ROB URBAN / UNIVERSAL EPIC UNIVERSE
Someone
imagined this.
Stars to ride.
Dragons to meet.
Worlds to make.
There is a bear on Constellation Carousel with the Big Dipper marked in points of light along its side.
That detail, explained by assistant creative director JC Cloward in Universal’s guide to Celestial Park’s stories, is a lovely place to begin thinking about Epic Universe. Someone considered what a constellation might become if a person could ride it. Then people gave the answer shape, movement and light.
I admire that journey from a fanciful question to a physical thing. Epic Universe gives it an extraordinary amount of room.
The park’s five worlds bring together games, films, original mythology and live performance. My interest is in the creative decisions that make those worlds feel worth imagining in the first place.
A telescope
still pointed
outward.
Celestial Park has its own invented society. Universal’s account, developed through conversations with Cloward and show producer Gina Scheraldi, describes Celestians arriving from different places and times, with engineers caring for the portals that connect their world.
A retired traveler named Vincent Various has a workspace above the Sensorium Emporium checkout. His telescope remains pointed toward the places he once explored.
That is a generous detail for a fictional person. Retirement has changed his daily life, while curiosity continues.
As a writer, I love the decision to give a shop a former life and an unseen proprietor an ongoing interest. A visitor can appreciate the room immediately; learning the story adds another way to enjoy it.
World building becomes especially appealing to me when it makes space for people’s habits and affections. Vincent’s telescope does that.
Through the green pipe.
Universal Creative and Nintendo developed SUPER NINTENDO WORLD together. Its green-pipe entrance makes a familiar movement from the games into a doorway people can actually pass through.
Then the scenery keeps moving: coins spin, Goombas pace and Piranha Plants sway. The setting carries the activity people associate with the games.
Mine-Cart Madness takes a different piece of game language, the apparently broken track, and turns it into a coaster illusion. Riders seem to leap gaps.
I find that translation wonderfully inventive. A game can establish its own physical rules in an instant. Making a real environment suggest those rules asks for another kind of ingenuity.
Recognition supplies the starting pleasure. The creative achievement is finding a new way for people to participate in something they already love.
Give the flight
a feeling.
In The Untrainable Dragon, Hiccup struggles to understand a dragon. Friends help him continue. The live show includes a moment in which Hiccup and Toothless fly above the audience.
The scale of that image is exciting, and I appreciate the human feeling that gives it purpose. A story about learning to connect gives a spectacular flight somewhere emotional to land.
Across the park, Le Cirque Arcanus combines aerial performance, acrobatics, puppetry and effects around Gwenlyn’s effort to rescue magical creatures from an exploitative ringmaster.
Those shows make live performers part of Epic’s imaginative life. People bring timing, expression and presence to a world that also depends on designed scenery and machinery.
I am drawn to that cooperation. The audience receives a story; many different kinds of talent contribute to the moment in which it becomes believable.
Made
monstrous.
Dark Universe gives Universal’s monster stories a village called Darkmoor. Its creative introduction places Dr. Victoria Frankenstein, a descendant continuing the family’s experiments, alongside familiar figures from the studio’s history.
There is also an intimate form of transformation: the Darkmoor Monster Makeup Experience, where artisans use face paint and temporary tattoos to help visitors take on a monstrous appearance.
I like the affection for making things that comes through in that choice. Someone gets to sit with an artist and watch a familiar face become part of the fiction.
Horror has a rich visual vocabulary. Giving skilled hands a place in that world acknowledges how much of its appeal comes from the pleasure of an extraordinary creation.
A future someone
can picture.
The people who imagine a park can also help someone imagine a career.
Comcast’s account of its STEAM symposium describes bringing 250 first-generation college-bound students to Universal Orlando. An Epic Universe panel included Greg Hall, Anisha Vyas Burgos, Patrick Braillard and Steve Tatham, representing creative design, projects, writing and creative direction.
Seeing those disciplines together matters to me. A young person interested in stories might discover that writing has a place beside engineering. Someone drawn to technical work might recognize how it contributes to an emotional experience.
A finished attraction can seem almost inevitable. Meeting people who helped make it offers a different understanding: choices were made, skills were learned and people found ways to work together.
That makes the possibility of contributing easier to picture.
Climb aboard.
The Big Dipper on a carousel bear, a retired explorer’s telescope, a game-world jump and a dragon above a theater audience all begin with people taking an imaginative idea seriously.
That is what inspires me about Epic Universe. Its creative teams have made many kinds of invention visible in one place. There is room to appreciate the grand gesture and then become curious about the smaller decision inside it.
I keep coming back to that bear. Looking up at the stars is already a pleasure. Someone thought it might be fun to climb aboard.
Read more about the wider Universal Orlando story or explore Orange County Stories. If your team is turning an imaginative idea into something people can experience, I would enjoy hearing about it.
Rob Urban
A few practical distinctions.
What are the five worlds at Epic Universe?
They are Celestial Park, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD, Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic.
Is Epic Universe the same park as Universal Studios Florida?
No. Epic Universe is a separate theme park within Universal Orlando Resort. Check the official ticket details for the parks and dates included in your visit.
Where should I check current attractions and showtimes?
Use Universal Orlando’s official website and app for current operating information, attraction requirements and showtimes. Entertainment and attraction availability can change.