Worlds of Pixar - Theme Park Plan

Worlds of Pixar is a theme park concept that brings each and every Pixar story to life across a single park.

The park is divided into 4 concept-based lands that echo the storytelling themes of the films: Imagination, Adventure, Exploration, and Discovery. Inside each of those lands, each story is featured in its own immersive mini-world, set in the world of the film after the story we know takes place. The park is formally organized with a central lagoon and 4 "islands" that are the feature worlds of each land, divided from the rest of the park by a scenic canal. On each island is a themed tower, acting as beacons of the park. Terraced park space in each island is oriented towards the central lagoon, which is the stage for daily and nightly entertainment. The towers come to life with light at night to mark the 4 distinct worlds. At the entrance of the park, an entry plaza garden leads to a set of "Emeryville headquarters" style buildings, featuring brick, steel, and glass detailing. Abstract perforated metal screens along the curved entry faces of the buildings show stylized Pixar characters. A glass roof covers the main street between the buildings, which opens up to a park setting and a view of the water beyond. This entry is called Emery Street and holds retail and quick service dining, mainly themed to various Pixar shorts. The main full circle path branches off left and right from this entry park and crosses bridges that connect to the islands. Metal screen archways mark the entrance to each of the 4 themed lands. The path along the canal is an elegant park like setting. Each land features a matching central garden area with retail and a large fountain and stepping waterfalls down to the canal. At the rear of the park is a Pixar hotel designed as a modern grand resort, matching the "Emeryville" style. It is divided in two 6 story wings on either side of a main lobby building and a central garden with a large fountain that steps down to the canal. Rooftop dining overlooks the park below. Each of the 4 lands hold 5 mini-worlds plus space for one expansion mini-world. Each world includes 1 attraction, a variety of retail, and a snack FnB. Some worlds also include quick service or table service FnB, spread out equally through the park.

-----------------------------------------------------

ADVENTURE - stories of encountering unexpected challenges and finding ways to overcome.

        WALL-E, Luca, Onward, Brave, and Lightyear

WALL-E is the first island and is set in a futuristic settlement on Earth now that humanity has returned from space. The modern buildings are covered by a fabric mesh canopy structure and a sleek steel and glass tower rises above it. Organic gardens spread out towards the water edge. The buildings hold retail, a robot-run quick service, and a trackless dark ride where vehicles travel along upper floor bridges above the world while helping WALL-E find a missing robot friend. Luca recreates the town square of Portorosso right along the edge of the canal. An endless street climbs up away from the square and the buildings step up in the distance. The square holds retail, an Italian table service, and an indoor boat dark ride that takes guests through town and then under the sea to visit Luca and his family. Onward is set in the town of New Mushroomton and features the rustic Manticore's Tavern at the edge of the canal, a mushroom house, the modern fantasy downtown full of retail, and finally the high school at the end of the street. The tavern is a quick service and the high school holds an indoor coaster/dark ride where the Lightfoot brothers take us on a new quest that quickly gets more dangerous and exciting than they expected. Lightyear brings guests to the Space Ranger Corps Base at T'Kani Prime. A large spherical spaceship and service tower sit over the world, surrounded by futuristic structures with retail and industrial equipment. Behind the ship is the main hangar building, where there is a theater flight simulator attraction. Guests take flight with Buzz out into the unknown galaxy and beyond. Brave takes place in the castle and the Highland games festival outside. The stone castle is formed of multiple towers, an inner court, and retail in the great hall. The games outside take place among colorful festival tents and include a interlocking whip flat ride where the two halves are meant to be competing against each other in a race.

-----------------------------------------------------

IMAGINATION - stories of dreaming who you could be and working to make it come true.

        Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Cars, The Incredibles, and Elio

Toy Story is the next island and takes place in the backyard among toys, boxes, grass, and a wood block tower structure at the center. Oversized objects fill the world, including a trellis-like tunnel made of hot wheels tracks, dining cover structures made of a Frisbee and board games, and a lunch pail snack stand. Oversized boxes hold retail, a quick service with outdoor garden seating, and an interactive indoor/outdoor dark ride where the toys play hide and seek in the yard and guests use flashlights to find them. Monsters Inc brings guests to the company headquarters right in Monstropolis. An outdoor plaza along the canal sits in front of main entry, which guests can enter and explore. The exterior streets hold retail and a monster quick service, while the interior HQ holds a company store retail and a suspended dark ride coaster through the factory. Cars is set in Radiator Springs and includes many of the iconic buildings around the main intersection of the town, most of which hold retail. An autopia style dark ride departs from Ramone's shop and winds through the streets of town, visiting Luigi's, the Town Hall, and then into the caves of the desert for a meetup with Mater and Lightning before returning past the V-8 cafe. The Incredibles recreates the downtown of Metroville where a new superhero exhibit is opening at City Hall. The midcentury modern city sits around a central plaza and a force perspective street extends away to suggest the size of the city. The buildings hold retail, a super's exclusive speakeasy table service, and a media EMV dark ride in City Hall where the Incredibles save the day after a league of villains sabotage the exhibit opening day. Elio takes place in the alien Communiverse where Elio has been appointed Ambassador to Earth. The sci-fi and sleek buildings hold an alien trading marketplace that is retail A flying saucer spinner flat ride sits in the middle of the world and overlooks the alien buildings and the canal nearby. 

-----------------------------------------------------

EXPLORATION - stories of leaving safety behind and seeing the bigger world out there.

        Inside Out, A Bugs Life, UP, Finding Nemo, and The Good Dinosaur

Inside Out is the next island and is set inside the limitless world of the mind, where the abstract mind control tower sits at the center of the land. The weird and colorful buildings of the world recreate a variety of mind locations, including abstract thought and imagination, and an elevated train track winds through the whimsical world. The abstract structures hold retail, a quick service set in Dream Production, and the station of the Train of Thought, which takes guests above the land and then into a media tunnel for a wild trip through the rest of the mind. A Bugs Life takes place around a large tree where the ants have built a new home and includes a dandelion patch along the canal, the root caves under the tree, the oversized bug circus caravan, and plenty of oversized plants and grasses. The caravan and nearby cardboard boxes hold retail and the root caves hold a table service and the entrance to an outdoor coaster. Flik has built a new flying contraption and is using it to race guests through the grass, around the tree, and into the root caves on a thrilling experimental flight. UP brings guests right to the dense jungles of South America where Muntz's compound has been reclaimed by the Wilderness Explorers as their new exploration base. The rustic Wilderness Explorers camp buildings hold retail and a quick service with outdoor seating under a tied down blimp, parked right along the canal. Beyond is a mountain with a flume waterfall and Carl's house on top. Guests take a boat journey into the jungle to earn an animal spotting badge, and end up accidently going over the waterfall on their way back to camp. Finding Nemo is set at the Marine Life Institute and the waters beyond. A tidal pool and fish tank sit outside the aquarium entrance while the interior holds retail and a submarine dry-for-wet suspended dark ride. Guests venture out into the great barrier reef and discover the colorful world of Nemo and his friends along the way. The Good Dinosaur recreates Arlo's Family Farm after he has returned home. It includes their shelter structure, a grain silo, and a carousel flat ride under a rough canopy of sticks and leaves that is meant to be some kind of farm equipment. Dinosaurs ridden by guests walk around the circle and turn the contraption to grind plants. Retail is inside the pitched roof shelter.

-----------------------------------------------------

DISCOVERY - stories of self resilience and learning who you are and were meant to be.

        Elemental, Coco, Soul, Ratatouille, and Turning Red

Elemental is the last island and takes place in the bustling streets of Element City. The eclectic buildings show evidence of the way of life of all 4 elements, and a central urban tower building rises above the land. The streets include a busy marketplace district that holds retail and a quick service. Above the land, tubes and bridges connect the various buildings and serve as tracks for a coaster that weaves through the world. Guests board a sled in Water Town for a trip through the sewer, pipes, and skies of the city with Wade and Ember. Ratatouille recreates the romantic streets of Paris, including an elegant park and the terraced waterfront along the canal. The Parisian buildings hold retail and a quick service, while at the back of the world, guests can find Remy's restaurant. Inside is a interactive dark ride through the rat kitchen where guests help prepare that nights menu by finding recipies and shooting various ingredients into the pots and pans for Remy to cook. Turning Red is set in Toronto right outside the stadium where 4*Town is about to have their makeup concert. A small city block and a park sit outside the stadium and hold retail. Inside the stadium is a musical spinning dark ride where guests travel into a 4*Town concert along with Panda Mei and her friends, where of course chaos and fun ensues. Coco takes place in the arrival station of the world of the dead. Entered through a tunnel in a grand mausoleum structure, the main area of the vibrant and alive world is under a vaulted glass roof. A second level of elevated walkways sit on either side and cross the atrium in the middle. The atrium holds retail, a Mexican table service, and the cable car station, where guests board for a large suspended dark ride through the world of the dead, featuring encounters with flying alebrijes and the most famed residents of the city. Soul brings guests to New York City with a bustling block of buildings and a small park right along the canal. The street's buildings and the park pavilion structures across the path hold retail. A marquee at the back of the block advertises the Jazz Club and inside is an indoor double teacup flat ride where guests can swirl among the surreal sounds of jazz and get lost in the melody of the music of Joe Gardner.

Blockbuster Adventure - A Celebration of the 80s and 90s - Park Concept

This is a theme park dedicated to summer blockbuster movies of the 80s and 90s, what I think of as the golden age for that kind of film. Spanning studio, company, and genre, these films are instead united in their time period, style sensibilities, and lasting pop culture impact. Most simply put, this is a park of many of my favorite movies. I grew up in the 90s and was raised on the classic blockbuster hits of that decade and the decade before. The inspiration for this park came while at a concert of John Williams music, where the scores to Raiders, Jurassic Park, and E.T. conjured such vivid images of the worlds of those films and made me want to explore how to bring those places and the stories I love to life.

I considered many films and franchises for this park, some that have already become theme parks and many that haven’t, but I eventually was able to narrow the scope down to 7 stories, the ones that are most important to me personally. That final list included Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park as the largest anchor lands, Ghostbusters and E.T. as medium lands, and Aliens and The Terminator as small lands.

Some notes about the choices and what I left out. Star Wars would absolutely count in my favorites from this time period, but I decided that was too big and could deserve its own full park, so that is missing here. I was tempted to reach back into the 70s as well and use Jaws, but decided that a narrower focus would help keep this park from being too large. I acknowledge that really only 1 of the lands is a true 90s franchise, but multiple of the others had later installments in the 90s so that is why I used this concept and feel comfortable calling this a celebration of the 80s and 90s equally. Lastly, this is not intentionally meant to be a Universal park even though I know it comes close to being all classic Universal. Just a coincidence based on the hits of the 80s and 90s being a lot of Universal!

My goal with this park and my philosophy for the design is to place guests into the middle of the classic stories and experiences we all love from these movies without just presenting a beat for beat recreation. Instead the idea is that we step into familiar worlds and see familiar characters but live out new stories that sit around the stories we know. These lands take place in the scenes in between or after what we have seen in the classic films, as if these are supplemental stories and scenes cut for time but always meant to be there and a part of the real story. Guests are given a chance in each land to participate in a classic action of the film, that experience that you saw in the movie and always wanted to try out yourself. Here that happens, and guests ride in a DeLorean as it speeds up to 88 mph, sit in a Jurassic Park Jeep as it passes under the gateway, race away from the rolling ball with Indy, shoot proton beams at ghosts from the Ecto-1 vehicle, and fly into the sky with E.T.

Now with the general concept explained, we can now start going through the park, land by land.

Entry Garden and Town Square

Through the park gates, guests find a garden of large water pools and fountains that present a continual show through the day with music from films of the 80s and 90s. Raised circular fountain tiers on either side that cascade water down to ground level are meant to resemble classic film canisters overflowing. Round buildings on the left and right hold park services and retail while straight ahead is a retro train bridge building that sits above a pedestrian tunnel. Guests pass through this tunnel to enter the main hub land of the park and are transported back to the years of the blockbuster movie.

The central land of the park is a bustling retro downtown centered around a classic town square. A neon adorned movie palace is located at the head of the plaza, serving as the park icon. Guests first walk down a retail street that opens up to the central plaza, which holds more retail and also multiple dining and snack locations of all kinds, including quick service, table service, a buffet, a bakery, ice cream parlor, and more. Many of the retail stores and restaurants are references to stores, locations, or characters from famous movies of this time period.

The Neon Palace Theater on the square is the park icon and holds a movie theater attraction. There are 2 theaters inside the building that present a 15 minute compilation of the best of the summer blockbuster, edited together as a celebration of the genre. Each night, these theaters also have a showing of a rotating film from the collection that inspired the park. The exterior building also serves as the canvas for an end-of-day light show, where first the neon of the downtown comes to life and then expands with projections on all the buildings of the downtown to present a musical voyage through 80s and 90s cinema with the downtown as the movie screen.

From the plaza, 6 streets branch off towards the lands of the park, in addition to the 7th that leads back to the park entry. For each, the street points directly at a feature fountain that marks the entry to each of the lands. These fountains are similar to the ones at the entry of the park but also feature bronze statues of iconic moments in the movie on top, with the water flowing out from the statues bases. They all have periodic fountain shows that use music from the films.

Though there is not a train station in the hub land, I wanted to mention it here since it crosses through all lands of the park. The train makes a clockwise loop of the park and stops at 4 total stations, spread between 3 lands. The train has no engine car, just passenger cars, and the general design of the train itself is inconspicuous since it needs to blend into each of the different stories and settings, but large digital signage and detail panels on both sides of the train change as it passes from land to land to fit in the themes.

Jurassic Park

This land is set in the second attempt at the Jurassic Park theme park on a second island complex, after the events of the first incident on Isla Nublar. Many lessons have been learned and this now is ready to operate as a functional park for the first time. The land begins with a pair of thatched roof retail buildings that frame the view down to the new Welcome Center. The land is divided into 3 areas and in-theme signage leads guests between them: The Welcome Center, The Aviary, and The Plains. Behind the Welcome Center and acting as a visual draw from all 3 areas is a lagoon with a rocky waterfall cliff side behind it, and a pair of huge brontosauruses standing in the water peacefully eating all day long. Small dinosaurs that are carried around can be found throughout the land and a larger walking Triceratops makes occasional appearances for educational sessions.

The Welcome Center building is a recreation of the original, complete with the interior dinosaur skeleton, and includes retail, a cafeteria style quick service restaurant, a table service restaurant on the second floor that overlooks the lagoon and is themed as Hammond's private dining club, and the entrance to the primary attraction of the land. This is the classic Jurassic Park jeep tour right out of the movie, and it begins with loading right outside the rear of the Welcome Center and overlooking the lagoon. The jeeps first pass through the iconic gate, then continue into an indoor projected overlook over the plains of the park, filled with dinosaurs. Next it passes through 2 paddocks and past a hatching station, all featuring up close encounters with AA dinosaur figures. Lastly, it enters the T-Rex paddock, staged as exterior inside a show building. Here a close encounter with a raging T-Rex occurs as it threatens to break out of its habitat once again and come after the jeep, but the jeep safely continues and makes it back to the Welcome Center just in time.

To the left of the Welcome Center is a lab building that holds a musical family dark ride where Mr. DNA tells the story of how dinosaurs have returned to walk the earth. To the right is the modern retail and dining area, which includes a food-court quick service with Caribbean and Latin menus and a carousel with dinosaur figures. The park loop train passes by on overhead monorail-like tracks, separating this first area from the other 2 areas.

The Aviary is to the left and is clearly dominated by a huge curved enclosure wall at the back, labeled as holding for flying dinosaurs. In front is a smaller circular habitat that is called the rehabilitation enclosure. Netting on the sides and top allow guests to see into this space and a ramp leads up to a second floor entrance. Inside guests look out over a small habitat that holds a pair of pterodactyls on the rocks below, a spinner attraction that is themed to a flight training device for injured dinos, and an entrance to an aviary rehab walk through attraction where guests can get close to multiple dinosaur AA figures while learning from the doctors and trainers. To the right of this area is a helicopter on a raised pad, marking the entrance to the next attraction. The queue leads into the field operations center of the main aviary where guests are invited to ride on a helicopter into the aviary to help locate a newly hatched dinosaur. This attraction is a flight simulator with a unique helicopter vehicle that "flies" up into a projection dome, and is supplemented with wind, smells, and water spray. This area also includes a quick service restaurant and a small outdoor plaza where small dinosaur demonstrations take place.

A path at the lagoon level leads across to the other side of the land and the third area. The Plains are where the majority of the dinosaurs in the park live and features a pair of attractions that get guests as close to the animals as possible. To the left is a roller coaster attraction where guests can speed through one of the paddocks of the park and come up close to a few dinos along the wild ride. This coaster features a launch and a top hat at the rear of the paddock and a loop over the lagoon as main elements. To the right, marked by a tall observation tower structure, is a multi-part walk through attraction where guests view multiple animal habitats. The walkthrough leads first through an interior briefing room before entering a wooded paddock where a few small AA dinos can be found. Then guests stop at an educational outpost where a park trainer introduces us to an interactive small dinosaur. After that, guests enter a building and move to the second floor for a glass tunnel walk above another paddock, giving guests the chance to be face to face with some larger dinosaurs below. Finally, guests are led to a simulated elevator up to the top of an observation deck for a view over the whole park. This indoor projected 180 degree overlook shows guests a time accurate view of the park and information tablets let guests learn about many of the areas and dinosaurs that are visible. Back outside, this area lastly includes a Jurassic Park Jeep photo op.

Ghostbusters

This land is set in Manhattan during the period when the Ghostbusters were at the peak of their fame and business. The whole city seems to be haunted, and the Ghostbusters are there to save the day one call and one ghost at a time. The land begins with a retail street that includes a corner Bodega quick service, and leads underneath an elevated bridge for the park loop train before opening up to the main view of the Ghostbusters HQ firehouse ahead on the corner. To the right is a force perspective street that gives a view far beyond into the city. To the left is more retail, a diner quick service that is a cheesy knockoff haunted restaurant to take advantage of the Ghostbusters popularity, a small area of Central Park, and an imposing apartment tower at the end of the street. Ghostly apparitions may pop out of windows or storefronts around the land if guests look close enough, and Ecto-1 makes periodic drives through the land on the way to a call.

Inside the Ghostbusters HQ is a trackless shooting dark ride where guests board Ecto Vehicles and are sent out on a ghost hunting shift in the streets of New York. After rounding up ghosts on the streets, guests end up joining forces with the Ghostbusters team to take down a particularly elusive apparition and we eventually witness it being captured by a Trap. The targets throughout the ride are primarily physical figures and props, supplemented with projected backgrounds. Down the street, the imposing tall building is a drop tower attraction, set inside an apartment building infested with dark and terrifying ghosts who love to scare residents away by interfering with the elevators. Guests try to survive in the tower long enough for the Ghostbusters team to answer the call and trap the ghosts.

The Central Park area includes a peaceful lake and tree-lined pathways surrounding it. On the lake is a swan boat ride, but spirits in the lake enjoy popping out of the water to startle riders. Across the park, accessed through a drainage tunnel, is a special effects show where guests witness a scientific demonstration. Set in an eerie haunted sewer under the city where a river of green ectoplasm has been discovered, Venkman leads a demonstration that goes slightly wrong. The ectoplasm has an unexpected reaction to his tests and a familiar green ghost appears once again to terrorize the team. The ghost is captured soon enough after an impressive display of lighting, water, wind, and pyro effects, including an explosion of ectoplasm goo.

Aliens

This land is entirely set indoors and takes place inside Gateway Station and at Hadley’s Hope, the exo-moon terraforming colony where the Alien carrying ship crash landed. This is during the period before the colony was wiped out by the Aliens but after the known existence of the threat. The entrance leads through a futuristic docking bay and into the double height central spine of the space station, filled with retail. The park loop train passes through, inside of an elevated tunnel with look out openings down to the space station floor. Above, a glass ceiling is tinted and treated to look like the dark starry sky of space. At the end of the hall, another docking bay is labeled as transport to the exo-moon colony. Guests walk through it past huge vehicles and supplies being sent to the colony and emerge from the other side at the final destination on the surface of the exo-moon.

Guests walk out into the exterior work yard of the colony, staged completely inside with a dark starry sky above. The buildings around the yard hold retail, a cafeteria quick service, and a laser tag combat training experience where guests can try to keep up with the standards of the colony commandos in a series of combat trials. The main entrance to the underground complex ahead leads to the main attraction of the land. While receiving the new arrival orientation, an unexplained and brutal attack in a remote area of the complex is discovered. But guests are assured they will be safe and are sent out in a trackless shuttle vehicle to their new posts. The dark ride begins calmly but quickly another attack is reported, the power begins to malfunction, and the Alien is spotted for the first time. The shuttles quickly begin to reroute us to a secure holding room, but our route leads right to a face to face encounter with the Alien, leading to a fast and exciting escape through the maze of the colony complex, all while trying to survive. Finally, guests disembark in a secure holding bay while hearing reports that the Alien has disappeared completely, at least for now.

Back to the Future

This land is set in the courthouse square of Hill Valley during 3 different years: 1955, 1985, and 2015. The stories present in the land are new adventures that take place around and during the events of the original movies, but are initiated by acts in the future after the end of the film series. Years after returning from the old west and resettling in Hill Valley, Marty and Doc Brown are forced to go back again through their past adventures after the DeLorean is taken on a joyride by Biff after washing it. He now has accidently jumped to the past and is taking the opportunity to change his personal history. Luckily Doc has built a new model time machine, also in a DeLorean of course, so they begin to chase him down and revisit both the past and the future and we are tagging along. The park loop train passes through this land and rides on an elevated berm that separates the 3 areas, and it stops at train stations in 1955 and 2015. The train passes through an indoor tunnel between the stations where it passes through a time travel vortex and jumps to the future.

From the hub land, the first of the three courthouse squares is set in 1985, but not the original 1985 as seen in the first movie. This is the cleaned up, idealized version of the city that Marty returned to after things were fixed in the past. The square is filled with active businesses, not boarded up storefronts, and the square is a park, not a parking lot. The buildings here hold retail and a quick service BBQ restaurant. One building holds a movie theater, where there is a special showing of the new 3D adaptation of "A Match Made in Space", the bestseller by George McFly. This is a 15 minute 4D movie that takes guests into the wildly successful story that revitalized the fortunes of the McFly family. Around the corner from the square is Doc Brown's workshop, similar to the shop he had at the start of the first movie, but expanded with support from Marty and his wife Clara. This is a walk through attraction where guests can interact and play with a variety of science experiments that do fun and impressive things.

Back in the square, the primary attraction of the land begins at the courthouse, where a museum dedicated to the city is located. Guests pass through galleries with photos and artifacts of the town, and also pass by an open door to a hall where Doc and Marty can be seen down the hall discussing something in what looks like a panic. Guests then enter a small enclosed gallery for a pre-show. Ahead is a display case with some historic newspapers and a TV screen that starts to show a documentary about the town. But as guests watch, the newspapers in the case start to slowly fade away and the documentary jumps to static, before both start to slowly return with a different story about the history of the town, including a story about Mayor Biff winning his first election at the age of 22. The doors open and guests continue into a back storage room that is a second pre-show where a musion effect shows Doc Brown and Marty in conversation. They are talking about how the DeLorean is missing and now history is suddenly changing and it must be connected. They spot us and say that we've already heard too much so we might as well help. Doc says to follow him to his secret workshop across the street, and guests continue through the queue out into an alleyway and into a lab space hidden away in a storefront. This queue is a high tech space where Doc Brown is building a group of new time machines, and we are going to get to ride one in just a moment. Final queue videos give us instructions, that we have to help go find Biff whenever he is and get him back here before too much changes. Doc can track the ripples in time that show when his DeLorean has been, so we are being sent to follow that trail.

Guests then load into a DeLorean that is a slot car dark ride vehicle with motion capabilities and speed out of the garage into the streets. From there, the car enters a projection dome, "hovers" up, and shoots off at high speed into time. The fast paces attraction jumps the vehicle through many scenes in different times while trying to calibrate on Biff, including the old west, 1955, and 2015. Scenes combine physical sets, projection extension, and projection tunnels to create the varied settings and the time jumps between them. Along the way, we see both young and original Biff conspiring in 1955 but he gets away into the future before Doc Brown can arrive. Later in 2015, in a portion that relies more on projection domes, our vehicle is hover chasing Biff's DeLorean through the sky along with Doc and Marty. They magnetically latch to him and jump back to the present. We try to follow but our time circuit was accidentally shorted from a rough hover collision in the crash, so we end up in 1955 again instead.

After a full system restart, the computer comes back on line and is ready to make another attempt. The climax of the ride happens as we make this final jump back to the present. We just happen to be on the street leading to the courthouse square, so our vehicle speeds up along the dark interior street towards the interior recreation of the square and hits 88 mph exactly while passing the courthouse, sending us back to the present in a flash of light and spark. Guests unload at the lab and are thanked for helping save history.

To the left of 1985 is the 1955 version of the square, but this is not the same as the movie since Biff has been here and started to interfere. Tunnels under the park loop train berm lead guests to this retro downtown Hill Valley. The area to the south of the square includes retail, the local train station, where the park loop train makes stops, and an auto garage building that holds an indoor bumper cars attraction where guests ride on junked retro cars. Ahead, in the main square, there is more retail, Lou's Cafe quick service restaurant, and two attractions. In the downtown theater, the local high school prom is taking place. In this version of 1955, a water main break at the school gym forced a relocation, so guests are able to walk into the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance and participate in a music and dance show featuring a live band.

Across the square, the other attraction is a trackless dark ride where guests are chased around town by Biff and his pack of greasers. Guests enter into the local car dealership and load into test drive cars in the back alley before rolling off into the back streets and neighborhoods of the city. We enter a dark alley where we encounter young Biff in his hot rod, who accuses us of scratching his car and says we are going to pay for it. Our vehicle quickly zooms away and a chase through downtown begins, where our vehicle zooms through the streets and repeatedly encounters Biff and his friends. This includes simulated speed tunnels and other freely moving trackless car vehicles that we weave around as we evade Biff. Just as we think they have us trapped in a dead end alley, a flying DeLorean appears in the sky ahead, distracting everyone and allowing us to escape back to the rental car dock and unload.

On the other side of the land is the 2015 version of Hill Valley, also accessed through tunnels under the berm. This future is similar to the one from the movies, but with references to Biff's 20 year run as mayor and current position as senator. The area south of the square also holds the train station and retail, but these buildings are much more modern and inventive than those of the last two time periods. Digital "hologram" screens and kinetic movement are all over. Ahead, the courthouse square features a pond at the center and is surrounded by retail, a quick service restaurant, Cafe 80's from the second movie, and a table service steakhouse restaurant in the courthouse. On the second floor of a building overlooking the square is a modern jetpack style spinner flat ride that is enclosed in a geodesic dome frame, taking guests high above the city and serving as an iconic piece of architecture for the time.

Behind the courthouse is the Hill Valley Art Museum and it holds a dark ride attraction through a reassembled, though inaccurate, history of past society. Inspired by the artifacts from the Blast to the Past Store, the dark ride takes guests through a comedic history story, featuring high tech "holo projectors” that place guests right in the scenes from the past. The final attraction is set in the Hill Valley Transit Department and is a flying theater voyage through and over the city of the future that is interrupted by a hovercar chase between Biff and Doc Brown.

The Terminator

This land is another that is set entirely indoors and takes place in the Cyberdyne Systems Headquarters and factory. This is set in the future, just as the T-1000 robot is being unveiled for the first time. Guests enter into a huge modern lobby with a glass roof above, which holds retail. The park loop train passes through on an elevated suspended bridge. The lobby hall leads forward and opens up to a formal factory atrium space, where suspended assembly lines fill the atrium above, with terminator parts moving along continuously. This is a clean modern space, meant to showcase the might of the company. The whole complex is decorated with banners promoting the release of the new T-1000 model. The atrium holds more retail and a quick service restaurant that looks over it all.

Off the atrium, there is a showcase room that is holding a release day demonstration of the new model. This is an animatronics special effects show where guests witness a demonstration of the abilities of both the T-Unit Terminator and the T-1000 as they face off in a simulated battle, culminating with a classic Terminator being consumed in a ball of flames. Back out in the factory atrium, the main attraction is an indoor coaster that begins as a walking tour through the factory before being interrupted by members of the Resistance who have broken in as an attempt to sabotage the rollout of the new Terminators. We are being drawn into the fight and asked to plant an EMP in the center of the factory. They usher us to a backroom where they load us on their vehicles and send us out on the mission. The indoor coaster speedily takes guests through the depths of the factory, but the presence of the resistance has been discovered and security is on high alert. Terminators have been activated all around the factory and are coming for us. The coaster narrowly avoids attack many times before finally reaching a lift platform that leads to the heart of the factory, the main server room. At the top of the lift, the vehicle stops but a T-1000 Terminator rises out from the floor in front of us to attempt to put a stop to our plans. At that moment, the EMP is activated, cutting out power all around the train, including the lift we are on, and sending the train in a free fall down a level. The train then escapes back to the back room we started in, where the resistance thanks us for helping slow down the roll out of the new Terminator.

E.T.

This land is set in the neighborhood that E.T. sought refuge in and in the redwood forest where his ship originally landed beyond, and takes place during the Halloween season of the following year, when E.T. returns for a visit and a restocking of Reese’s Pieces. The land begins with a small neighborhood retail street with a local cafe quick service, all dressed for Halloween. The park loop train track sits on a berm ahead, separating the retail area from the neighborhood beyond, and an elevated trestle bridge sits above the road going deeper into the land. In the neighborhood area, straight ahead is Elliott’s house, to the left is more neighborhood houses, and to the right is a small Halloween carnival set up for the kids of the town. A path to the right of Elliott’s house leads up into the woods behind the neighborhood, where there is a campground and the landing site for E.T.’s ship.

The neighborhood area holds two attractions. Inside Elliott’s house is a dark ride through the house, where E.T. has built contraptions that do amazing things all over the place, like the makeshift communicator he originally built. The contraptions build a musical score that fills the house and the ride ends with the welcome party that the family has thrown for him to celebrate his visit. At the Halloween carnival down the street, there are carnival games and a scrambler flat ride with spinning pumpkin vehicles. The houses in the neighborhood area are also decorated for halloween and guests can trick or treat at them in the evening.

The forest area of the land takes guests into a thick redwood forest above the town below. A campground complex is located in this forest, including a log cabin style building, a bike storage shed, a watch tower, and multiple tents and small cabin buildings. The main building holds retail and a quick service restaurant themed to the camp mess hall. The bike storage shed along the path is the home of the next attraction, a flying bike family coaster, where E.T. has used his powers to allow for all the bikes to fly around the forest. The lift hill takes the train of bikes up to the watch tower and then they loop and weave through the trees on their way back down to ground level. Through the trees farther on in the forest, guests can see glimpses of a silver spaceship parked in a clearing ahead, and at night it glows and flashes with impressive lights. This is the return ship that E.T. took to visit Earth, and guests are invited inside. The queue leads through the forest outside before entering right through the front gangway and continuing through the interiors of the ship. Guests then board individual small spaceships that are suspended dark ride vehicles for a trip through space and back to E.T.’s home planet for our own visit and welcome party. Guests land back in the forest at the end of the ride and exit through a cabin where there is more retail.

Indiana Jones

This land is set in a trio of international destinations that Indy visited at various times on adventures during his prolific years of exploration. The land begins with a retail street right into the heart of the markets of Cairo, and splits from there to 3 areas in this land: Cairo, India, and South America. At the transition between each area, large red dashed lines are suggested in the pavement, as if designating our international travel.

Cairo is formed mostly of the streets and markets of the bustling city. Straight ahead, we can see two layers of transportation: the park loop train passing by above on a raised rickety wooden bridge and jeeps passing by below on a slightly raised terrace level of the market. The streets here include a variety of retail to match the setting and ends at an open plaza that continues left and right. To the left is the elevated train station, a teacups flat ride where guests ride in colorful market baskets full of fabrics, more retail, and a quick service food court style restaurant with a variety of Middle Eastern and African menus. To the right, at the edge of the market, is a dig site walkthrough/play area where guests can explore the excavated caves in search of treasures.

The last element of Cairo is the main attraction of the land and begins in Omar's Garage. Guests are invited by Sallah to board jeeps for a trip out into the desert to see the latest treasure that Indy has uncovered. The jeeps leave the garage and cross under the railroad track above, weave through an area of the Cairo cityscape not accessible to guests, and then enter the main show building for the trip out to the desert. Once there, guests are thrown right into a classic Indiana Jones adventure as the Scarab Idol that he discovered has brought with it a cursed force that has possessed the local diggers and is intent on trapping those who disturb it in a sandy tomb. Indiana Jones saves the day and sends us back to Cairo, where jeeps emerge back into the city streets and find their way back to the garage.

From the center of Cairo, the area to the left is India and is set in a fertile river valley where a lost temple has been discovered. The rear of the area is dominated by a mountainside with flowing waterfalls, including one with a raft flume coming down it to splash down in the valley below. This area by the splash down contains retail and dining, including both a quick service and a table service restaurant with garden seating overlooking the jungle river. After loading at the makeshift dock, the raft flume ride takes guests swiftly through the jungle and around the discovered temple before entering the caverns dedicated to the Bengal spirit that was revered in this valley. Inside, the rafts continue through menacing caves and pass tiger statues before traveling up a ramp and into a ceremonial chamber. Here a huge bengal statue comes to life in front of us and swats at the raft, sending it off along a tunnel of rapids and over the edge of the falls. The raft splashes down in the jungle, floats back through another cave, and unloads at the dock.

Across the jungle pathway, the bengal temple is a walk through ropes course attraction where guests can climb up through the temple ruins and step carefully across a suspension bridge over the river and back. Down the path, a mine that has been thought to hide a priceless ruby idol holds the last attraction of this area. A wild mine car careens out of the caverns in the jungle beyond, drawing guests towards the attraction. Guests board mine cars for an uncontrolled trip through the depths of the dangerous caves in search of a clue to the ruby idol. Partway through the ride, the cars hit a switch that disengages directional lock and allows the cars to spin freely for the second half of the mine escape.

Back passing through Cairo, the other side of the land is South America and is set in the deep jungles where Indiana Jones was led to on his search for the golden fertility idol. From the Cairo entrance, straight ahead through the jungle, a tall stone temple entrance tower pokes through the trees. This first area is an outpost village on the edge of the wilderness and holds retail and quick service dining. Across the path is a lagoon with a seaplane parked in it, and coaster track zooming through the jungle behind it. Also visible is a large stone platform quickly shooting back and forth through the vegetation. This is a disk-o flat ride that traverses the track through the jungle and one one side peaks above the trees and a ceremonial plaza below, and on the other side enters into a cave opening and peaks above a bubbling lagoon of fire.

The stone temple that is visible is the entrance to the last attraction of the land. A tunnel leads from that entrance back towards the show building, where guests board archeological utility vehicles in the ruins of a lost temple. The coaster is a multi-launch terrain coaster that races through both indoor scenes of the temple ruins and the outdoor jungle, all while dodging various booby traps that are still active, including darts, fire, and of course a rolling ball at the end.

Stranger Things Mini-Land and Attractions

I'm here to share a project I just finished that came about from a commission I recently did for a full park plan. That park included a Stranger Things area, and I decided to develop that area and the attractions in more detail.

Level 1

Level 2

This is a mini-land in a hypothetical theme park set in the world of Stranger Things. It contains 3 attractions, a meet and greet, a quick service dining location, and retail.

The land is set in the town of Hawkins soon after the events of the first season of the show. The Hawkins National Laboratory is under new scrutiny after the recent incidents and they have opened their gates up to the community of Hawkins to prove that nothing dangerous is going on. Tours are being conducted in the main lab, and other voluntary experiments are going on in a research station on site.

A block of downtown storefronts form the main public area of the land, which includes a classic diner quick service restaurant and multiple retail shops.

Just across the road is the mysterious Hawkins National Laboratory, sitting behind a tall chain link fence and a security shack with its main windowless building looming over town. The utilitarian grounds at the base of the building are open today for visitors, including a converted office trailer that is now a retail shop.

Around the corner from town and the Laboratory entrance is the Byers house, nestled in the woods alone. The house contains a meet and greet experience.



Stranger Things: Terror of the Upside Down

The main attraction of the land is a trackless dark ride where guests must escape from Hawkins National Laboratory when a tour goes wrong. Guests are invited into the main lab building for a brief tour and demonstration of the kinds of technologies being developed in Hawkins to prove that everything is completely safe. The queue enters through the public reception lobby, passes through office rooms and conference rooms set up with dioramas and infographics on the research done on site, through a museum type space about the history of the lab, and finally into a data processing center room where all current experiments are monitored. From there, guests are split into one of two pre-show rooms, where a welcome film from Dr. Sam Owens, the new director of the lab, is shown. We are informed that our tour is going to be done with automated conveyance vehicles, for security reasons, and that we are going to see a demonstration of unique energy generating devices.

After the pre-show, the queue leads up a ramp to level 2 where guests are sent to one of four load rooms. Each room has 2 eight passenger trackless vehicles, which have small monitors in the dashboard in front of each row where Dr. Owens will appear to describe what goes on in the lab. After loading, a roll up door goes up and the pair of vehicles begin the tour. The pair pass down a hallway with closed lab doors on either side, all labeled generically. Guests pass one large window on the right that looks into a lab with experiments and large computer terminals set up. At the end of the hallway, the pair of vehicles enter one of two identical demo rooms. Large windows look into a lab room and the vehicles park in front of the first two.

There is a lab set inside the windows but there is also a hidden angled glass pane crossing the room to create a musion effect. A trio of scientists in the room are preparing the experiments as we enter. Dr Owens tells us that we are going to get to see a brief demonstration of some of the energy experiments that are typically done in this lab. As he starts to explain some of their projects, an alert starts to display on the monitors in the lab, and the scientists run over to check what is happening. The recorded version of Dr Owens cuts away to show a live feed of a security officer, who tells us not to be concerned and to stay seated. But then the lights start flickering and the back wall of the lab begins to crack and crumble, revealing a gate to the upside down behind it. The scientists look at it in fear and begin to rush away from it before a demogorgon suddenly steps through it and roars.

It starts to prowl towards the scientists as the officer on the screen frantically tells us that everything is going to be ok, and that they know what they are doing. At that moment, safety curtains descend over the windows to block out the view of the demogorgon attacking the scientists, but we can hear the fight. The vehicles slowly move along towards the other side of the room, towards the third window. Suddenly the curtain crashes down and a full size demogorgon figure pops towards us, hitting the glass and clawing at it to get to us. The screens tell us that we are being evacuated and to stay in the vehicle as it makes its way to the exit.

The vehicles quickly retreat out of a second door in the demo room, back out into the hallway. Now it is darker and red alert sirens and lights are going off. Screeching noises and screams can be heard in the distance around a corner. The vehicles move quickly down a hall while on the vehicle displays we are being told that we are going to an elevator. The pair of vehicles turns down one of two identical hallways that are next to each other. At the end of the hallway is an open elevator door, waiting for us. The vehicles move towards it, but halfway down, a terrifying roar from ahead stops us. Suddenly, in the darkness a blob monster swings around the corner and faces right at us. This is a large animatronic figure on a hidden track that is able to move towards us down the hall and flail its arms. The vehicles stop and quickly start retreating as it slides towards them.

The vehicles turn around another corner and enter a lab room. This room continues into what we find to be the sensory deprivation tank room. We lose connection with the lab team as our monitor goes to static, so we are forced to continue unguided. The vehicles move into the next room, appearing to be a storage space, where there are multiple framed openings into the room beyond which are actually screens. After we are in the room, we see a demogorgon drop into view in the room beyond and start taking steps towards us, but suddenly it is lifted into the air and thrown backwards. Eleven and the rest of the main characters run into view and are surprised to find us there. They say that they'll try to help get us out while they find a way to send the monsters back into the upside down again. But then 2 more demogorgons appear ahead and we are told to split up and escape while they take care of them.

Each vehicle turns and goes through a different door into another room that features a similar screen set up. In one room, we see Eleven and the other kids taking on a demogorgon, and in the other we see Hopper and Joyce doing the same. Each vehicle then moves on into the next room, where a demogorgon figure pops out to attack. In one, it comes from a storage rack, in the other it comes from above through a ceiling grate. Both vehicles quickly pull away and enter a small projection dome room. It appears to be a dark empty lab space, but suddenly a swarm of dark particles start to form around us, forming a creature above us and reaching down to us. This is the Mind Flayer starting to come for us. The vehicles speedily exit that room and come face to face in a hallway. To one side is a dead end so both turn to the other side and find the room with the Mothergate. Guests look down into the large 2 story space with the scenic wall ahead. Demogorgon roars follow us so there is nowhere to go besides ahead, so the vehicles move forward and stop on the elevator platform. It then starts to descend to the floor and the open gate.

On the ground floor, the vehicle moves off the platform and towards the opening in the Mothergate wall, entering the upside down. We are in an upside down version of the lab hallway, with vines growing all over the walls. The vehicles rejoin and turn down a hall with exit signage and emerge out a doorway into the upside down forest. Ahead is a field of trees and vines with a screen beyond to extend the view to the distance. The vehicles now move more freely and weave through the trees. To the right, a demogorgon pops out and startles the vehicles to keep moving faster into a cave beyond. The track for the second attraction passes by this area and the two attractions look at each other as they try to escape. The cave that the vehicles enter into is dark and it sounds like something is stalking us. Emerging from the cave, the vehicles are in a clearing surrounded by the forest and there are two other vehicles already weaving around the area. Demobats are swarming above the clearing, occasionally swooping and forcing the vehicles to stay in motion as they weave and dance around.

After a minute, the vehicles escape through to the other side and enter another clearing, which is a large projection space that surrounds the view of guests. We see a pair of demogorgons coming towards us but suddenly Eleven arrives to save the day. She pushes the demogorgons away and starts to battle them while yelling for us to move away. The vehicles move to the right to follow the action. Then Eleven turns to us and forcefully pushes us away to get out of the fight, and the vehicles shoot backwards and into a dark tunnel that leads to the final scene. The vehicles emerge into a two story projection space extending above, showing the forest beyond, and come to rest on an elevator platform. There are 2 identical elevator scenes. The demogorgons and Eleven appear again ahead of us as they continue to fight. Suddenly, Eleven explodes with power and pushes both the demogorgons and us away as we shoot up to the upper level in a blinding flash of white. The vehicles come to rest on the upper floor in a room that looks like the remains of a closed Mothergate, and then slide backwards through opening doors. Finally, they turn and move forward to the unload area ahead, where lab employees apologize for the unconventional tour, but promise that the lab is still completely safe.

Guests unload and head down a staircase or elevator and emerge into the employee gift shop, and then exit back out to the grounds of the lab.



Hawkins Cycles

The second attraction starts in the downtown area and is a unique bike-based indoor/outdoor dark ride through the town and eventually into the upside down. Guests enter the local bike repair and rental shop and queue through the showroom, the shop, and the warehouse before boarding a vehicle with 4 individual bicycle seats in the shop loading yard.

The bikes take off and leave the load area, heading south. A walkie talkie on the bike gives us a message from Dustin to meet them at the Byers house for some fun around town. The bikes pass under a bridge and then enter the woods before veering right towards the house. But there behind the house is a clearing with abandoned bikes and no Dustin. A new message tells us that something came up and to head to the Laboratory instead to meet them.

The bikes continue along and are now up against the Laboratory fence, riding along in a ditch that goes under the entrance roads into the complex. This is the scenic portion of the ride. A message tells us to look for the hole in the fence up ahead, and the bikes soon turn left and find that gap, going through it. The trail continues along to a clearing where there's a mound of dead pumpkins. Another message tells us to head into the drainage tunnel ahead, that they are just inside.

The bikes continue into the dark tunnel and come out into a small indoor forest where there is another tunnel ahead. Guests continue forward into this much longer tunnel, and they start to hear strange noises, like dogs growling in the shadows. Finally the tunnel ends in a nondescript utility room and the bikes continue forward and turn into one of two identical dead-ends. Ahead is a screen that fills the rider's view and continues the view of the utility room. Dustin pulls up on his bike in the distance, waves, and then says on the radio that something bad has happened in the lab and the monsters are back, so we need to be careful. Suddenly, ahead, a pair of demodogs emerge from the shadows and start growling at us as they slowly walk towards us. Dustin starts waving frantically and yells for us to get out of there.

The bikes quickly rotate on a turntable and take off back out of the dead-end and then turn right, revealing a large gateway into the upside down ahead, and Dustin tells us not to go that way, so the bikes stop. But a demodog pounces out from the left and forces us to escape by racing ahead through the gate and into the upside down. The bikes speed through a tunnel of vines and then turn right into the forest where another demodog pounces. Screens behind the forest of trees and vines extend the view into the distance. Dustin yells at us on the radio to keep going forward and find another gate out, so the bikes keep moving and pass openings into a cave, where the vehicles from the main ride pass by. Ahead we see the other gate and keep racing towards it. The bikes go through it and emerge into another indoor forest area, where we get a relieved radio message congratulating us for escaping.

We turn to the left and go through a wooded bridge tunnel, which emerges back out to the real outside. The bikes continue straight, pass under a bridge and then arrive at the bike shop, where guests unload and exit through a retail space.



G Force Testing

The third and smallest ride is a centrifuge flat ride, themed as a research experiment to test the human limit of extreme forces. The queue leads through lab spaces that demonstrate other tests being performed by the Laboratory. A pre-test room has displays that evaluate live results of the experiment guests are about to undertake. They are then loaded into one of two test bays where the classic centrifuge ride subjects the group of guests to a high speed spin. Guests exit back out to the grounds of the Laboratory.



Meet and Greet

Guests have the opportunity to step into the Byers home and meet some of the characters from the series. The queue entrance leads around the house to the back door, and a small group is pulsed into the kitchen to wait. Then the group is moved into one of two identical living rooms, which are dressed like the first season with the Christmas lights. The group interacts with a few rotating characters before the lights go out and the Christmas lights blink, suggesting that something is happening in the upside down and danger is near. Then they are told to be careful and led out through a side door to exit and walk back to the front of the house.