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Looking Back at Scrapped Superman Ride from Failed Universal Theme Park
Not too long after the opening of Universal Studios Orlando in 1990, then head of Universal Parks Jay Stein proposed the idea of a new park to executives in order to further compete with Disney and become the company's number one park.
Wanting to secure the rights to an extensive catalog of well known properties, Universal would reach out to Warner Bros. and plans were ultimately put into motion for the new park to be called Universal's Cartoon World which would feature various lands including ones based on Looney Tunes and DC Comics characters.
Each land would have a main attraction with the DC's Superhero Land being a 3D ride featuring Superman and Lex Luthor. The ride's facade would be a towering skyscraper of the Daily Planet offices where guests would enter through the lobby and then board a motion simulator vehicle where they would don 3D glasses to be worn during the course of the attraction.
The ride experience would place guests on a Daily Planet newscopter for a sightseeing tour around Metropolis as Superman would fly alongside before spotting danger in the distance. The newscopter would then proceed to the danger as well in an attempt to cover the breaking news story for the Daily Planet as chaos ensues thanks to Lex Luthor's envolvement. A heart-stopping free fall plunge of 130-feet would conclude the ride experience and guests would then exit back into the park.
Sadly, due in major part to Universal's refusal to budge on a proposed 7% royalty deal and agreeing to Warner Bros.' request of 8%, neither the attraction or park would see the light of day... at least not as Universal's Cartoon World.
Plans for the park would eventually be reworked into what would become Universal's Islands of Adventure following a partnership with Marvel Comics. The attractions of DC's Superhero Land would be re-themed in order to showcase Marvel characters with the Superman ride becoming The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and the free fall aspect becoming Doctor Doom's Fearfall.
So, the next time you visit Universal's Islands of Adventure and find yourself in the area of The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man attraction, just remember that there's a reason why the facade is that of a towering skyscraper housing the offices of a major metropolitan newspaper, even if it is the Daily Bugle and not the Daily Planet.
