Meanwhile…

Since the opening of Universal Studios Florida in 1990, Sheinberg and MCA had been racing to become more than a day trip from Walt Disney World’s backyard. Even then, in the early ‘90s, their plans for Orlando expanded beyond the Studios park and to a whole new second gate that they hoped would hit Disney where it hurt: Cartoon World. Assembling Jay Ward comics, Dr. Seuss, Looney Tunes, and DC Comics into one theme park, Cartoon World would assemble a world-class collection of timeless animated intellectual properties that would give Disney a run for its money.

Of course, Universal didn’t specifically own any of those brands. Instead, they’d need to license them from their parent companies. 

As we know, Warner Bros. ended up axing its agreement with MCA, causing Looney Tunes and DC Comics to be stricken from the planned park… and instead opening the door for Universal’s intriguing ownership of Marvel’s Avengers in Orlando in 1994.

But at that same moment, the roaring success of Jurassic Park in theaters (and the in-progress build of The Ride in Hollywood) suggested that Universal might do well to consider making Jurassic Park a centerpiece of its new park, expanding from a single, standalone ride into a full land recreating the Costa Rican island. Other lands developed around the centerpiece Jurassic Park.

Naturally, that meant that Universal’s second gate was no longer a “Cartoon World” at all. 

So when Jurassic Park: The Ride opened in 1996, the blueprints were sent back East to coincide with the groundbreaking of a very different second gate: one built around literature, myths, legends, novels, picture books, and comics. Universal’s Islands of Adventure would feature immersive, Disney-style “islands” situated around a central lagoon. And as guests gazed across this great sea from the park’s Port of Entry, they’d see Jurassic Park itself.

Isla Nublar

Whereas Universal Studios Hollywood invites us behind-the-scenes of our favorite films, Islands of Adventure is about being transported to new worlds. And there’s a sort of meta, in-universe brilliance to that in the case of Jurassic Park. After all, the Jurassic Park “land” is essentially inviting us into the theme park version of… a theme park! There’s no need for a convoluted story to explain away our role on rides, or the existence of restaurants or midway games; we’re on Isla Nublar and stepping into the “real” theme park built there by John Hammond!

As a result, we can tour the Jurassic Park Discovery Center, a picturesque mini-museum where “real” Jurassic Park scientists can introduce us to freshly-hatched dinosaurs; we can tour the Triceratops Encounter, a really-for-real zoological exhibit inviting us into the island’s veterinary clinic for a meet-and-greet with a living (but sedated) triceratops. There’s even Camp Jurassic, a purpose-built family discovery area of ranger towers, bridges, and dig pits built around the island’s natural amber-encrusted caves with the Pteranodon Flyers roller coaster gliding around its perimeter - built here by Hammond and company for family amusement!

And here, as part of the “living” theme park, resides one spectacular way to tour its habitat: the Jurassic Park River Adventure. (Note the name change, firmly establishing this as just one attraction in the “real” park. This also happens to be the name initially chosen by the Goddard Group for Hollywood's original version.)

Jurassic Park River Adventure (later copied to Universal Studios Japan in a mirror-image “flipped” version as part of a similarly-scaled Jurassic Park land) opened alongside Islands of Adventure in May, 1999. The Floridian version of the ride does differ from its original Hollywood counterpart in a number of ways aside from its in-universe narrative. Unfortunately, most were clearly budget-related:

• The living trellis tunnel was removed from the ride’s initial approach to the Jurassic Park gates. (Perhaps a fair trade off given Islands of Adventure's authentically-dense jungle.)

• The Ultrasaur lagoon features the single, towering Ultrasaur without its young baby.
• More lush landscaping and more scenic design elements (with fewer exposed infrastructure) in keeping with the land’s immense scale.
• The “falling Jeep” effect was cut and replaced with a more reliable and startling effect – a “falling crate” with a live velociraptor within, positioned directly over the boat.

• The ride’s indoor portion removes the conceit of the “Environmental Systems Building” and the tense countdown to the termination of life support systems.
• There is no initial T. rex attack from above; instead, the venom-spitting dilophosaurus are relocated to the top of the lift (rather than outdoors in Hollywood).
• The T. rex is visible upon approach rather than being concealed behind a waterfall and “swinging” out toward riders.  

Take a look at this on-ride point-of-view video of Jurassic Park River Adventure at Universal’s Islands of Adventure to spot all the changes that came with the ride as it was exported to Florida in 1999:

Something new

After the 1993 success of Jurassic Park, the film was followed by two sequels - 1997’s The Lost World and 2001’s Jurassic Park III - each representing declining reviews and revenue. Maybe the magic of Jurassic Park had been a once-in-a-lifetime pop culture moment; an awe-inspiring, gotta-see-it demonstration of early CGI doing what had - until that very moment - been impossible. Worse, maybe Jurassic Park would become a never-ending franchise of decreasing quality entries and tie-ins until fading some public consciousness as a tarnished brand…

Then, in 2015, Jurassic World debuted. Set 22 years after the original film (the actual amount of time that had passed), the reboot picks up a decade into the successful operation of a new park. Back in the '90s, Jurassic Park was essentially the dinosaur equivalent to SeaWorld's Discovery Cove; an all-inclusive, high-cost boutique resort accessible only to the well-to-do; a 1-percent-ers vacation to an exclusive tropical hideaway for big spenders. Jurassic World is... well... a little different... 

The idea is that while the ruins of Jurassic Park rot somewhere on Isla Nublar, a separate section of the island has been reborn. Jurassic World has more in common with Shanghai Disneyland than Discovery Cove; it's a corporate-built, master-planned, built-out theme park for the masses, from guests' arrival via monorails and ferries to its CityWalk-style retail-and-dining district stocked with everything from Fossil to Starbucks. It all leads to the park's Samsung Innovation Center - a clear homage to the original Discovery Center, blown up with modern glass and wood, and a whole island's worth of high-tech tours and outright thrill rides.

But its main draw? Bio-engineered dinosaurs genetically designed to create our collective shared image of dinosaurs (cleverly addressing the series’s maintaining of scaly reptilian dinosaurs despite now-undeniable evidence that many dinosaurs were covered in feathers). If Jurassic Park was committed to showing dinosaurs in their natural state, Jurassic World commodifies them for our entertainment: Shamu-like stadiums (complete with "splash zones") built around the aquatic mosasaurus that literally eats sharks for dinner; enormous stages for showcasing velociraptors trained like performing seals... and something entirely new...

Jurassic World is built to give the people what they want. And what they want is the newest, baddest, most deadly predator on Earth. That roaring T. rex just doesn't quite do it for audiences anymore. To up the ante, Jurassic World scientists create the wild, viscious, and brilliant Indominus rex. This horrific creature "wasn't bred; she was designed," fusing DNA from the dinosaur kingdom’s meat-eaters with a cuttlefish, tree frog, and pit viper. A genetically-engineered hybrid super predator capable of thermal regulation and color camouflage, with crocodilian teeth, sickle-shaped claws, and record-breaking bite force... what's the worst that could happen?

With a new cast of characters including the park’s operations manager Claire (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) and animal behavior specialist / raptor trainer Owen (Chris Pratt), the film amps up the ante. 

Though film critics and fans largely consider the new series to lack the brains, heart, and awe of the originals, Jurassic World earned $1.67 billion - more than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. What’s more, 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom nearly reached the same milestone, with a third (and final?) entry in the new trilogy set for June 2021.

 

And as we know from Lost Legends: JAWS, Back to the Future: The Ride, T2 3-D, and Kongfrontation, nothing at Universal is forever. When a hot new franchise arises, it demands a place in the park come hell or high water. In most any head-to-head between a classic and a flavor-of-the-week film, you can count on the latter winning out. And that’s just what happened.

On September 3, 2018, Jurassic Park: The Ride closed forever at Universal Studios Hollywood. In a large-scale redesign, the original ride’s yellow, red, and black accents, signage, and rafts were stripped, replaced with the cool, modern blue, white, and silver of the Jurassic World franchise. But would the Indominus rex replace the Tyrannosaurus? Would that iconic score remain? What was happening behind the closed gates? It turns out, quite a lot...