Jurassic World Adventure - Universal Studios Beijing, Beijing, China Thea Award For Outstanding Achievement - Attraction
With Universal rebooting its Jurassic Park franchise as Jurassic World in 2015 – releasing three hit movies so far – it was time to apply the successful, cinematic brand pivot to its global theme park empire. With the creation of Universal Studios Beijing, an entire land was dedicated to this epic adventure series, giving designers a clean slate to create a new kind of immersive environment themed on the new marquee attraction. The existing River Adventures provided inspiration, but having the action unfold on dry land, and all indoors, supported creating a novel adventure, with full theatrical control. Having perfected their roving motion-base technology - first created for the (largely 3D-projected) Adventures of SpiderMan and Transformers attractions - Universal now opted for a more tangible, physical experience. The carefully protected audience view shed of these vehicles supports a highly
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directed, intimate experience without the need for 3D glasses. Massive physical sets feature integrated 2D moving-eye-point media, and of course, giant dinosaurs. Jurassic World Adventure also takes animated dinos to a whole new level, with a scale and impact that directly affect the dynamics of the experience (an Ankylosaurus bashes the vehicle and causes it to spin out of control, an overhead battle between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Indominous Rex seems far too close for comfort...) But the game-changing, industry first is a full-size, walking Indominus Rex that actually chases the riders. This ingenious design puts the massive dino animatronic on the same track system as the ride vehicle, creating a hair-raising face-to-face reverse chase unlike any dino encounter in any ride or attraction, anywhere. This attraction raises the bar for animatronic dark rides, creating a whole new breed of epic thrills.