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Rumour Universal apparently rethemeing Lost Continent at Island of Adventure in Orlando to Zelda theme


 
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Seems like both articles are a few years old, but 0 question Universal is probably hot to get the Zelda rights and if Nintendo wants to make a Zelda attraction (which I would guess is a "yes") Universal will be very enthusiastic to do that.
 
Breath of the Wild themes land, you are dropped blindfolded to an open landscape and have to find your way back.
 
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Breath of the Wild

I mean I kind of knew the answer but it still feels weird. Nintendo spent the last couple decades contorting the design every which way. They land on a hit game, that would likely have been a hit with a different art style as well, and now it’s kind of fixed?

That said, the style is perhaps my favorite, so won’t mind if it sticks around for a couple decades.
 
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While that would be awesome, both those articles are a few years old. I feel like Super Nintendo World at their new Epic Universe park would be the home of all future Nintendo rides


The news is that Universal just announced that Poseidon's fury is permanently closing May 10, which combined with the older rumors + success of the Mario movie, is what's leading people to think a Zelda retheme is happening.
 
While that would be awesome, both those articles are a few years old. I feel like Super Nintendo World at their new Epic Universe park would be the home of all future Nintendo rides
Seems like both articles are a few years old, but 0 question Universal is probably hot to get the Zelda rights and if Nintendo wants to make a Zelda attraction (which I would guess is a "yes") Universal will be very enthusiastic to do that.

OP should’ve added the extra context that Universal recently announced the closure of the last ride in The Lost Continent, adding some validity to the rumors.
 

The news is that Universal just announced that Poseidon's fury is permanently closing May 10, which combined with the older rumors + success of the Mario movie, is what's leading people to think a Zelda retheme is happening.
Ooooh that makes sense. I still feel like it'd be weird not to prop up the specific Nintendo themed land. Just speaking personally, I think I'd prefer having them all in their one "Nintendo" place (at least to start) instead of needing to park hop to experience all the rides. But I do understand why dividing them up would lead to people like me going to both parks
 
Zelda hasn’t had a single consistent aesthetic in my mind, not in the way Mario has. I wonder where they’d land with something like this?

Universal might have a perfect art style already ... Puss In Boots is CGI animated, but stylized a bit to look like it's painted ... add a little Studio Ghibli style to this and I think you'd have a style Nintendo is happy with.

Chris Meledandri, the producer of the Mario movie is also producer of Puss In Boots: Last Wish too.



I think Nintendo will want some that's still very "CGI-ey" and relatively realistic and not go too overboard with stylizing it ... just stylized a bit. Mass audiences tend to like the basic CG look for movies, not sure if Nintendo would want to test that by making a movie that looks too much like hand drawn animation (I love hand drawn myself, but I don't speak for the broader market).
 
I suspect they're going with the more "generic" Zelda style and the TP/Smash4 Link design that they also use at their Tokyo store.
 
Universal might have a perfect art style already ... Puss In Boots is CGI animated, but stylized a bit to look like it's painted ... add a little Studio Ghibli style to this and I think you'd have a style Nintendo is happy with.

Chris Meledandri, the producer of the Mario movie is also producer of Puss In Boots: Last Wish too.



I think Nintendo will want some that's still very "CGI-ey" and relatively realistic and not go too overboard with stylizing it ... just stylized a bit. Mass audiences tend to like the basic CG look for movies, not sure if Nintendo would want to test that by making a movie that looks too much like hand drawn animation (I love hand drawn myself, but I don't speak for the broader market).

If they wanted a hand drawn looking movie, why not just make it hand drawn
 
While that would be awesome, both those articles are a few years old. I feel like Super Nintendo World at their new Epic Universe park would be the home of all future Nintendo rides
No, they have good reason to spread it out across different parks. It makes visitors more likely to purchase a pass to all three parks, instead of just one. It's the same strategy they've used for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter sections. It generates more money for them in the long run.
 
Ooooh that makes sense. I still feel like it'd be weird not to prop up the specific Nintendo themed land. Just speaking personally, I think I'd prefer having them all in their one "Nintendo" place (at least to start) instead of needing to park hop to experience all the rides. But I do understand why dividing them up would lead to people like me going to both parks

Might not just be 2 either. The longstanding rumor is for Pokemon at Universal Studios Florida, so if all the rumors come to fruition, you'll have to go to all 3 parks to get the full "Nintendo" experience.
 
While that would be awesome, both those articles are a few years old. I feel like Super Nintendo World at their new Epic Universe park would be the home of all future Nintendo rides
Universal wants people to visit all the parks for their Nintendo fix (see: the way they’ve spread out Harry Potter). Also, even with the expansion pad adjacent to Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe, there’s only so much room, and trying to cram everything Nintendo there would get difficult fast.

Pokémon has been rumored for USF forever.

Alicia from Theme Park Stop generally knows more than they let on. If they say Zelda is in the cards for Lost Continent, that’s probably not just conjecture or rumormongering; they probably saw something that made them think that Zelda specifically was the plan for the site, at least at that time.
 
Zelda was the latest rumored replacement for Lost Continent but this was years ago and before the pandemic hit for what it's worth.

Either way with the success of Super Nintendo World in both Japan and Hollywood along with the success of the Mario movie I wouldn't put it past Universal to greenlight more Nintendo projects at the parks.

As it stands on May 10th all Lost Continent will have to offer is a restaurant (Mythos) and some shops. It's a dead land.
 
If they wanted a hand drawn looking movie, why not just make it hand drawn
They would have to hire talented artists, giving them work. They wouldn’t be able to talk about the amazing AI tech powering visuals that are just like what those talented animators could do
 
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Fun fan theory of what a Zelda retheming could look like.




Zelda was the latest rumored replacement for Lost Continent but this was years ago and before the pandemic hit for what it's worth.

Either way with the success of Super Nintendo World in both Japan and Hollywood along with the success of the Mario movie I wouldn't put it past Universal to greenlight more Nintendo projects at the parks.

As it stands on May 10th all Lost Continent will have to offer is a restaurant (Mythos) and some shops. It's a dead land.
I'd love to see what a Zelda themed restaurant would look like. We know Beedle would probably be one of the shops but I really would love to see what Universal would have in mind for a restaurant. Maybe Zora themed because of all the water in Lost Continent.
 
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Zelda hasn’t had a single consistent aesthetic in my mind, not in the way Mario has. I wonder where they’d land with something like this?

I wouldn’t say that Mario’s aesthetic has been consistent over the years (outside of the NSMB series). Super Nintendo World‘s aesthetic is 100% based on Super Mario 3D World alone, and nothing else. No other Mario game even gets a look in... which is surprising when you consider that SM3DW is the worst selling game in the entire mainline series!

Just goes to show that Nintendo won't necessarily choose to base the Zelda portion of the park on BOTW, just because it's the most popular game.
 
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I think Zelda could pull from the whole series in small ways rather than just sticking to the Breath of the Wild theme. There could easily be some Ocarina and Wind Waker elements pulled considering the placement of the land.
 
If they wanted a hand drawn looking movie, why not just make it hand drawn

Because full hand drawn animation doesn't bring in the same kind of money, unfortunately.

Really the last traditionally animated film that was a large global blockbuster was The Lion King in 1994, which is almost 30 years ago now.

Everything since Toy Story (1995) that has been a big success in global success in animation has been CG movies -- Toy Story 2/3/4, Shrek 1/2/3, Despicable Me/Minions, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles 1/2, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Tangled, Frozen 1/2, Moana, right up to current Mario movie.

I think it's pretty unlikely Nintendo would opt for hand drawn animation or something that looks a little too close to that for a Zelda movie just because they would see it as limiting the box office potential the film has.
 
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Curious if they've tried getting Metroid for a Halloween Horror Nights house

Could do a kickass Fusion one
 
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Because full hand drawn animation doesn't bring in the same kind of money, unfortunately.

Really the last traditionally animated film that was a large global blockbuster was The Lion King in 1994, which is almost 30 years ago now.

Everything since Toy Story (1995) that has been a big success in global success in animation has been CG movies -- Toy Story 2/3/4, Shrek 1/2/3, Despicable Me/Minions, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles 1/2, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Tangled, Frozen 1/2, Moana, right up to current Mario movie.

I think it's pretty unlikely Nintendo would opt for hand drawn animation or something that looks a little too close to that for a Zelda movie just because they would see it as limiting the box office potential the film has.
I know all that. my point is why would they try to make 3D mimic something that doesn't sell well? a lot of that "mimic 2D" talk is just by fans of 2D animations who's trying to find some way to keep the style, but they end up ignoring the "why" aspect of 3D supplanting 2D. I don't think mimicking 2D will make for a very impressive show/movie anyway. I haven't seen too many pieces of media that does it well in the first place (it's usually some indie work that's very short)
 
No, they have good reason to spread it out across different parks. It makes visitors more likely to purchase a pass to all three parks, instead of just one. It's the same strategy they've used for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter sections. It generates more money for them in the long run.

Might not just be 2 either. The longstanding rumor is for Pokemon at Universal Studios Florida, so if all the rumors come to fruition, you'll have to go to all 3 parks to get the full "Nintendo" experience.

Universal wants people to visit all the parks for their Nintendo fix (see: the way they’ve spread out Harry Potter). Also, even with the expansion pad adjacent to Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe, there’s only so much room, and trying to cram everything Nintendo there would get difficult fast.

Pokémon has been rumored for USF forever.

Alicia from Theme Park Stop generally knows more than they let on. If they say Zelda is in the cards for Lost Continent, that’s probably not just conjecture or rumormongering; they probably saw something that made them think that Zelda specifically was the plan for the site, at least at that time.
Dang. That makes good business sense, but is a tad bit disappointing. Ultimately I'm glad for any new Nintendo stuff, so Zelda at IoA and Pokemon at USF is great, and I'll definitely get that multi-day ticket. But Super Nintendo World is probably the closest we'd get to a Nintendo theme park so it having Mario/DK/Pokemon/Zelda would have felt extremely awesome for me personally. If anything, I hope the Zelda and Pokemon additions get at least half the thematic window dressing as Mario (and seemingly DK) are getting
 
I know all that. my point is why would they try to make 3D mimic something that doesn't sell well? a lot of that "mimic 2D" talk is just by fans of 2D animations who's trying to find some way to keep the style, but they end up ignoring the "why" aspect of 3D supplanting 2D. I don't think mimicking 2D will make for a very impressive show/movie anyway. I haven't seen too many pieces of media that does it well in the first place (it's usually some indie work that's very short)

Well I mean Puss In Boots is pretty close to still looking like CGI ... like I wouldn't say it looks fully hand drawn either, it was just if there's kind of a hybrid style they would want that can bring some of that BOTW/TOTK style but still keep in CGI, maybe that's it.

Chris Meledandri (producer on Mario) is exec producer on that Puss In Boots movie.

But sure, they might just opt to play it perfectly safe and just do a bog standard CG animated style and not stylize it at all ... or maybe kind of wink at the games by having a different style of animation for an opening scene/prologue and then move the rest of the movie into traditional CG (ie: the story starts hundreds/thousands of years ago with an opening scene and the moves forward into the future).
 
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Dang. That makes good business sense, but is a tad bit disappointing. Ultimately I'm glad for any new Nintendo stuff, so Zelda at IoA and Pokemon at USF is great, and I'll definitely get that multi-day ticket. But Super Nintendo World is probably the closest we'd get to a Nintendo theme park so it having Mario/DK/Pokemon/Zelda would have felt extremely awesome for me personally. If anything, I hope the Zelda and Pokemon additions get at least half the thematic window dressing as Mario (and seemingly DK) are getting
I think there's no worries there. Lost continent is already well suited to being rethemed Zelda style what with its current aesthetic.
LC_IMG_0256.jpg

ioa-poseidons-fury-exterior-b.jpg
Retouch the major landmarks to look like Hylian locals and you've got enough going for a solid retheming there.
 
I think there's no worries there. Lost continent is already well suited to being rethemed Zelda style what with its current aesthetic.
LC_IMG_0256.jpg

ioa-poseidons-fury-exterior-b.jpg
Retouch the major landmarks to look like Hylian locals and you've got enough going for a solid retheming there.
Oh shoot! Yeah that's almost like half-way there. Never been to IoA but that's really impressive what they did there. Allllmost makes me sad they'll tear it down for Zelda haha. But makes me even more excited to see Zelda get that level of theming
 
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Because full hand drawn animation doesn't bring in the same kind of money, unfortunately.

Really the last traditionally animated film that was a large global blockbuster was The Lion King in 1994, which is almost 30 years ago now.

Everything since Toy Story (1995) that has been a big success in global success in animation has been CG movies -- Toy Story 2/3/4, Shrek 1/2/3, Despicable Me/Minions, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles 1/2, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Tangled, Frozen 1/2, Moana, right up to current Mario movie.

I think it's pretty unlikely Nintendo would opt for hand drawn animation or something that looks a little too close to that for a Zelda movie just because they would see it as limiting the box office potential the film has.
this is Lilo & Stitch slander
 
this is Lilo & Stitch slander

Unfortunately it's basically true ... Lilo & Stitch did $273 million in box office worldwide ... which is OK, profitable I'm sure, but not even in the top 15 highest grossing movies of 2002 globally.

Disney hit a series of big hits with Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty & The Beast, and especially Lion King in the late 80s/early 90s, but The Lion King really was the peak, after that their animated films showed declining box office. 1999's Tarzan was a brief uptick with 442 million but nothing came close to Lion King's (1994) $798 million take after Toy Story (1995) came out and basically changed the entire animation industry.

Audiences saw Toy Story and what CG animation could do and never wanted to come back to hand drawn animation in a big way after that.
 
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Replacing Poseidon's Adventure in Orlando is all well and good ... but what about the original L.A. park and even the Japan Universal park?

Do they have room for a Zelda area?

Also I dunno the crazy thing is that Poseidon's Adventure could easily be repurposed into a Zelda theme ... but will Nintendo be happy with doing something that basic?
 
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Replacing Poseidon's Adventure in Orlando is all well and good ... but what about the original L.A. park and even the Japan Universal park?

Do they have room for a Zelda area?

Also I dunno the crazy thing is that Poseidon's Adventure could easily be repurposed into a Zelda theme ... but will Nintendo be happy with doing something that basic?
I don't think Universal would leave it at JUST a retheme, but I also can't imagine an absolutely gigantic overhaul when there is so much available. They could still do something with the buildings they have available that could fit Zelda retheming.

Especially since so much of Nintendo utilizes the whole powerband system, which does not require a huge space, as Hollywood proves. There is a lot of room to play with the Lost Continent.
 
I don't think Universal would leave it at JUST a retheme, but I also can't imagine an absolutely gigantic overhaul when there is so much available. They could still do something with the buildings they have available that could fit Zelda retheming.

Especially since so much of Nintendo utilizes the whole powerband system, which does not require a huge space, as Hollywood proves. There is a lot of room to play with the Lost Continent.

Honestly if I'm Nintendo, I'm saying you're building this from scratch with whatever ideas tickle Mr. Miyamoto's fancy, we're not going to be treated like some B-rated attraction. Harsh maybe, but hey they probably now easily have that kind of pull with Universal. Now maybe they won't do that, but if I was running Nintendo that would be my POV.

Why settle for some redressing of some attraction that you had nothing to do with. Maybe some of the stuff just by coincidence can be re-used.

The other issue here, if I'm Nintendo I want a Zelda attraction not just in Orlando but in Japan and in the Los Angeles park too. So the issue with building kind of a half-rate knock off is you probably then have to re-create that in other parks, probably just a better idea to build a completely bespoke area that you can then rebuild in other parks around the world that you're really happy with.

Lets face it, right now, today, every studio exec at every major studio would bend over backwards and kiss their rear end to have the movie rights to Zelda and I'll tell you this, if Nintendo sold the rights to say ... Disney, I think Disney would commit to building a Zelda area at their parks. Now maybe Nintendo will compromise on this, but I kinda would ask why do that if you don't really have to.

Now maybe Universal will counter with "well we'll just retheme this as a Zelda area temporarily and then later make a full blown Zelda area from the ground up" and you compromise there. Still I might not go for that if I were in Nintendo's shoes.
 
Honestly if I'm Nintendo, I'm saying you're building this from scratch with whatever ideas tickle Mr. Miyamoto's fancy, we're not going to be treated like some B-rated attraction. Harsh maybe, but hey they probably now easily have that kind of pull with Universal. Now maybe they won't do that, but if I was running Nintendo that would be my POV.

Why settle for some redressing of some attraction that you had nothing to do with. Maybe some of the stuff just by coincidence can be re-used.

The other issue here, if I'm Nintendo I want a Zelda attraction not just in Orlando but in Japan and in the Los Angeles park too. So the issue with building kind of a half-rate knock off is you probably then have to re-create that in other parks, probably just a better idea to build a completely bespoke area that you can then rebuild in other parks around the world that you're really happy with.

Lets face it, right now, today, every studio exec at every major studio would bend over backwards and kiss their rear end to have the movie rights to Zelda and I'll tell you this, if Nintendo sold the rights to say ... Disney, I think Disney would commit to building a Zelda area at their parks. Now maybe Nintendo will compromise on this, but I kinda would ask why do that if you don't really have to.

Now maybe Universal will counter with "well we'll just retheme this as a Zelda area temporarily and then later make a full blown Zelda area from the ground up" and you compromise there. Still I might not go for that if I were in Nintendo's shoes.
You would be surprised with how extensive a simple retheme can go for the greater Lost Continent. But hey if they want to completely redo the rides to be more in line with Zelda, it's possible, but knowing how much Universal messed up in some of the opening for Hollywood, I can't imagine Universal won't be cutting corners in places especially regarding the parts that aren't rides.

Like, Mythos the restaurant. The skeleton of that building is remaining I'm sure, but with a Hylian overlay.
 
Just a quick update: Poseidon's Fury had its last day of operation on Tuesday, and so as of yesterday there's no operating attractions in the Lost Continent. Universal did no announcement or teaser for what comes next. I could see a situation where work walls don't go up for a while, so the theory that the land sits vacant for a bit could be true.
 
do you mind expanding on this or pointing me where I can learn more?
A lot of the machinery was visible to the public eye when the park was opened, as well as serious problems with overwhelmed and poorly trained staff. A lot of the food for Toadstool Cafe was rushed and undercooked in places due to the rushing. You could find comparisons on Twitter of the stark differences in food appearance or the animatronic machinery. Had the overcrowding not been curtailed by the reservation system, that was likely to have been a disaster as well.

Lots of complaints at the time pointing to stuff like that.
 
A lot of the machinery was visible to the public eye when the park was opened, as well as serious problems with overwhelmed and poorly trained staff. A lot of the food for Toadstool Cafe was rushed and undercooked in places due to the rushing. You could find comparisons on Twitter of the stark differences in food appearance or the animatronic machinery. Had the overcrowding not been curtailed by the reservation system, that was likely to have been a disaster as well.

Lots of complaints at the time pointing to stuff like that.

The stuff about the land not being ready with visible machinery, unfinished paint, and so on was all during softs. They got it all finished up by the land's official grand opening and it looked great when I went compared to the Twitter photos I saw from softs.
 
Follow bio for all your Universal Florida construction progress needs. He'll even start doing aerials once things really kick off.
 
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