What would I like to see from a Great Universal Movie Ride? An animatronics showcase with huge sets, and (real) fire, water, wind, smoke, steam, fog, and spark effects (and, yes, screens and projections where appropriate). In terms of a storyline, it’s tough; maybe you could concoct something where a key character from Universal’s history (Doc Brown, perhaps?) has - through magical mumbo-jumbo - “escaped” from the cinematic world, and is inviting us to join him and “Ride the Movies.”
What properties would I like to see for sure, and in what sort of context?
- Dracula: A recreation of the scene where Renfield meets Dracula for the first time, with a grand, cobweb-covered, decrepit hall and Dracula standing at the top of the steps.
- Frankenstein: Frankenstein’s lab during the lightning storm that brings his monster to life, complete with spark and steam effects.
- The Wolf Man: A fog-shrouded forest where the Wolf Man stalks a victim.
- Classic Monsters Catch-All: A scene, perhaps in a cemetery, focusing on the rest of the Monsters family - Bride of Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera, and Creature from the Black Lagoon (perhaps rising up from a body of water).
- Psycho: A forced perspective recreation of the Bates Motel and the house on the hill behind it, with Norman and Mother’s voices coming from inside (basically the same setup the old Hitchcock show had), which would transition directly into…
- The Birds: A scene inside the house as the birds attack via projection or musion effects interacting with real elements on the set.
- Comedy Catch-All: Scene with Abbott and Costello, characters from Animal House, The Blues Brothers, The Breakfast Club, Shaun of the Dead, etc.
- Back to the Future: A semi-launched straightaway tunnel (a combination of speed on the level of the faster interior portions of Test Track and projection effects to simulate even greater speed as we travel through time) before moving into a forced perspective scene of the clocktower.
- Jaws: An attack by the shark inside Quint’s boathouse, complete with real fire effects.
- E.T.: Basically a condensed version of the beginning scenes of the current ride (a chase through the forest followed by flying over the moon).
There are likely other movies that should be represented, but those are the ones I think for sure need to be included. We’d then move into the big finale scene, which would be a shameless ripoff of the original proposed ending to The Great Movie Ride, where every AA character we’ve seen in the ride returns (perhaps in a recreation of Phantom of the Opera’s original opera house set, or maybe the exterior of a gala movie premiere) and takes a bow.
Ride system/vehicle? My dream for this attraction would be for Universal to somehow come up with a way for it to basically be several different ride systems in one. We might move through the Classic Monsters sections in a slower, more sedate style, then move into a launched straightaway tunnel for a Back to the Future sequence, then we’d slow down and suddenly find ourselves sinking into a dark body of water as we enter Quint’s boathouse and are attacked by the shark. For E.T., we'd feel ourselves lifting up into the air to fly. Doing that sort of thing is probably impossible, or at the very least would be massively expensive, but I don't care!
Attraction name: "Ride the Movies: A Universal Adventure"
