20 Once-Beloved Universal Rides That Closed Forever

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When Universal Studios Florida opened in Orlando on June 7, 1990, it offered a couple dozen of rides, shows, and attractions.

Out of all of them, only two remain in operation today: E.T. Adventure and the Horror Make-Up Show. The rest have all gone to that great theme park in the sky (where, one assumes, there are no lines and no upcharge for using Express Passes). Through the years, Universal’s parks in Florida, Hollywood, and Japan have closed tons of rides to make room for new ones — even a few that are (or now were) inextricably linked with the Universal brand.

Here is a list of 20 such attractions, along with videos of each one in action so you can relive them one more time – 3D glasses and flying DeLoreans not included.

Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies

These days, Universal’s theme parks are exclusively devoted to immersive rides and environments that let guests feel like they have stepped inside their favorite movies and shows. That’s a stark contrast to their parks’ initial concept, which was a place where tourists learned the secrets of a film and TV production, with a couple bigger rides thrown in for some extra oomph. One of the best examples of old-school Universal was Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies. After a 3D highlight package of Hitchcock films was interrupted by the stars of The Birds, guests were ushered into a soundstage where a “director” and his “crew” explained how Hitchcock shot Psycho’s shower scene. The finale of the attraction was an interactive area where guests who participate in demonstrations of the practical movie magic behind Hitchcock movies like Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, and Saboteur. It was like a cross between a thrill ride and a museum — and for a budding cinephile, it was a paradise.

Back to the Future: The Ride

The unforgettable Back to the Future: The Ride was a simulator that let visitors board an impressively detailed copy of the franchise’s DeLorean time machine for a aerial chase through the centuries. (The story of the ride, which played out in pre-show videos featuring Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson, was about Biff stealing a time machine and Doc sending tourists in his new eight-seater, remote-controlled DeLorean to catch him.) With special effects by 2001: A Space Odyssey legend Douglas Trumbull, BTTF:TR lived up to the old Universal slogan that promised a vacation where you could “ride the movies.” Its closure was inevitable; the “future” of the Back to the Future franchise is 2015, which is now a decade old. The two American versions of the attraction closed by the late 2000s, although Universal Studios Japan’s version managed to hang on until 2016 — one year after Marty and Doc went back to the future.

Backdraft

Another of Universal’s early how-they-do-it-style attractions was Backdraft, based on the 1991 Ron Howard film about a crew of heroic firefighters. This show, which played at Universal Studios Hollywood from 1992 to 2010, and at Universal Studios Japan from 2001 to 2020, included several behind-the-scenes videos featuring Howard and the Backdraft cast and then a practical fire effects demonstration on one of the Universal soundstages. Backdraft never got a sequel (at least until a direct-to-video one in 2019) and the rise of CGI gradually made practical wizardry like the stuff on display in Backdraft and its accompanying attraction, far less exciting to tourists. The buildings that once housed this attraction is now the home of an elaborate 3D dark ride inspired by Transformers.

Beetlejuice’s Rock and Roll Graveyard Revue

The history of Universal’s parks is littered with all kinds of stage shows, often quite elaborate and musical in nature, most of which are now as dead as Doctor Frankenstein’s signature creation. For many years the Universal parks in Hollywood and Florida were home to a song-and-dance extravaganza featuring Beetlejuice and the company’s famous movie monsters like Frankenstein, the Phantom of the Opera, and the Wolfman. Because when you think of bio-exorcists, undead ghouls, and assorted other horror icons, you also think of the classic disco anthem “I Will Survive.” Technically, this one isn’t totally extinct — if you visit Universal Studios Japan you can still see the Universal Monsters sing their Graveyard Revue. But that’s quite a trek just to hear Dracula do a spooky rendition of “Livin’ La Vida Loca.”

Dynamite Nights Stunt Spectacular

Stunt shows were another cornerstone of the old school Universal Studios. In Hollywood, the classic Waterworld stunt show is still going strong, but in Florida, there isn’t really a comparable attraction. When that park first opened, they had something called the “Dynamite Nights Stunt Spectacular,” whose Miami Vice-inspired combination of boat chases and explosions was like The Fall Guy movie come to life. If it were up to me, no theme park would be allowed to operate without at least one really great stunt spectacular. It should be required.

Earthquake: The Big One

Earthquake: The Big One was another good example of the old “ride the movies” Universal ethos. The main event was a modified version of the old Earthquake attraction from the Universal Hollywood tram tour, but before guests boarded their trams they were treated to several rooms full of practical effects demonstrations inspired by the 1974 film. Of course, Earthquake was already a very old movie by the time this ride even opened; in 2007, the Earthquake specific elements were removed and the attraction was renamed Disaster! A Major Motion Picture Ride … Starring You! Now the pre-show featured a hologram of Christopher Walken playing a studio executive named Frank Kincaid, who recruited guests to play extras in his latest movie. After the earthquake finale, visitors watched a trailer for the movie they supposedly helped make, which was called “Mutha Nature” and featured a cameo from Dwayne Johnson. Disaster! closed in 2015 and the building was retrofitted to house another transplanted tram tour stop from Hollywood, Fast & Furious: Supercharged.

Fievel’s Playland

Every theme park needs a playground to distract little kids for a few minutes while their parents take a break from the endless meet-and-greet lines. For many years, Universal Studios’ was Fievel’s Playland, themed to the now-mostly-forgotten animated franchise An American Tail. Its two films followed an adventurous mouse who immigrates to America with his family. Accordingly, the playground featured gigantic versions of everyday objects so that kids could get a taste of what it felt like to be the size of a mouse. Although An American Tail mostly faded into obscured by the 21st century, Florida’s Fievel’s Playland endured for an inexplicably long time, and only closed in early 2023. There’s now a Shrek-themed playground in its place.

Ghostbusters Spooktacular

Ghostbusters is a Sony property, a company without a major foothold in the theme park industry. As a result, the franchise has had a low number of theme park attractions relative to its generational popularity. But in the early 1990s, Universal licensed the Ghostbusters property for an attraction that used the same Pepper’s ghost illusion from Disney’s Haunted Mansion to turn the climactic fight between the Ghostbusters and Gozer into a 20-minute stage show. Over its six-year run at Universal Studios Florida, Ghostbusters Spooktacular existed in two distinct forms, one that hewed closer to the story of the first Ghostbusters movie, and a second variation involving Louis Tully (Rick Moranis’ dweeby accountant character) and Walter Peck (the EPA jerk played by William Atherton). With no new Ghostbusters movies or shows on the horizon in the mid-’90s, Universal closed the show and replaced it with a staged attraction based on the studio’s recent blockbuster, Twister. (It was replaced a few years ago by a Tonight Show simulator ride.)

The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera

The left side of Universal Studios Florida’s main thoroughfare has housed a series of big simulator rides throughout the park’s history. The very first was called The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, and it featured a variety of characters from the Hanna-Barbera catalogue trying to rescue a kidnapped Elroy Jenson from the villainous Dick Dastardly. It was essentially a tamer and less technology sophisticated version of Back to the Future: The Ride geared toward younger kids. In 2003, this ride was changed to … another extinct attraction on this list.

Hercules and Xena: Wizards of the Screen

Universal Studios Florida’s opening overlapped with the heyday of syndicated television programming, none of it bigger than the two-headed adventure show hydra of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. When the previous subject of Universal’s attraction all about TV production was canceled in 1996, they re-themed the show to be based around the two popular series. But then Hercules was canceled in 1999 too. Wizards of the Screen was performed for the final time in early 2000; this area of the park is now home to Transformers: The Ride.

Jaws: The Ride

Everyone seems to enjoy the Diagon Alley area of Universal Studios Hollywood, inspired by the Harry Potter franchise. As much as I love a cup of frozen butterbeer, I will always hold a grudge against the place because to make room for it, Universal closed the old Amity section of the park, which included the classic Jaws ride. The attraction was like a scary, effects-laden version of Disney’s Jungle Cruise; guests boarded a tour boat for a trip around Amity, only to be discover all sorts of wreckage and chaos, and then Bruce the Shark himself. Jaded modern audiences might not be impressed, but to a kid in the 1990s, this was the height of excitement — at least once Universal worked out all the kinks that caused the ride to break down regularly for the first two years of its existence. Like the Universal Monsters revue, this one still lives on in Japan … if you can get there.

Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast

In 2003, the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera became Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast, a very similar attraction that starred Jimmy Neutron and several other Nickelodeon characters. That version lasted until 2012, when the ride was again updated to feature the cast of the Despicable Me franchise, owned by Universal. While the film has changed drastically through the years, the basic experience remains mostly the same; people sit in a large theater equipped with moving seats that rock along with the image onscreen.

Kongfrontation

King Kong has been a mainstay in Universal’s various theme parks since the mid-1980s, when a giant King Kong animatronic was added to the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. That was expanded to a full-blown attraction at Universal Studios Florida called Kongfrontation. In the extensively themed ride, guests were evacuated from Manhattan on the Roosevelt Island Tramway after Kong starts running amok. Naturally, the evacuation does not go smoothly, and Kong grabs the tram before it makes a last-second getaway. It was a surprisingly intense experience with fun touches — like the fact that the Kong animatronic’s “breath” smelled like bananas. Kong was put out to pasture in 2002 to make way for a roller coaster inspired by The Mummy franchise, but the great ape has since found a new home at nearby Islands of Adventure, where an attraction called Skull Island: Reign of Kong opened in 2016.

Lucy: A Tribute

Perhaps the simplest attraction in the history of Universal Studios Florida, Lucy: A Tribute was basically a miniature museum dedicated to Lucille Ball and I Love Lucy. It sounds incredibly dated, but the attraction opened in 1992, a couple years after Ball’s death, at a time when nostalgia for her classic sitcom was still very high. The exhibit included artifacts from Ball’s career, interactive quizzes, and a model that recreated the original I Love Lucy set in exacting detail. Lucy: A Tribute survived in a small building at the front of the park for almost 25 years before Universal turned the space into a Hello Kitty shop (and later Wicked: The Experience).

Murder, She Wrote Mystery Theater

Youngs today might find it hard to believe, but for 12 years in the 1980s and ’90s, one of broadcast TV’s biggest hits was a quaint show about a writer (Angela Lansbury) solving mysteries in a little town in Maine. The show was so big, in fact, that it got its own opening day attraction at Universal Studios Florida: The Murder, She Wrote Mystery Theater. It was yet another of the park’s behind-the-scenes shows, and it focused mostly on the post-production process. Guests moved through a series of rooms, each focused on a different aspect of TV making, like editing, foley work, and ADR. Volunteers got to try some of these aspects for themselves, and watch the Murder, She Wrote scenes they helped to create. After Murder, She Wrote was finally canceled in 1996, it was replaced by the aforementioned Hercules and Xena show.

Nickelodeon Studios

Universal Studios Florida wasn’t just a gimmicky name back in the early ’90s; the place really was a working film and TV studio — most notably as the home of “Nickelodeon Studios,” where the popular cable channel shot many of its game shows and sketch comedy series. In a canny bit of synergy, every show made at Nickelodeon Studios was also a commercial for Universal Studios Florida, because they ended with a graphic announcing where they were made. Kids who made the trek to Orlando could take a tour of the facility, where one lucky guest got slimed in the “Game Lab,” and sit in the studio audience if there was a show in production during their visit. Eventually, the novelty of the place wore off, as Nickelodeon began making fewer live-action programs and moving more and more of their remaining ones back to Los Angeles. The studio closed for good in 2005. For many years a production of Blue Man Group occupied the building. Since the Covid pandemic, Universal has used the venue to host a holiday show starring the Grinch.

Screen Test Theatre

Remember: When Universal first turned their studio into a theme park, there is no such thing as a smartphone. Consumer-grade video cameras are still years away. Making your own TV show is effectively impossible, hence the appeal of attractions like Screen Test Theatre, which let tourists create their own mock-ups of popular movies and television shows. One version from the 1970s inserted guests into Airport ’77; later, they there was a Star Trek option shot on a surprisingly detailed recreation of the old Enterprise bridge. Obviously, these sorts of attractions — which usually gave participants the option to buy a souvenir VHS of their creations — hold a lot less appeal in a world where you can shoot your own TV show on your phone and upload it to YouTube.

Shrek 4-D

The aforementioned Alfred Hitchcock attraction in Florida was closed to make room for Shrek 4-D, an animated movie with in-theater effects including vibrating seats, water, and gusts of wind. Opened at the height of the initial Shrek mania, Universal gradually began winding down these Shrek 3D movies in the mid-2010s, after the franchise originally petered out. (The Japanese attraction managed to hold on; it still operates part-time in a theater it shares with a Sesame Street 3D attraction.) But here’s the thing: Shrek is back. He’s got a new movie opening in 2026, and he’s already received new Universal attractions; in 2024, Universal Florida added a new meet and greet with Shrek characters in their own little swamp area. So could we see the return of Shrek 4-D? Or — dare we even dream it — a Shrek 4-D-2?

Special Effects Stage

Universal Studios Hollywood has hosted a variety of makeup and special effects shows throughout its history, starting in the mid-1970s. By the 2010s, the special effects show (sometimes called the Special Effects Stage) found a home at the Castle Theater, where guests were shown how a variety of modern VFX like motion capture were created. The show was retired for good in 2023 and the Castle Theater was demolished, along with the home of Universal’s Animal Actors amphitheater, in order to make room for the new Fast & Furious roller coaster.

T2-3D: Battle Across Time

Universal’s Terminator 2 3-D movie and live show didn’t just boast the stars of T2 — Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Edward Furlong — it was also directed by Terminator mastermind James Cameron. Cameron shot the filmed segments at a cost of $24 million, making it, in typical Cameron fashion, one of the most expensive films ever made (at least on per minute basis). The story follows the T-800 as he makes his promised (but not particularly logical) return and takes the young John Connor into the future to protect him from a resurrected T-1000. (Admittedly this is not the best plan.) T2-3D boasted impressive effects and integrated real actors into the show in clever ways; at times the Terminator seemed to step off the screen into the auditorium and vice versa. Unfortunately, its storyline contradicted all of the Terminator movies released after it, making its “battle across time” feel a little out of time by the 21st century. It closed at Universal Hollywood and Florida in the 2010s. The T2-3D at Universal Japan — which had the coolest show building by far — survived until 2020, then closed for good during the Covid pandemic. Judgment Day has nothing on real life these days.

Amazing Theme Park Rides Based on Movies That Were Never Built

Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition

Disneyland has an Indiana Jones ride, The Indiana Jones Adventure, which opened in 1995. Originally, though, Imagineers plans for the Indy property were far more elaborate, and would have radically reshaped the park’s Adventureland area. The Lost Expedition pavilion would have housed two different rides — a roller coaster based on the mine-car ending of ‘Temple of Doom,’ and a dark ride in jeeps that would tour through Indy’s greatest hits — and incorporated the existing Jungle Cruise. Much of the land designated for The Lost Expedition ended up getting used to build Splash Mountain instead.

Indiana Jones Ore Car Attraction

Here’s a closer look at the “Ore Car Simulator” that would have been housed inside the Lost Expedition complex. Though the Indiana Jones land was never built, the Disney empire does have one Indiana Jones mine-train roller coaster: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, located at Disneyland Paris. It was the first looping coaster at any Disney park. (I rode it once as a teenager, and it got stuck mid-ride. That was not pleasant.)

Indiana Jones Jungle Cruise

The “River Idol” sculpture was intended to be a key feature in the revamped Jungle Cruise area, themed around Indiana Jones-inspired attractions. It definitely has the feel of something straight out of an Indiana Jones film.

The Hauntington Hotel

Years before interactive shooting galleries became the norm in Orlando with rides like Toy Story Midway Mania and Men in Black Alien Attack, Six Flags developed a concept for a Ghostbusters ride called the Hauntington Hotel. Riders would have toured a spooky building, shooting at targets with car-mounted proton packs. According to an interview with the ride’s designer at 2600connection.com, the entire ride was “created, designed, engineered, and prototyped” and ready for installation in Texas when Six Flags’ parent company sold its theme parks division. Under new ownership, the project fell apart, perhaps the greatest tragedy in human history.

Nostromo

For about eight years, the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland was home to an attraction named ExtraTERRORestrial: Alien Encounter. Riders were literally strapped down to their seats while a menacing E.T. “materialized” in the center of the room, and then proceeded to touch and breathe on them while the lights were out. When Alien Encounter opened it starred a creepy alien; when it was conceived it starred *the* creepy alien — as in H.R. Giger’s iconic xenomorph from Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 film. Astonishingly, someone at Disney thought it was a good idea to insert a little acid-blooded horror into the Happiest Place on Earth. Eventually, Disney came to their senses and abandoned the ‘Alien’ aspect (and the original name for the attraction, Nostromo, after the ship in the film), but not the overall concept. After terrifying children for almost a decade (I was one of them; this thing was pure nightmare fuel), Alien Encounter finally closed in 2003. The site now houses a toned-down version starring Stitch from ‘Lilo & Stich.’

The James Bond Live-Action Stunt Show

The concepts for the original Universal Studios Florida included this stunning image by ‘Star Wars’ artist Ralph McQuarrie for a stunt show that would have been themed to James Bond and bore the distinctive influence of longtime James Bond production designer Ken Adam. The “Giant Circular Roof” would have opened, and the screens on the far walls would have been filled with all of Bond’s greatest villains, who’d “watch [007’s] demise and the launch of the nuclear warhead.” This project never got off the launchpad, so to speak, but through the years, Universal has had stunt shows themed to ‘Conan the Barbarian,’ ‘The A-Team,’ ‘Miami Vice,’ ‘Spider-Man,’ and ‘Waterworld.’

Mel Brooks’ Hollywood Horror Hotel

At its earliest stages, the Tower of Terror wasn’t themed to ‘The Twilight Zone,’ and was instead conceived as a collaboration between Disney and Mel Brooks. Eventually Brooks dropped out of the project, and ‘The Twilight Zone’ elements were introduced, but before then ideas for “Hotel Mel,” as it was commonly called, involved an attraction and a working hotel housed together in the same building, and a murder mystery that could be solved with clues littered around the grounds. StudioCentral.com says Brooks lost interest and left to make ‘Life Stinks’ right around the time Imagineers stumbled on the idea of adding haunted elevators which leap out of their shafts. The Tower of Tower is a great ride, but when you hear that we almost got an entire Mel Brooks hotel, it does seem that life stinks.

Batman Island

A series of columns at Comics101.com outlines the original plan for Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure: Before the park included a Marvel Super Hero Island, it instead featured an entire area themed around Batman. Developed in the early 1990s while Tim Burton’s Batman movies were popular, the section would have included a Batmobile ride, a Bat-jet attraction, and a live-action stunt show featuring Batman, Robin, and Superman. Plans shifted, as they often do, and Batman’s spot in the park got taken by Marvel characters like Spider-Man and Hulk.

Batwing: Batman vs the Penguin

Major attractions on Batman Island could have included this suspended roller coaster, where guests would have had the option to choose between either the Batman or Penguin track, each with totally different experiences, special effects, and pyrotechnics. (Note the sign for Shreck’s Department Store in the bottom left, a reference to Christopher Walken’s character in ‘Batman Returns.’) Though the ride never came to pass, Islands of Adventure found a home for the concept of “dueling” coasters in its Dueling Dragons ride (now known as Dragon Challenge, and part of its Harry Potter land).

Dick Tracy’s Crime-Stoppers

Before Warren Beatty’s ‘Dick Tracy’ opened in 1990, the film was expected to be an enormous hit, and Disney hoped to capitalize on it with a theme park attraction that would have let riders join the famous detective on a chase through Chicago (a.k.a. dark ride sets). Each vehicle would have been equipped with tommy guns that could be fired at targets throughout the ride. When ‘Dick Tracy’ never materialized into a full-blown franchise the idea was dropped, but the planned ride vehicles are similar to the ones in the Indiana Jones Adventure, and the shooting gallery idea lives on in Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Ride

Guests on this ride based on the 1993 stop-motion animated Christmas movie would have boarded flying coffins (!) for a dark ride similar to Peter Pan’s Flight (except, y’know, weird and creepy and Tim Burton-y). Disney liked the idea but Tim Burton, who shared control of the characters, wasn’t enthused and nixed the whole thing. Instead, Disney annually transforms the Haunted Mansion in California into the “Haunted Mansion Holiday,” featuring characters from the film.

Godzilla Bullet Train

As far back as the 1970s, tentative plans were in place to add a bullet train ride to the Japan Pavilion at Epcot. Guests would have stood on a ride vehicle and looked out windows at screens simulating a journey through the Japanese countryside. A much more interesting variation of the bullet train concept would have thrown Godzilla into the mix; he’d rise from the ocean and attack the train on its journey through Tokyo Harbor. Supposedly, the project never went beyond preliminary conversations with Toho, the studio that owns Godzilla, before the company decided a giant, world-destroying lizard didn’t really jive with the sedate, naturalistic atmosphere at Epcot. Alas.

The Great Muppet Movie Ride

The Muppets have been a mainstay at Disney Hollywood Studios for more than 20 years with their MuppetVision 3D movie. But at one point the Muppets were intended to be an even larger focal point of the park, with their own parody version of Hollywood Studios’ Great Movie Ride. In The Great Muppet Movie Ride, Jim Henson’s beloved characters would have acted out various scenes from famous movies. At the time, Disney and Henson were in the midst of a corporate merger, but the deal fell through after Henson’s death in 1990, squashing the Muppet Movie Ride. But Disney did eventually buy the Muppets in 2004, so who knows? Maybe their greatest theme-park attraction is still yet to come.

Jurassic Park Jeep Safari

The Jurassic Park land at Universal’s Islands of Adventure includes a River Adventure ride, a kind of log flume that bears very little resemblance to the ‘Jurassic Park’ movies (besides the animatronic dinosaurs). But the original plan called for several more Jurassic Park attractions, including a Jeep Safari that would have hewed much more closely to the story of the movie, and sent visitors on a remote-controlled ride through the park. The jeeps would have driven under brontosaurus, outrun the T-Rex, and faced off with raptors. According to DisneyAndMore.Blogspot.com, the concept was deemed “too similar” to the River Adventure for both to coexist.

Jurassic Park Jeep Safari

Here’s a closeup of the Jurassic Park Jeep Safari ride vehicle. Definitely gives off a similar vibe to the old 8-seat DeLoreans in the ‘Back to the Future’ ride.

Baby Herman’s Runaway Buggy Ride

Disney initially planned to expand the ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ theme beyond one ride, with Baby Herman’s Runaway Buggy Ride being one of the proposed attractions. In this ride, guests would have assumed the role of Baby Herman’s stunt double, navigating a perilous course in vehicles fashioned as baby carriages. Guests would wear baby bonnets during the ride to enhance the experience and boost sales of photos taken throughout the adventure. However, disputes between Disney and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment over creative control of Roger Rabbit hindered the realization of this proposed attraction, along with other planned constructions related to the franchise.

Toontown Trolley

Like the Baby Herman ride, battles over the Roger Rabbit character kiboshed plans for a Star Tours-esque simulator ride that would have taken guests on a tour through Toontown, the home of the cartoons in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit.’ At one point, all of these rides were planned to be part of an entirely new Disneyland section called Hollywoodland. Eventually, the area was reconceived as Mickey’s Toontown. Sorry, Roger.

Toontown Trolley

Here’s another concept art from the Roger Rabbit trolley ride. It looks quite psychedelic. I think kids, especially those who have had too much sugar, would find it fascinating.

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2025-03-19 00:23