Italy's Gardaland last weekend officially opened the world's first Jumanji dark rides to visitors.
Jumanji: The Adventure is the first of several planned Jumanji-themed attractions at Merlin theme parks worldwide. The new dark ride features multi-motion ride vehicles by Oceaneering, media effects by Framestore, as well as a massive, 21-foot-tall Stone Giant animatronic by Futuraform.
On the attraction, riders are placed inside a Jumanji game, where they have three lives in which to overcome enemies as they try to complete the game's task by returning a precious gem to a legendary temple.
Here is the best POV video I could find. It's edited, but gives you the majority of the preshow and ride experience.
You can read more about Merlin Entertainments plans for the Jumanji IP in More Jumanji Rides Coming to Merlin Theme Parks.
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Wow....looks like 95% of the budget was spent on the stone giant. The bare walls aren't necessarily an issue if you vehicle is oriented away from it and given something to look at. I feel like there was serious potential to be had here, and they really fell short.
Hmmm.. I think the kindest thing I could say is that it looks a bit... "old school", kind of reminds me of rides from years ago. Visible track, visible walls, visible ceiling... The car ahead of you visible much of the time and even the next screen visible showing the next plot loop playing out to the people before you! That's shockingly bad. And I know it's hard when you're mixing languages but did anyone actually follow the 'plot' at all?
The guy in that pic is no where near as buff as "The Rock"!
Am planning on visiting Gardaland in August and was looking forward to riding the new Jumanji ride. Having watched the video I am now seriously disappointed this sets the bar sooooooo low. Just hoping now that the coasters in the park are better than the dark rides.
It's a low light video, which makes me wonder how the ride will look IRL with its show lighting versus what comes across in the video. In other POVs, much of the attraction was too dark to be seen well on the screen, so I went with this one. But it's possible that the bare walls will not be as obvious on ride.
So I definitely would not skip this based on the video. But I would love to hear from someone who's actually been on the ride.
I don't think it looks terrible. I liked the pre-show reveal where the office wall opens to reveal the jungle theme. I've never been to Gardaland before, so I'm not sure what their standard is for theming attractions, but if it's on par with Cedar Fair, this attraction would be on the upper end of their theming scale even with all the faults readily observed in the POV.
It doesn't do the park any good to build an intricately themed attraction if the typical park guest won't appreciate it, so by cutting some corners and using static props and black walls instead of animatronics and layered scenery would be totally acceptable. I guess the question will be whether or not the future installations of this attraction will be carbon copies or have various levels of theming depending upon how much each park is willing to spend.
Great theme and a nice addition to the park! Keep up the quality work Gardaland!
I think Robert's right, the actual ride should have better lighting to sell effects so hopefully looks better.
Lol, doesn’t look that bad, I’ve seen plenty of boring and dated D and U dark rides designed under the elite “theme standards”
I have actually ridden that weird Egypt dark ride that this replaced, it was definitely better than this.
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Meh. If it's as easy to see the action going on ahead of you and bare walls as that POV suggests, then color me disappointed.