Monday, November 27, 2006

October 7: Wet

This article is a continuation of the series of articles relating to my US trip.

I was actually thinking of using “The Kong, the Donkey, and the Desperate Housewives” as the working title of this piece chronicling my visit to the Universal Studio but I felt that “WET” will be all the more appropriate. This is because anybody visiting the studio has a 60 – 80% chance of getting wet unless someone who liked my aunt never even attended any of the rides. They get to stay dry but had no fun at all. So how do someone get to enjoy the ride and avoided getting wet? Well, there are ways liked wearing a raincoat to the Jurassic Park boat ride or bringing an umbrella to the Studio Tour on a hot autumn day or one could stay way, way back of the seats at the “Water World” show. In fact, somebody just did that. There was an audience who wore a raincoat and bought an umbrella to see the Water World show but unfortunately, the performers were determined to get him wet and he did get wet in spite of the preparations he made. Now, you can stay dry and be entertained but that will be less fun and admittedly, “awkward” or if not “cuckoo” beside it’s no guarantee either that one would stay “dry”. Well, the best way to enjoy the visit to Universal Studio was to simply get “wet” and my visit to the studio just happen to be THAT. We arrived at the Studio at around 10 – 11 am but before that we went to see the Graumann’s Chinese Theater and the famous Hollywood “walk of fame”. Funny but I noticed that the walk and the Theater are the only place on earth where one could only meet the humblest people on Earth. The reason? Well, that is because most passersby had their heads bowed “ ) (Ok, that sounds corny). Ostensibly, people who pass by there happened to be “busy” looking at the “stars” of their favorite actors and actresses. And at the Theater, one could always find people trying to “fit” in the shoes of their “idols”. Some even tried to “feel” like a “star” by pressing their palm on the cold pavement and imagining the handprint left there by their “idols” to be theirs. Guess what? I happen to “fit in” the Terminator’s shoes! What do you know? Gover – nator Arnold is also a size 9½. Marilyn Monroe on the other hand has the smallest pair of hands and feet that I’ve ever seen. In fact, it looks like that of a 16 – year old girl and she did looked like a 16 – year old (young smooth naïve looking angelic face)! No wonder she’s a goddess! Anyway, at the Universal Studio, our first stop was to “try” the Van Helsing’s Dracula’s Fort. The place is dark and one can get the sense of a growing “edginess” but I was relatively unfazed having survived the “Terror Tower” the day before. My cousin however was pretty “shaken” by all the skeletons he is seeing so far. Funny if you to think about it because my cousin and I had just “survived” an elevator fall the day before and our heart was still beating that day. We’re pretty much alive. It turns out that the Fort is for 12 years old and older (my cousin is 10 and kids below 12 are likely to suffer trauma). Being a responsible adult, I had no other choice but to bring my cousin out of the “Fort” and thus bring myself out as well. Later on, as the other tour members exited from the Fort after experiencing a “pretty good scare”, they recounted to me about their ordeal. Ahhh, too bad. I could have “indulge” a good scare myself but being a responsible adult, I had no recourse but to stay on the sidelines. “ ). We next went to see the 3D show, “Back to the Future”. The show is based on the 1987 blockbuster movie of the same name. We were seated inside a “convertible Delaurent” car cum time machine good for 6 people and there we were taken “back in time” to the pre – historic past to chase after a renegade Delaurent piloted by Biff Tannen, the villain in the movie. We progressed from the volcanic age to the ice age and then to the dinosaur age where we were swallowed lock, stock and barrel by a T – Rex! Don’t ask me how the T – Rex’s breathe smelled but apparently, we tasted so bad or somebody in the audience must have a bad smell for we were eventually “vomited” by the T – Rex. After that, we all bumped the renegade time machine and were safely brought back to the future. yippee. We’re back (that sounded swell). The show is nice and would have been great if I haven’t visited the “Soaring over California” show the prior day. By comparison, the Back to the Future show looked “old” as in “like from the last century”. After the show, we took the Mummy the Revenge ride. Again, this roller coaster theme ride is based on the hit movie, the Mummy movies. The ride is somewhat similar to the “Space Mountain” ride except that the dazzling twinkling light show replaced by some mummy props of Imhotep’s priest and the Pharoah’s bodyguards. The ride seemed short because the speed is quite fast and the twists and turns are more abrupt and the banks and turns are much, much more steep than any of the roller coaster ride at Disney. But then again, it wasn’t that thrilling. In fact, on the last leg of the ride where the automatic camera took our picture, I was the only one of the 16 people on board who still has his eyes opened. What can I say, I survived the “Terror Tower”. Anyway, the best part of the ride is at the end for after a high – speed swirl in a dark tunnel, the cart suddenly stopped (as in SUDDENLY) just mere INCHES away from a solid wall. After a round of mummy laughter, we were suddenly pulled backwards also at high speed and into a chamber where the mummy was vanquished and thus end our ride. Great ride, hurray (sounds enthusiastic, right?). After that rather pleasant ride, we next went to take the Jurassic Park boat ride. At the Jurassic Park ride, we took a boat and went into the park, which closely resembles a prehistoric jungle one saw at the 1st Jurassic Park movie. Along the way we get to see a host of different dinosaurs. Some like the brontosaurus popped out of the water and sprayed through his “nostrils” located on it’s head. Naturally we all got wet. Next, we encountered a bunch of dinosaurs, (I don’t what species they belong but who cared anyway) who squirted water out of their mouth. They are located on both sides so everybody got wet again. After that, we saw a truck falling off the cliff and rushed towards us (pretty scary, huh?). Finally, we went inside the lab where we encounter dinosaurs popping out of the ceiling and on the final leg, a T – Rex stand guard at the “falls” and reached down tried to bite our head off. We then fell through the tunnel and out in the open just like the “Splash Mountain” drop. Although the drop was shorter than the “Splash Mountain” drop, the Jurassic Park ride is more “splashier” because I got drenched even if I stayed at 2nd row from the back (I wizened up). About the T – rex biting scene, compared to the giant boulder – chasing scene of the Indiana Jones’ ride, the latter is much better than the former. Again like the Mummy ride, I didn’t blink while everybody else did. Funny but I didn’t realize that surviving the “Hollywood Tower Hotel a.k.a. Twilight Zone’s Terror Tower would turn one into a “killjoy”. At any rate, after lunch, we went to see the Terminator 3D. Nice graphics, nice show. One thing I could say about the Terminator 3D and the later, Shrek 4D is that it is just a “movie”. I mean if you watched Disneyland’s “Honey, I shrunk the audience”, “A bug’s life”, and “Soaring over California” and to the lesser extent “Back in the Future”, one would have the feeling that you are intimately involve in the show however passive you might be (we all just sat there and watch). It’s like the stage is talking to you and you reacted because of the “special effects” from the chair. It is unlike Terminator 3D and Shrek 4D wherein you just simply watch them act just like in the movies except that it is the 3D/4D format. After terminator, we went for a guided studio tour aboard a 4 stage motorized coach. At first, I had this misconception that it would be a dull ride since we will be touring studio grounds, where you could only see large warehouse type buildings that houses the sets. Well, the first part of the tour were like that i.e., the beautiful tour guide told us what films where shot in this buildings, which is the special effects buildings, and which are the temporary shelters of crews etc. However, sometime in the middle of the tour, we went to a place called “Little Mexico”. The place is the studio set where one of scenes of the movie, “Big Fat Liar” was shot. One of the main features of the set aside from it’s rural Mexican appeal is the “simulated” storm. Heavy rains were brought about by the strategically located sprinkler systems. Thunder and lightning were simulated using lights and sound effects and lastly, came the huge flood waters cascading down from the slopes that actually threatens to engulf the coach we were riding on (it quickly receded soon after we left). We hurriedly left the place as a result and turn to a row of buildings that reminded us of New York and Europe. Afterwards, we went to see “neighborhood” of the “Desperate Housewives”. I got to say that they have such beautiful houses and “neighborhood” and that I wonder why the “housewives” living here would get “desperate”. Well, too bad, they don’t have a shoot that day and I wasn’t able to see Eva Longoria or Terri Hatcher in person. Next came the “garden” area where the studio kept some of their plant life that they would eventually used in their shoot and surprisingly, they also manage to keep some of that water spraying dinosaurs from Jurassic Park as well. At the end of the road, we find several cars used in the shooting of “Fast and the Furious” movies and also a compound housing one of the explosive scenes of the movie. In this scene, a barrage of bullets sprayed at the 2 parked sports cars triggering a fire and eventually an explosion that sent the cars flying into our direction. We hold our breath then thinking that the cars would smash right into our coach but it didn’t. It turns out that the cars are mere empty shells and they were “flown” by two giant mechanically arms. To our amusement, the operator performed a dance number using the cars and the mechanical arms. Pretty cool. We next went to a lakeside cottage and pier where “Jaws” was filmed and we actually saw Jaws, the mechanical shark. As we were watching, the coach stopped by the edge and all the sudden, the wooden pier beneath us “collapses” and we were partially submerge (half a wheel high) in the “lake”. Then, Jaws suddenly emerge by our side and gave everybody a pretty good scare, everybody except me. What can I say, I survived the fall at the Terror Tower. We eventually escaped with our limbs intact and proceeded to a closed warehouse where the studio designed it to look like a San Francisco subway station. There, we stopped and quite unexpectedly, we felt a violent shake. It’s an earthquake! Instantly, our coach sank by a foot and all electrical installation blew inside the “station” and sparks were all over the place. Ceiling panels collapses and lights went off. Then, when we thought that the whole thing was over, the roof collapses and an oil tank truck slide down towards us and burst into flames. Again, it would seem that the truck would hit us but luckily, somehow a “well placed” support column stopped the fall and thus we were safe or so we think. Just then, we heard a loud gushing sound coming from the stairs. Flood waters! Immediately upon the sight of the torrent, we drove away. It turns out that we had just witnessed what is like to be in a subway experiencing a magnitude 8 earthquake and by all means, you don’t want to be caught in one (not that the simulated scene was scary or something but the thought is). we then went to another warehouse which also designed to look like New York, the hellish version of it after being trashed by the Kong. Here, we saw wrecked buildings, crashed helicopters, fires and once we attempt to cross a bridge, we were stopped because the bridge was “swinging” violently and guess who was doing that? It was none other than the King (Kong) himself. Everybody was screaming their lungs out at the sight of the giant monkey except for me. I looked Kong straight in the eye and guess what I’d see? The monkey looked tame and gentle to me that I considered keeping him as pet if the studio allows me. “ ) Anyway, we moved on and passed by the famous motel where the murders in Alfred Hitchcock’s opus, “Psycho” were filmed. Pretty, desolate I would so. No wonder people felt creepy watching the movie. Next we were led into a tunnel and were trapped inside. It was dark inside and the tunnel seemed to be turning about on it’s side and suddenly, we heard noise, a bug’s noise. But this is no ordinary bug’s noise rather it is the noise that would reminded everybody of the flesh – eating scarabs in the Mummy’s movies. Although we couldn’t see anything moving but the sound does give audience a shivering feel. With that, we finally concluded our tour of the studio. It was actually a nice tour, more of a sight – seeing tour with occasional surprises. After the tour, we went to see Shrek 4D and then for the finale of the day, the Water World show. The Water World show was actually a reenactment of the last battle scene of Kevin Costner’s movie, WaterWorld. Inside the compound are three stands, left, right and center (vis – a – vis the stage). My sister and I happened to be seated at the right stand and somewhere in the middle seats. By the way, the seats are color – coded. The “green” seats are the wet sections and are located at the front while blue seats are the dry section and are mostly at the middle and the back, though it was no guarantee that audience won’t get wet. Anyway, prior to the start of the show, the actors were out trying to “aroused” the sleepy audience by dousing or more aptly, spraying them with cold water especially those in the front row seats. Next, these loonies started a screaming/cheering match among the audience (divided into the left, right and center). The winner gets to stay dry while the loser got drenched literally. One of the wise guy audience wore a raincoat to the show and he was promptly targeted by the water guns. One of the female audience probably got peeved by all the “water” attention she got that she immediate took the water gun being offered to her by one of the actors and she immediately aimed it at one of the other actors but to her surprise, the water gun was empty. It was a ruse to lure her out in the open. Poor girl (and she happens to be attractive), she got a prompt “beating” from all the water guns aimed at her. After that rather energizing pre – show performance, the show started. The fight scene was superb and looked realistic complete with explosions, fireballs, fires. It also help that the stunts are well coordinated and choreographed. But that however wasn’t the exciting part. What really excites me is the sudden appearance of a biplane that flew out of nowhere and barely over the wall made of rusted galvanized iron sheets (and in the process scraping off one of the sheets) and landed on the pool directly in front of the center audiences, sent out a huge wave that splashed the center audiences wet and kept moving forward until it bumped onto the sides of the pool. Now that is fun, wet, and scary! Too bad, I’m seated on the sides and in the dry section. But at least, it was a great show. By the time the show ended, it was around 5pm and we had to bid goodbye to the place and go back to our Inn and rest. You know what? I had to admit that Universal Studio is a great place to visit and play that is if I haven’t been to the Twilight Zone’s Terror Tower. As fate would have it, I survived the elevator fall at the Terror Tower and I lived to tell it.

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