DreamWorks Land (General Discussion)

[Clive]

Before and after of the Barney/Imagination Celebration theater's first scene
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This to me is the only major downgrade I've seen so far. It's not just that it's barren -- by removing the set, you're left with all this ugly industrial HVAC/electrical work visible. There's also still the fence meant to protect the set, which now only calls attention to the barren nature of the void left behind.

 

[Jake S]

the barren nature of the void left behind.

my man goes to Europe ONE time……

 

[Nico]

my man goes to Europe ONE time……

The Barren Baron of Dreamworks Land. The hero we deserve.

 

[AustinT]

Before and after of the Barney/Imagination Celebration theater's first scene
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I'd say this is the only thing so far that truly looks bad. Much worse than before. Though the Gabby/generic character M&G tents are a very close second. But overall, for a low budget refurb of a kids land, almost everything looks pretty nice.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

my man goes to Europe ONE time……

Reaping: Goes to Europe to visit European theme parks,

Sowing: Accidently adopts the European political mindset towards American consumer culture and can no longer enjoy theme parks.

 

[Clive]

Reaping: Goes to Europe to visit European theme parks,

Sowing: Accidently adopts the European political mindset towards American consumer culture and can no longer enjoy theme parks.

It's going to be hard to accept some American thematic standards after seeing all the lush, opulent details, layers and textures of Disneyland Paris Park.

But... anyway... Dreamworks. The Shrek areas look really good. Kung Fu Panda is a wait-and-see for me, but lot of promise there. Trollercoaster looks fine but hope they switch out some of the cutouts for figures//add some more poppy (ta dum) music.

 

[Evan]

Before and after of the Barney/Imagination Celebration theater's first scene
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Oh my gosh. This is not good. All the exposed piping for electrical… the boxes behind the clouds.

So many ways to keep it simple but make it look… good? Complete? Not… industrial chique?

 

[SpatulaShack]

Before and after of the Barney/Imagination Celebration theater's first scene
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Oh my. This, the front-facing meet & greet tents and the Trolls coaster are mighty hideous. Actually the entire Trolls section is some of the worst work Universal has ever done as far as I'm concerned. I understand this had a limited budget but yikes.

 

[Casper Gutman]

IP aside... isn't the Shrek area a pretty significant downgrade from the Fievel area? It seems a lot more empty, thematically weaker... and no big waterslide.

The show seems nice. Can someone who has seen both compare it to Barney?

 

[Brian G.]

IP aside... isn't the Shrek area a pretty significant downgrade from the Fievel area? It seems a lot more empty, thematically weaker... and no big waterslide.

Was the playground bigger? Yes but I don't know if that's a downgrade considering what's provided now. Fievel had climbing nets with a few slides. The waterslide wasn't very popular at the end of its run. Now, we have a popular M&G with a very legit dedicated space while still attaching a good-sized playground with a splash pad, water guns, slides, the interactive Pinocchio, and the frogs across the way. In addition, this playground is a lot more wheelchair friendly in comparison - which is a big win.

The show seems nice. Can someone who has seen both compare it to Barney?

Barney was pretty barren. It was a great show for it's time but the IP was obviously very dated. The basic premise is Barney shows up with Bop and BJ and just sing and dance. The reason DreamWorks Celebration came to be is because UO realized what they were missing when Barney shuttered up, so you got something quickly put together to satisfy that demo. This new show takes it to the modern age with relevant properties in a much more entertaining way.

 

[OrlLover]

Honestly the front facing Meets and Greets don’t bother me as much as it does other people.

 

[Alicia]

Was the playground bigger? Yes but I don't know if that's a downgrade considering what's provided now. Fievel had climbing nets with a few slides. The waterslide wasn't very popular at the end of its run. Now, we have a popular M&G with a very legit dedicated space while still attaching a good-sized playground with a splash pad, water guns, slides, the interactive Pinocchio, and the frogs across the way. In addition, this playground is a lot more wheelchair friendly in comparison - which is a big win.

The Fievel area seemed so big to me when I was younger. But when I walked it before it finally closed, it just felt like a really well themed water slide with barely anything else to actually do around it. When it closed it had one slide open. A very small section of nets. Those foam things you walk through. That was about it. The rest were effects that no longer worked, like a canteen that squirted when you pressed on the front, but that's nothing compared to the musical frogs that are there now.

Fievel's larger than life mouse-sized props made it feel big, but unlike the Curious George's popular water play things, not too many kids actually utilized the Fievel area towards the end.

The new Shrek area extends out further than the original Fievel area did too, adding new splash swamp stuff where just paths were previously for example. And the meet and greet getting a permanent home is a huge win.

And just like Fievel, there's still a slide... but this one farts.

 

[TheUniC6]

The Fievel area seemed so big to me when I was younger. But when I walked it before it finally closed, it just felt like a really well themed water slide with barely anything else to actually do around it. When it closed it had one slide open. A very small section of nets. Those foam things you walk through. That was about it. The rest were effects that no longer worked, like a canteen that squirted when you pressed on the front, but that's nothing compared to the musical frogs that are there now.

Fievel's larger than life mouse-sized props made it feel big, but unlike the Curious George's popular water play things, not too many kids actually utilized the Fievel area towards the end.

The new Shrek area extends out further than the original Fievel area did too, adding new splash swamp stuff where just paths were previously for example. And the meet and greet getting a permanent home is a huge win.

And just like Fievel, there's still a slide... but this one farts.

Whoever at Universal Creative decided to add that farting effect to the slide obviously has a certain sense of ogre humor LOL.

 

[Jwhee]

Was the playground bigger? Yes but I don't know if that's a downgrade considering what's provided now. Fievel had climbing nets with a few slides. The waterslide wasn't very popular at the end of its run. Now, we have a popular M&G with a very legit dedicated space while still attaching a good-sized playground with a splash pad, water guns, slides, the interactive Pinocchio, and the frogs across the way. In addition, this playground is a lot more wheelchair friendly in comparison - which is a big win.



Barney was pretty barren. It was a great show for it's time but the IP was obviously very dated. The basic premise is Barney shows up with Bop and BJ and just sing and dance. The reason DreamWorks Celebration came to me is because UO realized what they were missing when Barney shuttered up, so you got something quickly put together to satisfy that demo. This new show takes it to the modern age with relevant properties in a much more entertaining way.

I’m not sure if they looked at what they previously had and thought “how can we make it better? “

They built stuff with more modern IP’s, yes. But is the production value the same? Not too sure.

Imagination Celebration for example- they cut out the entire first scene and replaced it with a really poor looking 3 TV screen setup. They even got rid of the rain curtain and waterfall entrance into the theater. The OG show had a animatronic in the preshow. During Imagination Celebration show none of the characters have articulated moving heads. It looks like a Disney show from 2004, Shrek moves his arms up and down as an audio track plays. Every character in Barney had a mouth that moved as they spoke.

Barney had a trap door in the floor that raised the main character on to the stage.. this..?

It is a fun, modern show that kids will like. In terms of production value- I think we went backwards. But yes, they added LED screens

*I do think Shrek’s swamp and the outside part of Panda are big thematic/visual wins*

 

[Casper Gutman]

Im trying to think of other times a new dedicated M&G space was considered a significant upgrade for a park - especially for characters that already had a long-term, dedicated M&G elsewhere in the same park. Blue over in IOA, perhaps, and Belle in MK - but Shreks area really isn’t comparable to Belle’s. Which is a shame, since they had the room and the Shrek costume really needs to be updated. It seems like allowing guests to enter Shrek’s house would have been the least they could do.

 

[Brian G.]

I’m not sure if they looked at what they previously had and thought “how can we make it better? “

They built stuff with more modern IP’s, yes. But is the production value the same? Not too sure.

Imagination Celebration for example- they cut out the entire first scene and replaced it with a really poor looking 3 TV screen setup. They even got rid of the rain curtain and waterfall entrance into the theater. The OG show had a animatronic in the preshow. During Imagination Celebration show none of the characters have articulated moving heads. It looks like a Disney show from 2004, Shrek moves his arms up and down as an audio track plays. Every character in Barney had a mouth that moved as they spoke.

Barney had a trap door in the floor that raised the main character on to the stage.. this..?

It is a fun, modern show that kids will like. In terms of production value- I think we went backwards. But yes, they added LED screens

*I do think Shrek’s swamp and the outside part of Panda are big thematic/visual wins*

No argument from me about the pre-show being a step back but I think we're being very nitpicky about the new show. We're just gonna ignore the puppets and a pretty enjoyable show because the mouth of the character doesn't move and there's no trap door?

*plus I'm not certain it was a trap door... I think he just walked there in the dark.

Im trying to think of other times a new dedicated M&G space was considered a significant upgrade for a park - especially for characters that already had a long-term, dedicated M&G elsewhere in the same park. Blue over in IOA, perhaps, and Belle in MK - but Shreks area really isn’t comparable to Belle’s. Which is a shame, since they had the room and the Shrek costume really needs to be updated. It seems like allowing guests to enter Shrek’s house would have been the least they could do.

Why would anyone wanna go into Shrek's house when all the fun stuff from the films has always been *outside* of it?

 

[Jwhee]

No argument from me about the pre-show being a step back but I think we're being very nitpicky about the new show. We're just gonna ignore the puppets and a pretty enjoyable show because the mouth of the character doesn't move and there's no trap door?

I understand what you’re saying, and I think it’s more of the fact that the previous attraction had these high quality moments. The new attraction, in the same exact spot, no longer utilizes them. But moving character heads isn’t too much to ask for if an attraction from the 90’s did it! As I said before, it’s enjoyable show that’ll be loved, but some steps were taken forward and some backwards

 

[Casper Gutman]

No argument from me about the pre-show being a step back but I think we're being very nitpicky about the new show. We're just gonna ignore the puppets and a pretty enjoyable show because the mouth of the character doesn't move and there's no trap door?



Why would anyone wanna go into Shrek's house when all the fun stuff from the films has always been *outside* of it?

Because going into fully-realized immersive fantasy settings is fun and something you can only do at a few places on the planet - it’s the sort of thing that amazes a kid and makes them lifelong fans of a theme park. Kids do notice and enjoy unique stuff like AAs, talking character costumes, and elaborate sets and effects. Puppets are cool, and I think young audiences will enjoy them - but when you compare them to, say, the incredibly neat giant puppet Fievel used to feature, years ago… (kids won’t make that comparison, of course, but we can).

 

[Jake S]

I think it's a bummer, not just in theme parks, that large screens are often viewed as cutting edge rather than, well, cheap. I don't think this redo looks "special," which obviously isn't required. But I think it's fair to note that part of the reason you open your wallet so widely for a place like Universal Studios is because things are special when they don't have to be.

 

[Brian G.]

I understand what you’re saying, and I think it’s more of the fact that the previous attraction had these high quality moments. The new attraction, in the same exact spot, no longer utilizes them. But moving character heads isn’t too much to ask for if an attraction from the 90’s did it! As I said before, it’s enjoyable show that’ll be loved, but some steps were taken forward and some backwards

I just looked. He definitely walked to the stage... haha



Mickey and Friends (and Barney) work because they have these wide, protruding mouths and most importantly, are less anthropomorphic than Shrek and the Trolls - who feature more human-like jaws/mouths. It wouldn't be as convincing.

Because going into fully-realized immersive fantasy settings is fun and something you can only do at a few places on the planet - it’s the sort of thing that amazes a kid and makes them lifelong fans of a theme park. Kids do notice and enjoy unique stuff like AAs, talking character costumes, and elaborate sets and effects.

*eyeroll* Casper, I mean the Shrek cottage isn't the character, the swamp is. There is nothing special about the cottage outside of the place that Shrek & fam slept. All the fantasy was on the *outside*.