By Fred Topel | Image property of respective holders
The Simpsons Ride
The Simpsons Ride replaces Back to the Future: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. Series producer James L. Brooks, who worked on the ride with his Simpsons team, was sensitive to the legacy they were following.
James L. Brooke Talks The Simpsons Ride
"We were very worried about that," said Brooks. "I love Back to the Future. I love that ride. It's my favorite ride at the park but I never go on all the blogs because there's going to be some kid who says something where you feel bad that night. So all my colleagues go on it and apparently the blogs are going nuts over this ride."
The writing team stuck together to make sure The Simpsons Ride reflected the quality of their show and movie. "Similar in that you have those silent periods where you try to figure stuff out and then you crack the problem. Just the trial and error of it is very similar. I was pretty involved. It worked like everything works. About six months ago, we rode a rough version and we felt that we had to make a lot of changes and we had to almost invent a process to make those changes because it was late in the game as these things go. Universal was great and they're sort of fun and working with a different culture. You sort of get that treat on The Simpsons, like suddenly you're working with the people who make your game and it's very interesting because it gets you outside yourself and outside your own box. So it was a ride working on the ride."
Near the ride itself is a Kwik E Mart, though it is not exactly the same as the 7-11s converted last summer. "It's not the same as the 7-11 and I think it's still a work in progress but it's fun. What we just heard is that anything with the pig on it sells out."
Brooks and Co. paid attention to making a quality ride, not just a series of jokes. "It's funny, it's scary and it's a ride. It's a real ride and there's storytelling in it and there's unexpected things happening in it. There's fun. I think it has the spirit of the show. Yeah, people wonder how you did it. That's great and it's always stupid to talk about it because everybody talks about it and never has any real texture when you just say the words, but mixing the two cultures is tricky. It took everything each of us had to pull this off."
The Simpsons Ride is now open at Universal Studios Hollywood.
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