Villain-Con Minion Blast (General Discussion)

[Jerroddragon]

It’s cool tech for the space but just needs more theming and physical elements

 

[Evan]

Okay I know I said I didn’t want to judge harshly, as I am sure this would be something better experienced in real life…. But since it came up.

I personally thought this would be like Buzz, lots of physical sets, props, figures, with some screens for depth.

Specifically as I had been told on here that Universal realized they had a “screenz” problem. Alas, the studios park continues to suffer from this problem, and the minions still don’t have a ride worthy of them.

Give me a SLOP clone, but themed to minions, and THAT would have been an improvement over Shrek.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

I think this ride could have benefited from the extra space of the second theater. The quality of the theming is good, but there are clearly areas where the theming is great and all-encompassing like the fish tank, but others where there's very little theming outside the screen.

 

[JungleSkip]

Villain-Con is suffering from the "Fallon Problem"... on its own, it's a great attraction... but put it in a park where mostly every other attraction is screen-reliant, it feels more of the same. Hypothetically, if they had put this in IOA, it would be doing just fine.

I still think the Minions/Despicable Me franchise deserves a higher-caliber attraction though.

Except Fallon is incredibly highly rated by the guests of the park. It’s really well liked.

Because if we have the token response ‘it’s better than what’s there before’ it doesn’t lend itself to actually discussing what it could be if it realised its potential.

I’m in my 30s with kids. Something being better than what was there before and fun is about all I need. Worrying about unrealized potential for a space and a perfect use that lives up to the imagination is a young man’s game.

All I know is I’ll actually go into this ride, probably multiple times a trip. I think I did Shrek 2x in 20 years.

That’s an improvement

 

[Alicia]

It feels much bigger inside than I was expecting.

Screens feel flatter than I was expecting though, but seeing digital media playing on physical props and set pieces, not just the big screens, was neat. Like being able to shoot portraits or pipes with integrated screens was a nice touch.

This attraction isn’t the best, but it isn’t the worst either.

I loved the original Hitchcock attraction, but I can see how kids today will appreciate a gigantic screen video game they get to play in a larger than life theme park attraction more than sitting through a 45 minute introspective into the production of old black and white movies. Neither attractions are bad though, just different.

Shrek 4-D wasn’t bad, just dated. This feels fresh. So I’ll give them credit for that. Looking forward to trying it some more, and especially when app integration goes live.

 

[Andysol]

USF clearly still doesn’t realize they have a screen problem.

This ride will be just fine. And much better than Shrek.
But what attraction currently doesn’t have a screen at USF?

HRRR, ET, MIB and… Twirl and Hurl?
So basically everything that’s on its last leg.

Yikes.

Even with the minions area being much more cohesive, there is very little thinking about the park’s complete lineup.
Obviously.

 

[Alicia]

USF clearly still doesn’t realize they have a screen problem.

This ride will be just fine. And much better than Shrek.
But what attraction currently doesn’t have a screen at USF?

HRRR, ET, MIB and… Twirl and Hurl?
So basically everything that’s on its last leg.

Yikes.

Even with the minions area being much more cohesive, there is very little thinking about the park’s complete lineup.
Obviously.

Imagine if they had gone through with Potter VR here? Screens you strap to your face!

 

[Grabnar]

USF clearly still doesn’t realize they have a screen problem.

This ride will be just fine. And much better than Shrek.
But what attraction currently doesn’t have a screen at USF?

HRRR, ET, MIB and… Twirl and Hurl?
So basically everything that’s on its last leg.

Yikes.

Even with the minions area being much more cohesive, there is very little thinking about the park’s complete lineup.
Obviously.

I think what'll be the most telling is what happens after EU opens. Essentially the entire park needs an overhaul and they need to bring capacity up in order to bring things down. Around 1/5 of IoA is now closed too, when you factor in the perennially closed Toon theater and now the entirety of LC.

My hunch is that they know they have a problem which is why they're doing these smaller, relatively easy wins like this, Kidzone, and the much-needed Mummy refurb in anticipation of being able to overhaul more of the parks in a few years. At least, that's where my head would be at strategically and would line up with their previous strategy of dumping money into the parks during an economic downturn.

 

[belloq87]

USF clearly still doesn’t realize they have a screen problem.

This ride will be just fine. And much better than Shrek.
But what attraction currently doesn’t have a screen at USF?

HRRR, ET, MIB and… Twirl and Hurl?
So basically everything that’s on its last leg.

Yikes.

Even with the minions area being much more cohesive, there is very little thinking about the park’s complete lineup.
Obviously.

I wouldn't put Mummy in the screens category, even though there are projection elements... but yeah.

Universal must clearly believe there aren't enough people who think it's an issue.

Imagine if they had gone through with Potter VR here? Screens you strap to your face!

 

[Evan]

Imagine if they had gone through with Potter VR here? Screens you strap to your face!

I will not be imagining this, the stuff of nightmares

 

[Brian G.]

Why are we bangin the screenz drum again? We've known what this was from the get-go.

 

[Alicia]

This attraction is probably going to be in that weird place where I know it’s not that great, but I like it.

Like I’m afraid to admit my favorite ride at Studios is Transformers, but I just love it. And I hate those films!

This is kinda like that. It’s no Rise of the Resistance or nuttin, but I’m gonna do it nearly every visit, and I only did Shrek once in 5 years. It just makes me happy.

 

[Scott W.]

This attraction is probably going to be in that weird place where I know it’s not that great, but I like it.

Like I’m afraid to admit my favorite ride at Studios is Transformers, but I just love it. And I hate those films!

This is kinda like that. It’s no Rise of the Resistance or nuttin, but I’m gonna do it nearly every visit, and I only did Shrek once in 5 years. It just makes me happy.

That's what I'm expecting to get out of it, probably something similar to Fallon.

All theme parks need more of these C tickets, not every ride needs or can be a $100 million extravaganza.

 

[Tomfoolery]

That's what I'm expecting to get out of it, probably something similar to Fallon.

All theme parks need more of these C tickets, not every ride needs or can be a $100 million extravaganza.

What if villain con is actually $100 million ahaha,

 

[themeparkshark]

Villain-Con is suffering from the "Fallon Problem"... on its own, it's a great attraction... but put it in a park where mostly every other attraction is screen-reliant, it feels more of the same. Hypothetically, if they had put this in IOA, it would be doing just fine.

I still think the Minions/Despicable Me franchise deserves a higher-caliber attraction though.

this is an amazing call out. this system would have been solid in IOA

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Except Fallon is incredibly highly rated by the guests of the park. It’s really well liked.

Yeah - that what's I was alluding to lol.

Fallon would be highly regarded by fans if it weren't for Minions/Simpsons/Transformers/F&F/Gringotts/Shrek doing the exact same scenes.


Also, they need to fix the drop-off procedure for the guns at the end. They are already getting scratched up and I can't imagine what they will look like 2 months from now at this rate. I'm surprised they just encourage you to throw it into a bin afterward, considering those guns are probably 10x the cost of 3D glasses.

 

[belloq87]

All theme parks need more of these C tickets, not every ride needs or can be a $100 million extravaganza.

I think the general scope of this is perfectly fine and appropriate. There are even applications of the "moving walkway attraction on a very confined plot of land" that I'd be in favor of.

Doing something on a C-ticket level did not inherently dictate the approach they took, though. It could have been something that wasn't screen-focused, but Universal apparently wanted an attraction for this year, and at a certain price.

To say I don't love what they did is not to imply there isn't a need for more non D/E-tickets.

this is an amazing call out. this system would have been solid in IOA

It would never happen because of the perceived outdated nature of the IPs, but a version of this attraction in Toon Lagoon, with classic comic strip characters, could have been neat. And it would have provided a balance to the two physical water ride experiences in the land already.

 

[Andysol]

Universal must clearly believe there aren't enough people who think it's an issue.

While there are budget and other considerations, they certainly are privy to much more information than us and make decisions accordingly.

Why are we bangin the screenz drum again? We've known what this was from the get-go.

Because many of us here thought there would be some physical elements. And there are zero.
And no, a frame around a screen doesn’t count as physical.

But like I said, it’s fine for what it is. Though I wish they would have added actual physical elements and a little more Spider-Man/transformers fusion like we know they can do.
Does it change anything ultimately? No. But it could have been elevated just a smidge more.

I don’t know what’s worse regarding rides for IP anchors though- minions or frozen. Such lackluster rides they keep cloning across the world. It’s a bit embarrassing.

 

[LikeMike]

I’m in my 30s with kids. Something being better than what was there before and fun is about all I need. Worrying about unrealized potential for a space and a perfect use that lives up to the imagination is a young man’s game.

All I know is I’ll actually go into this ride, probably multiple times a trip. I think I did Shrek 2x in 20 years.

That’s an improvement

I’m exactly the same, in my 30s with kids and I’m sure they’ll love it. But we also did Shrek probably every second trip because they loved that, so they don’t set the bar high!

But it just shows it’s different strokes for different folks and that’s OK, even if this falls into the Fallon category of doing it every three or four trips it’s good to see Universal try to shoot for something a bit different.

 

[JungleSkip]

If this belongs in the good ol screenz thread, I apologize:

But back when people (including me!) were hearing about how Universal was starting to get wary about screens was right after Supercharged was a colossal failure.

I have to wonder if it was less about “no more screens” and more “we need to be smarter about them”. Since then we’ve seen Mario Kart open with some pretty novel use, added in with some real AAs and great sets. We’ve seen Bourne with some spectacular use of them. And now this, which isn’t as novel as the other two, but is probably going to be a crowd pleaser thanks to interactivity, and is incredibly economical in use of space.

I know this isn’t what some people want to hear, but it certainly doesn’t look like “no more screens” is anywhere close to the reality of the situation, while this is.