No franchise is ever truly gone, they just get rebooted. Such was the case with Jurassic Park. The popular novel that spawned one of the biggest movies of all-time, and then a pair of sequels, has recently become a new film series, Jurassic World. With the update of the movies comes the update to all of its associated tie-ins, and that means a significant theme park update to Universal Studios Hollywood.
The Jurassic Park attraction, Jurassic Park: The Ride, has been undergoing a major renovation and will soon reopen as Jurassic World: The Ride. However, along with that update comes new food options as well as new meet and greet opportunities. The Jurassic World Raptor Encounter, which allows guests to interact with dinosaurs, recently reopened and in addition to the previous character Blue, a brand new creatures Tango, and the triceratops Juliet, have been added to the experience. Check out the new dinos in the video below.
The new triceratops is quite impressive. First and foremost, it's massive. The creature is huge and can move somewhat freely through the area. The handler acts as if she were an actual dinosaur handler, warning guests to always be mindful of where the dinosaur's horns are so nobody gets hurt. However, you're also able to pet Juliet .
You're also able to get sneezed on by Juliet, as the creature includes a water feature that can spray guests that get too close. Between getting sneezed on by a dinosaur and being covered in Troll glitter farts, Universal Studios seems dedicated to bodily humor.
In addition to the triceratops, the Raptor Encounter does include one brand new actual raptor. Blue's "cousin" Tango, who is a baby raptor who is absolutely adorable. Even though Tango could probably bite your hand off. A Universal Studios employee carries the little raptor around so people can pet it and scratch it like a cat or a small dog, and it reacts in a similar way.
The dinosaur creatures in the Raptor Encounter are more like dinosaur costumes than they are animated characters. Still, they do have many animated elements, such as the eyes of the triceratops which YouTuber Patrick Dougall remarks on in his video. Free roaming animatronics are not things that work particularly well yet, though they have been done.
Juliet is clearly yet another level of complexity than Blue who walks upright. Whether you're dealing with costumes or animatronics, or a combination of the two, it's continually impressive to see just how how intricate the designs have begun and how impressive they look.
The new Raptor Encounter is now open at Universal Studios Hollywood. Jurassic World: The Ride still doesn't have an official opening date, but has been running tests as part of a soft opening, so the grand opening likely isn't too far away.
