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Scottish Sun
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
English seaside theme park reveals new upgrades on ‘first-of-its-kind' indoor ride
A 'WORLD-FIRST' ride in the UK has revealed some exciting new updates in time for summer. Blackpool Pleasure Beach's Wallace & Gromit's Thrill-O-Matic ride has five new additions following the new Netflix film Vengeance Most Fowl. 4 The UK's Wallace & Gromit ride is getting an upgrade Credit: Blackpool Pleasure Beach 4 Blackpool Pleasure Beach is home to The Big One rollercoaster Credit: Alamy The ride - the first Wallace & Gromit themed one in the world - is a four-minute Thrill-O-atic indoor ride. Guests board a giant slipper before travelling through scenes of the iconic films such as A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trouers and A Close Shave. A Matter of Loaf and Death and The Curse of the Were Rabbit also play a part in the ride. And new extras in time for the film include favourite characters added to the ride which includes Norbot and Feaths McGraw. New updates to the queue as well as exclusive merchandise have been added to the Wallace & Gromit shop as well. The park's CEO Amanda Thompson OBE said: "Wallace & Gromit are national treasures and have always been a firm favourite with visitors, but the success of their new film has certainly delivered a renewed excitement for the characters and their stories. "To be updating this wonderful ride truly reaffirms our commitment to attracting families back to the resort for what we hope will be A Grand Day Out.' The ride first opened in 2013 and is was the first of its kind when it opened. Creator Nick Park said at the time that the reason for the ride location was because he grew up in Preston which is near Blackpool. He added it felt like a "natural home for Wallace and Gromit". I was one of the first to try Blackpool Pleasure Beache's 'new' ride 4 The ride is the only one based on the films at a theme park Credit: Blackpool Pleasure Beach The ride, which cost £5.25million, was created by both the theme park and Aardman Animations, the team behind Wallace & Gromit. It replaced the Gold Mine Ride, which first opened in 1971 before closing in 2011. Other new additions to the theme park include the revamped Launch Pad back in May. Theme park expert Lee Bell went down to try it out - here is what he thought. And the park's River Caves ride is also being revamped, although little else is known about it. Next year, new ride Aviktas will open which is a "UK first" with heights of 138ft. The theme park was named one of the best family-owned theme parks earlier this year. And the park's Valhalla won Best Water Ride in Europe last year.
The Irish Sun
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
English seaside theme park reveals new upgrades on ‘first-of-its-kind' indoor ride
A 'WORLD-FIRST' ride in the UK has revealed some exciting new updates in time for summer. Blackpool Pleasure Beach's Wallace & Gromit's Thrill-O-Matic ride has five new additions following the new Netflix film Vengeance Most Fowl. 4 The UK's Wallace & Gromit ride is getting an upgrade Credit: Blackpool Pleasure Beach 4 Blackpool Pleasure Beach is home to The Big One rollercoaster Credit: Alamy The ride - the first Wallace & Gromit themed one in the world - is a four-minute Thrill-O-atic indoor ride. Guests board a giant slipper before travelling through scenes of the iconic films such as A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trouers and A Close Shave. A Matter of Loaf and Death and The Curse of the Were Rabbit also play a part in the ride. And new extras in time for the film include favourite characters added to the ride which includes Norbot and Feaths McGraw. Read more on theme parks New updates to the queue as well as exclusive merchandise have been added to the The park's CEO Amanda Thompson OBE said: "Wallace & Gromit are national treasures and have always been a firm favourite with visitors, but the success of their new film has certainly delivered a renewed excitement for the characters and their stories. "To be updating this wonderful ride truly reaffirms our commitment to attracting families back to the resort for what we hope will be A Grand Day Out.' The ride first opened in 2013 and is was the first of its kind when it opened. Most read in News Travel Creator Nick Park said at the time that the reason for the ride location was because he grew up in Preston which is near Blackpool. He added it felt like a "natural home for Wallace and Gromit". I was one of the first to try Blackpool Pleasure Beache's 'new' ride 4 The ride is the only one based on the films at a theme park Credit: Blackpool Pleasure Beach The ride, which cost £5.25million, was created by both the theme park and It replaced the Gold Mine Ride, which first opened in 1971 before closing in 2011. Other new additions to the theme park include the revamped Launch Pad back in May. Theme park expert Lee Bell went down to try it out - And the park's River Caves ride is also being revamped, although little else is known about it. Next year, new ride Aviktas will open which is a "UK first" with heights of 138ft. The theme park was named one of the And the park's Valhalla won 4 The park is also opening a new ride next year Credit: Alamy
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Painstaking Craft: 'Wallace & Gromit', 'Wicked' and the Art of World Building
On film, kooky inventor Wallace and his brilliant dog, Gromit, may not often leave their cozy English town. But in real life, they're globetrotters. A day after sitting on the table at the Critics Choice Awards, the real Wallace and Gromit — joined by Wallace's latest invention, Norbot, and the dastardly Feathers McGraw — were the guests of honor at The Ankler and Letterboxd's latest Audience First event, featuring the Oscar-nominated Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most the human guests of honor may have been Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, the co-directors of the latest film in the beloved, long-running animated franchise. But posing for photos with the audience before the screening began, Park and Crossingham seemed to know that their puppets — the real ones used in the film, adjusted frame-by-frame in the painstaking stop-motion animation process — were the real our conversation following the screening at Netflix's Icon building in Hollywood, Park and Crossingham broke down the day-to-day process of making a Wallace & Gromit movie, and what might be the most important element: patience. 'The dailies were pretty quick' to watch, Park said, a major understatement. Added Crossingham, 'If the whole crew got a minute and a half done in a whole week, then we were on target. And that was a really good week.'The stop-motion process also means there's not a lot of room for traditional improvisation — having a new idea for a scene or even a joke might require weeks of extra production. But Park and Crossingham both try to find moments for spontaneity, whether it's a background prop or even a camera angle that brings out a different aspect of a character. 'You may think of the gag when you're setting up a shot, and then the art department has a day to get it together,' says Park, who points to one of his favorite such tweaks in the film: a road maintenance truck full of traffic cones, with 'The Cone Brothers' painted on the and Crossingham higlighted a long list of cinematic influences in our conversation, from Aliens to Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca — perfect for the crowd of cinephiles The Ankler and Letterboxd can gather. You can watch the full conversation at Ankler Enjoy, and keep an eye out for future Audience First events — we'd love to have you in the crowd. Here's a stat about this year's Oscar nominees that's been a little easy to miss amidst the chaos: In alignment we haven't seen since 1978, all five best actress nominees come from films that are all nominated for best picture. And there's reason to think that's not just an anomaly, but evidence of a genuine industry shift toward putting women at the center of the most popular and acclaimed movies of the Tuesday USC's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative sent the announcement of its annual survey with the enthusiastic subject line, 'Gender Parity Is Finally Reached in Top Films.' For the first time in the 18 years since the organization has been doing the study, 54 of the top 100 highest-grossing films at the domestic box office featured a woman as a lead or includes a good number of Oscar nominees, plus straightforward box office hits like Twisters and A Quiet Place: Day One. (Yes, it also includes Lupita Nyong'o's voice-only role in The Wild Robot — Roz may not be human, but she is a mom!)Today I've got my conversation with two of the people responsible for one of last year's biggest female-driven hits. That would be Wicked, whose hair and makeup artist Frances Hannon and costume designer Paul Tazewell tell me it required the work of almost literal armies to make their versions of Oz come to life. I spoke to Hannon and Tazewell separately but aimed to get a holistic look at how their work comes together to form some of Wicked's most indelible images, from wigs that echo the film's nature-inspired production design to green makeup that wouldn't rub off on the dresses — at least, usually it wouldn't.I'll be keeping an eye on the costume and hair and makeup categories at this weekend's BAFTA Awards, where Tazewell and Hannon are both nominated. The BAFTAS are voted on by a group that overlaps significantly with the Academy, and with the awards happening smack in the middle of the final Oscar voting period, their influence could be Conclave and its European production team overcome Anora's Cinderella story to win BAFTA's best film? Could The Brutalist snag some wins in crafts categories that prove it's still in the mix? And could Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, a British national treasure, maybe have enough hometown advantage to best the seemingly unstoppable Demi Moore?I'll have more on the results of the BAFTAs and what they tell us about these final days of Oscar voting early next week. For now, let Tazewell and Hannon whisk you away to the Land of Oz. 'Ask Paul about the makeup rubbing off on the costumes.' That was Hannon's advice to me as we wrapped up our conversation and I prepared to talk to her collaborator Tazewell about their work bringing the world of Jon M. Chu's Wicked to life. The hair and makeup and costume departments work hand in hand on every film, of course; I was particularly fascinated hearing both artisans talk about the importance of the time they spend in the trailers with the actors each day, helping set the tone for their stars' performances while also focusing on the minute details of their own for Wicked, Tazewell and Hannon weren't just operating on a massive scale, outfitting hundreds of extras with wigs and costumes that would make even the faintest of background actors stand out. They were also inventing an entire world — a world heavily inspired by Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz and the iconic MGM musical, of course, but one with its own unique look and magic was conjured in a 'war room' on the film's London set, where Tazewell, Hannon, production designer Nathan Crowley and other members of the crew could put their heads together. 'It was imperative for all of us to be in the same room and looking at what everyone else was doing, because there was a great overlap in how we were going to define this world,' says Tazewell, who started his research process eight months before reporting to set. 'The rules that we were setting up — it needed to speak of Oz-ians and how they design, how they see themselves. What governs the world within that?' Cynthia Erivo's and Ariana Grande's looks as Elphaba and Galinda may have gotten most of the attention, and will inspire Halloween costumes for many years to come, but it's the details surrounding them that make Wicked such a spectacle. For days with large crowds, like the Emerald City musical number 'One Short Day,' Hannon would have more than 100 people working on her team, doing everything from coating wigs in polyurethane to keep them in place to making sure each extra's manicure suited the character. Tazewell, meanwhile, employed 70 full-time costume makers at the studio, with individual rooms devoted to Galinda ('this explosion of pink and lavender and sparkles') and Elphaba ('covered in black').As for that green makeup, Hannon developed what she calls the 'Green Bible,' with dozens of makeup tests required to get the exact right shade for Erivo's Elphaba. (The secret? A touch of fluorescent yellow, which gives the luminosity of real skin). The green was crucial for Tazewell too, who didn't just have to worry about the makeup rubbing off on Erivo's garb, but also had to recreate the color as a costume element. 'Elphaba knows that people already are going to have certain assumptions because of the color of her skin,' says Tazewell. 'So with the fabric choices, it's allowing her skin to be a part of her persona in a proud way. And that was very important for Cynthia as she was playing the role.'In the Ozdust Ballroom sequence, for example, the long arms on Elphaba's dress are sheer — and beneath it Erivo wears a green bodysuit that matches her makeup precisely, but is just translucent enough to still render as real skin. You may not be able to tell any of this when seeing it onscreen, but Tazewell is confident you can feel the fantastical creations she made, Hannon aimed for a level of grounded realism too. 'There's a lot Jon didn't want to use because he didn't want it to be a fantasy film,' she says of Chu. 'We wanted it to be tangible, to be real, to be timeless. We wanted people to be able to relate to it and not be taken out of it by something that's rather odd. I think everyone agrees that Cynthia's green skin doesn't remove you from her. You're never looking at face paint. You believe it's totally her.'For Tazewell, the amount and intensity of effort that went into creating the world is what makes it so immersive. 'We've created a world that is so detailed that you buy into it,' he says. 'It has this feeling that everything has been figured out — and indeed it has.' Stay in the Know! Get the top news from Los Angeles Magazine sent to your inbox every day. Sign up for The Daily Brief below or by clicking here.
