They've been very busy at the far corner of Universal's Orlando theme park Islands of Adventure constructing an enormous building to house their latest attraction, Skull Island: Reign of Kong.
Those with a good memory will recall that Universal Studios, the company's first park in Orlando, had a huge King Kong ride. In fact, it was one of the signature rides on opening day in June, 1990, along with Earthquake, Jaws, and E.T.
The Universal theme parks have been sold and resold over the years, and they finally got their act together with their latest owner, Comcast, which has been pouring money into creating new attractions at the parks, including Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan.
At Disney, Walt used to say it all started with a mouse, but at Universal it all really started with Harry Potter. Obtaining the rights from J.K. Rowling was the coup of the century for Universal, and gave them the momentum against Walt Disney World they've been looking for. Attendance has risen by 40 percent. They've been building new attractions at both Orlando parks almost continuously and show no signs of slowing down.
The original King Kong attraction was fun but goofy, with riders stuck in a tramway vehicle and encountering what was at that time the largest audio animatronic figure in theme park history. He had banana breath and broke down quite a bit.
Once you watch the three videos below, you will know as much as most about what's coming this summer when the attraction opens. Based on everything Universal has built within recent memory, we can surmise that the attraction will be screen based, with some robotic elements, possibly in 3D, and will likely feature the version of King Kong from Peter Jackson's film.
This looks like it's going to be lots of fun.
