When people talk about Universal rides always shaking you around in front of a screen and squirting you with water, I suspect it’s mainly a comment about Universal Orlando. It’s an exaggeration for comic effect and not meant to be taken literally, but I’d say the essence of it is true.
There’s nothing wrong with screen based rides, but before Disney re-did Star Tours, it was something that set Universal apart from Disney. Disney had animatronics. Universal did cool stuff with screens. Since then, Disney’s done The Adventure Continues, Flight of Passage, Ratatouille, Runaway Railway and incorporated projection effects onto Rise of the Resistance and Frozen Ever After. It’s not going to feel as special now when Universal does it. Luckily for Universal, there aren’t many good screen based effects in the UK (although there might be more by 2030) and Disneyland Paris only has a couple of screenbased rides (there might be more by 2030).
Whilst Disney has been doing some really cool stuff with screens, I’d say the quality has dropped a bit with Universal, aside from the Bourne Stuntacular, which is amazing. The obvious comparison is Spiderman vs Transformers. The animation is very good on Transformers, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a story. Maybe there are things I’m missing because I haven’t seen the films, but it just seems to be cars fighting before someone tells us we’ve won. Spiderman also has more physical effects, like the moving ladder, the truck, the statue of liberty and of course the fireball. It’s the blend of film and physical effects that helps to make it such a great ride. Transformers doesn’t have much beyond the screens.
Reign of Kong has more physical theming, but the screens and sets aren’t blended together. All the action is on the screens, and the big animatronic of Kong just sits there not doing much at the end.
When people complain about screen based rides at Universal, I don’t think they’re normally talking about Spiderman and Forbidden Journey, which are both ground breaking attractions, and two of the best rides on the planet.
Variety is generally an issue. Universal used to be big for special effects. Gradually the special effects based attractions have gone (Twister, Disaster, Jaws, Kongfrontation) and in many cases replaced with screens. The Mummy is the last of its kind, with the big special effects. Special effects are very expensive and arguably not great from a sustainability perspective, but without many special effects and the volume of animatronics that Disney has, they are very reliant on screens.
Generally you could argue the parks are a little lacking in variety. I know Epic Universe is getting a small Splash Battle, but Universal Orlando will have three major parks with three major water rides, and they’ll all be in one corner of Islands of Adventure.
Most of Universal Orlando’s coasters are launched, steel sit down coasters. Epic Universe will have a spinning coaster, which is clearly different, and within the category or launched, sit down steel coaster, there is quite a lot of variety. No one’s saying the Hulk, Velocicoater and Hagrid’s are the same. But Universal Orlando clearly doesn’t have the most varied ride line up.
Velocicoaster is near the top of most enthusiast rankings, but a wooden coaster like they once planned for the area, or a flying coaster like Universal Japan has, could have added more variety. It looks like one of the coasters in Epic Universe will be somewhat similar to Hagrids, and one will be somewhat similar to Velocicoaster. The Donkey Kong coaster should be more different.
They’ve also become more reliant on the rides. Mardi Gras and the Christmas event are both still very good, as is Halloween Horror Nights, the Horror Make Up Show and the Bourne Stunacular, and the little street theatre in the Harry Potter areas is fun, as is the street theatre in the New York streets at the studios park. But they no longer have a night time show or a regular parade, and they have slimmed down the number of shows, losing things like Beetle Juice, Fear Factor Live, Poseidons Fury and the Sinbad stunt show.
You could argue that the nighttime show wasn’t as good as Disney’s, so they’re focussing on what they can do better. If they do build a park in the UK it’ll be interesting to see whether they do have a parade or a nighttime show. Both of these things are expensive to put on and weather dependent, but they would clearly set he park aside from other British parks, and most other major European parks.
Is Universal just about shaking you around in front of a screen and spraying you with water? No, there’s clearly more to it than that. The Harry Potter stuff’s incredible, in terms of the theming, the merchandise, the food and the rides. But they are getting quite reliant on Harry Potter now
Beyond that, Universal probably do a better job with queueline theming than Disney, the big shows they have still got like Bourne Stuntacular are amazing, they do have some good events, the coasters are really fun if a little lacking in variety and Universal has done some really cool stuff with screens. The theming in Volcano Bay is also impressive for what it is, and it feels moderner than Disney’s water parks, although Blizzard Beach has a more interesting theme. But they are starting to lack variety. They ‘get away with it’ partly because the Harry Potter stuff’s so good, but I’d definitely say that with the Orlando resort the lack of variety is a weakness.
We know that Universal were already getting a lot of visitors before Harry Potter, and Universal Singapore doesn’t have Harry Potter. But without Potter, they’ll ether need something really spectacular to take its place, or to beef up the overall quality a little. They can also get away with less variety in Florida, partly because they have so many attractions, but one smaller park will need to make sure that each attraction is really different from the others.
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