MEET OUR THEA AWARD RECIPIENT FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: ATTRACTION
Jurassic World Adventure Universal Studios Beijing, Beijing, CHINA Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement: Attraction Overview
With Universal rebooting their stalwart Jurassic Park franchise as Jurassic World in 2015 – releasing three hit movies so far – the studio decided that it was time to apply that gigantic and highly successful cinematic brand pivot — featuring new characters, new settings, and new dinos — to their global theme park empire.With the creation of Universal Studios Beijing, an entire themed land was dedicated to this epic new adventure series, giving designers a clean slate to create a new kind of immersive environment with a massive new marquee attraction to support it. With the existing River Adventures as inspiration for the “what could possibly go wrong” chaos, Universal Creative instead decided to take the action to dry land, and all indoors — creating new possibilities for an entirely different kind of adventure, with full theatrical control.
What sets this attraction apart?
Having perfected their roving motion-base technology — first created for the largely 3D-projected Adventures of Spider-Man and Transformers, groundbreaking in their own right and replicated around the world — Universal instead opted for a more tangible, physical experience. The carefully protected audience view shed of these vehicles was originally designed for focused screen viewing, preventing riders from seeing the all-flat track and using visual 3D & scenic tricks that created the illusion of an all-terrain vehicle and gravity-defying dynamics. This proven technique also allows for a highly directed, very intimate experience without the need for 3D glasses, with massive physical sets that feature integrated 2D moving-eye-point media, and of course, giant dinosaurs.
While Jurassic attractions have had animatronics in the past, the Jurassic World Adventure takes animated dinos to a whole new level, giving them a scale and impact that directly affects the dynamics of the ride experience. From a seemingly harmless-looking Ankylosaurus that bashes the vehicle and causes it to spin out of control, to a truly frightening overhead battle between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Indominous Rex that seems far too close for comfort to riders. But the piece-de-resistance is a massive new figure that is an industry first and total game-changer — a full-size walking Indominus Rex that actually chases the riders. This ingenious design puts the massive dino animatronic on the same track system as the ride vehicle, creating a hair-raising face-to-face reverse chase unlike any dino encounter in any ride or attraction, anywhere. With the Jurassic World Adventure at Universal Studios Beijing, Universal Creative has raised the bar for animatronic dark rides, creating a whole new breed of epic thrills. Were There Any Significant Roadblocks Experienced while creating this Attraction?
This attraction was built with global collaboration from halfway around the world during a global pandemic
Behind the Scenes:
The team behind this attraction innovated every step of the way to virtually collaborate with partners, vendors and colleagues. Not to mention, much of the team unexpectedly ended up spending more than two years in Beijing due to Covid travel restrictions.
