The SATURDAY SIX Looks Back at 25 Wild, Wacky, and Wonderful Years of Universal’s ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE

Later this month Universal’s Islands of Adventure (IOA) will be celebrating its 25th anniversary, and from Day One back in 1999 IOA has always been “my park.” Like pretty much everyone reading this article, I love theme parks, but one thing I enjoy even more than theme parks is comic books. Years before the MCU brought comic book superheroes into the pop culture mainstream, IOA had an entire theme park land dedicated to comic books. For me, it was a dream come true, and the rest of the park was pretty dang great too.

While next week we will look at the current state of Islands of Adventure, today we’re going to take a look back at the last 25 years and check out some pretty fun stuff, including…

# 6 – The Missing Globe Outside IOA

That’s right, we’re actually going to start off this article on IOA by going over to Universal Studios Florida and looking at the iconic globe that sits in front of the entrance to the park.

The photo below taken by blogger-in-the-sky @bioreconstruct shows that the globe is located within a circular area that  has a star-like pattern on the ground.

Using Google Earth, we can see that Islands of Adventure has a similar set up outside its front entrance, and the two areas are actually connected via a blue line.

So, let’s head on over to IOA and see what they have displayed outside their front entrance.

For whatever reason, IOA has a tree planted in the area similar to what USF has set up for their iconic globe.

Back in the 1990s, Universal Studios Florida was home to the Islands of Adventure Preview Center. This allowed guests the opportunity to look at concept art and even small scale miniatures of what was coming to IOA. In some of the concept art we can see that in the spot where the tree currently sits outside the park there is a stylized globe.

Here’s a different piece of concept art featuring the front of IOA, and it also features a stylized globe outside the front of the park.

The SATURDAY SIX’s own Digital Maestro, Scott Walker, created a globe that sits in front of the unique park that IOA is.

Regardless, the front entrance of IOA still features the park’s icon, the Pharos Lighthouse.

# 5 – Soundtrack

When IOA opened, it had something which had never before been used at a Universal theme park, original background music. Disney parks have had original background music for years, but at Universal they generally license popular music. IOA’s soundtrack featured one great composition after another including Call to Adventure,  Ocean Trader Market, and my personal favorite, Jurassic Park Calypso.

Even better, the park offered the soundtrack on CD for guests to purchase!

Speaking of merchandise that debuted with IOA, let’s look at THE COMIC BOOK.

A Marvel comic book based around Marvel Super Hero Island at Universal’s Islands of Adventure? That’s the best combination since chocolate met peanut butter, pepperoni met pizza, or hot dogs met baked potatoes (okay, maybe not the last one.) What makes this particular issue the best of any theme park-based comic (and trust me, I’ve read all of them) is that the stories inside are actually backstories for the park’s attractions. Top comic book talent were used for the book, including artist Mike Wieringo for the Dr. Doom story, Sal Buscema for Hulk, and Chris Bachalo for Spider-Man. For me personally, this may single handedly be the greatest theme park souvenir of all-time.

The awesome cover for the book was drawn by another comic book A-lister, Art Thibert with inks by Chris Bachalo. You can see the original art to the cover by CLICKING HERE. Just stunning.

The first story in the comic book is actually one about the Fantastic Four thwarting a Doom plot, only to reveal at the end that Doom had taken his technology to Orlando, Florida and was going to use it on theme park guests. This was a more satisfying story than several of the Fantastic Four movies made by Hollywood. It also ties into the fact that the Fantastic Four do have a significant presence in Marvel Super Hero Island with the Café 4 quick service restaurant.

The Spider-Man story featured Doc Ock escaping with the levitation ray that leads directly into the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man attraction. That’s my type of corporate synergy!

Another piece of merchandise that was released when IOA opened was this fantastic shirt featuring the silhouette of Spider-Man. Again, for those reading this it is probably hard to imagine a world where it was rare to find any good t-shirts based on comic book characters, but that’s where we were in 1999. This wasn’t just a t-shirt featuring a comic book character, this was a GREAT looking shirt featuring a comic book character.

Over the years Universal has made some other great looking Spider-Man shirts playing off the silhouette concept.

Another t-shirt I still have from my early days of going to IOA is this one that prominently featured ride warning symbols on the front of the shirt. Just complete bonkers stuff, but can you think of a better shirt to display how different IOA was from the rest of the theme parks in Florida at the time?

One of the most well known t-shirt designs in the theme park world came out of Seuss Landing, where Thing 1 & Thing 2 shirts seemingly sold by the bazillions.

In fact, over the years the entire “Thing” line has grown to encompass about a dozen styles of shirts at IOA (including family-friendly designs like “Grandmother of All Things”) as well as spawning a whole line of bootleg versions which you’ve surely seen your fair share of if you have vacationed to the Florida theme parks in the last several decades.

Over the course of 25 years, not every merchandise idea was a hit. Some ideas probably should have stayed on the cutting room floor..

# 4 – What Could’ve Been

For all theme parks and theme park lands there are tons of ideas created that never get used or are turned into something else over time. The creation of IOA is a long story that took many twists and turns before finally arriving at its final destination with the park we know today, and there are some very neat “What If…?” moments along that journey. There are a plethora of great articles, videos, and podcasts covering versions of IOA that we never saw and you should go out of your way to check out the work  done by the Permit Princess Alicia Stella, the Dork Review, and the Unbuilt podcast.

Some of the ideas that Universal explored in the late 80s/early 90s included a super hero land based on characters from DC universe including Batman and Superman. This would be before Universal signed the infamous Marvel Contract that would give them theme park rights to those characters “in perpetuity” (much to Disney’s chagrin after purchasing Marvel in 2009.) Imagine getting an area of Gotham and Batman inspired rides/restaurants/shops.

Rumors and Innuendo suggest another area would be themed to Metropolis, filled with places and things related to Superman.

Over the years I’ve often heard the phrase “Tooniversal” used by Jim Hill in episodes of The Disney Dish with Len Testa. Back in the day, Universal was exploring a Cartoon World theme park that would include – among other things – a land based on the Looney Tunes characters. You can find out more about the DC lands, the Looney Tunes and more by listening to Part One and Part Two of a Cartoon World series by the Unbuilt podcast team.

While we know that Jurassic Park was actually built for IOA, there is plenty of concept art out which shows possible expansions that never came (or were changed and used for other lands instead) including an Amber Mines coaster, HelicopTours, and a jeep safari. For more on the Jurassic Park that never was, listen to THIS EPISODE by the Unbuilt podcast team.

In fact, in the queue of Jurassic Park River Journey you can see a model of Jurassic Park that gives us a look at things that were built for IOA and a tease for others that never actually came.

# 3 – In Popular Media

Fans of Disney parks have been able to see their theme parks represented in movies and TV shows from the 1950s to today. Unlike The Wonderful World of Disney, Universal never had a weekly television show where fans could get a quick “fix” of the parks on TV. Generally speaking, the only time that recognizable parts of the Universal theme parks that was featured in movies or on TV was the studio tram tour out in Hollywood that you would see featured in shows like Columbo, when the detective is trying to crack a case on a movie studio. With Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida being working production studios, the whole point of filming there was to make it seem like you weren’t in a theme park.

With Islands of Adventure, Universal theme park fans finally got a chance to see their favorite attractions and lands on the silver screen. House on Haunted Hill is a 1999 remake of a 1959 horror film that starred Vincent Price. The movie is ultra gory and features a next level bonkers cast including A-Listers like Geoffery Rush and Z-listers like Chris Kattan. The setup is that a weirdo theme park owner (played by Rush) offers $1,000,000 each to a group of people if they can spend one night in his ultra expensive house with a mysterious past. A haunted mansion if you will.

The film starts off showing Rush in his theme park. He is giving a news crew a tour of his latest ride: Terror Icognita. Universal fans may know this ride better as The Incredible Hulk Coaster. In this version of the ride, guests take a long elevator up to the famous Hulk launch tube. Because the character Rush is playing is maniacal, the elevator also simulates a drop tower, giving guests a deathly scare. Once they get on the ride, two sets of trains are sent out almost at once. The track splits, and the guests in the second car see the first car fly off the rails into certain death. It is revealed later that the first car that goes out is filled with animatronic dummies. You get to see Hulk in all it’s glory here as the camera gives the viewer a POV of almost the entire ride, including the awesome launch.

Next up is Ace Ventura Pet Detective Jr. I bet you didn’t even know there was a third Ace Ventura Pet Detective movie. While not technically a “good” movie, for Universal fans this one may qualify as a must watch because  some attractions that were used for set pieces are ones that no other movie or TV show ever feature. In one sequence Ace goes to a dinosaur institute to see a “$10,000,000” T-Rex skeleton. This all takes place at the JURASSIC PARK DISCOVERY CENTER. After some shenanigans where the T-Rex skeleton falls apart, Ace is chased through CAMP JURASSIC.

Speaking of unnecessary sequels, we’re about to look at the third sequel to Bring It On. The original Bring It On is actually an underrated gem, and was directed by Peyton Reed who would go on to direct Ant-Man, which we all loved. Can you imagine that Bring It On got FOUR SEQUELS while Disney’s John Carter and Tomorrowland won’t get one? We live in a crazy world.

The Bring It On franchise is based around competitive cheerleading competitions, and In It To Win It takes place solely at the Universal Orlando Resort. The teams stay at the Hard Rock Hotel and do a ton of stuff inside the parks and at CityWalk. Because the movie was filmed in 2007, three years before the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hogsmeade Village, we get to see some parts of the Lost Continent that Potter replaced, including the Enchanted Oak Tavern. One scene also involves the old Universal 360 lagoon show. A major part of the movie revolves around the attraction Dueling Dragons, which was called the “Double Dragon” by the characters in the film.

# 2 – Lost Attractions

Over the course of 25 years there are some attractions at IOA that are no longer with us, but certainly not as many as you’d think. Outside of one major wizarding exception, the park today is very similar to the one guests walked into back in 1999. This is a stark difference to Universal Studios Florida, which is only 10 years older than IOA but has had almost every single attraction replaced during that time. One thing guests may notice when exiting from the gorgeous Port of Entry area of IOA to the rest of the park is a dock that sits in the water. There is never a boat at this dock and more recent theme park guests may wonder why it’s there. The dock used to be where guests could get onto…

…the Islands Skipper Tours. This was an attraction that opened with the park back in 1999 but lasted less than two years. The Skipper Tours would shuttle guests back and forth from the dock at Port of Entry to another dock in Jurassic Park. This is a rare attraction to see in action, but there is a great video of it uploaded by @StorybookAmusement showing the Island Skipper Tours which you can watch by CLICKING HERE.

Triceratops Encounter in Jurassic Park was a walk through attraction that allowed guests to get close to a sick dinosaur, recreating a famous moment from the first Jurassic Park movie. Guests were allowed to touch this huge animatronic and the signage for Triceratops Encounter still sits in IOA today, just slightly tweaked.

One of the Triceratops from the attraction was given to Give Kids the World and it was recently loaned back to Universal for their Tribute Store that was themed to the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park.

For the last decade or so many guests walking from Marvel Super Hero Island to Toon Lagoon are probably wondering why IOA has a large amphitheater but never actually uses it.

At the opening of IOA this theater was used for a show called Pandemonium Circus that featured characters from Toon Lagoon in a circus like setting. Who among us hasn’t wanted to see Beetle Bailey doing a high wire act?

It wasn’t long before the theater was converted over to a stunt show setting that changed names from  Xtreme Xventure to Mat Hoffman’s Crazy Freakin’ Stunt Show to Mat Hoffman’s Aggro Circus. These shows featured BMX and skateboarding stunts.

Various meet-and-greet characters have appeared over the years in brief appearances at IOA including Merlin, Beetle Bailey, and even Crash Bandicoot!

You never know who you’ll see in Toon Lagoon, and we mean that LITTERALLY as some of these characters haven’t been seen in popular culture in decades.

There are some characters in Toon Lagoon – including Popeye and Olive Oyl – who have made appearances both has “face characters” and those in costumes. It is much rarer to see the costumed characters.

Below we have a look at Time Bandits, a short-lived streetsmosphere show in The Lost Continent which you can read more about by CLICKING HERE.

Speaking of The Lost Continent, let’s close our look back at IOA by paying tribute to the park’s biggest loss…

# 1 – THE LOST CONTINENT

YES, technically The Lost Continent still exists today, but it is a mere shadow of its former self. With some dining venues, a shopping area, and the Mystic Fountain, the Lost Continent is a far cry from the land it used to be before The Boy Who Lived came to IOA.

Like EPCOT’s IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, the Lost Continent was one of the rarest things in the current theme park landscape, built on original creative concepts rather than popular Intellectual Property. You could have convinced me years ago that Lost Continent would be the last we’d ever see of true originality in the theme park world (especially when you have Disney’s Bob Iger saying things like “almost all” of their park investments will be IP-based) but the opening of Universal’s Volcano Bay in 2017 and the upcoming Celestial Park area of Epic Universe at least give me a little hope for the future.

Now, we mentioned Dueling Dragons earlier, and I can’t think of another attraction in theme park history that went from an E-Ticket, Must Do attraction that drew some of the longest lines in the park to a near walk-on almost overnight. Dueling Dragons was the signature coaster of IOA, featured an elaborate queue, and it was incredible as a pair of coaster trains left the station at the same time to run on separate tracks but having three extremely thrilling near misses during the ride.

Riders could choose to ride the Fire Dragon side or the Ice Dragon side. As you can see in the photo below, both gave a different experience which caused many to get right back in line once the ride was over to try out the other side.

When the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade Village opened in 2010, Dueling Dragons was re-themed to Dragon Challenge. In 2011, Universal stopped the “dueling” aspect of the coasters. It still remained a fun experience for coaster fans, but the stripped down queue and lack of dueling led to a plummet in attendance for what was once IOA’s headliner.

Eventually Dragon Challenge was replaced with Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, which immediately became one of the best coaster experiences in all of Florida and once again draws some of the biggest lines in the entire park (if not THE biggest.)

Despite seeing Disney making billions upon billions of dollars based on nostalgia every year, Universal rarely dips its toes into that market. However, for last year’s Halloween Horror Nights 32 they brought back Dueling Dragons as one of the haunted houses for the event and released a line of merchandise for Annual Passholders. Both the house and the merchandise were a huge hit with the fans and hopefully its a step towards Universal celebrating their fantastic history in today’s theme park world.

As theme park attractions go, the Eighth Voyage of Sindbad was not a great one. As stunt shows go… well, Sindbad was still not a great one. All the quality humor, top notch action, and actual thrills that you would get at a show like the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios was completely missing from Sindbad. The show had received poor ratings from guests for a long time, and although Sindbad took a rather long refurbishment in 2015, it came back as pretty much the exact same show. This is reminiscent of Disney putting $1,000,000 into the kitchen of PizzeRizzo only to serve the exact same crappy food that Pizza Planet offered. It closed for good in 2018.

We have to admit, the set looked great. To steal a line from Bobby “the Brain” Heenan, it had a million dollar body and a ten cent brain. If you like rather loud explosions done fairly often, you just may have enjoyed Sindbad while the rest of us were suffering from the onset of PTSD. The performers were always solid, but the show’s script tried to be both serious and silly, and unfortunately didn’t do either particularly well.

On the other hand, Poseidon’s Fury: Escape From The Lost City could be just as cheesy as Sindbad, but the overall presentation was much better.

Real Talk: the outdoor facade for Poseidon’s Fury single-handedly justified the existence of the Lost Continent area at Islands of Adventure. Stunningly huge and elaborately detailed, Poseidon’s Fury is a shining example of what Universal Creative can do when not tied to a specific Intellectual Property. Like Animal Kingdom and its “NonDescript Coaster Themed Like India, Or Whatever,” along with Big Thunder Railroad and Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom, sometimes not being tied to an IP is the best choice of all.

I think the longer a person is a theme park fan, the more they start to appreciate the park attractions which incorporate a Universal Team Member or a Disney Cast Member into the experience. The Jungle Cruise will always be a good ride, but a great Jungle Cruise Skipper can give you a vacation memory that will last a lifetime. Unfortunately, live actors are becoming an endangered species in the theme park world and we lost another one when Poseidon’s Fury closed as “Taylor” guided the guests through the ancient temple of Poseidon. For any given performance, the role of Taylor could be performed by a male or female Team Member. The inexperienced Taylor is here because our original tour guide, Professor Elias Baxter, is missing. Taylor would go on to explain the entire backstory of the attraction along with bringing some solid comic relief.

No picture or video can do justice to what it feels like seeing a 40 foot long/18 foot wide water vortex open up in front of you, which you then get to walk into. It was absolutely awesome to behold. The experience was so good that I wish there was some sort of Smithsonian Museum in Orlando that could immortalize incredible or memorable moments from theme park attractions that are now gone. Imagine being able to walk the Rainbow Tunnel from the Imagination Pavilion or experiencing the microscope from Adventures Thru Inner Space again.

The last room at Poseidon’s Fury was truly next level bananas, as playing out on large water screens is a battle between Poseidon himself and the villain of our story, Lord Darkenon.

I’m not sure if the battle was intended to be campy, but it comes across incredibly cheesy at times, with the costuming looking like Saturday Night Live when they want to make fun of superheroes but don’t use the actual Marvel or DC characters and create their own.There are a lot of neat special effects used in the final battle. Say what you will about Poseidon’s Fury, but it was unique and there’s nothing to compare it to.

Honorable Mention – HHN12: ISLANDS OF FEAR

This may seem impossible to believe for many reading this, but back in 2002 Universal’s popular Halloween Horror Nights was held at Islands of Adventure rather than its normal home at Universal Studios Florida.

 

HHN 12: Islands of Fear had five haunted house experiences: Maximum Carnage (Marvel Super Hero Island), Scary Tales II (Toon Lagoon), Fear Factor (Jurassic Park), Project Evilution (Jurassic Park), and Screamhouse (held in a soundstage.) Every year people want HHN to go back to IOA, but it is hard to imagine they would be allowed to use the Disney owned Marvel characters in a horror like setting ever again.

Scarezones included: Port of Evil, Island Under Siege, Treaks and Foons, JP Extinction, Island of Evil Souls, and Boo-Ville. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure was held in the Toon Lagoon amphitheater we mentioned earlier in the article, while Studio 666 was a dance party held in the Lost Continent area by the Enchanted Oak Tavern.

So there you have it: The SATURDAY SIX Looks Back at 25 Wild, Wacky, and Wonderful Years of Universal’s Islands of Adventure Resort! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).

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Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde and you Potterheads will  enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.