The sky is quite literally the limit when it comes to building a blockbuster theme park ride. The top attractions cost tens of millions of pounds to construct and employ state-of-the-art technology. This is no Mickey Mouse industry, says Christian Sylt
It isn't enough any more for a major movie franchise to be accompanied by the usual merchandise and video game. What any self-respecting blockbuster needs these days is an eponymous theme park ride. And it's big business.
This summer, for example, Universal Studios in Florida will be launching transformers: the ride, to add to similar installations in their Singapore and hollywood theme parks. Guests don 3D glasses and travel in small open-topped cars through sets populated by giant cinema screens and large-scale replicas of the shape-shifting robots that give the series its name. The screens come alive with 3D movement and explosions, with visuals in pin-sharp definition. At the end of the ride, the slightly befuddled guests are then funnelled through a gift shop. DVDs of the movie are on sale as well as the toys on which the ride is based. And so much is crammed into the four-minute attraction that you can't see it all the first time round. Ker-ching go the cash tills as the guests go round again...
Legendary animator walt Disney invented modern-day theme parks with the opening of his first Disneyland park in california in 1955. He claimed his motivation was the lack of entertainment options available to him and his two young daughters. The amusement parks of Disney's era had few rides that parents could enjoy with their children and they were often dirty and unsafe. Disney changed that by integrating his rides with the stories that had become famous in his movies.
So not for Disney any old log flume that just winches people up one side and slides them down the other into a pool of water. At Disneyland the log flume was built inside a giant tree stump and based on the 1946 movie Song of the South, which put the Uncle remus stories to music. The tale of Brer rabbit and Brer Fox is told during the ride using audio-animatronics – moving models of the characters co-ordinated to music and speech – with the drop at the finale representing Brer rabbit being flung into the briar patch by his enemy.
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Making the Magic: The Ten Steps to Creating a Theme Park Attraction
1. Blue Sky
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2. Storyboarding
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3. Model Making
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4. Set Drawing
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5. Feasibility Analysis
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6. Contract Document Design
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7. Construction
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8. The Finale
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9. Maintaining Standards
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10. Measuring Guest Response
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