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!