www.forbes.com: “One of the things we’ve tried to achieve is complete immersion into this reality,” explained Universal Creative Senior Director and Executive Producer Jon Corfino.
The reality he’s talking about is the world created in the $1.3 billion animated franchise, The Secret Life of Pets, the inspiration for the new Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash! attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood.
7 comments:
I am a great fan of themed rides and animated movies - so how can we combine the two greatest joys in my life? Make the theme an animated film. I have seen both Secret Lives of Pets films and I am incredibly partial to the first film. It is a fun journey through domestic New York life through the perspective of house pets, and the movie itself is witty, enjoyable and emotional. Looking at the photo provided of the ride, I can tell that it seems fun, and would allow the rider the ability to physically take the perspective of the characters they followed in the film. Sometimes I have mixed feelings about major companies really squeezing every penny they can out of a franchise, but as the audiences for these attractions change, they need to choose a new major film that can draw in the newer audiences. It’s also interesting to read about the new technology being utilized to help draw the rider closer to the attraction. I’ll be interested to see what sort of reviews come once it opens to the public.
As stated in the article, this is not the first time that Universal has worked with Illumination to create a ride based off of one of their movies. That being said, as someone who has been on the Despicable Me ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, I think this ride is taking this concept to the next level. While it is definitely playing down the technology inside, the Despicable Me ride is mostly your run of the mill augmented reality ride. After making you way through the lines, you end up in a couple rooms where you get to watch videos starring Gru, the girls and other characters preparing you for the main ride. Once you get to that point, you are seating in a roller coaster type cart that moves a little and vibrates, while watching a 3D animation making it look like you are moving a lot more than you are. with this new ride, the gesture tracking technology and more definitely makes it seem like they've stepped it up a notch.
I write about this all the time in these news comments, but theme parks like Universal Studios and Disney are always expanding their horizons and impressing me daily. I love the fact that their creative team never settles for anything to just be finished. They are constantly innovating and creating and this serves as inspiration for all of us. It seems like they have put an immense amount of time, energy, and effort into creating this environment where they want to invoke a very specific feeling in their viewer. They want to create a world where it feels like you are directly pulled into this story line and through these new types of technology, I think they are able to accomplish this so well. Making the audience believe that they are dogs is such a weird concept to think about and the fact they Universal was able to accomplish this seemingly well is amazing to think about for me. I wonder if they will have to delay the opening to the public, but I am sure this ride is going to be a big hit.
I think that it is awesome that Universal is following in Disney's footsteps in making themed rides In their park that follow the plot of a movie. These animated movie rides are very fun to go on, and this one seems very technologically advnaced. In Disneyland, a lot of the themed rides are just a track and animatronics, and other rides at Universal often rely too much on screens. This ride seems to be an amazing mixture of both. I would really like to ride this, if it is still open with the chaos of coronavirus happening right now, while I am home for this amazing and awesome extended summer! (just kidding I am miserable). Anyways, after that tangent, I am excited to see new technology in theme park rides and how it evolves entertainment! The gesture following technology is used in many rides at Disneyland and disneyworld, and I love its creative use here!
I love learning more about the process for these huge theme park corporations. All of these parks utilize an incredible amount of detail in order to truly transport the audience into the world of the film, franchise, etc. It takes a really specific and creative brain to take a film and create an interactive world, especially an animated film that defies reality. I personally love the Secret Life of Pets movies, simply because I am, in fact, a child and love animated films with my whole heart. I would love to see that world come to life. I wish the article had a few more pictures in order to give a better understanding of what exactly the attraction is composed of. I was not aware that this film had a large enough fan base to create an entire attraction out of it, so I am curious to hear about how the public reacts to this new addition to the park.
I’ve never been to Universal Studios Hollywood before but I have been to the Universal Studios in Orlando. I have not been on the Despicable Me ride since it’s only featured at the Hollywood theme park, so I can’t really compare the Secret Life of Pets ride to it. However, it sounds like they are using some really fun new technology with this ride. The idea of taking a movie and turning it into an amusement ride has always been very fascinating to me. The creators of these rides must put a lot of thought and energy into how best to put the same emotions and messages from the movie then in to the ride. It sounds like this ride will feature some exciting new media technology and technology that allows the rider to get very close to the ride. Hopefully fans of the Secret Life of Pets movies will enjoy this attraction.
As much as I wish I didn’t enjoy some of the fruits of capitalism, theme parks always make me happy. I never watched this franchise, but the concept of the attraction sounds really cute and fun. I’d love to read more about how this franchise was chosen, and how various theme parks choose which franchises to make rides about in general. For instance, I would love to know why Ratatouille does not have a ride in any parks in the United States despite having the highest rating of any Pixar film and the seventh highest grossing Pixar film. I am very excited by the lands being created in theme parks like Toy Story Land, but I feel that these decisions are going to cause some cult classic movies to be ignored by their respective theme parks, and will also encourage franchises to be dragged on even longer than they already are.
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