Character meets might be the most divisive attractions in any theme park. For some visitors - usually those with small children - characters meets can be must-do experiences that become the highlight of a visit. But for other fans, character meets are the easiest attractions to skip in the park.
Yet even those in the second camp should appreciate character meets. After all, anything that draws people out of the queues for the experiences you like into the queues for those you don't is a win, right? So I cannot imagine a theme park with access to character IP not including opportunities to meet and pose for photos with those characters. Heck, even parks without outside IP can do well to create their own characters for meet and greets. (Hello, Whittles, Miss Lillian, and others.)
Universal Orlando's new Epic Universe will feature character meet locations for its classic monsters in Dark Universe and Nintendo characters in Super Nintendo World. This week, Universal released photos of the "How to Train Your Dragon" character meet that the new park will feature in its Isle of Berk land.
Meet Hiccup and Toothless in the Haddock Paddock.
Let's give Universal credit here. That photo is as close to the concept art for this attraction as any other I have seen for a new theme park location. I can think of at least one rival theme park company that could learn a lesson from Universal about creating concept art that inspires without misleading potential guests.
The highlight here will be the life-sized, animated Toothless, the Night Fury dragon. Toothless is the emotional heart of this franchise, and his expression comes almost exclusively from his eyes. Yet unless skillfully executed, puppetry and animation design can lead characters such as this into the uncanny valley that leaves kids crying in fear and grown-ups posting mocking videos online.
But for what I have seen so far, Universal has stuck the landing on its work with Toothless.
Even for fans who typically skip character meets, this one might just work its way onto your Epic Universe to-do list. Universal Epic Universe opens officially on May 22. It is now in previews for Universal team members and we already have one trip report up on our Discussion Forum. Stay tuned to Theme Park Insider for more preview reports from inside the park in the weeks to come.
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i think this marks a change, we will see the real lands in no time. i promise
Is this really a game changer though? Universal has been working on this since triceratops encounter, and perfected it with the raptors. A reskin of a raptor into a dragon doesn’t seem like anything more than a remix of an old hit.
Not saying it’s not cool, just asking if it’s a big deal.
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Yeah, I'm definitely in the market for a photo pass at this park. It is one of the newest parks with those kind of considerations pre-construction. I'm sure the Donkey Kong and HTTYD coasters might have multiple on-ride photos.
The right personality for the Dark Universe characters might be of high quality if they can leverage some of their stars from Halloween Horror nights. They should have had a permanent scare house installation for Halloween Horror Nights for 365 scares, especially since they have their property in Las Vegas. Bonehead move to be honest.
It may be news to you guys that there is a live action HTTYD movie coming out in June (?) so they really are scaling up pretty well to get this park quality mindshare.