Universal’s Dreamworks Land: You Know, for Kids

What pop culture will today’s kids feel nostalgic for when they’re adults? Maybe Bluey? I don’t have kids of my own (my wife and I decided that pretty early on), but it seems like the entertainment biz is squarely focused on stroking the nostalgia of people my age. Look at the movies: instead of creating new ideas that might thrill children and adults alike, the studios keep remaking, rebooting, sequelizing, and franchising stuff from the late ‘70s through late ‘90s. Instead of new concepts that can become the nostalgia of tomorrow it’s always more Star Wars, more Jurassic Park, more Alien. More Predator and Halloween and Jason and Freddy. Even more Ghostbusters—a solid one-off that isn’t even one of Bill Murray’s five best comedies of that era, and whose funniest cast member has had nothing to do with since the ‘80s.

Last night I saw the latest Mad Max movie (a series that started in 1979) and one of the trailers was for a new Beetlejuice movie. I was in elementary school when the last one came out. Who wants this?

Sure, some of these movies are good—occasionally even great. It’s a little stultifying to fixate so exclusively on this one period of time, though. Whenever I think about the entertainment industry’s single-minded obsession with capitalizing on Gen X and early Millennial nostalgia I think about my dad and the stuff he liked as a kid. Me getting excited for a Transformers movie in 2024 would be like him getting excited for a Howdy Doody movie in 1990. It’s utterly unthinkable.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this while touring Dreamworks Land, a collection of new kid-focused attractions at Universal Studios Florida. Opened earlier this month as a replacement for the old Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone—a character that was relevant across several generations but that may or may not be familiar to today’s kids (again: I don’t have any!)—Dreamworks Land swaps out Walter Lantz’s woodpecker, An American Tail’s immigrant mouse Fievel, and Curious George (who, like Woody, seems like an evergreen) with characters from three Dreamworks franchises. Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and the Trolls now rule Woody’s old roost, and from a relevance standpoint, it is probably an upgrade for today’s children—even if their parents might have still been kids when the first Shrek came out. 

At Dreamworks Land your family will be able to meet and take photos with several characters from Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and Trolls. You’ll be able to eat themed snacks—the Shrektzel (exactly what it sounds like: a Shrek pretzel) was a popular choice during a recent media preview—and watch a live musical based on all three franchises, Dreamworks Imagination Celebration, with a special surprise guest from another Dreamworks movie showing up for a real deus ex Madagascar ending. Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster has been rebranded into the Trollercoaster, and not one but two water-heavy splash zone attractions will help your crew cool off in that brutal Orlando heat.

Dreamworks Land charms most with a couple of interactive stations connected to Shrek. In one guests can make a choir of frogs croak out musical numbers by stepping on different lily pad-shaped buttons on the ground. Don’t expect to tap out anything too recognizable—you’d need a gigantic legspan or the leaping abilities of the Hulk (or, I guess, a family?) to make that possible—but it’s still a cute, entertaining aside. Nearby sits Mama Luna Feline Fiesta, a small Spanish mission from the Shrek and Puss in Boots movies that’s filled with computer animated cats and various cranks, buttons, and levers. The kitties react in various adorable ways on four large screens as guests push, pull, and twist their way from station to station; it’s like Bop It without a timer and with a legion of cartoon cats responding to your actions. I spent probably 15 minutes prodding and teasing my way around the Feline Fiesta, and still didn’t see everything that could possibly happen on the screens. This is the one part of Dreamworks Land that I think adults will enjoy as much as kids.

I was an adult when Shrek came out and feel no nostalgia whatsoever for any of the movies Dreamworks Land is based on. Honestly, I don’t really like any of the Dreamworks animated features I’ve seen. I am absolutely not the target audience for this stuff—as much as I might complain about today’s overabundance of nostalgia, I would rather hop on Universal’s E.T. ride for the 50th time than check out Dreamworks Land again, and would gladly sacrifice the entire library of Dreamworks animated films if it meant saving a single movie Steven Spielberg made in the 20th century. (Well, except for that second Jurassic Park movie. That one can get bent.) 

Nevertheless, I love many a theme park attraction based on movies and characters I don’t care about. If you absolutely need to appreciate or feel nostalgic for the source material to enjoy an attraction, then it’s not a very good attraction. Shrek’s Swamp for Little Ogres and Po’s Kung Fu Training Camp—the land’s two splash zones, which are imaginatively themed and look as if they were pulled out of the movies—are good examples of how to meld function and solid design in a themed attraction slotted to be a supporting act and not a headline player. The Kung Fu Panda area is especially crafty at dressing up its modest goals with impressive design; it’s like a temple from an old kung fu movie done in a cartoon style, with plenty of opportunities to get wet, and a great opening gag featuring a giant gong that makes some unexpected sounds when “struck.” And as uncomfortable as I felt during the musical show—those singers and dancers really like looking directly into the audience’s eyes, as if personally begging us to have the common decency to sing along—parents will probably love the opportunity to sit down in an air conditioned room for 20 or so minutes.

Dreamworks Land also represents a rarity for Universal Studios. In a park guided by nostalgia, it’s based on something relatively recent. Shrek, which predates 9/11, might skew closer to parents these days (when was the last one of those, anyway?), but most Kung Fu Panda movies have come in the last 13 years, and Dreamworks’ version of Trolls is less than a decade old. (The dolls have been popular off and on since the ‘50s, but these particular characters debuted in 2016.) Universal’s current nighttime show is heavy on the Gen X hits that resonate with today’s parents, and most of its attractions across both Florida theme parks are based on 20th century entertainment. Other than the notoriously lackluster Fast & Furious ride—which is based on a movie series that debuted in 2001, and obviously skews to an older audience than Dreamworks Land—this is the first major Universal development largely catered to post-Millennial children. Its ambitions are kept in check by the practical expectations of a kids’ play area—its primary purpose is to be a playground that can withstand substantial amounts of wear-and-tear and not some heavily detailed, immersive experience—but it points to a future that’s no longer dependent on what people currently in their 40s and 50s loved as kids. Since that future is going to get here way sooner than many of us (myself included) are comfortable with (hell, it’s basically already here), it’s something Universal and other theme parks will have to get on top of as soon as possible. Dreamworks Land is a start.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and anything else that gets in his way. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.