Extinct Attractions – Madagascar Crate Adventure

Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I’ll be taking a look back at a Universal attraction based on a beloved Dreamworks franchise.

It’s the year of Mario for NBCUniversal with Super Nintendo World having opened at Universal Studios Hollywood on February 17 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie debuting on April 5th for audiences all around the world. Additionally, there are two more versions of the land scheduled to open in 2025, one at Epic Universe in Orlando and the other at Universal Studios Singapore. I’ve gotten the chance to explore the one in Hollywood and it’s so incredibly detailed and just overall fun. I thought the Mario Kart attraction was a lot of fun and there are so many interactive games in the land that I haven’t even been close to trying them all out. But this blog is about extinct attractions, so let’s jump over to Universal Studios Singapore and maybe Super Nintendo World will pop it’s head up again later.

Via Live At Tour 

Universal Studios Singapore was first announced in 2006 with plans to become Universal Studios’ fifth theme park and fourth unique location (with just Orlando having two parks). At the time, Universal hadn’t yet bought DreamWorks Animation, but the two had a good relationship having worked on Shrek 4-D, so the creatives behind the park decided to up the ante with entire lands themed to the Shrek and Madagascar franchises.

Today’s journey leaves Shrek behind, instead focusing on Madagascar, which was quickly becoming a hit franchise for DreamWorks, finishing 2005 as the sixth highest-grossing film worldwide. A sequel was already planned for 2008, so the franchise seemed like a great fit to make its theme park debut with this new park.

To help with the planning, Universal Creative asked some outside firms to help draft up some ideas for the land’s headliner attraction, with the original plan involving a trackless ride system through the story of Madagascar, with plenty of hijinks and fun along the way. Eventually, these plans morphed into a free-flowing boat ride (most likely for cost-related purposes), but the change didn’t help the attraction move along any faster as there was reportedly a fire inside of the attraction, which caused all kinds of issues. Initially planned to open with the park on March 18, 2010, the first delay wasn’t announced until the day before with a few more along the way pushing the opening all the way to May 16, 2011, over a full year after park opening.

Madagascar Crate Adventure took guests on a fun journey through the story of the film with the attraction starting out by hearing our favorite characters trapped in some crates on a sailing barge, simply looking for a way to get out. Luckily, the barge starting to ship and soon enough we got to see all of our favorite characters in full-on animatronic form.

Via YouTube 

The attraction was full of big sets and loaded with animatronics, all really emulating the feel of the movie (though I will say that the animatronics were definitely not the most sophisticated in the world). For a company that is now known for involving a LOT of screens on their attractions (though recent additions like Secret Life of Pets and Mario Kart have many practical elements), it was a very refreshing change of piece to see so many real sections. There was one kind of prolonged section of the attraction in the middle where all the action suddenly took place on screens before moving back to practical sets, but while that happened “I Like to Move It Move It” was playing, so it was hard to be that mad.

Via Interlink 

I will say, it was a bit to follow the story from this attraction, but it featured tons of different characters, including the fan-favorite penguins, so there was a lot to look at visually. Plus, these characters were all involved in all kinds of hijinks, so there were tons of little jokes scattered throughout that kept me chuckling the whole time.

It was a simple and fun attraction that didn’t feel like a Universal attraction in one major way. Guests on it didn’t get wet, which is particularly ironic considering it was a boat ride.

As a whole though, I think the biggest sign of success for the attraction was that it made me want to rewatch the movie, so is there really any bigger mark of success than that?

Via Universal Beijing Resort 

Eventually all of Madagascar closed on March 27, 2022 to be replaced by Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem and the aforementioned Super Nintendo Land. Though Madagascar Crate Adventure seemed like a great time killer, it’s hard to deny that its replacements will draw more guests to the park, especially with the Madagascar franchise not really having produced anything of note in the last decade. It’s sad to see a fun, practical ride like that close, but sometimes sacrifices must be made.

Via IMG Flip 

As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.

Thanks for reading and have a magical day!