While this summer the big theme park focus has been on Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, there was another brand new attraction added at Universal Studios Hollywood as well, Jurassic World - The Ride. While the attraction did replace the former Jurassic Park - The Ride, this wasn't just a simple renaming, but a largely, though not complately, redesigned attraction.
While the fact that Jurassic World - The Ride does use the same basic concept as the previous version might make some feel that the switch from "Park" to "World" wasn't strictly necessary, Steven Spielberg says the switch over was important so that the franchise had a larger presence in the park, due to the larger scope of the new franchise.
And then when Jurassic World came out and was such a success, we all thought that we needed to expand the footprint and create a world view of that particular movie.
Jurassic World doesn't have its own land in the way that Star Wars now does over at Disneyland, but the movie does have more than simply one attraction. Animated dinosaur figures are brought out regularly for guests to interact with and even pet. It does make this small part of Universal Studios Hollywood feel like the real Jurassic Park.
Jurassic Park - The Ride was a simple flume ride surrounded by animated dinosaur figures. Ultimately, Jurassic World - The Ride is the same basic attraction, but the dinosaurs have been replaced with new, more realistic looking, models and screens have been added to show even more dinosaurs that would otherwise be too large and complicated to create as the real thing.
It certainly makes the new ride feel "bigger" than the original, which according to Steven Spielberg in a behind-the-scenes video for the new attraction, is exactly what the new franchise needed.
In the end, while Universal Studios Hollywood could certainly have just left the Jurassic Park ride alone, the attraction was nearly 20 years old already, it was going to need some sort of significant refurbishment at some point. It made all the sense in the world to simply take the time to give it an entirely new look.
Universal Orlando Resort does have an entire land dedicated to Jurassic Park, but the California park has always had to struggle with the fact that it simply doesn't have all the space in the world due to the fact that it shares its space with the actual Universal Studios.
Check out Steven Spielberg's complete comments in the video below.
With a third Jurassic World movie on the way, this franchise isn't going anywhere. Odds are we'll be seeing even more Jurassic themed material at the Universal theme parks. With the company's third location coming to Orlando, there will be even more space for the giant dinosaurs to potentially roam.
