal Engines, and I would even argue we may see Syfy properties come to the park such as Channel Zero.

As for Jurassic Park, we are for sure getting gyrosphere. Why you may ask?

Spoiler: Reason why we are getting gyrosphere

Its coming back in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Quite a few set pics with Bryce Dallas Howard in it

Can't agree with this much. I think many people on this board like to look at future films and get excited about their possible inclusion in a 4th Gate, only to watch said movies bomb at the box office. Warcraft comes to mind. As far as anything from Syfy... Syfy hasn't had a large enough success to truly consider inclusion aside from the occasional marketing tie ins in the park.

If the expected timeline holds true for a 4th gate, they are likely already deep into targeting and fleshing out any IP's they would use, and if thats the case they are going to focus on proven IP's, not ones that have yet arrive.

 

[NotPennysBoat]

The real Wizard of Oz:

The real Wizard of Oz:

Nice!! Best short stop ever!!

 

[quinnmac000]

Can't agree with this much. I think many people on this board like to look at future films and get excited about their possible inclusion in a 4th Gate, only to watch said movies bomb at the box office. Warcraft comes to mind. As far as anything from Syfy... Syfy hasn't had a large enough success to truly consider inclusion aside from the occasional marketing tie ins in the park.

If the expected timeline holds true for a 4th gate, they are likely already deep into targeting and fleshing out any IP's they would use, and if thats the case they are going to focus on proven IP's, not ones that have yet arrive.

At the same time, this board also said some movies would flop (aka SING), yet they do extremely well. The reason why they would include even a flop IP in their parks isn't to make money but its a property they already own. Also certain things do reach cult status is later years such as Rocky Horror, Evil dead, and quite a few other films. Its dumb to not recognize that and worry about immediate returns.

As for Syfy, Comcast is direct turning some of their movies into TV shows on Syfy (tremors, 12 monkeys, metropolis, etc) and rebooting and bringing back Battlestar Galactica with a tv series and movie and the same thing with the upcoming purge film.

 

[tielo]

While it sounds like a good idea. No way they are only doing a park of just kids animated movies.

Yeh, no one would do that. I'd make the worst theme park in the world just like Magic Kingdom, mainly kids animation movies...oh wait.
I think it's the only right way to go. universal has the tweens, teens and adults, now go after generation poopypants.

 

[Imperius]

Yeh, no one would do that. I'd make the worst theme park in the world just like Magic Kingdom, mainly kids animation movies...oh wait.
I think it's the only right way to go. universal has the tweens, teens and adults, now go after generation poopypants.

Universal isn't Disney. They just put out a huge marketing campaign going against everything this would be.

 

[zg44]

Universal isn't Disney. They just put out a huge marketing campaign going against everything this would be.

While that's true, the Dreamworks buyout means that in the future Universal's movie slate will be much more "Disney-like" than ever before.

With Dreamworks and Illumination putting out a combined 3-4 major movies a year, we're likely going to see a situation where roughly 50% of Universal's blockbusters every year are animation movies.

In the long run, you'd expect the theme parks to shift a bit to emphasize that (of course that's not the be-all-end-all, major franchises owned by others like Harry Potter and Nintendo can be more valuable as overall ticket drivers).

Take a franchise like Trolls, the first one was only barely profitable at the box office, so why did Comcast greenlight a sequel? It's because Dreamworks owns the worldwide toy rights for Trolls with few exceptions so there's a lot more money to be made than just box office. (That's the same reason why Cars keeps getting sequels, to sell toys even though the movies are mediocre earners).

If you can make Trolls 2 into a $500m+ grosser and add a theme park ride and sell the toys, that's value that Comcast wholly owns. Of course, just saying Comcast wishes that happens doesn't make it true (see the "Dark Universe" flopping at the box office in its first 2 launch attempts Dracula and Mummy), but that's probably going to be their goal in the future.

I'd expect animation to only become more prominent at the theme parks given how important it'll be to the future of Universal's movie slate.

 

[Scott W.]

I have a lot of good ideas for the fourth park. I would have it themed around animation, mainly DreamWorks and Illumination properties.


For the stuff from other Universal Parks, I would want versions of the Far, Far Away and Madagascar areas from Singapore. (I haven't gone to that park, but some of the rides there look awesome!)

The Far, Far, Away area would have all of the attractions from Singapore except for Shrek 4D.
I'm not too sure if Shrek 4D would be moved to this area, since it will close at Universal Hollywood for a Kung Fu Panda 4D show with updated technology. However, the Madagascar area would be not only based on the Singapore Madagascar area, but it would also have the Madagascar Mad Pursuit coaster from MotionGate Dubai's Madagascar area.

I would love Universal to go all in on a Far, Far Away land. Make the whole land a giant parody of the Magic Kingdom.

I also wouldn't mind them taking away Despicable Me from the Studios and making a land around that as well, even if they just pick up and drop the ride as is. I'm not the biggest fan but it's a money making machine and I quite like the ride.

Mainly though, this frees up prime real estate in the studios by removing Shrek and DM, removes some of the SCREENZ stigma and could lead to a fantastic new entrance to the Studios.

 

[misterID]

Valerian is going to tank regardless of how good it is or isn't. Probably gonna one of the biggest "losers" of the summer.

@tielo There was an insane amount of money poured into this, I just don't see how they get that money back.

 

[zg44]

@tielo There was an insane amount of money poured into this, I just don't see how they get that money back.

They appear to have split the risk among the distributors (and possibly some equity participants), so it sounds like there'll be 4-6 companies that each have $20-50m of skin in the game rather than just EuropaCorp having $200m+ of potential losses.

That doesn't change the overall equation, but it'll sort of minimize the fallout. Realistically though, they need Valerian to hit $500m+ worldwide in order to be successful enough to guarantee a sequel. That's tough given the competition coming...

 

[Imperius]

I fully expect dreamworks and illumination to have lands in the new park, but no chance the whole park is that. They have too many other properties worth more to bring in. Jurassic World, Fantastic Beasts possibly, Nintendo, and such.

 

[misterID]

I fully expect dreamworks and illumination to have lands in the new park, but no chance the whole park is that. They have too many other properties worth more to bring in. Jurassic World, Fantastic Beasts possibly, Nintendo, and such.

Fantastic Beasts really lends itself well for a theme park. Would love to see a trackless dark ride through the suitcase.

 

[zg44]

I fully expect dreamworks and illumination to have lands in the new park, but no chance the whole park is that. They have too many other properties worth more to bring in. Jurassic World, Fantastic Beasts possibly, Nintendo, and such.

Yeah, I agree with that for sure; I just meant that I assume we'll see more DW/Illumination stuff in the parks over time given their growing importance to Universal's movie studio which will be reflected in grosses in 2019 and after...

Of course, all this depends on what future franchises they create; in the short run they're both focused on sequels more than new content (i.e. Trolls 2, Boss Baby 2, HTTYD3 at DW along with Minions 2, Sing 2, Pets 2 at Illumination) but that should change a bit after 2021.

If Trolls 2 does well, I'd expect that to be reflected in the theme parks for sure given the merchandise opportunity there. They won't want to pass up on a cross-sell of that.

 

[Stitch_101]

At the same time, this board also said some movies would flop (aka SING), yet they do extremely well. The reason why they would include even a flop IP in their parks isn't to make money but its a property they already own. Also certain things do reach cult status is later years such as Rocky Horror, Evil dead, and quite a few other films. Its dumb to not recognize that and worry about immediate returns.

As for Syfy, Comcast is direct turning some of their movies into TV shows on Syfy (tremors, 12 monkeys, metropolis, etc) and rebooting and bringing back Battlestar Galactica with a tv series and movie and the same thing with the upcoming purge film.

Yes, they do own them. However, they own just as many or more already proven IP's they could use to fill out another park. And Universal, thanks to the success of Harry Potter and further shown with winning over the extremely protective Nintendo, has made a name for going above and beyond to work with the IP holder down to the smallest details. Don't think for a moment they would chose something like "Mortal Engines" at this point in planning over any number of other established popular IP's regardless if they own it not.

As far as the "cult status" thing... They aren't going to build something because "hey, even if it fails, it'll become a cult classic!" No singular entity has any control over what films become cult classics. Its not something that can be forced and forseen ahead of time... Its just something that happens naturally over time. Sometimes a LONG time...