Universal Studios Hollywood is getting closer to unveiling the Jurassic World themed area and Jurassic World The Ride in the coming months, but before that happens, we’ve got some decent updates to the progress. We covered all of the details here in Episode 190, featuring The Jurassic Wire. You can listen to that episode and follow along with the content here. So let’s start with the most recent press release from Universal that focuses on the addition of Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and BD Wong being added to the attraction:
“Universal City, CA, May 23, 2019 – Stars of the JURASSIC WORLD films Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and BD Wong reprise their roles as Owen Grady, Claire Dearing and Dr. Henry Wu, bringing their characters from the silver screen to Universal Studios Hollywood’s much anticipated mega attraction, “Jurassic World—The Ride,” opening this summer.
This marks the first time the cast will appear as their iconic characters outside of the JURASSIC WORLD films for a theme park attraction. As part of original content created exclusively for the new ride, Owen, Claire and Dr. Wu will shed light on their interactions with the dinosaurs along with facts and information about the imposing prehistoric creatures that first roamed the earth more than 65 million years ago.
This spectacular new ride will feature an original storyline that will take guests on a breathtaking excursion through the theme park as depicted in Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment’s film, JURASSIC WORLD. It will soar to new heights with the addition of iconic dinosaurs from the movie, including the colossal Indominus rex and the magnificent aquatic Mosasaurus in her natural habitat.
For the first time, JURASSIC WORLD fans will have the chance to see this impressive creature and become immersed within her massive Aquarium Observatory. Appearing to span over 60 feet in length and tipping the scales at over 30K pounds through stunning state-of-the-art visual effects, the Mosasaurus is a sight to behold as she moves just inches away from guests throughout her glass enclosure filled with the equivalent of 3.5 million gallons of water.
Universal Creative collaborated with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to bring the Mosasaurus to life and to capture the realism of her underwater environment using a combination of spectacular visual effects and cutting-edge technologies, including the use of motion parallax, a technique that shifts the guest’s perspective of the Mosasaurus as she moves throughout the tank.
The team also employed a series of lighting enhancements allowing the aquarium to intuitively shift from day to night, as well as visual changes to the environment during inclement weather, thus creating a variety of visual scenarios guests can experience based on when they experience the ride.
“Jurassic World—The Ride” captures the essence of the blockbuster movie and comes to life in collaboration with the award-winning and inspired minds at Universal Creative, the Academy Award®-winning special-effects visionaries at Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm, Ltd., Universal Pictures and acclaimed filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow and Frank Marshall.
When “Jurassic World—The Ride” opens this summer, guests will be welcomed to a dramatically reimagined space reflective of the hit films. A fresh entry statement, stonework landscaping, and a contemporary redesign of the iconic JURASSIC WORLD gates, illuminated with billowing flames, will create the framework for the all new aesthetics.
Once guests pass through the queue, they will board specially designed rafts that will navigate the lush environs of dense vegetation and traverse new areas besieged with towering dinosaurs meandering at just an arm’s length away. Encounters with such docile creatures as the Stegosaurus and Parasaurolophus will quickly turn awry as predatory Velociraptors and Dilophosaurus begin to wreak havoc, turning guests from spectators to prey. When the Tyrannosaurus rex begins to battle one of the attraction’s new ferocious dinosaurs, the rafts will spill down a treacherous 84-foot waterfall as the sole means of escape.
Located adjacent to the ride will be a new elaborately themed “Raptor Encounter” where Blue, the beloved Velociraptor from the JURASSIC WORLD franchise, will engage guests in daring face-to-face encounters.
In addition, a new interactive “Dino Play” area will incorporate educational components within an inspired space where children of all ages can explore and excavate giant dinosaur fossils.”
We been speculating on the podcast that the trio of Bryce, Chris and BD would show up in the attraction in some way. The most obvious inclusion would be in the pre-show video, a la John Hammond in the old Jurassic Park: The Ride queue video. I’d expect familiar looking Lab settings with information on the dinosaurs you’ll come to see on the tour, potentially provided by Claire Dearing and since the Indominus Rex is included in the ride, I’d expect Dr. Wu to be relaying information about dinosaur hybrids at some point. Owen Grady seems like a good fit for the safety instruction portion of the video. On the latest episode of The Jurassic Wire, I brought up a point about wanting to see an Owen Grady animatronic in the “Owen pose”, holding off a few raptor animatronics. Pipe dream, I know, but time will tell.
A few other tidbits in the press release that have me excited, such as the parallax feature giving a bit more life to the Mosasaurus viewing experience. Everyone is worried about more screens being added to another attraction, but from everything I’ve heard, they are seemingly adding much more than your typical screen based attraction experience. We’ve heard rumors about a new type of glass being used to enhance the glass cracking as the Mosasaurus begins it’s attack, now the parallax; let’s just hope it sells the realism. I’ve personally been perplexed about the indoor experience of the Mosasaurus encounter, so I’m glad to hear there are effects being used to replicate the atmospheric conditions. It’s something I haven’t seen before in a theme park attraction, transitioning indoors, but still showcasing the same weather you experienced outside. That would certainly help to sell the experience.
Interestingly, we see the new promo image Owen and Claire running away from the Indominus Rex enclosure, which depicts an alternate version of what actually happened in the film. They added Claire, changed up the proportions and added a bit of depth to the shot. So will we see them further in the attraction? Maybe this artwork lends some weight to that theory.
There’s also a chance we can see them running away or spelling danger for the ride-goers via screens in the attraction. That a complete assumption based off the new promo image, but it’s always a possibility. I wonder if either Bryce or Chris would take over for the Richard Kiley audio throughout the ride, or who knows, maybe even an audio cameo from Jimmy Fallon.
Next up, we finally have our first looks at the new Jurassic World gates in the land. The old Jurassic Park gates are long gone and the new concrete, sterile vibe of Jurassic World is here.
Universal tried to carry over the ascetic of the old gates instead of re-create the gates we’ve all seen in the actual Jurassic World film. I’ve seen complaints already in regards to the size of the lettering, the lack of depth and the color of the concrete pillars themselves, but I think thing will blend better once completed with fire effects and all. Of course, the lack of wooden doors will always signal an issue in theming, but they are definitely doing the best they can in a confined area. Hollywood doesn’t have the breadth of land that Orlando has for theming. I do like what I’m seeing so far though for Hollywood.
In the below tweet, we can see they’ve finally added the Jurassic World logo onto the ride building. It’s a wonderful sight to see. The massive logo now sits high above for all to see. This is a complete rebranding and they didn’t hesitate on pushing that branding in your face. Not only did they leave Jurassic Park behind, but they left it in the dust.
We finally get a really good look at the opening scene for Jurassic World The Ride featuring a fossil replica of Jurassic World’s iconic Mosasaurus!
This Mosasaurus fossil replica, along with “When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth” will be the first thing you see before heading into the Mosasaurus scene. It’s a bit odd that the quote below mentions “dinosaurs” but the fossil is a Mosasaurus, notably not a dinosaur. With that aside, that section of the ride looks very interesting and I can’t wait to see how that blends into the Mosasaurus tank scene.
Next up, we get a decent look at the kids play area, nestled away in the corner.
From the image by @Bioreconstruct, you can see that they are adding on new levels to the”Dino Play” zone in the Jurassic World section. The original play area was fairly small, so it will be nice to have a few more additions for the young ones. Jurassic Park/World is something meant for nearly all ages, so I’m excited to see they haven’t forgotten that.
Next up, is a fun addition to the land. Isla Nu-Bar!
I love the name. It's one of those names we’ve all joked about for years. It’s such an on-the-nose name, but I absolutely love the inclusion of it in the section. With that name, I’d fully expect alcohol to be served there, not just your standard concession stand. I’m happy to see they are embracing the fun of the series and intellect of the super fans. Not only is this a rebranding, but they are embracing the idea that this is Isla Nublar and not just Jurassic World in California.
Lastly, we can see some new merchandise has been floating around the parks.
The merch showing up in time to promote the ride has a interesting flare to it. It’s part Jurassic World and part Fallen Kingdom. You can tell they’ve crossed over the two marketing ideas here with the burning look of the Fallen Kingdom merch and renderings of Blue, along with the identity of Jurassic World merch. I’d be interested in picking up the merch either way.
That about wraps up our coverage of the recent updates to the upcoming Jurassic World section at Universal Studios Hollywood! I am very excited about the change. Yes, it’s always going to be disappointing to see Jurassic Park as a thing of the past, but everything they’ve done to embrace Jurassic World looks amazing. What are you most excited about with these recent updates? Let us know in the comments below.
To see Universal Studios Hollywood’s new marketing campaign, It Just Got Real in support of this summer’s opening of “Jurassic World—The Ride,” click here.
With so much to see and do at Universal Studios Hollywood, the new California Neighbor Pass invites guests to experience 175 days of fun for $149 when purchased online. Visit www.UniversalStudiosHollywood.com for more details. Blackout dates and restrictions apply.
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Written by:
Brad Jost