Teacups & Couture A Fashion Blog by Roxanna Bina
On June 15th, the world will have the privilege to discover the newly re-invented Dreamworks Theatre and the release of a specially-made short film: “Kung Fu Panda: The Emperor’s Quest”. It has taken a year and a half to get to this long- awaited moment where kids from all over the world will be completely immersed in a 360 degree visual and sound experience- quite a journey!
Last month, we were lucky to discover this new attraction with Jon Corfino, senior director and executive producer at Universal Studios Hollywood creative. We were mesmerized by his tour de force and surprised by such creativity. It is our turn to share with you this new event that is not to be missed this summer. Fasten your seatbelts and let’s ride into a martial arts adventure beyond your wildest dreams.
Q: Introduce us to this newly rebuilt theatre … what is truly unique about this new Kung Fu Panda attraction?
Jon: Indeed, we have spent lots of time and effort to re-create the Dreamworks theatre. It has a Mission Revival architecture with a touch of Art Deco from the 1920s. First, guests will line up at the entrance of the theatre. They will pass a ticket booth meeting a sleeping-on-the-job Pinocchio (from the Shrek movies) and discover a very lavish outdoor garden with many details about the many animated features produced by Dreamworks. While in the lobby of the theatre, they will experience a mural show with the various familiar Dreamworks characters explaining that it’s about time to go on a kung fu adventure. The whole point is to immerse guests into the world of Dreamworks with lots of visual illusions projected onto the surfaces and the walls of the theatre. In normal time, all of the walls of the theatre are solid grey, but when you enter this place, we will create and project an amazing set of visual effects giving you the illusion you are in fact in a lavish theatre from the Golden Age of Hollywood. What is unique is the use for the first time of the integration of interior projection mapping in order to immerse guests into a 180 degree adventure. It is as if the whole theatre will come to life in front of your eyes. We are also be using seven Christie 4K boxer cinema projectors and a 360 degree surround sound audio. And as an extra bonus, we will have sweeping physical effects from water to wind in order for the audience to truly be part of this adrenaline mad ride!
Q: It’s the perfect illusion…?
Jon: Absolutely! We have created a total illusion of a world that is not here but only projected into this reality. This is also the only show where it’s worth sitting a little bit in the back of the theatre since you are surrounded by an action evolving from the front screen to the side walls. You will see kung fu fight right under your eyes and on each side of your eyes. It’s quite breathtaking.
Q: What was the biggest challenge putting together this attraction?
Jon: Usually when you have that type of mapped projection it’s done outside on buildings having a specific geometry. Therefore, you can use the angle and the bumps of such geometry. But here, we have flat walls and we had to create a sense of volume, of depth, we had to do almost a 3D mapping projection. We had to create all of this theatre to the best of our understanding and knowledge. Therefore the task was overwhelming and quite complex. But at the end, I know we made it work and you will be fooled by what you see. You will believe in this magic! Like you believed in the magic we had created in the Harry Porter castle main attraction. By the way, this is not a 3D attraction because 3D is better used when the action comes at you from the center and front of the theatre. But here, because of the action taking place almost all around you, this would not have been so effective with 3D and therefore we decided to use the mapping technology of projection instead. This is all about your peripheral vision and about immersing yourseldf into the world of Kung Fu Panda!
Thank you to the Universal Studios team of Athenia Veliz-Dunn and Heather Mann.
