All things Universal Studios Hollywood

PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
I was thinking about it based on this thread, and honestly? Universal dark rides generally haven't impressed me very much.

I probably shouldn't say this given what I've said to others in the past (#hypocrite), but Sesame Street and Madagascar both seem flawed from POVs. SS less so, but I can't get past how they made the odd decision to literally have one side of the first scene be dimensional and the other side what only looks like a painted scrim. Madagascar just didn't feel like it went anywhere worthwhile. If anyone's seen these in person and they come off better that way, perhaps they can better defend them.

I've never been impressed by ET, but then the first time I experienced it was when I was 12. Certainly not the right age to be nostalgic for it.

Men in Black is probably the only Universal dark ride that I fully understand the hype for and it may even be underhyped nowadays. Forbidden Journey is very impressive but overly nauseating. Spider-man and Transformers are both overhyped, Spider-man especially, though they are both solid attractions.

I can't really think of others unless you want to count the coasters, and I think Universal does do well with those; I think all versions of Mummy have their strengths, and Space Fantasy (although apparently they don't often run the original version anymore?) was a blast in 2010, a true Japanese answer to Space Mountain.

So my view is that this new ride would basically have to be the Pooh's Hunny Hunt version of SLOP (the best new attraction acronym since Monsters Inc Laugh Floor opened at MK) for it to even register as on Disney's level, and as outside eyes looking in, I'm very skeptical.

Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong.
 
Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
PiratesMansion said:
I was thinking about it based on this thread, and honestly? Universal dark rides generally haven't impressed me very much.

I probably shouldn't say this given what I've said to others in the past (#hypocrite), but Sesame Street and Madagascar both seem flawed from POVs.
Click to expand...

Spaghetti Space Race at USS is great! I went on it twice. More fun than some of Disney's rides.
 
George Lucas on a Bench

George Lucas on a Bench

Well-Known Member
PiratesMansion said:
I was thinking about it based on this thread, and honestly? Universal dark rides generally haven't impressed me very much.

I probably shouldn't say this given what I've said to others in the past (#hypocrite), but Sesame Street and Madagascar both seem flawed from POVs. SS less so, but I can't get past how they made the odd decision to literally have one side of the first scene be dimensional and the other side what only looks like a painted scrim. Madagascar just didn't feel like it went anywhere worthwhile. If anyone's seen these in person and they come off better that way, perhaps they can better defend them.

I've never been impressed by ET, but then the first time I experienced it was when I was 12. Certainly not the right age to be nostalgic for it.

Men in Black is probably the only Universal dark ride that I fully understand the hype for and it may even be underhyped nowadays. Forbidden Journey is very impressive but overly nauseating. Spider-man and Transformers are both overhyped, Spider-man especially, though they are both solid attractions.

I can't really think of others unless you want to count the coasters, and I think Universal does do well with those; I think all versions of Mummy have their strengths, and Space Fantasy (although apparently they don't often run the original version anymore?) was a blast in 2010, a true Japanese answer to Space Mountain.

So my view is that this new ride would basically have to be the Pooh's Hunny Hunt version of SLOP (the best new attraction acronym since Monsters Inc Laugh Floor opened at MK) for it to even register as on Disney's level, and as outside eyes looking in, I'm very skeptical.

Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong.
Click to expand...

E.T.
Kongfrontation
Earthquake
Spider-Man
Cat in the Hat

All amazing!
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
George Lucas on a Bench said:
E.T.
Kongfrontation
Earthquake
Spider-Man
Cat in the Hat

All amazing!
Click to expand...

Kongfrontation was before my time (they had JUST closed it to build Mummy). Earthquake is cool, not sure if I'd call it a dark ride though (probably is, just having a hard time making that mental leap for some reason).

Spider-man is quite possibly the most overrated attraction of all time. At the very least, far too much of the output since then (especially but not exclusively at Universal) has been trying to recapture the lightning in the bottle of that ride. But that's probably just me, I am definitely in the minority on that one.

I really liked Cat in the Hat in 2003, and I suppose it's still charming, but it's a shadow of how it was in the olden days when they used to spin the heck out of those cars! Now that it's neutered I'm not nearly as enthusiastic about it.
 
C

choco choco

Well-Known Member
The pictures (which seem to show only one room and I'm guessing is the climax), look nice. I don't know what everyone is ' about. We should applaud any theme park who attempts to build a dark ride with this level of care and detail and who goes old-school in trying to mass populate a scene with multiple figures to make it feel lived-in; bucking Disney's trend of having a sole animatronic be the focus.

My only question is the lap bars. Why does a single row need two separate ones? Why not do one large one? That way there can be some flexibility in how many people they can fit in a row (two large adults, two large adults and their small kid, one really large adult with room to stretch, etc...). With the way they have it now, that is a really restricting seating arrangement and the lap bar is really just a simple deterrent anyway. A flat omnimover doesn't really need some sort of lapbar device like it's a roller coaster.
 
BubbaisSleep

BubbaisSleep

Well-Known Member
neonermine said:
Alicia Stella is very well known for universal leaks, and tracks were put in at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Click to expand...
To add to your point, I think Universal really has been listening after the F&F debacle. First case & point, look at Secret Life of Pets & Hagrid. I think they've given enough proof post-F&f that we shouldn't be so worried about screens, especially as these rides are much bigger in popularity than Pets & Hagrids.
 
BubbaQuest

BubbaQuest

Well-Known Member
choco choco said:
My only question is the lap bars. Why does a single row need two separate ones? Why not do one large one? That way there can be some flexibility in how many people they can fit in a row (two large adults, two large adults and their small kid, one really large adult with room to stretch, etc...). With the way they have it now, that is a really restricting seating arrangement and the lap bar is really just a simple deterrent anyway. A flat omnimover doesn't really need some sort of lapbar device like it's a roller coaster.
Click to expand...

I was wondering the same thing, especially with the handle bar on top. It makes me wonder if there is some extra motion we haven't seen yet.
 

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