Universal Studios Hollywood may have been disappointing overall, but there were two attractions that were rather clever, and deserve a bit of analysis. The first of these is Jurassic Park: The Ride. When it opened in the summer of 1996 (although it had been in development foo two years prior—during the original film's production), this water-flume attraction was the park's number one attraction. Over ten years later, it still commands some of the longest wait times.
Designed to complete with Disneyland's Splash Mountain (the leading flume-drop attraction in the area), the detailing of the entire Jurassic Park area—including the eponymous torch-lit wooden gate—is very well done. They've invested in subtlety and scaling that pays off. This is one of the few areas at Universal Studios where I felt enveloped in and engaged by the environment.
This whole part of the park is surrounded with dense tropical palms, which collectively function as a mini-berm to isolate the attraction from its neighbors.
It's really the only part of Universal Studios that even seems like a theme park—good thing that's the actual premise. Following the story of the film franchise, we are on that famous Costa Rican island where dinosaurs have been bred and put on zoological display for tourists to ride one of the park's signature attractions, a boat cruise.
The queue area thus requires no additional theming. The attraction is meant to look like, well, an attraction. This effect is completely with the requisite safety videos (containing some subtle wit and inside jokes).
Once on board, an automated narration (the same from the film) directs our attention to various dinosaurs on display. So far, so good. What's most clever about the attraction, however, is the story twist. About half way through the ride, our boat literally takes a wrong turn and enters a secure area. We then discover that (surprise!) many of the dinosaurs have gotten loose and now we're in really trouble. I apologize for not having more detailed pictures—the ride was too wet to bring my digital SLR camera along.
The theming of the final flume drop is well executed. Our boat has entered a massive water treatment facility, and we end up being flushed down the drain, so to speak. When we return to the loading dock, it's back to the original narrative of a theme park attraction, and apologies are made for the "malfunction."
This is a story approach that Disney actually pioneered with it's successful Star Tours attraction in 1987—when things go wrong. Based on the Star Wars film franchise, guests of Star Tours are space tourists on a commercial shuttle flight. Thinking that we're going on vacation, we are instead dropped into the middle of the conflict between the Empire and the Rebellion (complete with a Death Star) by an inexperienced robot pilot.
The "wrong turn" occurs right near the beginning, and immediately the audience knows that they're in for something different. For many years, everything went perfectly right at Disneyland (that's the idea). Then a younger generation of thrill-seekers, accustomed to the "safe" fantasies of the park, came of age and yearned for something extra. Star Tours provides that. By breaking the attraction (but keeping the illusion intact), Disney was able to create an added dimension of surprise. A fantasy within a fantasy, in which the original (perhaps more tame) fantasy is unfulfilled in favor of the "accidental" fantasy (which turns out to be quite thrilling).
Others have copied this approach since, such as the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. The premise is extremely similar to Star Tours, yet it takes things even further. The fact that you're about the ride a simulator is overt, just before you are beamed to the future for the "accident" fantasy. By the end of the attraction, Captain Picard announces that you've returned to "your own time," to the "simulators you were supposed to ride." Again, it's the "wrong turn" approach, taken to the next level.
Jurassic Park: The Ride goes even further than either Star Tours or the Star Trek experience by theming the environment as a theme park itself (the original premise of the source film). The attraction that you ride is actually a simulation of a ride—the ride that is going to "malfunction," and provide the fantasy within the fantasy. It makes perfect sense, for the dinosaurs to present any danger, you first have to let them out of their cage to "break" the ride.
All which made for a thrilling (and complex) thematic immersion; one of the few at the otherwise lackluster Universal Studios.