Extinct Attractions – Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular: 100 Years of Movie Memories

Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, we’ll be jumping right back into the world of Universal nighttime spectaculars.

This Saturday, Walt Disney World will begin to officially reopen, starting with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, with Hollywood Studios and Epcot following suit on July 15th. The parks will be the last of the major theme parks to reopen in Central Florida, with Seaworld, Legoland and Universal Studios Florida having been open for more than a month now. Outside of Seaworld doing fireworks for the Fourth of July, none of these parks have resumed their nighttime shows yet, so today we’ll jump back to the yesterworld of 2012 at Universal Studios Florida.

Via Hollywood Reporter

In 2012, Universal Studios started a celebration of its 100th anniversary as a film studio, an especially amazing fact considering no other United States film studio had reached that milestone yet. Of course, Universal extended that celebration to its theme parks (just as I’m sure Disney will in 2023 when it celebrates its 100th). Most of the celebration at Universal Studios Florida was relatively underwhelming, with the only notable addition that still remains being Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. But the other major new attraction was a new nighttime show to replace Universal 360: A Cinesphere Spectacular, with Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular: 100 Years of Movie Memories opening May 8, 2012.

Via IMDb

To add some gravitas to the show, Universal recruited Morgan Freeman to narrate. I’m sure he was thrilled to take the gig because the show was primarily a clip show with very little need for narration to tie anything together, making it a pretty easy job.

I’ve got to say, I really enjoyed this show. To be fair, I’m a big fan of a lot of different Universal movies, so a clip show of their classic movies is right up my alley. If there was one thing I would have liked content-wise, it would have been more attention on some of their older black and white films. They definitely aren’t as popular, but if you call your show 100 years of movie memories, I would like a more even focus on all the years rather than 85% of the focus being on the last 40 or so years.

Via YouTube

In terms of the technical structure of the show, I thought the water screens they utilized were interesting. While they had some of the screens made by blasting water from the ground like you see in Fantasmic or World of Color, they also had a handful of them like what you see above. They evoked the idea of watching a movie on the big screen and had a nicer resolution than the traditional water screens. I’m not sure if it was just because the camera was zoomed in closer, so I could see better, but I was surprised by how great all of the clips looked on those water screens.

Via Flickr

Though, I would have liked a tad more story to tie the show to the anniversary, I still thought the approach was nicely done with quick cuts from clip to clip and the extra lighting effects to supplement the show. Those effects were especially apparent during the battle montage, with fire and lights being used to really put you in the middle of the show.

All in all, I did think it was really enjoyable, even if it was a World of Color ripoff to a certain extent. It managed to stick around until October 10, 2017 when the effects of Hurricane Irma led to damaged equipment and hastened the departure of the show that was scheduled to end sooner rather than later. After all, you can’t keep an anniversary show around for too long or it becomes outdated without some modifications. Universal Orlando’s Cinematic Celebration replaced the Cinematic Spectacular, but carries much of the spirit along from what I’ve heard.

Well, that brings our show to a close today, but here’s your peek at what is coming next week.

Via Animated Times

Thanks for reading and have a magical day!