Volume 3, No. 12. June 27, 2003
New Arrivals
It’s
a 4D film!
Universal Studios Orlando announces the arrival of Shrek 4-D, June 12,
2003. Measurements: 300-seat theater, 8 minute preshow, 12-minute film, 50 foot
by 25 foot (15 by 8 meter) screen, four projectors (two for each eye). Delivered
by PDI/DreamWorks.
Give Universal Studios a new attraction to open you can count on two things
from its publicity department: a world record and pyrotechnics.
Shrek 4-D, the first animation created for a theme park by PDI/DreamWorks
studio, picks up where the Academy Award-winning Shrek feature-length
animation left off: the ogre and Fiona have just gotten married and are off
for their honeymoon accompanied (hounded?) by Donkey where they encounter various
adventures audiences also experience through “ogrevision.” The theme
park film, in fact, serves as a narrative bridge between the first film and
the Shrek 2 sequel due out next summer (in effect, Shrek 4-D is,
in Hollywood terminology, Shrek 1 1/2). All of the original film’s
actors—Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow—returned
to voice the characters in Shrek 4-D.
To celebrate such a groundbreaking venture even beyond what the theme park’s
Terminator 3-D accomplished, Universal Studios’ PR team came up
with something appropriately big: a five tiered, 22-foot-tall, 4-ton wedding
cake (7 meters, 3,629 kilograms), breaking a world record for matrimonial confection.
Attending the wedding reception for Shrek and Fiona were both invited dignitaries
and park guests wearing green paint and ogre ears. Unfortunately, the doors
to the theater were incomprehensibly shut, keeping the guests out and the happy
couple from taking off on their honeymoon but the dragon from the film appeared
and in a burst of pyrotechnic magic opened the door.
The reception guests ate wedding cake for the occasion, but not the record-breaker.
“The assembly of that wedding cake took a long time,” said Tom Schroder,
Universal Studios Orlando’s director of public relations. “We wanted
to make sure guests had good fresh cake to eat.”
It’s a
4-D film!
The opening of Shrek 4-D at Universal Studios Orlando came two weeks
after the film opened at Universal Studios Hollywood, California, in
a 500-seat theater. The movie had its official premier May 10, 2003,
in grand Hollywood style, except that the theme park used a green carpet rather
than a red one, down which both the Eddie Murphy family and Mike Myers family
traipsed to see—or, rather, hear—their latest performances.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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