If you know us
personally (that’s me and Sian), then you’ll have no doubt attended our wedding
earlier this year. That means you know we’re a right pair of Disney buffs - and
film buffs too. So naturally, during our visit to LA we visited both Disneyland
and Universal Studios.
Whether it’s
LA, Florida or Paris, Disneyland isn’t something I can ever see myself getting
bored of. I often hear people say they’re ‘too old’ to go to Disneyland. To quote Peter Pan (and this is something I actually said to
the shuttle driver who picked us up from the park and asked if we considered
ourselves ‘too old’ for Disney); ‘never
grow up.’ Okay perhaps I’m paraphrasing as I haven’t seen the film in
some time, but words to that effect.
I could spend a
long time talking about these theme parks, so I’ll do my best to keep this as brief as possible and focus only on the highlights. But actually that’s going to be a
struggle. I jump up and down on the spot whenever Sian buys me candy floss, so
maybe it was all one big highlight.
I’ll start with
Disneyland as that’s where we went first. Just minutes after entering, when we
had already eagerly made our way to the end of Main Street – that’s the early
20th century-style street lined with classy souvenir shops, ice
cream parlours and cafes that leads you to the infamous castle at the centre of
the theme park – a horse smiled for me! That’s how magical Disney is. Okay it
was probably a coincidence but just look at the picture below.
What breed? Magical.
However, the castle here is strangely small. This was our second visit
to this particular Disneyland and I don’t know why we didn’t really notice
before. Disneyland Paris – which we’ve also visited twice now - boasts a
like-for-like castle as seen in the opening of any Disney movie, so I’m not
sure why this one is some half the size. I guess I’ll just put it
down to magic too.
I won’t go into
too much detail here, though I’m tempted to explain to you the exact layout of
the park and all the awesome merchandise we saw (line by line, piece by piece
etc.), but by the time you read this post I hope that what I’ve told you is
enough to encourage you to go yourself, whether it's LA, Paris or Orlando.
Anyway, when it
comes to Disney merchandise, I can’t fault them. Perhaps the one thing that always really impresses me is how they’ve
really capitalised on their ‘hybrid’ merchandise. By this, I’m talking about
the genius ways in which they creatively cross several different lines. For
example, you might find a Mickey Mouse-shaped Vinyl figurine which bears the anatomical
details of a Star Wars character. Or perhaps a Yoda that’s actually Stitch but
in Lego form. You get the idea. I guess I’m just lucky I don’t have the money
to buy it all, otherwise I’d quite happily just let it go.
Speaking of
Star Wars, with new films now dominating the cinema every Christmas, as you
might expect, the Force is very strong within Disneyland. There’s the Jedi
Training School in Tomorrowland - where you’ll also find Star Wars-themed
restaurant food - as well as a Star Wars
expo-style museum where we were lucky enough to meet Chewbacca (who was very
movie quality and very cuddly and also pointed out how similar I am to a Wookie with my beard and all) as well as the misfortune to meet Darth Vadar
(not so cuddly).
Warning: Choking hazard
A Curious Rookie and a Curious Wookie
This time we
didn’t bother with our ‘treasure hunt’ of all the classic Disney characters
(Mickey, Goofy, Pooh, Daisy and so on). In case you don’t know what I’m talking
about, we did this in Disneyland Paris early last year, like big annoying
children who get annoyed at actual children (who are actually ten times more
annoying than we are). Sure, the characters were walking around all the same but it was
just so busy and we thought we’d use the time exploring the parts of the park we hadn’t
turned our attention to before.
That said, we
saw them all in the eternally-awesome Disney Parade. Main Street is
strategically cordoned off for a twice-daily (I think) parade that includes all
the classic characters and more who appear on moving floats such as Pride Rock and Hook’s
Pirate Ship. It’s quite simply magical. Just make sure you don’t let some of the
annoying, spoilt, ungrateful children get in your way because their parents
believe that it’s ‘all for the kids anyway’; a dig specifically aimed at both
me and Sian as we enjoyed front-curb seats of the musical performance. You
snooze, you lose.
Mary Poppins - one of my all-time exes_ er, favourites
Now onto
Universal Studios’ theme park, which we visited the following day. On passing
through the gates, it surprised me to hear the very appropriate Jurassic World
score start playing. As you can imagine, I instantly felt like a big child, with
the jovial music setting the tone right for the rest of the day. We got there
bright and early too, which means we were able to visit the magical Hogsmeade from the Harry Potter movies and the colour-soaked Springfield from The Simpsons before the real crowds arrived. Now I really could
go on forever, but all I will say is that the attention to detail in both these
areas is just fantastic. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Snow in LA in May? Must be that magic again
You have the music in your head now, don't you?
The magic is in the detail
Har-har
Awesome
They even sold some of that wonderful Duff
With it being so early and the crowds almost non-existent, we quickly made for the Universal Studios tour, which took us
through the original studio backlots. Aboard a large bus we drove
through countless movie sets including "New York" (used in several films such as
Transformers, Fast & Furious and hit TV show How I Met Your Mother), a street used in Ted, Home Alone 2, Bruce Almighty, Gone Girl and many more, and Wysteria Lane from TV classic Desperate Housewives. More awesomely though we passed the one and only City Hall as seen in Back to the Future - as well as Gremlins and Psycho 2.
Ted: A lot bigger than in the movie
City Hall from Back to the Future
New York, LA
Though I wasn’t expecting anything from the Jurassic Park films, we passed the observation trailers used in The Lost World: Jurassic
Park. These are the ones that were used in the scene where the two T. Rexes forced them over the edge of the cliff with our characters inside. We also passed the jeep Malcolm and co. use in the film as well as the gas jeep from the first movie. Then we were greeted by some cheeky dilophosaurs! Unfortunately we were moving too fast for me to get a picture.
Jurassic Park's gas jeep
The ill-fated observation trailers from the sequel
We also passed a building that, like the Hawaiian
Convention Centre on Oahu and the Plantation on Kauai, was used for visitor centre
scenes in the original film (most likely interior shots during the end scene,
in my opinion). And in addition to our mega Jurassic World 2 scoop from Kualoa Ranch, as we
passed a series of many other vehicles made famous in Hollywood films, we saw that Jurassic World’s gyrosphere ‘parking spot’ was empty. According to the sign, it has been "pulled for production"...
Pretty
exciting, huh? But I wonder what it means. Obviously within the narrative of Jurassic World that
particular gyrosphere was smashed to bits by the Indominus as it tried to eat brothers Gray and Zach, but that was CGI, so it sounds like the practical model is simply
being recycled for a new purpose in next year’s highly-anticipated sequel. There's no doubt that it will end up with several tooth and claw marks though. After all, vehicles and Jurassic Park movies are hardly good bedfellows.
Suddenly things
got a bit scary, as our bus entered a 3D King Kong experience. Like in the epic
2005 adaptation, Peter Jackson’s King Kong battled two V-Rexes with our bus
was caught in the middle. It was a rocky ride and we were even splattered with
some blood whenever one of the beasts' massive jaws took a smack from Kong. But let me tell you
that unless you’ve experienced this ride, you haven’t experienced real 3D. The tour guide also said this,
emphasising that it’s the best 3D experience there is. Here, snapping jaws aren't just flying out at you, and the details of the jungle looking like they're within reach - you're in the jungle, and those jaws are snapping all around. Where else other than
Universal Studios itself I guess.
We also passed by the 747 crash site from Spielberg's War of the Worlds, which looked frighteningly real. To lift the mood though we briefly drove through "Whoville" from The Grinch, before stopping at Norman Bates' creepy mansion from the original Psycho. Then, we met the stars from the Fast & Furious movies (in a virtual sense of
course, though it might as well have been them), as we engaged in a high-speed, adrenaline-charged chase with fast cars, huge explosions, gunfire
and the heroes leaping from bonnet to bonnet. It was all very fast and very
furious, and again, this is a real 3D simulator. And note that I hate simulators with a passion, yet I left this one with no nausea or motion sickness.
Fast & Furious 3D experience. Too busy avoiding bullets to record it though
But before the tour
ended, we were also nearly drowned in a flood and then hit by a derailed train. Luckily they
were just sets - the latter having been used in the TV show Bones – as I doubt
this would have been covered in our travel insurance. And speaking of deadly
waters, we also passed alongside "Amity Island". Sound familiar? Yes, it's the home of
Jaws. A now closed-down ride that’s been reshaped to serve the studio tour
instead, we got to see a movie-quality shark (not a good thing but at the same
time a great thing) popping up out of the water among the flames of an ignited oil drum!
So, our
Jurassic Park adventures continued as we hit Jurassic Park: The Ride twice!
Having also been to the Orlando version, the differences are obvious.
For starters, unlike Orlando this is not "Camp Jurassic". Orlando dedicates a
large space to the ride and more. That’s not to suggest LA doesn’t – it’s just not
as big. But it’s equally awesome, and I was thrilled that it differs from
Orlando. For starters, there’s a movie-quality Spinosaurus (not that it was a particularly
good quality in the film but outside the film it looks awesome),
and next to an awful man-in-a-raptor suit it looked even better. In fact, the raptor-puppet
looked so embarrassing – at least by the franchise's standards – that we both
simply refused to take any pictures or engage him. Then there’s a Jurassic
Park restaurant where we enjoyed some burgers (sadly no table
loaded with ice cream and jelly or raptor-infested kitchens though). There’s also no Pterosaur Ride or Visitor Centre like in Orlando or even games such as
Hammond’s Hotshots, but there is the trademark souvenir shop Jurassic
Outfitters, where I ended up stubbornly watching the last fifteen minutes of
Jurassic World on a big TV screen, totally transfixed.
The teeth and claws on that ride are very dangerous...
Welcome to Jurassic Park/World-Land
Now that makes for an interesting job title
Don't expect cowardly lawyers to stick around for long
Erm, where did all the passengers go?
He looks a lot more realistic when he isn't moving
Jurassic Park food, which is surprisingly not a bunch of people
He had clearly escaped from the restaurant kitchen freezer
We were in there for some time afterwards
The ride itself
is perhaps the best ride I’ve ever experienced and never gets boring. The T.Rex at the
end before the 84-foot plummet is just pure movie quality, making it bloody terrifying. In fact, so
terrifying that according to a hostess in Disneyland the day before as we
headed in to meet fellow Wookie, Chewy, Steven Spielberg himself asked to come
off the ride when he first tried it out – just before he got to the T-Rex! When you gotta go, you gotta go, I guess...
We also got to experience
the hugely-anticipated The Walking Dead walk-through experience. But I’ll
cut to the chase here and tell you it’s not worth the sixty or so seconds.
Sure, naturally the walkers are semi-terrifying but I generally
just found it to be less a case of running and screaming and more walking
and talking. A bit like the show then.
A far cry from Disneyland...
Speaking of post-apocalyptic worlds, we experienced the Water World production which is based on the Kevin Costner film of the same name. It's a stunt-soaked, action-packed extravaganza so good I've been dying to watch the film ever since, and I remember that it's not that great!
Did in 20 minutes what the film couldn't do in some 2 hours
Now I can hardly finish a post without mentioning Ghostbusters. But what does this have to do with Universal, you might ask? It's Sony-licensed, but like many other non-Universal franchises there's a neat little merchandise in one of the park's stores. Personally, and this is a thought I've had for some time, I hope that either Disney or Universal pick up the rights to Ghostbusters in time. But that's another post entirely...
Me: I want one of those StayPufts!
Sian: We got one.
In finishing up on our awesome theme park experiences, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my own wonderful, beautiful Disney Princess for buying me an exclusive Mickey Mouse watch from the park.
So, whether it’s
Disneyland or Universal Studios and all the awesome details and the magic they’re made up of,
it’s not just mindless fun for me - or Sian. As you know, I’m a creative person and the reason I love
this kind of stuff so much is because, to me, this is real magic. I can only
dream that the novels I’m working on will be successful in the future and that
they’re picked up for movie-making. Then I guess you could say I’d be a part of this world…
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