Magic Strollers
Harry Potter fans rejoice! Construction of Hogwarts Castle is finally, officially underway at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure.
Though site prep continues in the "Lost Continent" section of that theme park ...
Photo by Jeff Lange
... If you look to the right of those enormous gates next to "The Flying Unicorn" 's exit ...
... you'll see the first pieces of steel that were welded together last week as "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" finally entered the vertical phase of its construction.
According to Universal insiders, this bare framework is just the start. In the weeks and months ahead, literally thousands of pieces of metal will be hoisted up & then bolted into place. As a full-sized recreation of Harry Potter's alma mater is built at the southwestern border of IOA's "Jurassic Park" section.
Speaking of "Jurassic Park" ... In order to give IOA visitors a smoother transition as they move from that portion of Islands of Adventure to "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," the folks from Universal Creative will be actually creeping in JP's borders ...
... so that there'll then be a proper buffer zone between J.K. Rowling's oh-so-English fantasy world and Michael Crichton's dangerous dinosaurs-on-the-loose environment.
And as for Ms. Rowling ... Over the past few weeks, some very interesting stories have begun filtering out about her dealings with Universal. To be specific, the IOA inspection tours that J.K. made before she finally agreed to award "Harry Potter" 's theme park rights to that corporation.
As I understand it, while it was reportedly the extensive detailing found in the "Lost Continent" 's Enchanted Oak Tavern that convinced Ms. Rowling that Universal Creative were the folks who could bring Hogsmeade to life ...
... it was actually Seuss Landing that sealed the deal for J.K. Particularly the heroic effort that Universal put in to please Audrey Geisel AKA Dr. Seuss' widow.
You see, for years various companies had attempted to acquire the theme park rights to Dr. Suess' books & characters. But Audrey had repeatedly turned these offers down because ... Well, Mrs. Geisel believed that none of these firms could ever do her husband's drawings justice. They'd never be able to match Theodore's wit and whimsy.
Copyright 1999 Universal Escape
But Universal wouldn't take "No" for an answer. More to the point, every condition that Audrey set, they then agreed to meet. Every request that she made -- be the placement of resturants & attractions right down to the color of individual street signs -- was honored.
So when Mrs. Geisel said that she wanted to borrow a page from "The Sneetches and Other Stories" and actually have this land built around a North-going Zax and a South-going Zax ...
... That's exactly what Universal did.
So when J.K. Rowling saw how hard Universal Creative had worked to make Audrey Geisel happy, she knew that these folks were the right people to translate the "Harry Potter" stories & characters into a theme park setting.
Mind you, that's not to say that there weren't a few bumps in the road before Rowling finally agreed to sign that contract. Like that time that Universal Security had to be told NOT to arrest the man who was climbing the hill behind IOA's "Flying Unicorn" ride.
You see, that man was Stuart Craig. The three-time Academy Award winner who has designed all of the sets for the "Harry Potter" films. And Stuart was just climbing that hill to see if he could find the proper spot to build Hagrid's cottage.
Speaking of which ... "The Flying Unicorn" is expected to shut down sometime in September of this year. So that this IOA attraction can then be transformed into "The Flying Hippogriff." More to the point, so that work can finally begin on Hagrid's cottage.
Anyway ... That's the latest construction news on "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter." Your thoughts?
<<All this talk about how very fussy Ms. Rowling is reminds me of the stories about the irascible P.L. Travers when Disney was making a movie of her book "Mary Poppins". She'd babble on about how she hated animation, did not like any of the music being written and demanded that Mary's skirt be made by a certain seamstress in London. Thank god Walt didn't listen to her.>>
I wish he HAD listened to her. She wanted an all British cast.. like Rowling wanted. Which would have meant no Dick van Dyke.. Which would have made the movie a lot better.
Taking an American popular TV star to play a cockney guy is a bad idea now and was a bad idea then.
If Rowling didnt demand for an English cast someone like Hillary Duff would have played Hermione.
Hopefully, Universal's design team will cohesively pull fabric of very Anglo locales together while Adventureland style Jurassic dinosaurs remain such close neighbours. While strong building thrill attractions, Universal remains design challenged in weaving architectural transitions between contrasting fantasy locations - land to land; such as smooth connection between an 'Adventureland' to a very contrasting but neighbouring 'Frontierland.' Both these areas must co-exist, connect and have a blend from one to the other.
Universal can paint pretty pictures, but for all their movies, their three dimensional park environments still struggle to transition guests between non-connected themes. Harry Potter is very lush with theming within the worlds created by Rowlings.
With optimism & inspired vision, Universal's project will incorporate environmental theming ala most practices used by WDI for 50 years within Disney locales when creating Potter's locales. To succeed, Potter's world must exist as if it is an authentic 'environmental world' which has always been where its found when one encounters it. It should seem actually inhabitable by people - rather than what Universal is inclined to previously; multi-million dollar expensive sets which lean toward cheese or disjointed spaces akin Vegas venues which just happen to have amusement park rides.
Where's my pic ??? [ whump whump ! ]
IMO Dick Van Dyke was an excellent Bert. He's a natural physical comedian whose hero was Stan Laurel (of famed comedy team Laurel and Hardy), who was a Brit by the way. In fact he met often with Stan and learned much of his craft from the grand old comedian. Plus Dick has a great rapport with children; it shows in his work with the "Poppins" kids. It's silly IMO to say only Brits should portray British characters in films. Look at the guy who played the detective in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" - he played an American and he himself was a Scotsman I believe, with a natural accent he managed to overcome to play his role. Some Brits get hot over Dick's portrayal of Bert because of his shaky Cockney accent. I concur that it wasn't too convincing, but everything else Dick brought out in the character WAS.
And he and Julie Andrews had great chemistry, and that's not something you can guarantee by hiring only from a certain regional actors' pool. End of lecture.
Sono iniziati i lavori nel Parco giochi della Florida. Si partirà con il Castello di Hogwarts, parte centrale del parco. Inoltre a settembre 2008 l’attrazione verrà smantellata per dare posto a A disegnare il tutto è Stuart