Universal's Epic Universe Wish List & Speculation

[OhHaiInternet95]

Trackless tech is overrated

It's a neat gimmick but not the end-all-be-all that some make it out to be.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

the SLOP ride for a gigantic Pokémon ride always sounded nice in theory with Pikachu at the front of your vehicle, hope the concepts don’t totally die even if they’re not in the cards anytime soon.

 

[tielo]

Trackless tech is overrated

If it is done well (Symbolica Efteling) it really adds to the ride experience. It can make re-rideability and unique aspects like the "dancing" in the big hall a lot of fun.

 

[Michael S]

Early blue sky or pitch. Wasn’t approved. Went for more immersive concepts.

But when I first saw that I liked how the trackless cars had different paths and crossed by each other in the main scene multiple times. Love when rides do that.

A good idea never dies. Maybe something like this could come to USH one day.

a man can dream right?

 

[HandsomePete]

Lately Universal has been creating multiple rides utilizing the same ride system. When this didn't get greenlit, SLoP moved to omnimover (same as Yoshi)... And even the original MoM ride, which was rumored to be trackless, may have moved to another new system as well. So, I guess, bye bye trackless systems from Universal for a bit. If it doesn't fit the buy one get one deal, it doesn't get made. :shrug:

The Omnimover is a great ride system. I’m surprised it took Universal as long as it did to build one and they still don’t seem to have completely cracked it; don‘t know about Yoshi but I seem to remember doing the math on SLoP’s ride time and number of vehicles and it worked out to like 1,100/hour. Hopefully one day they’ll build an awesome 2,000/hour people-eater since all the development costs for the ride system should be paid for already.

 

[Scott W.]

The Omnimover is a great ride system. I’m surprised it took Universal as long as it did to build one and they still don’t seem to have completely cracked it; don‘t know about Yoshi but I seem to remember doing the math on SLoP’s ride time and number of vehicles and it worked out to like 1,100/hour. Hopefully one day they’ll build an awesome 2,000/hour people-eater since all the development costs for the ride system should be paid for already.

Sadly, I think the day of a single c ticket being built are long gone. We'll only see these types of rides as part of a full land.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Sadly, I think the day of a single c ticket being built are long gone. We'll only see these types of rides as part of a full land.

At Universal, I would agree. They’re mostly building lands in general.

Although are we classifying then Mknsters ride as C/D ticket? Just clarifying, I always figured it was
An E ticket attraction but maybe I’m just getting myself confused.

 

[Scott W.]

At Universal, I would agree. They’re mostly building lands in general.

Although are we classifying then Mknsters ride as C/D ticket? Just clarifying, I always figured it was
An E ticket attraction but maybe I’m just getting myself confused.

I just mean in general. Potter changed everything. The expectations of a new ride have grown significantly since 2010.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

I just mean in general. Potter changed everything. The expectations of a new ride have grown significantly since 2010.

This is all very true

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

The parks might be better off returning to the standalone route for the time being post-COVID if that’s the only way they can afford to build anything.

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

The parks might be better off returning to the standalone route for the time being post-COVID if that’s the only way they can afford to build anything.

The only current franchises that are viable for full lands are ones that have been stuck in the rumor mill for ages (LOTR/Star Trek) or Nintendo/Dreamworks properties waiting on EU to open. Even if they have the budget, they can't make a land out of anything.

Dune might be the only new franchise that would warrant a full land, and the jury's still out on how well it does.

 

[rageofthegods]

The only current franchises that are viable for full lands are ones that have been stuck in the rumor mill for ages (LOTR/Star Trek) or Nintendo/Dreamworks properties waiting on EU to open. Even if they have the budget, they can't make a land out of anything.

Dune might be the only new franchise that would warrant a full land, and the jury's still out on how well it does.

NBCU seems determined to turn BSG into a multimedia franchise, and I have to imagine there's pressure to use their own IP. Maybe that's come up in Blue Sky?

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

NBCU seems determined to turn BSG into a multimedia franchise, and I have to imagine there's pressure to use their own IP. Maybe that's come up in Blue Sky?

Ultimately, Universal needs to make new franchises instead of one's that originated in 2010 or earlier, lest the franchises they have left to exploit dwindle in number. They have two animation studios suited to that task, yet one, despite their amazing Netflix shows, is only making movies from the most popular of their shows (Spirit and Boss Baby). The other has spent most of the decade making five Despicable Me movies. Meanwhile Disney and Pixar pop out new potential franchises every one to two years.

 

[rageofthegods]

Ultimately, Universal needs to make new franchises instead of one's that originated in 2010 or earlier, lest the franchises they have left to exploit dwindle in number. They have two animation studios suited to that task, yet one, despite their amazing Netflix shows, is only making movies from the most popular of their shows (Spirit and Boss Baby). The other has spent most of the decade making five Despicable Me movies. Meanwhile Disney and Pixar pop out new potential franchises every one to two years.

I agree with what you're saying, but just as a quick correction: Illumination actually produced about the same number of original, non-IP movies as Pixar during the 2010s, four non-IP movies to Pixar's five (Pixar: Up, Brave, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Coco; Illumination: Despicable Me, Hop, Secret Life of Pets, Sing). It just feels like less because Pixar was producing sequels to multiple movies, whereas Illumination was mostly focused on the Minions franchise.

Overall, while I agree Universal's animation slate is too sequel heavy, I wouldn't say there's much urgency for Universal on that front, they're still firmly in first/second-place at the BO and that's unlikely to change. Margie Cohn, who was head of Dreamworks TV, recently took over the film division, so we'll be seeing her influence on the film slate in the next few years (her first greenlights included a non-sequel movie, The Bad Guys). Uni struggles a lot with live action tentpoles outside of F&F and JW, however (47 Ronin, Battleship, The Mummy, Mortal Engines, Dolittle). That's where things get a bit dicier.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Just like, imagine if Zootopia was Illuminations or Dreamworks, such a different landscape we’re talking then both for the film industry and of course since were on IU, for the theme parks.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

I agree with what you're saying, but just as a quick correction: Illumination actually produced about the same number of original, non-IP movies as Pixar during the 2010s, four non-IP movies to Pixar's five (Pixar: Up, Brave, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Coco; Illumination: Despicable Me, Hop, Secret Life of Pets, Sing). It just feels like less because Pixar was producing sequels to multiple movies, whereas Illumination was mostly focused on the Minions franchise.

Good point, although Up was 2009. Disney picked up the slack though with Tangled, Wreck-it-Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia and Moana.

If you look at Disney + Pixar vs Illumination + Dreamworks in the 2010s you get:

Disney + Pixar: Tangled, Brave, Wreck-it-Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Zootopia, Moana, Coco w/2020s offerings of Onward, Soul, Raya, Luca, Encanto, and Turning Red.

Illumination + Dreamworks: How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, Megamind, Hop, Rise of the Guardians, The Croods, Turbo, Home, Secret Life of Pets, Trolls, Sing, Boss Baby, Captain Underpants, Abominable, with 2020s offerings of The Bad Guys and the untitled Pharrell Williams project.

Irrespective of how many properties each company introduced, Universal would realistically leverage fewer of them for their parks than Disney, simply because the popularity will never be there for Hop, Guardians, Turbo, Home, Captain Underpants, and Abominable, whereas every one of the Disney properties in the 2010s bar The Good Dinosaur has either been turned into an attraction or was rumored to become an attraction.

 

[jarmor]

So how would that ride work? We we enter the drive in theater and get in a car then it starts moving?

 

[Neo]

Trackless rides, in their current state, are overhyped. But I think it's still in it's infancy. In the future, as advance analytics, machine learning, and even quantum computing continue to advance, I think at some people we'll have trackless rides that are never the same experience twice. You have stuff like the Animal Kingdom Safari that will never be EXACTLY the same any two rides, but it's still basically the same. I see a future where rides like the concept outlined are more wide open and each individual car is semi-autonomous and a computer can route it around all the other vehicles and even receive real time input from the riders and adapt to the stuff they like. Whether it be through sound or a Magicband-like IOT device that you can load with your preferences.

With self-driven vehicles making advances and becoming safer and safer, coupled with computers that can crunch numbers, see patterns, route cars while seeing other cars routes, it's not too far away from being feasible. Cities are now using traffic cameras and advance AI to analyze traffic flow, in real time, and change lights and direct cars different routes to ease congestion. So it's not too far fetched to see this coming soon.

Example, I give big frownie faces to rides that spin, but big thumbs up to rides that are fast. My car zips around place to place and doesn't spin. You love to spin and your smart device knows that, so you are whipped around in circles and stuff and stop to spin periodically. Your (grand)parents go on the ride, and they get a relaxed slow ride from station to station (with fast people like me flying by them and you spinning all around them) and get to sit and enjoy the scenics. This is all possible now, but not quite stable, safe, failsafe as it would need to be for inclusion into parks...but it's not too far away.

 

[Grabnar]

At the same time, I think the current ride systems are a necessary step, and they're enjoyable in their own right. Phantom Manor is a fantastic transitional proof of concept, if nothing else.

 

[JungleSkip]

At the same time, I think the current ride systems are a necessary step, and they're enjoyable in their own right. Phantom Manor is a fantastic transitional proof of concept, if nothing else.

I take it you mean Mystic Manor?

My big issue with Trackless rides is they're largely a one trick pony, and most of them tend to do the same things.