Dozens upon dozens of companies and individuals were hired and contacted by Universal for the design and creation of Islands of Adventure. Thanks to my over-procrastination when it comes to schoolwork, I've stumbled upon and found quite a few interesting pieces of information and concept art. I'm aware that there are already a few scattered threads on OU regarding some of these subjects, but I decided a more specific thread would be more appropriate for the post contents here. Anyhow...
So I'm thinking I'd share what different companies and people did over a few posts. Archiving it all in a single thread. And. Yep. That's about it. Pretty cool stuff though.
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Scott Sherman, a designer who currently resides in Oregon, was a parkwide concept designer for Islands of Adventure between March 1991 and May 1995 before he left for Disney Imagineering. Everything below is from his website (
http://www.scottshermandesign.com).
(My apologies for some of the larger images)
Early in 1991, I became part of Universal's team - working on the Wakayama Marina City's Porto Europa, before joining the top-secret project that became Islands of Adventure. We were a very small group of 4 designers led by the executive team of Phil Hettema and Dale Mason. At that time, the park was slated to become Cartoon World-built around the Warner Brother's Looney Toons characters/ DC Comic's Superheroes, as well as the World of Dr. Seuss.
After negotiations fell through with Warner's, we flew through a myriad of concepts involving characters from Hannah Barbara, King Features, Nickelodeon, The Simpson's, Peanuts and Marvel Comics.
Following 1 major earthquake, 3 building moves and a lot of hours spent drawing and watching cartoons, Jurassic Park was released. As it was a huge hit, we were suddenly tasked with adding it to the mix. Thus, the Islands concept was formed and a Lost Continent was brought in to balance the cartoon-heavy ratio of the park. The following pages represent a sampling of my work on the project.
Although I worked on concepts throughout the park, the majority of my assignments were to help realize the Jurassic and Lost Continent islands.
In Jurassic Park, there were a number of great attractions that never made it into the final version, such as Helicoptours, The Walking Safari, and, my personal favorite, the Jurassic Jeep Ride. But, the two major attractions that I helped design - which did make it into the opening day mix - were Camp Jurassic, and The Triceratops Encounter. I also worked on the master plan layout of the Island.
The park was a fantastic opportunity for me to grow as a designer, while contributing to one of the world's greatest theme parks.
In this concept art painting, I wanted to capture the feeling of a wondrous place lost in time. So in rendering it, I brought in a lot of warm sepia tones, as found in an old photograph. To further enhance the fantasy aspect, I also added a misty haze on the upper portion of the illustration - to help make it seem like a hot summer day.
This was one of my concept sketches - created to help visualize the look and general feel of structures, bridges, water cannons, and climbing nets for the area.
I also had an idea for some primitive wooden effigies of Dilophosaurs (spitters) sitting up in the water - with hinged mouths that contain hidden pop jet fountains. These could be controlled by sensors, and would shoot just over the heads of guests who were crossing nearby bridges.
While the Spitter pop jet fountain idea was never realized, a group of three Dilophosaurus water cannons were developed for the area. They are much more realistic in their styling than what I had in mind, but they do look like they are a lot of fun to operate.
Another of the concept sketch pieces for the Camp Jurassic play area.
The other Jurassic Park attraction that I worked on - which made it to opening day - was Triceratops Encounter. There, guests would be allowed to get very close to, as well as pet, a full grown Triceratops. The dinosaur would respond to the visitors' (and the guide's) actions - and even have a wet nose.
In the original concept, there were to be two paddocks, preshow areas, and lush queue paths leading up to the attraction. Above is my bird's eye view of the attraction's layout.
Here is the plan view of the attraction, which I created to help visualize the space - and to be a placeholder for the master plan of the land.
This POV sketch was an early visualization of the paddock show space. I saw it as an open area with canvas shade structures, medical equipment for monitoring the Triceratops, and a large crane hoist for moving anaesthetized dinosaurs.
Here is a conceptual layout I created for a section of Jurassic Park, which never to fruition.
You can see (in the lower sector near the middle) an early version of what was to become the Triceratops Encounter - shown here in a four-paddock configuration.
The other main area assigned to me was the Lost Continent. This was the first time I explored themes based on myths and legends of the world. I worked on Poseidon's Fury, Escape from the Lost City (which, at the time, was called Journey to Atlantis), The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad Stunt Show, as well as two unrealized attraction concepts, The Curse of the Pharaohs and The Magic of Merlin Show.
At its inception, the ride building's facade was conceived as a massive Atlantean drill, made to appear as if shooting up out of the lagoon's edge - with a temporary gangway leading up to an opening in its side. It would be dripping with water and kelp, with earth and rocks dislodged up around its base.
This is a concept drawing I created - to flesh out what such a contraption might look like.
Moving to the interior space, a guide would rise up from the waters inside an ornate cavern, and then share the tragic tale of the Lost Continent of Atlantis. Next, he would invite the guests to join him on an excursion to the Temple of Poseidon (a large effects-style walk-thru on the magnitude of Backdraft).
Once inside the temple, the young, brash guide would make a blasphemous comment regarding the god - causing the giant statue to break open and the temple to flood rapidly. Then, on a giant, curved water screen, the guests would see the image of an enraged Poseidon, who then sentences them all to a watery demise. But just in the nick of time, the guide would lead them onto a platform, which transforms into an escape pod - taking them all back to the surface.
After Warner Brothers / Looney Tunes were off the table, I worked on a number of concepts featuring other prominent cartoon properties.
The first was a dark ride where guests would be transported on cartoony four-poster beds. They could make path choices - by steering with a candelabra located at the foot of the bed - as they maneuvered through the world of Casper the Friendly Ghost and his three not-so-friendly counterparts.
I wrote a treatment for a simulator ride where guests would be chauffeured through the cartoon world of the Simpsons, onboard a school bus driven by Otto. As a huge Simpsons fan, this was probably the attraction I was most pleased to develop. Unfortunately, Fox and the show's creators were not ready to sell this hot property.
This was a very sweet stage show concept where the famous Schulz characters would act out holiday vignettes (such as Lucy portraying a crabby Statue of Liberty for the 4th of July sequence) for a play in the school auditorium. Of course things get very out of hand, and it is up to Linus to clarify the true meaning of the holidays.
We also explored a series of concepts based on the Nickelodeon characters. Ren and Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, Rugrats, and Doug were some of the properties we developed.
The drawing above was for an arcade area attraction called, Muddy's Mudskipper's Mudsquirters.
Guests would compete by squirting water into bags of Gritty Kitty Litter, and as the bags filled, characters would slide across the back wall panel to the finish line.
Here are concepts for a parade based on the Hanna Barbara characters from The Flintstones.
At left, a hand-walking Triceratops balances a bowling ball and pins - which spin on his back feet - while the Loyal Order of Water Buffalo's Grand Pooh-bah drives his one-man band contraption along the parade route.