Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Opens May 22 2025

[Animaniac93-98]

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.

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.

 

[Sorcerer Mickey]

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.

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]

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?

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]

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?

You missed the point, unless you're arguing that Disney is solely aimed at children and offers nothing to adults.

 

[Poseidon Quest]

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

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.

 

[Sorcerer Mickey]

You missed the point, unless you're arguing that Disney is solely aimed at children and offers nothing to adults.

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.

 

[Moth]

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.

 

[Streetway Again]

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.

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.

 

[lazyboy97o]

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.

It feels cheap because it was cheap. Good, cheap, fast: pick two. They picked fast and cheap.

 

[Moth]

It feels cheap because it was cheap. Good, cheap, fast: pick two. They picked fast and cheap.

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".

 

[Piebald]

I have no insider info except only two things I've heard-

Ministry of magic is having issues and "nothing is working right"

And

Someone awhile ago stole an awesome prop from SNW that apparently they can't replicate in time lol