Hide the bananas!
More Minions are on their way to Universal Orlando
It hasn’t been much of a secret what Universal was planning for the defunct Shrek 4-D–or at least what the theme of its replacement would be. After the attraction closed at Universal Studios Florida and construction walls went up on the Building 40 soundstage, they were plastered with Minions characters. Last week, the theme park resort confirmed that Villain-Con Minion Blast would open in summer 2023.
Described as an interactive shooter game experience, guests will be invited to compete against one another. The action will take place at Villain-Con, an expo for nefarious evildoers that was introduced in the first Despicable Me spinoff/prequel, Minions. Participants will blast away for a chance to demonstrate their prowess and earn a spot among The Vicious 6, an elite band of supervillains featured in Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Here’s the thing, though: Unlike Men In Black Alien Attack and other shooter attractions, Villain-Con Minion Blast will not incorporate ride vehicles. It won’t exactly be a walk-through attraction either. Instead, it will use what Universal is describing as a “motion-based pathway,” which is apparently an unnecessarily flowery way of saying a moving walkway. (The resort’s curious phrase would seem to suggest a type of motion simulator attraction, such as The Simpsons Ride, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.) Instead of the straight paths used by walkways at airports, however, the Universal attraction will probably use a winding route.
More details will be forthcoming, but Universal did indicate that Minion Blast would include screen media as well as practical, physical set elements. It’s unclear whether animatronic figures would be part of the mix, but it would be cool to see the goofy, pill-shaped Minions represented that way. Perhaps it will include projection mapping onto dimensional props as well, which could help make the visuals pop and increase the wow factor.
Minion Blast will be located directly across the promenade from Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, the delightful motion simulator attraction. (Call me a hopeless softie, but I invariably get a bit weepy during that presentation’s emotional finale; it must be the theme park overstimulation wearing down my macho armor defenses.) The new attraction will help create a Minion Land, which visitors will encounter when they first enter the park. It will also include a Minion Café, likely taking over the spot inhabited by the since-closed Universal Studios’ Classic Monsters Café. The resort is promising some other Minion-themed features for the land (which will surely include a shop filled with Minion tchotchkes).
Universal Studios Hollywood has a mini Minion enclave as well. It includes its own Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, a Minion Café (with Nutella Banana Pudding on the menu; if you didn’t know, the begogglekd characters go bonkers for bananas), a Despicable Delights snack shop, and Super Silly Fun Land, which includes a spinning ride and a play zone with water features.
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In other Universal Orlando news
The park resort announced that most of the KidZone attractions at Universal Studios Florida will be closing in mid-January to make way for new additions. These include Fievel’s Playland, Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster, and the Curious George Goes to Town play area. While nothing official has been announced, it’s likely that whatever is coming will also be geared to younger children. The junior coaster will probably be re-themed with an intellectual property considerably more recognizable to today’s youngsters than Walter Lantz’s wacky woodpecker, whose heyday was in the 1940s and 1950s.
Unlike the Disney parks, where nostalgia for classic characters and attractions runs deep, Universal constantly changes and refreshes its parks. The only opening-day attraction that remains operational at Universal Studios Florida (which opened in 1990, not all that long ago in theme park years) is E.T. Adventure. Although the beloved alien’s ride is also in the KidZone land, it reportedly is not on the chopping block.
The resort recently debuted two escape room experiences at Universal CityWalk. Collectively known as Universal’s Great Movie Escape, guests can take on either Jurassic World: Escape or Back to the Future: OUTATIME. Judging by images of the sets, it’s clear that Universal Creative has brought its considerable design as well as world-building talent and experience to the attraction. Also, unlike most escape room experiences, the Great Movie Escape features well-known properties with established storylines.
For Jurassic World, participants are transported to Isla Nebular where they become scientists-in-training. Dinosaurs inevitably break free (of course) adding a sense of urgency to escape. In OUTATIME, the stakes are no less critical. Guests go back to the 1990s and encounter the smarmy, evil Biff who is hellbent on destroying the space-time continuum. In addition to saving themselves, participants have to preserve the past as well as the future of humankind–but hey, no pressure!
Universal says the two experiences are randomized, so the solutions can vary (thereby making the Great Movie Escape repeatable). They can also be customized according to the number of participants and their skill levels.
This isn’t the first time Universal Orlando has developed an escape room-like experience. In 2016, the resort offered The Repository, a limited-time attraction that was offered in conjunction with that year’s Halloween Horror Nights event. It focused heavily on virtual reality, which at the time was relatively novel.
Because Universal’s Great Movie Escape is offered at CityWalk, it does not require theme park admission. Tickets start at $49.99 per person and vary according to date and time of visit.
What do you make of Villain-Con Minion Blast? Do you enjoy interactive, blaster-type attractions? Have you experienced an escape room? Would you want to try the Great Movie Escape during a visit to Universal?
I've entertained the thought that putting in a Minions shooter was laying the foundation for getting rid of MIB: Alien Attack, a ride that's 20 years old and essentially a dead IP.
At any rate, I'm certainly interested in the moving walkway aspect. I wonder if there will be some kind of containment within the walkway so that guests can't potentially run ahead and interfere with another group's experience, or try to walk backwards and clog up the line, etc. For instance, I could see the walkway consisting of a space bounded by a guardrail in front and back that would also allow for storage of the blasters. You'd still be essentially contained in a ride vehicle-sized space, just standing instead of sitting.
A shooting game on a moving walkway sounds odd. I suppose it'll keep people moving (as opposed to a walk-through where they could stay in a spot and slow down the line), but giving them any kind of freedom of movement seems like a prescription for disaster.