This brand-new $40-million attraction is replacing the Back to the Future attractions in Florida and
Hollywood.
THE RIDE: As the 'Prepare to be thrilled' door opens in front of guests, the new Krustymobile ride vehicle is revealed, with a huge Krusty the Clown head at the back and a red/gold/blue paint job with white stars. The ride vehicle is covered in LED lighting and the paintjob glows under the ultraviolet light in the room. Just as you're prepared for a typical dark ride through the swinging doors in front of your vehicle, you're lifted 10 feet in the air on an unseen scissor lift and you're plunged, along with The Simpsons, into Krusty's newest attraction.
The 6 minute ride film (nearly 2 minutes longer than Back to the Future: The Ride) features 29 characters from the animated TV show.
Featured characters (with voice actors in brackets):
- Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta)
- Marge Simpson (Julie Kavner)
- Bart Simpson (Nancy Cartwright)
- Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith)
- Maggie Simpson
- Krusty the Clown (Castellaneta)
- Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer)
- Grampa Abraham Simpson (Castellaneta)
- Selma Bouvier (Kavner)
- Patty Bouvier (Kavner)
- Milhouse Van Houten (Pamela Hayden)
- Martin Prince (Russi Taylor)
- Ralph Wiggum (Cartwright)
- Police Chief Wiggum (Hank Azaria)
- Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (Azaria)
- Moe Szyslak (Azaria)
- Groundskeeper Willie (Castellaneta)
- Professor Frink (Azaria)
- Cletus Spuckler (Azaria)
- Snake Jailbird (Azaria)
- Squeaky Voice Teen (Castellaneta)
- Hans Moleman (Castellaneta)
- Barney Gumble (Castellaneta)
- Louie the Hitman (Castellaneta)
- Itchy (Castellaneta)
- Scratchy (Harry Shearer)
- Kang (Shearer)
- Kodos (Castellaneta)
- Happy Little Elves
(Information from the LA Times Travel Blog)
The basic shape and operation of the Back to the Future building is unchanged, but the technology has been replaced and updated - instead of a 70mm IMAX projector, there are 4 state of the art high resolution (4k) Sony digital projectors showing 60 frames per second to ensure a perfectly reproduced high-quality projected image on every ride, accompanied by Dolby cinema-quality multi-channel digital sound. The high frame-rate will ensure a flicker-free movie, which looks as real as it's possible for the inhabitants of Springfield to look. The scissor lifts (that lift the ride vehicles out of the 'garage' loading area) and the motion bases on which each vehicle sits have all been refurbished and renewed as necessary, and Universal has even installed new 80-foot screens in the domes to suit the new digital projectors (it's now a slightly grey colour to improve the contrast ratio, and is less reflective than the BTTF screen).
Approximate costs for each projector: $120,000 (there are four of these in each dome)
Each lens is in the region of $50,000, each server (which plays the movie footage) $160,000.
As a tribute to the much-loved Back to the Future ride, an animated Doc Brown character appears in the preshow queueline video, and the ride vehicle has a gull-wing door, just like the 8 passenger DeLorean time vehicles from the past/future.
Simpsons characters have been added to the Streetmosphere of live characters around the park, and there's lots of Simpsons merchandise on sale in the closed former Time Depot store next to the attraction, which has been rethemed as a Kwik-E-Mart.
