Universal Studios Florida
N 28° 28.494 W 081° 27.978
17R E 454354 N 3149899
Opened in 1990 and has become a major tourist attraction amongst the many destinations in the Orlando area.
Waymark Code: WM8151
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 01/07/2010
Views: 47
Universal Studios Florida
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Universal Studios Florida is an American amusement park located in Orlando, Florida. Opened on June 7, 1990, the park's theme is the entertainment industry, in particular movies and television. Universal Studios Florida inspires its guests to "ride the movies," and it features numerous attractions and live shows. The park is one component of the larger Universal Orlando Resort.
In 2008, the park hosted an estimated 6.23 million guests, ranking it the fifth-most visited theme park in the United States, and #7 in the world.[1]
Park history and design
Unlike its sister facility, Universal Studios Hollywood, which is a working film and television studio that became a tourist attraction and theme park, Universal Studios Florida was designed as both a theme park and a studio from the start. It was also the first time that Universal Studios had constructed an amusement park "from the ground up."
A major component of the original park in Hollywood is its studio tour, which featured several special-effects exhibits and encounters built into the tour, such as an attack by the great white shark from the film "Jaws". For its Florida park, Universal Studios took the concepts of the Hollywood tour scenes and developed them into larger, stand-alone attractions. As an example, in Hollywood, the studio tour trams travel close to a shoreline and are "attacked" by Jaws before they travel to the next part of the tour. In Florida, guests enter the "Jaws" attraction and board a boat touring the fictitious Amity Harbor, where they encounter the shark, then exit back into the park at the conclusion of the attraction. Universal Studios Florida originally had a Studio Tour attraction that visited the production facilities, but that tour has since been discontinued.
Over the years, Universal Studios Florida has not limited itself to attractions based on its own vast film library. It has occasionally licensed popular characters from other rival studios, many of whom did not operate theme parks themselves. Some examples include the Ghostbusters and the Men in Black (from Sony's Columbia Pictures), Jimmy Neutron (from Viacom's Nickelodeon), The Simpsons (20th Century Fox), and Shrek (from DreamWorks Animation).
Many of the park's past and present attractions were developed with the actual creators of the films they were based on, and feature the original stars as part of the experience. Steven Spielberg, a VIP for the park, helped create E.T. Adventure and was a creative consultant for Back to the Future: The Ride, Twister...Ride it Out, An American Tail Theatre, Jaws and Men in Black: Alien Attack. Many of the original stars reprised their film roles including Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson in Back to the Future: The Ride, Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt in Twister...Ride it Out, Rip Torn and Will Smith in Men in Black: Alien Attack, Brendan Fraser for Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride, Christopher Walken and Dwayne Johnson in Disaster!, the cast from Shrek returned for Shrek 4-D, various Nicktoons voice actors reprised their roles in Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast, Roy Scheider recorded a voice over for the conclusion of Jaws, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera made appearances in The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera while Hanna-Barbera voice actors reprised their roles in the same ride, Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Perkins appeared in Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies and even Charlton Heston made an appearance in the pre-show for Earthquake: The Big One.
Production facilities
Universal Studios Florida is also a working production studio. It has been used for several movies, television series, commercials, music videos, and other events throughout its history. It was also the home of Nickelodeon Studios, the production location for Nickelodeon from 1990 until 2005. In September 2008, Nickelodeon returned to Universal Studios Florida for the production of "My Family's Got GUTS." Currently, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling films its television programs at the studio. In January 2009, the Powerball lottery drawings moved from Iowa; they are conducted and filmed at Universal Studios Florida, coinciding with the Florida Lottery's entry into the Powerball game.
Universal Studios Florida is home to six soundstages that are available for a variety of purposes. A seventh soundstage, Stage 18, was one of the former Nickelodeon Studios soundstages; it was redesigned in 2007 as the Sharp Aquos Theatre, where the Blue Man Group has performed since June 2007. The soundstage and the core production facility were made a permanent part of Universal CityWalk. Soundstage 21 has been used since June 2004 for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) which has produced its weekly television program, TNA iMPACT! from there, and has aired its pay-per-view events from this location since November 2004; it is referred to as the "iMPACT! Zone" for this reason. The remaining soundstages are available for rent by other production companies. During Halloween Horror Nights, the soundstages are occasionally used for the event's haunted houses. A wide range of productions have been filmed in the soundstages during the studio's history, including many local and national commercials. Television shows include SeaQuest DSV (from its second season forward) and Superboy (second-fourth seasons). The Ellen DeGeneres Show films a week-long series of episodes at the resort in the spring.[2] Sports-entertainment shows World Championship Wrestling and roller derby series "RollerJam!" were filmed at the studios. The studios have hosted numerous game shows, including national tours of Wheel of Fortune, Fear Factor (portions of episodes from 2004-2005) and the Florida Lottery's Flamingo Fortune. Since 2009, the Powerball drawing originates from the facilities. Major scenes of the movie Parenthood were filmed at the studios prior to the park's opening to the public in 1990. The film Psycho IV: The Beginning as well as the TV series Swamp Thing were also filmed at the theme park shortly following its grand opening. Most recently, the films Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective, Beethoven's Big Break and The Final Destination were filmed at the studio.
During the 1990s when Nickelodeon's main home was at Universal Studios, the soundstages were used to film almost all Nickelodeon's original live action programming including: Get the Picture, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Family Double Dare, All That and many others. While Stage 18 is now used as the Sharp Aquos Theatre for the Blue Man Group, Soundstage 19 and the core production facility are home to Sun Sports and FSN.
Other soundstages located throughout the park (whilst primarily in the Production Central area) house the attractions Blue Man Group Sharp Aquos Theatre (in CityWalk) Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast, Shrek 4-D, Donkey's Photo Finish, Twister...Ride it Out, Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride, Men in Black: Alien Attack and E.T. Adventure.
Park sections
Universal Studios Florida is separated into seven different areas—Production Central, Hollywood, New York, San Francisco/Amity, World Expo, Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone and The Lagoon.
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