In the 1990s, Movie World was where you went to learn about special effects in movies and go on some back lot tours. There weren’t a lot of rides or attractions, and I remember being very underwhelmed. If you wanted good rides, you would go to Dreamworld instead. My how things have changed.
From the days of standing in front of a green screen to show how you could fly like Superman, Movie World has grown to be my number one park in Australia. While the Lethal Weapon coaster has been around for ages, it has been revamped over the years. The suspended looping coaster was known for ripping out your earrings and giving you headaches when it opened in 1992. In 2012, it was rebranded as Arkham Asylum, and hallelujah there were new restraints which released a lot of pressure on your upper body. The coaster now leaves you to appreciate the dizziness it creates while your body jewellery remains where it should be. When I last visited in 2017, you can also choose to use an optional headset for a VR experience. Surprise surprise, Movie World charge you an extra $5 for the experience. I hate these add on costs and how they are only accessible to people with extra money (this is a rant I tend to revisit quite a bit!) I have been on a few different coasters with VR, and although they were a novelty at first, I am yet to find one that actually improves the experience. If anything, it takes away from the fear factor because you can’t really see what you are doing. Hey theme park engineers! There is money to be made if you can make a really scary VR coaster experience!
Looney Tunes village is a fun little set up for kids, and the Road Runner roller coaster is a good starting point for 5–10-year-olds who want a step up from the baby coasters. When I worked at Movie World, I used to get a lot of shifts on the Looney Tunes River Ride in this part of the park. I was always surprised at the number of parents who would stuff toilet paper in their kids’ shoes to give them the extra height required to get on board. Hey if you want your kid to be unsafe on a ride, who am I to argue? I was sad to see this ride has now been demolished, as has the other attraction I worked on a lot – Batman the Ride. I reckon that simulator was responsible for more vomit than any other ride in the park, so perhaps it is a good thing it is gone. Other attractions that have closed over the years are the Gremlin ride (I loved that as a kid) in addition to the Police Academy stunt show and various 4D films that seem to rotate in and out regularly. Not to worry, because awesome rides started popping up from the late 1990s.
The improvements started with the Wild West Falls Adventure ride. While a lot of parks in the US have flume rides like this with an internal and external experience and some novelty coaster elements, this was the first one in Australia. It was a godsend on hot days too when you needed to cool off, as many of the park’s queueing systems were in the boiling sun with little shelter. A fire caused some damage to this ride in 2003, but it is up and running again. I heard a rumour that one poor staff member got fired for not hitting the emergency stop quickly enough when a guest freaked out at the top of the drop and decided to get out and walk down the mountain instead. I don’t know if it is actually true, but we sure did see guests do some pretty stupid things.
In 2002 the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster opened and was a hit. This one was a bit like an indoor crazy mouse style coaster, with a sneaky little backwards bit. I remember a friend telling me she convinced her mum to go on this because they thought it was like a ghost train. Needless to say, the mum hasn’t forgiven her daughter since. The only thing I hate about this coaster is just how long it takes to get on it. It is one of those rare rides that really is great for people of all ages, so EVERYBODY wants to get on it. At least with the high thrill rides, that takes the younger kids or those with heart conditions out of the equation, but not Scooby-Doo! They also play a video of the making of the Scooby-Doo movie in the queueing area on repeat, and by the time you get on you have generally watched it around 5-6 times.
In 2005, the magic really started! Welcome to Superman Escape –a fast launch coaster that rivalled Dreamworld’s Tower of Terror. Although ToT had a greater speed, Superman just felt like a faster acceleration over a shorter track, plus had the advantage of a longer ride experience and a couple of good hills which seemed to make the long wait times more worthwhile. At this stage, Australia had not yet latched on to single rider queues…sigh. For over a decade this was my number one coaster in Australia. On one occasion, some friends and I had been waiting for close to an hour for a ride. Suddenly, a hail storm came in and the ride was shut (rain flying in your face at high speed is not fun.) Everybody started leaving the queue because it was almost park closing time anyway. I am known for being stubborn, and since we were at the head of the queue I refused to leave. 15 minutes later we got the all clear, and jumped on twice since the line had gone. Sometimes my stubbornness pays off. Years earlier, I had convinced my sister’s family to come with me to Movie World, with this coaster being the big selling point over Dreamworld. We arrived and Superman was closed for maintenance. I was devastated for my brother-in-law who was really looking forward to riding it. Note to self: ALWAYS check the maintenance schedule first.
In 2006, the Batwing Spaceshot was added. This was the first time I had ever gone on a reverse drop tower, and it actually took a few trips to the park to get my backside in the seat. I was really scared of it, but now I like the thrill (just not the pressure in my head when the ride starts to drag you back to the ground but your body still wants to go up.)
In 2011, the Green Lantern coaster opened. I was very excited to see the progress of the coaster as I followed the construction photos online, and it was advertised as the steepest drop in the Southern Hemisphere (120 degrees – only a little less steep than the world’s number one). Unfortunately this coaster was really disappointing. It felt like the next step up from a Crazy Mouse style coaster, with a bonus little inverted drop. I wish that Movie World had spent the money on something else that was just as compact, but way more fun like Buzzsaw (Dreamworld) or Wicked Twister (Cedar Point.) Not to worry, cause there were something just around the corner to make up for it…
By 2017, there had really been no great additions to the park in about 10 years (the Doomsday Destroyer of 2016 sucks). And then came DC Rivals Coaster. Australia had finally got its first proper real life grown up roller coaster! Since it has a drop of more than 60m, it is officially a hyper coaster – hooray! But wait, there was more…a single rider queue – Australia’s first! It was a little disappointing that the train was still pretty old school (the usual rows of 2 instead of the epic trains in the states which seat 4-8 people per row) but beggars can’t be choosers. When I first rode it in late 2017, there were still a lot of teething problems and ride restarts, but it really was a thing of beauty. There was also the option to line up for the back seats, as they faced the other direction so you could then enjoy the whole thing backwards. This was a great marketing ploy, but killed me that they were charging $10 extra for it. I grumbled but handed over the cash, because if this helps them to create more rides then I will suck it up. I didn’t enjoy the backwards facing seats as much as the frontwards seats, it just made me kind of dizzy.
DC Rivals cemented Movie World as my favourite Aussie park. For a movie based park, it doesn’t have the great theming or shows that you come to expect from Universal Studios or Disney, but as a coaster hunter I don’t actually care. More track and I will come back!
Roller Coaster Ramble 