Team Goelz presents Project 12: An Entrance Fit For a Universe
The Entrance (@Magic Feather )
When visiting Universal Studios Florida in 2020, just in time for Super Nintendo World's debut, guests will notice a brand new entrance plaza just beyond the newly relocated gates. Upon passing the pre-existing ticketing buildings, guests will re-orient themselves to be in line with the new, diagonally facing gates with a new main plaza. Upon entering, guests will come face to face with a version of the "filmmaking fountain" as Universal's Hollywood Counterpart, rebranded for Universal Studios Florida.
Off to the right of the fountain, guests will find two new buildings, with the purposes of now demolished facilities. One building will contain an extension of Guests Services, to serve guests' needs in park, while the other building contain stroller, wheelchair, and ECV rentals, alongside a new set of high-quality restrooms.
These buildings will be styled with a blend of modern architecture and older, more traditional as seen in the ticket purchasing areas. On your right side, guests will find the massive new two-story Universal Studios Store, with similar theming to the previous location, where you can buy all types of Universal Merchandise, or ascend the Starway, an escalator ramp, like that found on the Peoplemover at WDW, where you are surrounded by hundreds of glittering stars, each inspired by a different attraction at Universal Studios Florida.
Guests can proceed up Universal Way, the main street, and come face to face with the Universal Grand Theater, which features a new attraction: the Universal Grand Tour.
If guests proceed to the left, a new, suburban themed area is present, and at the center is the entrance to the new Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem façade and queue, which takes a slightly more gritty, realistic take on Gru's Home, without his car out front. Once inside the new indoor queue, guests will wind throughout his home, the girls room, and even the garage. Soon, guests will be grouped into the first preshow in a large, enclosed room. You begin "descending" as the original first preshow film plays, except with Gru's Lab. The second preshow now takes place in the testing floor, where scale accurate replicas of the fart gun and robot cookies are found. Instead of a massive fart gun on the wall going off, the smaller one on the table will, alongside airjets to make it seem as if the robot cookies are running on the floor, by your feet.
Guests wanting to exit the park, also have a new path near DMMM, as they will go through and alley between the Studios Store, and its stockroom that are connected by and overhead bridge. You will then proceed past a new survey center and out of the park.
The Music (@Snoopy )
A modern, updated setting requires a modern, updated background music loop. Eschewing a more traditional movie scores loop common with entrances like this, our new land takes it's cue from another source. Imagined as a retro-modern hybrid of 1940s style in a current setting, the entrance shakes things up a bit and, in an updated answer to the famous swing and big band 1940s Disney loops, features a host of current jazz songs to help get guests in the mood for a cool and entertaining time.
As the sun begins to set and the lights turn on, so too does the atmosphere take on a different feel. At 5pm the music switches to a special evening background loop, playing a smoother selection of jazz and R&B to help leaving daytime guests cool down and entering nighttime guests warm up.
The Icon (@Basketbuddy101 )
Guests can proceed up Universal Way, the main street, and come face to face with Grand Universal Theater, where a beautifully-themed façade waits for them. Grand Universal Theater represents an effort to give Universal Studios Florida a centralized icon and hub that guests can enjoy and remember. While the common theme park goers will enjoy the attraction within, Grand Universal Theater will not be defined by that attraction alone. Much like the way Carthay Circle Theater establishes time and place for Buena Vista Street, Grand Universal Theater's main purpose is to give the redesigned entrance plaza some much-needed cohesion. Naturally, this begins with the destruction of the dated 'Shrek 4D' attraction, which for several years now has aged the entrance plaza with its dull, faded pink hues. The attraction will be completely gutted from the inside, along with the exterior elements on the outer edge of the building, replaced with a distinct art deco façade, its colors consisting of light, elegant cream colors, along with subtle hints of blue and green. The walls are embellished with brightly-colored tile designs, adorned with elegant lanterns, and accentuated by smooth indents that give the overall theater its classic charm and look.
Despite the vintage nature of the design, the theater will be characterized as a historic, restored theater, an old venue somewhere in the heart of Hollywood that you might have expected to be torn down at some point, only for it to be spared by virtue of its own historical value. In short, Grand Universal Theater is a historical Hollywood landmark that never was, but in the context of the new park plaza's back-story, it has always existed—Shrek 4D was never there. The plaza exists in the present day, but that doesn't stop it from paying tribute to the past; the theater is in and of itself a monument to the Hollywood of old. As guests step above the curb and toward the front entrance of the theater, they'll be treated to some relief from the sun. Universal Creative made a concerted effort to give guests more trees to hide under on humid summer days. The once barren area now features several more trees aligned along the façade, situated amid smooth stone planters that glitter in the sun. Guests look directly upward at the main symbol of the theater, which Universal Creative dubbed the "Grand Old Globe," a large, spherical monument to Universal Studios' rich history, and a subtle nod to the design of the old RKO Pictures Building, which featured a similar element in its heyday.
http://www.gettingunstuck.com/Iconic Land/Photos/RKO 1940 a.jpg
The building overall combines elements of historic Los Angeles/Hollywood theaters and condenses them in such a way that feels authentic and familiar to guests. All in all, Grand Universal Theater will function as a central hub and icon for the park, and will instill a sense of time and place to the park, something that 'Shrek 4D' was never capable of.
The Attraction (@kmbmw777 )
Our car drives into the room where it stops on a rotating platform. All around us, the screens light up to make it seem as if we are driving out of a tunnel into the heart of Universal Studios. Giant sets of a metropolitan city (most likely New York) line both sides of our tram. Rain falls from the sky, but as we are in a covered tram, none gets to us.”
“Welcome to Universal Studios!” says our guide, as he slides along his poles at the front of the tram. “My name is Dave and I will be your marvelous tour guide for today! Your driver is the robot prototype ATID (Automatic Tram Intelligent Driver)! We are proud to welcome you to the place where all the magic of moviemaking occurs!”
Our vehicle takes a turn into an open garage on the street. The garage is mostly dark, but rusty old film equipment lines the wall. Thunder is heard in the background. Our vehicle comes to a complete stop when we are all inside of the garage.
“Lights, please!” says our guide. A spotlight comes on shines upon a rusty film camera.
“Thus here is the historic camera that filmed some of the best movies in Universal history - Jaws, Back to the Future, King Kong, Ghostbusters, Twister, Animal House, you name it - this camera probably filmed it.” More thunder can be heard outside as the rain steepens.
“Alright ATID, let’s get out of here!” Thunder strikes the building we are inside of, and the ground shakes. The garage door behind us comes to a shut abruptly and all of the lights go out, except for the spotlight illuminating the camera. Bolts of green electricity crawl up to the camera, and it turns on. A bright yellow light shines upon the cart.
“What the -” the guide yells. The room around us spins, and the platform rotates to feel like we are actually the ones going upside down. Suddenly reality begins to darken and it turns off? The effect resembles an old TV turning off.
Guests next find themselves inside the boat in the World of Jaws. "This is strange. Not a part of our usual tour."
The water looks calm and endless around us. Occasionally a ripple can be seen.
"Well," our tour guide says. "It looks we somehow stumbled upon the set of the historic film Jaws. As 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel of the same name, Jaws is a pretty influential film to American culture.
Jaws was pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple "high-concept" premises that are released during the summer in thousands of theaters and supported by heavy advertising. Thus creating -" While our guide was speaking the trembles became more clear and frequent.
A giant shark leaps out of the lake towards us, looking as if it were to consume the whole tram. "HOLY!" The screens around us go black as they did before and this time we find ourself in a small suburban town.
"What the heck is happening?" our guide says. "ATID, what is going on?"
"Calculating..." says a robot voice.
"Well. This appears to be the set of Back to the Future, a hit movie from 1985. Directed by Robert Zem--"
"Great Scott!" some version of Doc Brown runs up to our tram. "Marty! You must have brought these peope from your time!"
"Guess so, Doc!" Marty yells.
"I'll hook them up to the back of your car, and you should be able to take them with you."
"Sure thing, Doc!" Marty yells.
(AN: Marty is never seen and his voice is created using clips from the movie. Doc Brown is a real person.)
"Wait no!" our guide yells, but it is too late.
"NOW MARTY!" The Time Delorean, which we can see behind us zooms forwards and suddenly we zap away.
We find ourselves in Downtown New York. "Sir. There are no geographical satellites in the area," says ATID.
Our tour guide just frowns. "Well... We somehow appear to be in Downtown New York on the of the comical smash sensation, Ghostbusters."
"That's us!" says a voice. We see the fire garage open and the Ecto-1 drive out. "Look at our fans! Follow us, if you want an adventure."
ATID follows them through the winding streets of Downtown New York, almost crashing twice, when we finally stop before a giant marshmallow man.
"Get us out of here ATID!" Our car seemingly backs up and drives away, but we are zapped by Slimer who sends us spiraling into another dimension.
"Oh gosh. We are in Twister, and we can all guess how this ends." A Twister Can be seen in the distance.
"Drive away, sir?" says the robotic voice of ATID.
"Of course!"
We begin to drive away but suddenly we freeze in our tracks and everyone gets launched forwards.
"ATID, what the heck?"
"Hello, Dave," ATID says in a voice reminiscent of a certain influential space movie.
"ATID, you must be broken. Drive fast or I'll do it manually."
"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
The Twister comes in behind us.
Our tour guide jumps to the front of the tram. "Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?" says HAL/ATID.
"Turning you off," says our tour guide, as he dramatically flips a switch and presses the gas pedal down. Unfortunately, he is too late as we are all airbound. We fly up as the scene goes black.
"All right folks. We're just gonna drive fast through these movies and hopefully we'll find our way back to the studio." And that we do. We see modern movies like The Secret Life of Pets, and older movies like E.T. Most flash on and off the simulator screens around us.
Finally, after this grand mirage, we arrive back at Universal Studios, where it is sunny. "Well, I better take this tram into commission. Anyways, thanks for riding with Universal Stdio Tours. My name is Dave and have a great rest of your day."
As a companion piece to our dazzling new attraction,
It Can Be Done: The Legacy of Universal brings to life the history of the studio like never before. In this interactive museum, Universal's 100+-year-old story is told through pictures, displays, and video. The museum serves as the post-ride destination, and does indeed offer a small merchandise stand at the end. But here, the main star is the park's grand history.
The Legacy (@DisneyManOne )
The museum is divided into sections, each one themed around a certain aspect of the studio's history.
- The Legacy Begins: Focusing on Universal's founder Carl Laemmle, and his early days at Universal, and how he tried to continue the family tree tradition of studio head, only for it to crumble and the Laemmles to lose control. The section also covers some of the studio's most popular films during this time period, including The Phantom of the Opera, All Quiet on the Western Front, the original Universal Horror films, and Show Boat, the last film to be produced under the Laemmles' reign.
- The Legacy Blossoms: Focusing on the studio throughout the 40s and 50s, and the rise of Universal-International and Decca Records.
- The Legacy Grows: Focusing on MCA's tenure with Universal, and featuring exhibits based upon many of the classic films produced during this time, most of them featured in the ride: American Graffiti, E.T., Back to the Future, Field of Dreams and Jurassic Park. This section also tells of Universal's foray into television.
- The Legacy Continues: Focusing on Universal's time at the turn-of-the-millennium and beyond, with its acquisitions of NBC and DreamWorks Animation, and some of its more modern hits.
This museum should be on-part with Walt Disney: One Man's Dream at neighboring Walt Disney World. It, alongside our new ride, is a perfect way to pay tribute to the studio that built this theme park, and its founder, whose motto stuck with the studio ever since its inception:
"It can be done."
