Germany: Movie Park Germany Launches “Excalibur – Secrets of the Dark Forest” Rapid River Ride
This past Monday, Movie Park Germany finally launched its redesigned rapid river ride attraction under its new name “Excalibur – Secrets of the Dark Forest”, taking guests on a journey into the world of Merlin and King Arthur (c.f. our park report in EAP, 2/18).
The planning phase for the redesign of the attraction, which was formerly known under the name “Mystery River”, took around one year, followed by a construction period of several months. “We’ve really cranked up to present Excalibur to our guests before the public holidays in May,” commented Thorsten Backhaus, Managing Director of Movie Park Germany.
More than 900 liters of paint, 2,500 meters cable wires, 200 new lights and over 150 loudspeakers have been combined to create a truly immersive experience, based on a creative concept from Leisure Expert Group and completed with numerous decoration elements and props from Tema Design. During the adventurous journey on the search for the lost Excalibur sword, riders pass enchanted forests and dark caves and even encounter sea monsters. “A total of twelve new scenes with just under 400 new props awaits the visitors,” revealed Backhaus. In addition, the redesigned attraction features 15 new special effects and projections as well as 25 new music scores (by IMAScore/IMAmedia).
“Our main focus is the construction of new rides, of course, but we are also looking for our older attractions. Everything we do focuses on the ‘movies and TV series’. Last year, we’ve launched a ‘Star Trek’ coaster [cf. EAP, 3/17] and before, we’ve opened a permanent horror maze attraction featuring ‘The Walking Dead’ [cf. EAP news from July 6th, 2016]. The story of Merlin and King Arthur has been turned into a film several times so that many of our guests might already be familiar with the characters, for sure,” said Backhaus. (eap)
