On November 13th, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) announced the recipients of the Thea awards, referred to as the oscars for the entertainment industry, during the IAAPA in Orlando. The recently opened dark ride experience in Legendia theme park, named Bazyliszek, was announced as recipient of a “Thea” in the category “Outstanding Achievement – Limited Budget”. Being the 5th Thea award for a project (co)created by Jora Vision, the company establishes itself as one of the creative market leaders in creating experiences, dark rides and attractions.
The dark ride has been a creative collaboration between the teams of Alterface, Jora Vision and ETF Ride Systems. Jora Vision was responsible for creative design, project management and production of all theming for the queue areas, loading station and all scenes of the interactive dark ride.
The “Thea awards jury” wrote: “Bazyliszek in an unique attraction which introduces interactive, dark-ride storytelling to an emerging theme park market (Poland) and builds on a unique and local cultural context. Bazyliszek uses modern storytelling tools and immersive environments to explore the myth of the Basilisk – a reptilian monster, part serpent/part rooster with magical powers and a deadly glance. Bazyliszek is an outstanding model of an attraction that speaks to its regional audience. It is well-executed, elegant, engaging, colourful, fun and fresh.”
Investing in Design is essential
“Legendia is setting a great example as a regional park, to invest in a custom-designed high-quality dark ride experience.” explains Jan Maarten de Raad, CEO at Jora Vision. “Not many regional parks dare to take the step to invest in a dark ride due to the complexity of creating such an attraction; it requires a thorough design process and project management to ensure a proper integration of theming, ride system, building, media, lighting and special effects. Disciplines which not all parks have in-house and/or maybe think too lightly of. ”
Robin van der Want, Project Development Director at Jora Vision adds: “Even today with a thriving market, some parks or leisure groups do not value the necessity of investing in a full concept and schematic design. We still see parks not reserving the correct amount of time and investment for a design process, they simply expect to build from a couple of point-of-view (POV) illustrations. However, successful experiences are build from design packages containing numerous detailed drawings also including information on operations, guest safety, capacity, fire regulations, visitors flow, sight-lines etc. Taking shortcuts on design will slingshot back at you in the production phase by miss interpretations, budget overrun and a mediocre ride experience as a result.” “We are happy that Legendia was able to lock down a proper percentage of the total investment for design. With the recognition by the TEA of a Thea award, and the high guest appreciation, it is another example why investing in design is worth-while.”
Dark Ride Specialist
The past couple of years, Jora Vision has been involved in Dark Ride projects all around the world. For next year, a new interactive dark ride is planned for Walibi Belgium named Popcorn Revenge. Once again Alterface, Jora Vision and ETF ride systems are collaborating to create the first Erratic (non-linear) dark ride experience. For the project, the design has been finished and theming is currently in production.
“Popcorn Revenge will be a dark ride with a lot of humor and an unique theming style” explains Simeon van Tellingen, Creative Director at Jora Vision. “Visitors will enter an old cinema where the popcorns have come to live and have taking of the cinema. They are even invading the movies. Every detail is designed in this attraction to fit the theme, all together creating a truly immersive guest experience”.
“Los Piratas de Bacalar”, an indoor pirates-themed experience for Amikoo theme park adjacent to Cancún, Mexico, is planned for 2020. The 5,000-square-meter attraction, will be part of the retail, dining and entertainment district of the Amikoo theme park complex, and will be developed as a stand-alone experience. The project will feature a 50-minute walk-through attraction, a fully-themed buffet restaurant and a merchandise shop, all based on the rich piracy history of the Mexican Riviera Maya.
“We are excited to see more and more parks are showing interest in our services of design, project management and manufacturing of dark rides and experiences” concludes Robin van der Want. “These experiences give parks the opportunity to tell their own unique story and offer an attraction that can be experienced by the entire family together”.
Bazyliszek will be officially awarded during the Thea awards ceremony at the Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim April 11-13, 2019.
