Eric Visited the Universal Studios Orlando parks for the first time in over 30 years.
In this episode of Synergy Loves Company, Eric delves into the historical rivalry between Disney and Universal Studios. From the early days of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to the developments of Disneyland and Universal Studios, Eric breaks down the competition between these entertainment giants. He also shares his recent trip to Universal Studios, offering his insights on The Simpsons Land, Marvel Superhero Island, Seuss Landing, Harry Potter attractions, and more. Throughout the episode, Eric reflects on his unwavering Disney fandom and invites listeners to share their own Disney fandom. Join the conversation and leave a comment as Eric explores the various facets of Disney fandom and the evolving landscape of theme parks.
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00:04 --> 00:06 Synergy loves company.
00:10 --> 00:34 We have this coterie of rich franchises. The company now that people want to engage with. I came here to try and continue what Walt Disney and his associates set in motion 50 years ago, which is to experiment with every new and innovative kind of entertainment possible.
00:40 --> 00:53 It's what we hope to do here to really develop something that, well, just more than an entertainment enterprise. It's something that contributes in many other ways.
01:00 --> 25:28 Hey, I gotta tell you something. When I went to Walt Disney World this past summer, I did something I haven't done in over 30 years. I went to Universal Studios. This is Synergy Love's company, where we explore how Disney connects to everything, because you don't have to be at the Disney parks or the universal parks to experience the magic every day. I'm Erichez, and I know going to Universal Studios Florida, it might not be a big deal for you, maybe you go to Universal all the time, but my feelings for Universal are pretty much like they're a rival sports team. Red Sox fans don't like the Yankees, Lakers fans don't like the Celtics, and Liverpool fans don't like Manchester United. It's just the way it is. And it's vice versa, too. But they all kind of pay attention to what's happening with those other teams. As a Disney die hard fan, I watch what's going on at Universal, and I smack talk when I know Disney is doing better, and I shut up and tuck my tail between my legs when Universal is winning. And they have had some pretty big wins lately. This competition between the two companies isn't new. Disney's history with Universal has pretty much always been a rivalry. In 1927, the Walt Disney studios had some success with their live action animated Alice comedies, and their producer, Charles Mintz, asked them to make something new for distribution under Universal Pictures. Walt and animator Uub Iwerks came up with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. An adventurous and mischievous animated rabbit. Oswald became a hit pretty instantly. Less than a year later, Disney tried to negotiate a better contract for the Oswald shorts with Mintz and Universal. But instead of a better deal, they found out that Universal owned the rights to Oswalt. Walt had signed them away in the original contract. And what was worse, Universal was going to continue making Oswald shorts without out Walt Disney. And to kick Walt while he was already down, Universal had hired many of the Disney animators out from under him. This led to the creation of Mickey Mouse. But it was still a devastating first blow in the relationship between Disney and Universal. The rivalry between Disney and Universal lingered over the years. And it flared up once again when it came to theme parks. When Disneyland opened in 1955, it brought a new idea of what kinds of entertainment a movie studio could offer its audience. The lands of Disneyland could fully immerse you in the worlds of your favorite movie genres in a way never before done. Movie studio tours were always a popular Hollywood tourist attraction, but Disney put you into the movie. This was another level. Universal had a very popular studio tour in Hollywood since 1915. And after Disneyland opened, throughout the sixties and seventies, the Universal studio tour added trams and began plussing up the tram tour with attractions and special effects that allowed you to be immersed in the movies. The parting of the Red Sea from the Ten Commandments, a run in with jaws, a King Kong confrontation, and those were just on the tram tour itself. They also started adding theme park rides and attractions and turned their Hollywood film studio backlot into a full blown theme park. In the meantime, Disney had built a theme park with tons of land outside Orlando, Florida, and that put the city on the map. The executives at Universal liked the way that the two theme parks, Universal Studios Hollywood and Disneyland, complemented each other as tourist attractions. So in 1979, they bought some land outside of Orlando as well, with the intention of building another studio and backlot tour with some themed attractions. But here's where it gets interesting. In 1981, Universal and their parent company, MCA, were looking for some other partners to collaborate with on their new studio. They went to Paramount Pictures to discuss a partnership on the Orlando project with executive Michael Eisner. I know that same Michael Eisner. Eisner heard all about the movie studio tour and attractions at the meeting in 1981, and he thought it was a good idea, but couldnt commit on behalf of the company. In 1984, he became the CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and the next year he announced a movie studio theme park with a tram tour and attractions very similar to the one that was pitched to him in 1981. Universal was upset and decided to make their project a full fledged theme park to compete with Disney's parks. But the damage was done. Disney's MGM studios opened in 1989, a whole year before Universal Studios Florida. Now, it kind of looked like Universal was copying Disney. And that brings us to the last time I went to Universal. I know there's still some more Disney Universal history, but I'll have to talk about that later. The first time I went to Universal was the summer of 1990, just weeks after the park first opened. I was young, but I still have memories of the park. I remember there was a jaws attraction that was not open because it wasnt working. In fact, a lot of my memories of that first trip have to do with stuff not working. And because so much stuff was not working, my family got these vouchers to return to the park another time for free. It was actually something Universal did that whole summer because a lot of the park wasnt ready. When we went back to Disney World two years later in 1992, we used those vouchers and we got in for free. And on that trip, that second one, I have more memories. Universal studios actually had some stuff that I liked. The Ghostbusters had a show there, back to the future had a ride. The earthquake ride left an impact on me, and the Nickelodeon studio tour was pretty awesome. I got to see the empty set of Clarissa explains it all. My favorite ride by far, though, was et. And I think it's still my favorite universal ride. And jaws, well, it was still not working. They could just never get that thing to work. Sure, universal had stuff that I liked, but. But Disney had stuff that I loved. So we never really went back to universal on vacations. We just spent more time at Disney. When I got married and my wife and I planned our own Disney family vacations, Universal was just never brought up. She had a similar view. She would just rather spend more time at the Disney parks, too. But a lot has changed at Universal in the past 30 plus years. And this time we decided to give it another shot. And of course, the kids wanted to see that Harry Potter stuff. So I guess now I got to tell you a little bit about my trip, the good, the bad, and the ugly. What I thought about universal, remember, these are my opinions. If you love Universal and I'm bashing it, or you hate universal and I'm saying some good things. These aren't just my opinions. So let's start with the ugly and the Badlandhouse. As a Disney fan, I think I got to start with the stuff that Disney owns that's still at Universal. And the first big one that everyone told me about was the Simpsons land. This is the one that people were raving about to me. I think they thought that they could sell me on universal with this one, since I'm a millennial. And yes, I did grow up watching the Simpsons like pretty much everyone else in the nineties. So I do have some Springfield nostalgia. Simpsons land, though, it's just okay. It's like a big mega food court next to a small carnival. There were some cool things. Sure, we got one of those giant donuts, and I got to eat at the Krusty burger and check out Moe's. But I have heard that lately, this might be the next thing on the chopping block, so I don't think it's getting that much love lately. It was fine. Just okay, but not the hype that people were telling me it would be. I think that actually made it more of a letdown. On the other hand, we have something even worse. Marvel superhero island, which I thought was some hot trash. And it hurts because I know what Disney can do with these Marvel characters. I saw it at Avengers campus. They did so much better with Marvel. I know superhero island is old, and they were trying to make it look like the comic book look, but it seemed like an excuse to cut corners and make everything boxy and use lots of primary colors. As a Marvel fan and a comic book reader, I appreciated that they had some deep cut merchandise in their shops. There was some merch that made me feel weird, though, too. There was this t shirt that had some of the Avengers looking very MCU like, but they were surrounding the Universal Studios logo, and it made me feel like I was in a different timeline in the multiverse. And in the back of one of the shops, they had a meet and greet with Spider man, but you had to pay for it, and it was in front of a green screen, so you did like, a photo shoot, and it was like a glamour shots in the mall, but with Spider man, but not the real Spider man. It looked like someone who bought a costume at Spirit Halloween. Speaking of costume Marvel characters, we saw some of them parade out down the street and. No, just, no, they just not good. They also had that same spirit Halloween look. I feel like universal is just holding on to this one, not putting any effort into superhero island, because they know, hey, we're just holding it away from Disney, and they can't do anything about it. So, ha ha, there you go. In your face. And don't even get me started on the Toon Lagoon section. We went back there and rode the bilge rat barges, which was a really fun ride, I do gotta say. But. But Popeye. Popeye. My kids had no clue who any of the characters back there in Toon Lagoon were. We saw Popeye and Olive oil doing a meet and greet and had to explain it to the kids. Like, do you remember in the office when Pam wanted Jim to do a couple's costume and she was dressed up as olive oil? That's olive oil. And she wanted Jim to be Popeye. And then he finally put the costume on and that they were like a family costume, and then the kids kind of got it. But. But that really got me thinking. Universal doesn't own the rights to Popeye or marvel or the Simpsons, or the Transformers or SpongeBob or Harry Potter or so many others, but they do own the rights to the office. And I would love to be immersed in the world of Dunder Mifflin or maybe even Parks and Rex's Pawnee, Indiana. Universal has some good stuff, and they don't even use it. They just license out other studios stuff. Okay, okay. Let's talk about some of the good stuff I saw there. And I gotta say, it scares me, because they have hit some home runs, and that ups the score against Disney and what they have going on in their parks. First win here is a quick one. I loved Seuss landing. Come on, I'm a librarian. I love Doctor Seuss's books. I thought it was pretty fun. It was very plasticky, though. The illustrations in the Doctor Seuss books have a softer quality. Less shiny, truffleless trees should not glisten in the sun. But I did enjoy the cat in the hat dark ride, and I loved that I could eat green eggs and ham from a giant green ham. The biggest win universal has, though, is definitely the Harry Potter stuff. It was amazing, and Disney actually had a chance at Harry Potter back in the early two thousands. Disney actually got a letter of intent from JK Rowling to create a Harry Potter themed land off of Fantasyland. From what I've heard, JK Rowling wanted to be hands on, and Michael Eisner was kind of like, no, no, no. Imagineering will take it from here, here. So she went over to universal, and they gave her that veto power that she was looking for. And Disney learned from this missed opportunity. And when they worked with James Cameron on Pandora, they gave him a lot of control. Pandora itself was kind of in response to the wizarding world at Universal. Anyway, Diagon Alley was definitely the best part of all of universal, and everyone knows it. So 80% of the population of the park is crammed back there most of the day. It was the best place to be because of the theming, but also because the days that we were there were really hot and sunny, and universal creative figured out how to do shade back there big time in Diagon Alley. The snacks were tasty and themed. The shops were intimate and well themed. And my son Ben got a wand, and we had fun casting spells in the windows and all around Diagon Alley. And I really felt like we were immersed in the wizarding world. My one gripe is that dragon. I know the dragon's cool, but in this story, the dragon only comes out in the last book, the Deathly Hallows. And I prefer the diagon alley from the sorcerer's stone that reveal of gringotts without a dragon at the end of the street. I just wish they could have installed like, a hydraulic lift, an animatronic dragon that could, like, pop out, breathe its fire, and then pop back down behind the roofline. Hogsmeade was more of the same. Another big home run. It felt like it had that Disney level of detail too, just like Diagon Alley. Little details like in the bathroom. Hearing moaning Myrtle's voice echoing throughout caught me off guard at first, but it was on point for the story of Harry Potter and Hagrid's magical creatures. Motorbike adventure was a great ride, and it proves that Disney isn't the only one that gives attractions incredibly long names. It was just enough of a thrill and had so many practical, dark ride elements. Disney does need to take some notes from that one. The Q four was really well themed, too. I even caught an Easter egg for dueling dragons that used to be in its space. Dueling dragons was a coaster that was part of the lost continent before it got semi cannibalized by the wizarding world. Hogsmeade lost continent was actually pretty cool. I mean, what's left of it. I kind of wish that I could have seen it full on. Remember, this was my first time to islands of adventure. I hadn't been there in over 30 years. It was just some space next to Universal Studios. The last time I went there, my kids had a great moment with the talking fountain in the lost continent, but there really aren't any attractions left. I did take a little extra time to scope out what was left of the lost continent, though, because I had some ulterior motives. You see, there were always some rumors, and I mean rumors, nothing ever verified that Disney's unbuilt beastly kingdom for animal kingdom was kind of brought back to life in Islands of Adventure as the lost continent. Now, I don't know how valid this is, but the story goes that when Disney completed Animal kingdom in 1998, they cut imagineering staff. And many of these free agent imagineers went over to universal creative to help with their upcoming project, Islands of Adventure. A lot of people claim that these imagineers brought the idea of a land based on mythological creatures to universal, and this led to the lost continent, a land themed around mythology and mythological creatures. Disneys beastly Kingdom was supposed to have a unicorn themed dark ride and a dragon themed roller coaster. Universal's lost continent had a unicorn themed junior coaster and a dragon themed roller coaster. Dueling dragons. I don't think it was possible that universal changed their plans to what they quote unquote poached from former Disney imagineers. Islands of Adventure only opened a year after animal kingdom, and thats much too quick of a turnaround time. The truth is, these attractions had to have been planned before animal kingdom even opened. However, I think this is probably one of the big reasons we never got a beastly kingdom after the land got delayed. If Disney would have opened it, everyone would have said that they stole this idea from universal. But I digress. Another thing that was great at universal was the Bourne stuntacular. It was amazing. It blew my mind, and I don't even care about the Bourne movies. The choreography to use stunt actors and screens and vehicles was awesome. This was the best stunt show I think I've ever seen in my life. It made Indiana Jones stunt spectacular look 30 plus years old, and it made lights, motors, action look like it deserved to be closed. Sorry, Disney, I love you, but you gotta try to do something like this. The Bourne stuntacular is winning and you gotta learn from this. Another thing that Disney could really learn from Universal is the tribute store. The tribute store at Universal is this seasonal pop up shop that dives deep into a theme. While we were there, the theme during the summer was the tribute store plaza. Inside, it was a throwback to the eighties and nineties. There were three rooms. One looked like a video rental store, one looked like an arcade, and another looked like a movie theater lobby. Each of these rooms had universal Easter eggs to the beginning of the park and some of the universal movies and attractions that were there when it opened. ET, Ghostbusters, Jaws, back to the future. All the stuff I remember from when I was a kid, but isn't in the park anymore. Except for ET. He's still there and he's still really fun. Disney could totally steal this idea from Universal. They could easily make a cool pop up shop. It could be in the parks, or it could just be at Disney Springs. It'll coincide with park events or anniversaries of films. We Disney fans love to buy stuff. Wouldn't you love a Disney Christmas tribute store this holiday season with some 30th anniversary? The Santa Claus merch. They could even make it look like Scott Kelvin's North Pole. It would be amazing. As I broke it down. The high points of Universal are all the newest additions to the Universal parks Disney has been on top of the theme park rankings for so long, but Universal has been building over time. The more modern additions to the parks, mostly that Harry Potter stuff, are really big wins. We had a chance to visit the Epic Universe preview center and it looks amazing. If universal can execute epic universe at the Harry Potter Diagon alley level itll be some major Disney competition. But heres the thing. Before I went to universal, friends, coworkers, and even random people online were like you love Disney parks, youre going to love Universal. Like its more of the same but it isnt. After going to universal my feelings havent changed. The universal parks are just not for me. Even epic universe. I like Harry Potter. I read the books, I saw the movies. I like Mario. I played those games back in the day. How to train your dragon was fine. I dont really like scary stuff. So dark universe, whatever. Even the current parks minions are cool. I do really like Doctor seuss but I just dont really care about the intellectual properties at these parks. So let me tell you about where im coming from with my Disney fandom. Im a Disney fan, not even necessarily a theme park fan. Dont get me wrong, I do love Disney theme parks but its not because theyre theme parks. Im not like a roller coaster chaser or anything like that. Im a die hard Disney fan and the theme parks are just a place for me to bring that love of Disney to the next level. I get to be immersed in Disney spaces. To go back to the sports metaphor, you could bring a Yankees fan to Fenway park in Boston and they can respect the history and maybe even enjoy watching a baseball game there. But it's not going to turn them into a Red Sox fan. I can appreciate universal, but for me it can't compete with my love of Disney. Now I want to hear from you. You listened to this podcast. I'm guessing you love Disney. If you don't like Disney, you would have stopped listening a long time ago. You probably wouldn't have clicked play in the first place. But I want to hear from you. What's your Disney fandom like? Are you a theme park fan who likes Disney because they are the best? Are you an animation fan? Live action movies? Maybe it's Disney on ice that does it for you. Is it just princesses? Star wars? Maybe it's those dcoms. Disney Channel original movies? Let me know. What's the biggest part of your Disney fandom? If you're watching on YouTube, you could just leave a comment down below, or you could reach out to me on Instagram or threadsynergy lovescompany fandoms are best when shared. So could you also do me a little favor? Could you share this show with a friend of yours who you think would enjoy synergy loves company? Tell them about this episode or maybe another one that was your favorite. Send them a link on social media. Heck, you could tag me in it and I'll say hi. Or you can just tell them to visit synergylovescompany.com. and remember, this show is listener supported. There's no sponsors. It's just you and me. If you feel like you get something out of this little podcast and you want to show your appreciation, you can support the show on Ko Fi. You can donate any amount you would like and it helps me to keep producing the show no matter how you decide to support Synergy loves company. I appreciate you and the time you spend with me. So thank you. Thanks for exploring Disneys connections with me. And until next time, keep discovering the magic in everything.