Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Now Open!

Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
I don't think people need to do homework.... but I would actually encourage people to watch the trilogy. I think you'll actually engage with what's there in an asymmetric way afterwards. It's quite a competent trilogy, despite how silly outwardly it looks and is named for that matter.
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HTTYD is a good enough movie that 15 years after it's release I'd still suggest people watch it, even if it wasn't getting a land.
 
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Sorcerer Mickey

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
That's the problem with building a bunch of single IP lands, and as I said, it's not just a Universal problem (want to be clear I'm not picking on Universal specifically here). Not everything has to resonate with every guest, but when it's almost a quarter of the whole park, that definitely matters.

Also, gearing whole areas specifically at children is a bad strategy (although I'm not claiming that Berk is geared towards children), at least if your goal is a park for everyone to enjoy. That's something you generally want to avoid, just as much as you want to avoid building whole areas that are only geared towards adults. If you're building a park solely for kids (something like Legoland) then that's a different discussion.
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The first thing you see at the most popular theme park destination on Planet Earth is a couple cartoon mice greeting you to their magical domain.

Perhaps you might enjoy Six Flags or Dollywood?
 
Sir_Cliff

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
Sorcerer Mickey said:
The first thing you see at the most popular theme park destination on Planet Earth is a couple cartoon mice greeting you to their magical domain.

Perhaps you might enjoy Six Flags or Dollywood?
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I don't think you're getting the point about it being better not to pitch specific areas either specifically to children or specifically to adults. Unless what you're saying here is that you think Disney parks are pitched solely to children...?
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Sorcerer Mickey said:
The first thing you see at the most popular theme park destination on Planet Earth is a couple cartoon mice greeting you to their magical domain.

Perhaps you might enjoy Six Flags or Dollywood?
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You missed the point, unless you're arguing that Disney is solely aimed at children and offers nothing to adults.
 
Poseidon Quest

Poseidon Quest

Well-Known Member
Gusey said:
I will always be DreamWorks Land's biggest defender. It's better themed than KidZone, more relevant and designed for Kids, who enjoy the area. Not every addition has to be a headliner, sometimes you need spaces for kids to have fun whilst giving the adults a break
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When compared to what they've done in the past: Camp Jurassic, Me Ship, the Olive and even If I Ran the Zoo, DreamWorks is very clearly just thrown together cheaply in comparison. It has its well themed moments with Shrek's Hut or Feline Fiesta, but there are so many areas where they just stretched the already limited budget. It was clearly done on the quick and cheap to market the park with DreamWorks characters and in terms of theming, has less interesting elements than Kid Zone, even if that may have been outdated. It's not a bad place for a kid to run around, but Universal isn't reaching the standard it set in 1999 for the best themed kids areas ever built.
 
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Streetway Again

Well-Known Member
Moth said:
DreamWorks Land feels cheap because it's an IP mishmash, should've gone all in on Shrek, rethemed the coaster to Shrek, do a Shrek dark ride, keep the play area as-is. Trolls especially feels extremely cheap no matter how you execute it.
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True, agreed. Though at the end of the day, all that really matters to me is that ET gets to stay.

Dark ride would be nice though.
 
Moth

Moth

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
It feels cheap because it was cheap. Good, cheap, fast: pick two. They picked fast and cheap.
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You can do something that hits all three, they have the ability to, I don't see a reason how making the Panda and Trolls areas into Shrek during the development phase, even ditching a new build dark ride, would've cost more.

It would've still been cheap, but it would've felt more coherent than what we got. Now we have two of DreamWorks most popular series represented with small play areas, and Trolls got a rollercoaster. There's a reason why people receive Shrek the best out of the three mini lands apart of the land because it had the most work put into it.

I forgot the main point of this but I think the main point I'm trying to get across is "it would've still been cheap and felt cheap, but felt more coherent if it was all Shrek".
 
D

drkarcher22

Active Member
Gusey said:
There are already so many things in the works now. We have a slate of new attractions that are already in development for every one of our parks. We're already planning for the next thing at Epic". So we know that all the parks are getting updates in the next few years, including Epic
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Why is the Ghostbusters logo blurred out in the opening ceremony for Universal Studios? They have a good relationship with Sony considering that they used the IP for a HHN house last year, they didn’t want to spend five minutes to call and get clearance for two seconds of footage?
 
TheCoasterNerd

TheCoasterNerd

Well-Known Member
Sorcerer Mickey said:
Disney caters to children, and children need their adults to bring them. So yeah, there's stuff for the adults, but they're not the primary audience.
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Actually, the idea was somewhere where children and adults alike could have fun
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BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
HP is probably the biggest IP in the world (maybe not the movies themselves, although they're up there, but when you factor in the actual book series), so it's always been silly to me that any of the operators think something else is going to succeed to that extent.
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Perhaps in certain metrics. Visual design goes a long way too. Potter (and Avatar) have it in spades and I think that is helpful to make interesting environments. A very real criticism of HTTYD (beyond its name) is that it is inherently goofy. Though I do find it endearing, that’s probably my attachment to the material. It’s not pretty in the same sense that other things are upfront.

As per biggest franchises of all time. On the financial metrics it’s: Mickey and friends at 2, Winnie the Pooh at 3 (dominates infant merchandise), Disney Princesses at 4 and then Star Wars at 5. Contextually it all sort of makes sense why Disney is where it is. We kind of put various things on different scales, but at the end of the day Mickey brings people through the gate.

Now what’s number actually one? I did this for a reason and it’s the reason Universal is driving me bonkers with their slow rolling of their major asset. It’s Pokemon. The entire Nintendo partnership was leaked to us in 2013 because they were circling around Pokemon. Yet here we are 12 years later and the franchise has absolutely exploded in several media spaces once more.

I have a feeling it’s not the most enthralling for those of you older than me - but it’s a fun fact you gave me a good opportunity to segue into it. 😂
 

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