Jurassic World: The Exhibition - a review
With the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park having come in June, I had to celebrate, first by watching the film itself, but the day after that, I went with my father on June 12 to another befitting attraction: Jurassic World: The Exhibition, a travelling walkthrough attraction organised by Neon Global, which came to my fair city of Mississaga in May, specifically a former sporting good store now used for travelling. JWTE themes itself to travelling to the namesake park of the recent trilogy. It's actually the latest of many tie ins to the frsnchise, from The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park back in the 1990's, to the Japenese-exclusive Jurassic Park Institute Tour, which I eagerly watched as a kid and wanted to go to. But enough of building up and let's begin our tour, shall we?
The exhibit begins with a themed pre-show about boarding a boat to Isla Nublar, as video screens of ocean simulate the ride there. It's a nice start to the attraction if I say so myself.
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| Neat posters here BTW, reminiscent of Cold War-era travel advertising and Disney |
Also notice the binoculars by the wall? Those have screens in it that simulate looking down on the creatures of the valley, including Gallimimus and Stegosaurus who otherwise don't appear in the exhibition physically, which I enjoyed peering into, the cherry on top for the section.
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| She peepin' |
Down the path is a truck where another dinosaur was, this time a specific individual from the films: Stiggy the Stygimoloch, right next to a display on deep time, popping up and down. Itès fine to look at.
Although, for somnething that doesn't site right with me: I know pachycephalosaurs were omnivorous and no doubt dangerous, but why the "Predatory livestock" sign? No time to make one that read "Dangerous Livestock"?
Vistors then walk into a section that proports to be indoors: the creation lab, where (replica) eggs and baby Parasaurolophus are being incubated, amber samples (thsat even list localitie of where dinosaurs were found), and these weird rubber models you can touch in rubber sleeves I think are dinosaur guts representing different diets (they're actually three big piles of shit). It's a cool bit, although I couldn't get a wide photo without people blocking views of egg incubators I wanted. But moving on.
The next segment is a raptor show. First came a baby being brought out by a cast member in a corridor. I legit thought they had replaced another one where Blue (or rather a dude in a raptor suit) stomped around a fenced-in area, but nope, we were ushered in through another door for that, mening it was a pre-show. It was certainly one of the cheesier segments of the attraction, and standing around watching an actor in a suit walk around is too dumb even for me.
A break then occurs with a dig pit where kids could dig for (replica) fossils. Being an adult I didn't take part in it, so I paid more attention to the screen playing on a loop, listing fossils and facts, including Megalodon among the dinosaurs. An ankylosaur puppet representing Bumpy, from the cartoon Camp Cretaceous was also brought out. It seems to mostly serve as a breather between segments about carnivores, who could easily scare small children.
That second segment in question is one where visitors are granted special access to see the latest atraction: the Indominus rex, indicating that the attraction's event take place before the movie. The decesion obscures it to leave only the head visible at all times (it might just be only a head) as it seems to look at the audience, intelligence evident, builds dread and lets your mind fill in the rest of the dinosaur,. and the simple way of letting the meat prop drop down and have the head pop up wihout it is a prtty effective way to evoke consuming it without showing it.
Next comes Gyrosphere Valley, where an Ankylosaurus was, overlooked by a static gyrosphere. The anky seemed nice, even having rectangular pupils as a nice touch and something I like. and honestly I got the awe of seeing a giant even more then from the brach.
However, the anky (at least in-universe as it were) seems distressed, swinging its tail club at the visitors from time to time, you'd think park staff would remove guests to keep the animal calm. Though then again, negligence is what JP is about. I was also thinking that the Gyrosphere serves as a glorified photo op when I thought their would be a simulation of goung through the valley. Finally, the cast member said it was an adult Bumpy, and the colours are similar enough to Bumpy's adult form, but given we just saw her baby form a few minutes ago....
Or maybe I'm just looking too much into things I'm misunderstanding?
The final section sees a confrontation between Carnotaurus and the ol' queen herself as vistors are stuck between two fences. I believe it's meant to be a breakout (and with Jurassic Park that's no surprise), but I didn't hear clearly. Anyway, it seemed like a pretty cool finale.
The Exhibition naturally ends in the gift shop. I got a book of it that summarises the attraction, so I might post pictures of that too.
So what do I think Jurassic World: The Exhibition? It's pretty good in my book.
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| Didn't knoe where else to put this stygimoloch puppet |
Jurassic World's animatronics are great, moving with pretty lifelike movents and bulk you can only get with physical effects. They were created by Australian-based Creature Technology, best known for a certain live show back in the day, and are heads and shouders above the usual array of stiff ones coming out of China these days. The puppets used for the babies aren't half bad either, though some of their movements given are a bit stiff.
The set design is nice, even if the attempt at theming to the surrounding jungle consists of clearly flat panelling, some of which is cut out for doors, and so immersion is reduced. The exhibit's organiser, Neon, as well as the peoplre who fabricated them, deserve the praise. The venue is used as good as it can do.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of interactives and interpretives that supplement the animatronics nicely, nost just screens but models, with a good balance of both. However, they do decrease as the exhibit goes on, and by the T. rex finale it's just standing around in a narrow, fenced off corridor. And of course, the HVACs are plainly visible if you look up with no attempts to disguise or hide it. That's beside the point, though, admittedly.
Jurassic World does manage to shoehorn a few educational elements into it well, notably via the looping screens that display archival footage from the films (makes me wonder how in-universe they got aqcuired) and a few stations; it might have something to do with the fact that dinosaurs and educational spaces like museums are pretty much linked in the public consiousness, so it's expected that even the most fictionalised palaeo-work can be expected to have a "Fun Facts" section. In fact, it actually used to have more, in previous runs (see this youtube playlist to see it) from around 2016 and 2017, usually in outright museums, as opposed to the custom venues this uses. I like them, even if they don't always feel connected to the fictionalised animatronics right in front of visitors.
Accuracy itself is what we'd expect from Jurassic World, lrt alone Park: not very good. The designs have at leasr one or two things wrong with them, like the ankly being oversized and having a wrongly shaped tail club (should be more of a coffee bean shape rather then what is present). Facts in the digital interpretives are often poorly phrased too. However, I can't really name any at the moment, so take my word for it.
My biggest (and probably obly real) problem with the exhibition is that it seems you can't backtrack among the crowds, which is a problem for when I wanted to get more photos or catch up on what was but couldn't be allowed to. It was also shorter then I expected, 45 minutes by my estimate, even if it felt way longer. I was expecting an hour, and I wouldn't have minded such a longer time. But that's just me.
Now some would dismiss JWTE as a gimmicky attraction that appeals only to children, but honestly, I feel that the spectacle of the animatronics does give it appeal to adults and teens into prehistory, and fans of the franchise as a whole, even if back to the first point it doesn't exactly have much under the surface, like themes or story.
If there's anything that I wish was changed to Jurassic World: The Exhibition, I'd do the following:
- As mentioned above, I'd alter the layout to allow for more backtracking, with a central space with branching alcoves.
- I'd retain a bit more from previous runs of it, like more educational interpretives and sections like the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo with a Pachyrhinosaurus animatronic, depending on the size of whatever venue. it would be at
- Add a final segment of going back to the boat pre-show with the idea of going back home.
- Finally, I'd try to add more elements from the films, maybe even have cast members mention characters (Dearing, Owen) or even have supporting actors easier to get to reprise their roles (Barry, Hopkins, Himada).
This version can even be applied to potential new runs of Jurassic World: The Exhibition.
- Exhibit Design - 9/10
- Effects - 7/10
- Accuracy - 5/10
Jurassic World: The Exhibition is very good, and a must see for many Jurassic Park fans. Honestly, I even enjoyed the attraction far more then all three of the JW movies combined (yeah I hate them - more on that another day). You should check it out if you're in the GTA, as you nedd to see it in person to really love it. Photoes do not do it justice.
Thank you for reading. Be sure to share this post whenever you can.
See Also
- https://jurassicworldexhibition.com/mississauga/ (the website for it itself)
- Everything Jurassic World-related
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