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Credit: Universal Studios JapanOn September 4, Jurassic Park: The Ride closed down indefinitely – and now we have more updates on why.
As with any major film franchise, it was inevitable that Jurassic Park (1993) would be memorialized as a ride at some point. In fact, Universal Studios was so confident that Steven Spielberg would lead the dinosaur thriller to success that it started developing its own attraction while the film was still in production.
Three years after the film’s release, Universal Studios Hollywood opened the world’s first Jurassic Park ride. Simply known as Jurassic Park: The Ride, it took the form of a water ride that saw guests sail through the fictional theme park and encounter Velociraptors, Stegosauruses, and other dinosaurs before finally confronting a Tyrannosaurus rex at the attraction’s big drop.
Over the years, multiple other Jurassic Park-inspired rides have opened across the world. Universal Orlando Resort welcomed its own version of Jurassic Park: The Ride with Jurassic Park River Adventure in 1999, as well as the children’s ride Pteranodon Flyers and the roller coaster VelociCoaster in 2021.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios Singapore features a rapids version of the ride with Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, and Universal Studios Japan has both Jurassic Park: The Ride and a steel flying roller coaster known as The Flying Dinosaur.
As other parks added more Jurassic Park rides, Universal Studios Hollywood bid farewell to its own in 2018. This was replaced by an alternate version of the ride inspired by the sequel series started by Jurassic World (2015). Opened in 2019, this includes cameos from the film’s stars, Chris Pratt (Owen Grady) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Claire Dearing), and incorporates more advanced effects and new animatronic dinosaurs.
Responses to Jurassic World: The Ride have been mixed. That’s why, when Universal Studios Japan announced that it would indefinitely close its version of Jurassic Park: The Ride on September 4, some feared that it was receiving the same makeover.
Fortunately, it seems like this isn’t the case. While the “major renovations” are listed as indefinite on the Universal Studios Japan website, there is a rough reopening date of early 2025 when the attraction is not expected to reopen as Jurassic World: The Ride.
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According to USJ 1, this refurbishment will be similar to the works carried out on Pirates of the Caribbean at Tokyo Disneyland earlier this year. While fans expected a closure of that length to involve a big update (namely, removing the “we wants the redhead” scene), it reopened with a total refresh that didn’t change the ride itself.
Instead, this closure is expected to involve repainting and reupholstering the existing ride. USJ 1 claims it will also receive “seismic reinforcement,” considering how earthquake-prone both Osaka and the rest of Japan are.
Major renovations and retheming are usually pushed pretty hard by Universal Studios Japan. Its transformation of WaterWorld received extensive promotion. If a Jurassic World ride was on the horizon, odds are, we’d know about it.
Would you like to see the existing Jurassic Park rides transformed into Jurassic World? Let us know in the comments!