Theme Park Bits: 'Ghostbusters' And 'Smurfs' Coming To Dubai; Plus 'Frozen' Invades Disneyland
This edition of Theme Park Bits travels the globe. China, the Middle East and even the Frozen land of Arendelle. Below, read about the following:
Sony Pictures has had a rough couple months, but they've also had a few very cool things happen too. For example, the company has licensed several of their properties – specifically Smurfs, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, Ghostbusters, Underworld and Zombieland – for use in an upcoming theme park that's being constructed in Dubai. It's called Motiongate Dubai, which will feature about 12 Sony attractions in a Sony Pictures Park and Smurfs Zone. Read more at Hollywood Reporter.
But that's not all that's happening in Dubai. They're also planning a park a theme park based on Bollywood movies. Read more at Disney and More.
Frozen continued to invade Disney theme parks. In addition to the expansion in Disney California Adventure, the central city of Arendelle has been added to the Fantasyland ride, the Storybook Land Canal Boats. The Disney Blog has some photos, but here's just one.
Stitch Kingdom has confirmed that Disneyland is getting ready to launch a new night time parade sometime early during its 60th anniversary, which is this year. Head there for more details and here are some rumors about the specifics.
The Dalian Wanda Group is a massive corporation in China. Among their assets are the AMC movie theater chain, so they're a player, and recently they broke ground on a $1.13 billion movie-themed amusement park in Wuhan, China. The hope is they can compete in their country with Disney and DreamWorks. They're also said to maybe be looking in to acquiring a Hollywood film studio. Wow. Read Read more at The Hollywood Reporter.
Knotts Berry Farm recently announced a new ride coming later this year. It's called Voyage to the Iron Reef and is a big time, 3D simulator ride. Read more about it at Disney and More, and here's a cool teaser image.
In a story that's almost too crazy to be believed, two men rode every single ride in all four parks at Walt Disney World in one day. That's 46 rides over 17 hours with 22 miles of running in between. Read the full story at the Daily News.