Don’t wear Green & Gold to Universal Orlando’s Jurassic Park unless you want the raptors there to see red

Jim Hill

9 years ago

Just a bit of advice to all your Green Bay Packers fans out
there: On the heels of yesterday’s season opener (when the Packers traveled to Chicago’s
historic Soldier Field (and then beat the Bears 31 to 23), you’re probably
feeling pretty proud right about now. Which is why — most likely — you’re
wearing Green & Gold today.

Well, if that’s really the case and you’re currently on
vacation in Central Florida, you may want to steer clear
of the Jurassic Park
section of Universal’s Islands of Adventure. Because there’s a velociraptor
puppet inside of that theme park’s new Raptor Encounter who just hates the
Green Bay Packers. And if she sees you wearing Green & Gold, this 9
foot-tall faux raptor is sure to see red. And she’ll then definitely go off on
you.

Which — I know — sounds a trifle bizarre. But according to
Patrick Braillard — a Creative Development director & show writer at
Universal Orlando Resort — this particular puppet’s persona is all part of
making Islands of Adventure‘s Raptor Encounter the sort of experience that
theme park guests can then repeat.

“When it comes to the Team Members who are working with
these velociraptor puppets, we have actively encouraged them to develop
different personalities for each of these creatures. That way, whenever guests
visit the Raptor Encounter, they can
never quite be certain how this creature which is barely contained inside of
its paddock is going to react,” explained Braillard. “So there are
certain things that each Team Member has chosen which — once they see them —
will then set their velociraptor off. Take — for example — the raptor puppet
that can not stand selfie sticks. She reacts violently and absolutely refuses
to have her picture taken with anyone who’s holding a selfie stick.”

And what’s ironic about that velociraptor puppet’s
particular quirk is that this new Islands of Adventure attraction was actually
created to help people be able to send their friends & family the ultimate
selifie. One that shows them smiling while this vicious predator looms in the
background, getting ready to bite their head off.

Mind you, this isn’t the first time that Universal Orlando
has gotten its guests up-close with a prehistoric creature. Back in 1996,
Universal Creative hired Spar Aerospace — the Canadian company that built the
huge robotic arm which the Space Shuttle used to snatch satellites straight out
of the sky — to build Cera, Chris & Topper, this trio of 24 foot-long, 10
foot-tall animatronic dinosaurs. When these massive robotic beasts were
unveiled as the centerpiece of the Triceratops Encounter attraction back in the
Spring of 1999, guests marveled at how lifelike these three appeared.

“And what exactly made Cera, Chris & Topper seem
real?,” you ask. Thanks to all of the gizmos that Spar Aerospace crammed
into each of these 7.5 ton creations, the toes on these robotic dinosaurs
curled, their nostrils flared and their skin twitched. Their over-sized
buttocks even clenched & unclenched as the stars of the Triceratops
Encounter stomped their feet and shifted their weight.

Then when you factor in some of the more natural / somewhat
unseemly things that live animals do which Spar Aerospace then programmed Cera,
Chris & Topper to replicate (To quote Tom Williams at the ribbon cutting
for the Triceratops Encounter attraction: “It sneezes, it snorts, it
urinates, and goop comes out of its nostrils”), you had some of the most
lifelike robotic dinosaurs ever created.

The only problem was that — while this opening day Islands
of Adventure attraction was impressive at first glance — it wasn’t exactly a
repeatable experience.

“And why was that?,” you query. To be honest, it
was because the folks at Spar Aerospace had done almost too much good of a job
of bringing one of these large, lumbering creatures from the Cretaceous period
back to life. Because the whole conceit behind
the Triceratops Encounter show
was that Cera, Chris & Topper had been sedated and brought into the paddock
for their annual physical … Well, that meant that these tourists were lining
up to get a close encounter with this drugged up, slow moving dinosaur.

Which — in that pre-cell phone / decade-before-the-selfie
era — was fun to do once. Which is why when guests returned to this theme park
on their next Central Florida vacation, they tended to
take a pass on watching Cera, Chris & Topper pass gas in their paddock yet
again. Which is why Triceratops Encounter closed in 2003. And why — after a
brief attempt at re-opening & rebranding this part of Jurassic
Park as the Triceratops Discovery
Trail — it shuttered for good in 2010.

Now jump ahead to 2014. And Patrick Braillard — just like
every other Jurassic Park
fan on the planet — knows that Universal Pictures is producing “Jurassic
World.” Which — it is hoped — will reboot the popular film franchise
based on Michael Crichton‘s 1990 best seller, “Jurassic
Park.”

More to the point, Patrick is aware that both Universal
Studios Singapore & Universal Studios Japan have been entertaining their
guests with raptor puppets that Michael Curry Design has designed & built
for those theme parks. And that these USS & USJ visitors are then tweeting
out pictures of their terrifying-but-fun encounters with these prehistoric
carnivores.

Now Braillard knows that the primo piece of theme park real
estate that the Triceratops Encounter used to occupy is just standing empty.
Patrick also knows that Universal Orlando has been looking for a way to cash in
on the selfie craze. Combing these three bits of information, Braillard then
decides to use Curry’s velociraptor puppets as the inspiration for a possible
brand-new experience for Islands of Adventure’s Jurassic
Park section.

Using the way Chris Pratt’s raptor whisperer character
interacts with his trio of terrors in “Jurassic World” as his
jumping-off point, Patrick then submitted a one page proposal for a Raptor
Encounter attraction to Mike Aiello, the director of Entertainment – Creative
Development at the Universal Orlando Resort.

“What I basically said was we already have these raptor
puppets that we use at Universal theme parks on the other side of the world.
And that if we were to bring those puppets here and then create a themed performance
space for them to appear within the old Triceratops Encounter paddock that our
guests could have this experience just as ‘Jurassic World’ was opening in
theaters … Well, that would then be this wonderful synergistic opportunity. A
way to take everything that people already knew about our version of Jurassic
Park and then make it new for them
again by tying it in to this new Universal Pictures release. Not to mention
giving our guests a place where they could then get a one-of-a-kind
selfie,” Braillard stated. “And to Mike’s credit, once he said ‘Yes,’
it was a very quick turnaround. We went from greenlight to our very first
rehearsal with our brand-new raptor puppets that Michael Curry’s crew built for
us in less than 4 months.”

Speaking of Michael Curry … Because these were the third
or fourth generation of raptor puppets
Curry & Co. had built, they were outfitted with some pretty impressive
features like onboard audio.

“That’s why — when you see online videos of Guests
doing a selfie with one of our velociraptors and the creature suddenly screams
at them — these people jump and often
run away. The sound that’s coming out of those raptor puppets is the exact same
roars & cries that these creatures make in the ‘Jurassic
Park’ movies and ‘Jurassic
World’,” Patrick continued. “The folks who work at Universal Pictures
were kind enough to get us all of the appropriate sound files. Just as John
Hammond might say, we’ve spared no expense to make this new Islands of
Adventure attraction seem just as authentic as we possibly could.”

And based on the number of YouTube videos, Vines, Tweets and
pictures that have been e-mailed and/or been popping up on Tumblr since the
Raptor Encounter officially opened back on May 22nd, it’s clear that all of
Braillard’s hard work & ingenuity has paid off. Though — that said —
Patrick is quick to credit the talented Universal Orlando Team Members who
actually operate these velociraptor puppets for making this new Jurassic
Park show the success that it is
today.

Patrick Braillard shares a selfie he took with one of the velociraptors who’s
now on the prowl inside of Jurassic Park’s new Raptor Encounter
at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

“Anyway, these Team Members are the ones who have
really embraced the raptor mindset. They’re the ones who come onstage thinking
‘I’m an apex predator. And everyone else here is food.’ But what’s great is
that each & every one of these performers has their own personal take on
the proper way to portray a velociraptor. We have some raptors that are very
aggressive and very alpha and don’t take kindly to being told what to do. And
then we’ve got other ones that are more like a puppy. They just want to come out
and play.”

“Those sorts of behaviors are the kinds of things that
you’ll see on a daily basis if you’re dealing with real live animals. This wide
range of personality & emotion that can change in an instant based on how
that creature’s day is going or what’s happening in the environment around
them,” Braillard concluded. “That’s why we’ve encouraged the
performers who operate these velociraptor puppets in our Raptor Encounter
attraction to behave just like real animals. So that the guests never know
what’s going to set these prehistoric creatures off.”

Except for that Green Bay Packers thing. Seriously, folks.
Unless you really want to get on the wrong side of a velociraptor as you’re
trying to get that selfie, don’t wear Green & Gold when you go to experience
the Raptor Encounter at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

Photo by Priyanka Patel

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post’s Entertainment page on Monday, September 14, 2015