"Volkanu" Dark Ride Announced for New Lost Island Theme Park

© Lost Island / Sally

The currently under construction Lost Island Theme Park, being built in Iowa, has been announced to be the home of a brand new interactive dark ride from Sally, named Volkanu - Quest for the Golden Idol.  The new theme park is set to open next summer and has slowly been revealing information about the park's creative theme and roster of attractions.

The lands of the new park are themed around the earth's elements, and the Volkanu dark ride will be in the area representing fire.  Fitting, and the attraction is housed inside a building hidden by a giant volcano facade.  Sally Corporation has created a unique story for the attraction, which will be filled with interactive features and special effects.

© Lost Island / Sally

Above is concept art of the outside of the Volkanu ride.  Sally describes the attraction as featuring "state-of-the-art, multi-level gameplay technology that has something for everyone.  Riders will experience a four-minute showtime full of interactive 3D imagery, dynamic scenery, animatronic figures and dazzling special effects."

Riders entering the fire realm will find the dark ride themed to the "great god of fire Volkanu - a legendary bestial being of molten rock living deep inside Lost Island.  The experience will take riders on a thrill-packed adventure to locate the sacred Ora-Tika statue, responsible for keeping Volkanu dormant, and return it to the altar to restore peace to the island. Guests will be equipped with a powerful Thermal Blaster as they battle with the minions of Volkanu and head to the Temple of Fire to return the statue to its altar."

As fans of dark rides, it's great to see such a unique attraction opening in the U.S. so soon.  Instillation of the ride is already underway on site at Lost Island, and it will open with the theme park in 2022.

PortAventura Opens Sesame Street Themed "Street Mission" Interactive Dark Ride

© PortAventura

Spain's PortAventura theme park has opened their new Sesame Street themed interactive dark ride, named Street Mission, and it looks really good!  Not that there really was ever any doubt as all of Sally's dark rides are entertaining for the whole family, but the combination of the Sesame Street characters along with modern dark ride technology has really paid off.

© PortAventura

The new attraction is located in a building within the SesamoAventura, and the theming on the outside of the area matches the inside - and that's a very good thing.  Riders travel through a themed queue and there is even a full preshow area complete with an animatronic Detective Grover, who explains the mission.  (which happens in Spanish, but the ride is pretty straight forward regardless)

© PortAventura

Passengers eventually board vehicles like the one above, themed to a taxi cab, that will take them through the streets of the town on the Street Mission.  Each rider gets a blaster, which looks like a remote control of some sort, so they can hunt down clues on the journey.  You see, Detective Grover is investigating who took a giant cookie, and riders hunt down cookie crumbs as clues along the way.  The blaster sticks are how you pick up clues, which award points, and in the end whomever on the vehicle has the most points wins.

Take a look at this video of the entry area, queue and on-ride:

The ride combines many animatronics along with projection screens, trackless vehicles and the interactive blasting aspect.  Sally Corporation, who created the ride, notes that this is the first time that Sally and Jim Henson's Creature Shop have worked to create Sesame animatronics, and the first time Sesame Street puppeteer's performances have been used to direct CG animation sequences.  The technology includes 8 projection screens ranging from 30 to 70 feet wide, 4 projection mapped screens built into dimensional sets (very cool), a 90-degree curved screen with animatronic and show elements synched, and 2 180-degree curved screens that allow flying sequences through Count's Castle and into Oscar's Trashcan.

The new ride is sure to be a smash hit at PortAventura, and congratulations to the park and Sally on a wonderful ride.  This would be beyond perfect for SeaWorld's growing Sesame park sections, and Sesame Place as well.  Fingers crossed!

IAAPA Expo: Sally Corp. + PortAventura Reveal New Sesame Street Themed Dark Ride

© PortAventura

The recent IAAPA Expo featured plenty of new announcements, including a reveal of a new Sesame Street dark ride - the first of its kind in Europe - to be built next year at PortAventura.  To be located in the existing Sesamo Aventura themed section, the new ride will feature animatronics and other theming designed by Sally Corporation, a leader in dark ride adventures.

The new attraction will represent a large expansion of the Sesame Street themed area at PortAventura, contained in a brand new 14,000 square foot building.  The nearly six-minute ride will be part of a 15 minute adventure when the pre-show is factored in.

During the attraction riders will join Detective Grover on a mission to investigate a mystery that's taking place on Sesame Street, and the ride features more than 2,000 physical and virtual clues to uncover.  It sounds as though riders will be able to use some sort of technology to gather these clues, as the ride is labeled as interactive and will feature a hall of fame scoreboard.

Other technology inside the ride includes 8 different projector screens that include 4 projection-mapped screens on dimensional sets with practical target integration, 1 ninety-degree curved screen with animatronic and show element synching, and 2 one hundred eighty-degree curved, fully immersive screens allow guests to fly through Count’s Castle and dive down into Oscar’s Trash can. 

Scott and Carol were able to capture the entire announcement for the new Sesame Street dark ride at PortAventura during the IAAPA Expo.  The end of the announcement features the reveal of a full sized Big Bird animatronic, check out the video above!

Scott And Carol Present - The Now And The New With Awarding Sally Corp

Big smiles from the Sally Corp booth, they hardly needed any lighting due to all the shiny grins. The Justice League-Battle for Metropolis, now appearing at Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags St Louis, is currently thrilling millions of guests. Sally is spreading the wealth south of the border at Six Flags Mexico City and also at Six Flags Great America.

 Here is the link of our previous coverage for those of you who would like to take a look back.

Sally is also working with AMC on the "Walking Dead" concept, and we gain a little more understanding with Rich in an interview.

Congratulations to Donna and the entire Sally Corp team.

Two Six Flags Parks Join The Battle for Justice With New Sally Dark Ride

New in 2016 at both Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Mexico is the Justice League Battle for Metropolis 4D thrill ride experience. Similar to the blockbuster attractions that opened this past season at two additional Six Flags parks, the new Justice League ride will combine a traditional dark ride with interactive features and tons of special effects.

Fans of both parks premiering the rides in 2016 have much to look forward to, as Justice League: Battle For Metropolis was named one of the top ten new amusement park attractions of 2015 by USA Today readers, among many other accolades.

Six Flags is working with both Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment to create the new rides.  Visitors will fight for Metorpolis along famous superheros like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern.  Their enemies, including Lex Luthor and The Joker will do all the can to take over the city, and riders (in six passenger motion based vehicles) must help stop them.

"Introducing an attraction that combines this level of technology and the iconic DC Comics characters will bring an unmatched, interactive experience to our guests in 2016," stated Hank Salemi, park president. "The addition of JUSTICE LEAGUE: Battle for Metropolis is another example of our park’s commitment to delivering new and innovative thrills every year."

The new pair of rides will utilize 3D animation that will have guests shooting at targets along the way to collect points.  There will be special effects like animatronics, wind, fire and mist among ten different scenes throughout the attraction.  At Six Flags Great America the ride will be located in a 22,000 square foot Hall of Justice building on the site of the park's former amphitheater.

Scott And Carol Present - The Justice League Battle for Metropolis at Six Flags St Louis

Dave, Vice President and General Manager of Six Flags Saint Louis had lots of backup for the ride opening. What a great group of new friends to have for the guests in the park, and how intimidating it must be for Dave to have them looking over his shoulder.

A nicely done opening ceremony kicks off the festivities

Batman and Superman issued a call for recruits, and as you can see from the previous video, they appeared in droves.

Dave is very excited about his new ride, and it represents the third iteration of a Sally dark ride at Six Flags Saint Louis.

And the recruits kept coming and coming, with may opting for multiple re-rides. One of the nice features about and interactive ride like  Justice League: Battle for Metropolis, is that the experience changes as the targets are destroyed so each ride is different. The scoring option allows for bragging rights, which leads to more rides for additional chances for riders to improve their scores

Donna, Project Manager, and John. President, both from Sally Corporation, talk about their newest attraction. John gives a synopsis of the evolution of dark rides in regional parks, and how they overcame the challenges along the way. This is a must for any dark ride fan, and it is a tribute to the team at Sally, and their persistence of vision. And Donna makes the understatement of the day, "It's just fun."

Guests are greeted by this Cyborg when they enter the loading room.

Rich, from Sally who we met at IAPPA, was happy to talk about the ride and Martin, from Oceaneering explained about the new ride vehicle and the challenges they create. One of the features is the way the vehicles tilt, which makes the virtual loop possible. 

Does anyone else see similarity between Rich's shirt and the Joker's jacket? Coincidence? We think not!

Here is a great shot of the new ride vehicle that was introduced at IAAPA 2014. Stadium seating, cool looking lasers, 360 spins, and the tilting functions make this a great interactive ride vehicle.

The new ride vehicle is the star of this display in the queue

Here is where riders engage in a battle of wits the Joker.

This is the climatic room of the ride,..

and here is a brief video of the action

Another view of the Chaos Cannon room

The members of the Justice League have the cyborg under control. Our thanks to everyone from Six Flags Saint Louis, Sally, and Oceaneering for their assistance.

 

We take a ride with Martin and Lauren where they show us who the true gamers are in this car. Be sure to listen to the ride instructions, they are wonderful.

Scott And Carol Present - A Six Flags St Louis Justice League Update.

Back in November 2014 we brought the official announcement of the new dark ride Justice League - Battle for Metropolis straight from the IAAPA floor in Orlando.

While the construction going on in St Louis  is not quite as dramatic as it is in Arlington, these photos from December 2014 show quite a bit has been. The water channel was been filled in and 

all of the walls and props from Scooby Doo's Scary Swamp Dark Ride have been removed.

These two photos, from the 1st week of January 2015, show quite a bit of progress is being made.

Drywall is beginning to be applied to the steel studs and the large empty building is beginning to resemble the rides floor plan. Thanks to Elizabeth at Six Flags St Louis for sending along the photos. We are looking forward to trekking to Six Flags St Louis to experience Justice League- Battle for Metropolis this Spring,

Scott And Carol Present - A Six Flags St Louis Justice League Battle For Metropolis Update

 

Between checking the walk-throughs and shows of Fright Fest at Six Flags St Louis, we noticed the park is proudly touting their new for 2015 Sally Corporation dark ride all over the park.

 

 

The entrance to Scooby's Haunted Swamp has been blocked off by this huge banner

 

And according to the sign posted on the fence of the old ride, you can rent or lease some swampland in Missouri.

On down the fence these concept art posters give more hints of what is to come in 2015

 

 

The park is even using the boats from the Haunted Swamp as theming for one of the Fright Fest shows. Speaking of Fright Fest, beware for that scary tale coming soon!

Scott And Carol Present - Sally and DC Entertainment Are At It Again!

 

 

While News Plus Notes has covered the Six Flags announcements of Sally Corporation's new action-packed interactive dark ride, Justice League: Battle For Metropolis, set to open in 2015 at both Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags St. Louis,  the fine folks at Sally Corporation were kind enough to send us some additional information and concept drawings.

 

Sally Corporation's thrilling new attraction, Justice League: Battle For Metropolis will bring the world's most famous super heroes to life...battling alongside park guests in an epic fight to defeat two of the most feared villains in the DC Universe, The Joker and Lex Luthor.

 



 This Cyborg will be asking for volunteers in assisting the Justice League in the Battle for Metropolis

 

Created in partnership with Six Flags, Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment, this dynamic adventure features all of our favorite super heroes, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Supergirl, in a fight to save the city of Metropolis from chaos. They are aided by the amazing Cyborg who recruits guests for the volunteer force and demonstrates how to defeat the menaces at hand with powerful laser blasters. 

 

Sally designed the rides after completing the mixed-media interactive ride, Justice League : Alien Invasion 3D, in 2012 at Warner Bros. Movie World in Australia.  After the success of that attraction, Six Flags called on Sally to develop an entirely new ride based on the Justice League.  After months of conceptual design, Justice League : Battle For Metropolis was born with an all new story line, new villains, and a thrilling new motion-based ride system.

 

 

This concept of the van attack looks to be a very surprising moment in our epic battle in defeating the most feared villains in the DC Universe

 

Sally Corporation CEO John Wood. states “By incorporating the dynamic ride system created by Oceaneering, who also built the ride system for Transformers at Universal Studios, we can achieve the next generation of interactive thrills.  In addition, the massive 3D screens and highly detailed scenery immerse you in the world of the DC Comics superheroes.  Now, a completely new experience awaits with Justice League: Battle for Metropolis as it is the very first motion-based, interactive dark ride in North America.” 

 

Featuring a mix of state-of-the-art animatronics and 3D video technology, together with numerous special effects, the four minute ride incorporates five huge interactive 3D screens, an interactive 3D fog screen, multiple custom vehicles equipped with special laser blasters, a dramatic custom musical score, and culminates in a struggle between the Justice League and the evil villains, in which riders play a decisive role,

 

 

Here is a photo of the actual van that will be used in one of Justice League - Battle For Metropolis rides, although we are not such which location

 

As volunteers enter the Hall of Justice, they are immediately alerted to the dangers on the streets of Metropolis.  The Joker and Lex Luthor have teamed up to use the weaknesses of the Justice League against them to kidnap and hold them in LexCorp, Lex Luthor’s corporate headquarters in downtown Metropolis.  The brave volunteers are given their mission directives; find the Justice League and free them from The Joker, Lex and their evil minions.

 

 

This storyboard is a scene from the ride where volunteers are assisting the Justice League in chasing the Joker

 

With live fire, cannon blasts, holograms, explosions and surprises waiting around every corner, volunteers will truly feel as though danger is imminent and the peril is real as they battle to save the city from complete havoc.

 

Sally assembled their own team of industry superheroes to assist in building these two new incredible attractions.  Oceaneering is supplying the all new, custom designed 6-passenger, multi DOF, motion-based ride vehicles.  Lexington Scenic is fabricating massive dimensional sets and scenery that will immerse guests in the dangerous city streets of Metropolis.  Pure Imagination is creating incredibly realistic interactive 3D media.  They’ve also enlisted the help of Alterface, Wyatt Design Group, RealD 3D, and Bose Audio to help them create a truly amazing interactive dark ride that reaches new heights of immersive storytelling and gameplay.

 

Thanks to Lauren Wood at Sally Corporation for sending the information and fantastic concepts and photos. We can hardly wait to assist the Justice League  in the Battle for Metropolis!                                                      


Sally Corp's New Chinese Restaurant Show: Happy Legend in White Tiger Mountain

© Sally Corporation

Sally Corporation, known for their animatronics and dark rides around the world, has opened a new restaurant show at Chimelong's White Tiger Restaurant in Guangzhou, China.

The show, titled the Happy Legend in White Tiger Mountain, features a cast of life-size animatronic animals and has been called the country's first ever "animal restaurant show" and is quickly receiving rave reviews from visitors.

"Set in the hotel's iconic White Tiger Restaurant, the White Tiger Mountain entertains guests, primarily children, during the breakfast, lunch and evening dinner periods with songs, jokes, and stories told by Papa Tiger, the show's handsome central character, and even occasional words of wisdom from the ancient YeYe (Grandfather Tree)."

© Sally Corporation

The show also features Rocky, the tiger club seen above, who is able to appear and disappear using a stage lift hidden in the mountain.  Other characters include a brown bear, monkey, koala, flamingo and squirrl - all with unique names and personalities.

The set is programmed to feature numerous shows on rotation, there are a total of five different ones - three four minute shows and two eight minutes in length.  The Grandfather Tree is also able to interact with children between shows using a built in handprint button.

© Sally Corporation

Sally CEO John Wood just returned from the resort and stated, “We saw how popular our Great Wolf Lodge show had become in Canada and wanted this show to have the same effect in China.  White Tiger Mountain looked great in its wild and wonderful natural setting and the young patrons in the restaurant absolutely loved the show.  Mission accomplished.”

While not in English, you can get a feel for the quirky characters in the show in this video released by Sally Corporation - and as always learn more about them on their official website.

Scott And Carol Present - Creative Director at Sally Corporation Retires

 

                                                                        

While Jan Sherman may not be a familiar name to most of you, as the AVP/Creative Director at Sally Corporation, she has been in the business of entertaining Dark Ride enthusiasts for 32 years.

Jan has played a major role in Sally's show design and creative production since 1981. Her award-winning work for Sally can be seen in dark ride and theater productions in the United Kingdom, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China, Belgium, Spain, and Indonesia as well as throughout North and South America. Jan has provided script writing, sound track production and project supervision for many of Sally's projects.

Her extensive entertainment background includes radio, theater and television experience in both the United States and the U.K. as an actress, writer and director-producer. Jan was also involved in Sally's advertising, public and media relations, marketing materials, video production. Occasionally she was even spotted manning the Sally booth at IAAPA.

  

Jan recently decided to retire from her role as Creative Director at Sally Corporation and a retirement party was held in her honor on April 11th 2014.

Chairman and CEO of Sally Corporation, John Wood had some very good things to say about Jan, "Over the years Jan has been challenged to make hound dog and bear bands come alive, create sound tracks and scripts that melt the hearts of young and old alike, and manage Sally’s ever changing advertising program. She has been a consummate professional who never failed to deliver a quality product on schedule. Jan has traveled to studios in Taiwan, Japan, Canada and most recently China, and spent countless hours in local studios with local talent to produce excellent soundtracks for our figures and rides. Her contributions will certainly be missed and we all wish her the very best in her retirement.”

                                                     

Luckily for all Dark Ride Enthusiasts the "Nut doesn't fall far from the tree." John's lovely daughter Lauren Weaver has stepped into the role of Marketing Director. Lauren has been a member of the business development team since 2008. She has since taken on the role of digital marketing manager, maintaining the company’s website and social media channels, as well as trade show coordinator, organizing the company’s expo presence international. So you can thank Lauren for all the really cool stuff you see on the Sally Facebook page.

Lauren is a graduate of Jacksonville’s Stanton College Preparatory School, she holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Florida State University. Lauren brings extensive experience in modern marketing tactics and will continue Jan’s advertising efforts to maintain Sally’s marketing program.

Our thanks to Jan for all the wonderful and entertaining projects you assisted in creating. Hopefully the enjoyment you have helped provide to the millions of riders of Sally attractions will be returned for your own life's enrichment. We will miss seeing you but sincerely hope you enjoy your retirement! All photos are courtesy of the Sally Corporation.