Hey, my name is Kevin Perjurer and welcome to another addition to Defunctland. For background/context on this series,
please visit ThePerj.com with the link below.
Today we will be attempting to resurrect
Universal Studios Florida's closed attraction
Kongfrontation. This was suggested by DaveTheWave007,
Mystery Brick, MK1MonsterOck1989, ThatBoyDrew, and probably more of you by the time this video comes out.
Always thank you to everyone who has been commenting and suggesting video topics.
Kongfrontation was open at Universal Studios Florida from June 7th, 1992, to
September 8th, 2002, and it is one of the most technologically impressive attractions in theme park history.
Its first iteration was actually not in Florida, though.
If you've seen the Defunctland on Jaws: The Ride, you might already know where it was first seen the Universal Studios Backlot Tour after
the popularity of the
1976 remake of King Kong. Fans begged Universal to add a Kong encounter to the tour, so Disney Imagineer Bob Kerr,
famous for his work on designing most of Disneyland's original attractions, was hired to design the trams Kong encounters.
The ending result was impressive, with guests entering
a soundstage designed to appear as a destroyed New York City, with television screens and side apartments turned on to live coverage of the destruction.
The guests get to see a helicopter tangled in wires before coming face-to-face with the ape himself. The animatronic created was 30 feet tall, with
660 pounds of fur attached. It had the ability to growl and screech, and even had the trademark banana breath. This helped solidify
Universal Studios Hollywood as a theme park, and would later help in the development of Universal Studios
Florida. As stated in the Jaws Defunctland, there was a race between
Universal and Disney to open their movie theme park in Florida,
which Disney would ultimately end up winning, as well as stealing the [Backlot Tour from Universal.
Universal's reimagined park would now include extended and independent tour encounters including Jaws, Earthquake, and
Kongfrontation. Two bigger and advanced Kong animatronics were created for the ride.
ArrowDynamics, the same company that had designed the Matterhorn Bobsleds,
designed the ride's unique train, which would be housed in a 62-thousand square foot, 6-story building. The trains were designed after the
Roosevelt Island Tramway and were suspended from the ceiling of the ride. The ride opened with the park on June 7th, 1990.
But did it work as planned? You know full well that it didn't.
The protagonist we face in an adventure may not be human. It may be an element of nature,
or a huge and terrifying creature whose origins are a product of nature gone awry; a
horrifying piece of prehistory
clashing with modern normalcy.
The "Beauty and the Beast" story of King Kong
terrified audiences in 1933, and again in the 1976 remake.
But the nerve-snapping tension created by the sight of the giant ape breaking loose
to devastate a city has been far surpassed.
Kongfrontation is a colossal experience.
We are aboard the Roosevelt Island Tramway in New York, when suddenly,
we see the wake of his carnage: it is destruction on a catastrophic scale.
Our tram will not stop; it can only go forward.
Smoke fills the air
as fires from the devastation create a blazing inferno.
And then, there he is!
The terrifying giant ape!
The tram dangles before the harrowing show. We're face to face with him as he threatens to send us careening downward.
The animatronics were ginormous, and this would cause power surges and emergency stops frequently. The ride was still being tweaked, and took another few
months to perfect,
but the ensuing result was quite impressive. Placed in the New York section of the park, Kongfrontation took guests first into the subways of
1970s New York with concrete walls covered with graffiti.
This graffiti was created by actual graffiti artists hired by Universal, and was unofficially added to over the years by many park guests.
Televisions displayed breaking news that new York City was being attacked by a giant ape. There was an evacuation
underway via elevated trams to Roosevelt Island.
Guests boarded one and attempted to make it to safety as they cruised through a destroyed
New York City. A radio informs the guests and the operator that Kong is heading straight for their route. The operator is unable to stop
the tram, though, and a helicopter shines a spotlight right on the ape, who is hanging on the bridge.
Helicopters shoot at the ape against the wishes of the tram. Kong then hits the tram, causing the tram to briefly fall.
Kong is quickly distracted by a helicopter that crashes into a ball of flames, and the tram quickly escapes.
Nearing Roosevelt Island, the guests are blinded by another helicopter spotlight. The tram operator
requests them turn it off, and once the light is gone, Kong appears once again next to the tram, this time closer than before.
Guests can smell his banana breath as he grabs the tram and lifts it up before dropping it again. The tram speeds forward,
escaping to Roosevelt Island as Kong fights back in the heart of the city.
The television now shows breaking news of the tram that has just survived the ape's wrath.
The ride cars were unique not only because they were suspended from the ceiling, but because they had the ability to move not only
forward, but up and down,
which is what sold the encounters with Kong's fists. The fake newscast seen during the ride was hosted by actual New York
newsman Rowland Smith, with voiceover work done by Ron Knight, a man who also helped with various voices for officers and helicopter pilots in
Kongfrontation, as well as providing his voice to other Universal rides such as E.T.'s Adventure and Jaws.
So that was Kongfrontation. As stated, the ride was impressive,
but shoddy. Emergency stops would find passengers suspended in pitch-black darkness at times, which was horrifying for both the guests and the tram operator.
The operators did not have as big of a fanbase as those over at Jaws,
but they did have to have a lot of talent.
Operators claim that their headsets were real and that they could hear the voices of the control tower and other
operators while they were giving their tours. As you can imagine, this was quite distracting,
but they were able to adjust to the extra noise.
So, why did it close? It is speculated that high staffing and operating costs helped in the decision, as well as Universal wanting to keep
Universal Studios up to date with their franchises. They found the perfect opportunity to do this after the hit film The Mummy came out in
1999, and the successful sequel, The Mummy Returns, in 2001.
Kongfrontation's space would be used for Revenge Of The Mummy: The Ride. While this was disappointing for fans of
Kongfrontation, the ride Revenge Of The Mummy was
somewhat of a worthy replacement, and has developed its own fan following. The ride contains a few references to Kongfrontation,
including a gold King Kong statue, as well as the original track pieces from Kongfrontation,
which are still attached to the ceiling as they are built into the building structure and can't be removed easily.
King Kong did live on after
Kongfrontation. The tram stop remained at the Universal Studios Hollywood Tour until it was destroyed by a backlot fire in 2008.
Universal announced that they would not rebuild the section of the attraction shortly after; they would instead replace it with King Kong
360 3D, a completely digital
360-degree tunnel that the tram would stop in and
experience Skull Island in 3D. 6 years after this, and 13 years after the closure of Kongfrontation, Universal Studios
Florida would open a standalone attraction based on the new tram stop,
entitled Skull Island: Reign Of Kong. Guests would enter the terrifying home of Kong,
scared by live actors in the queue, and board a trackless expedition vehicle equipped with an animatronic tour guide. The ride features 3D
360-degree projected screens, props, screens,
animatronics, screens,
and more screens. The ape does appear in animatronic form, impressively so, but only from the waist up.
The encounter is also after the ride has essentially ended and the ape is calm and friendly.
This incarnation of the ride has displeased many fans of Kongfrontation, and for good reason.
It's not as fun or as colorful as the original, and the ride through a destroyed New York with an actual set easily bests a 3D movie.
So while King Kong lives on at Universal's parks, no new attraction has been able to match
Kongfrontation. So that is the history of Kongfrontation. If you haven't been reading the accompanying pieces on The Perj,
then you definitely haven't noticed that we have two lands in Defunctland now, as seen by this updated map.
We have Encounterland and Partyland. Unfortunately, Pretzel Dark Rides doesn't have a land yet,
but we'll get there. To learn more about where the remains of Kongfrontation are today,
how I'm going to get them back, and where I will place them in Defunctland, please visit ThePerj.com with the link below.
Otherwise, don't forget to comment, share, and subscribe. Thank you!