October 19, 2006

“Lights, sound, camera, action”! That is what you expect to hear as you walk in through the gates of Universal Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles—and you do get to hear this quite often during the time you spend here. Universal is one of the oldest studios in Hollywood and is a subsidiary of NBC Universal known for its various blockbusters, serials, and television channel. Hit movies from Universal include “The Phantom of the Opera”, “Frankenstein”, “Scarface”, “The Mummy”, “The Mummy Returns”, “American Pie”, “The Gladiator”, “The Bourne Identity”,  the “Jurassic Park” series, and the “Back to the Future” series.

At the "Animal Actors" show

Though the name might lead you to believe that this is just a bunch of studios, you couldn’t be far from the truth. The place is paradise for the Hollywood movie buff. Today Universal Studios is synonymous with entertaining theme parks which, besides California, can also be found in Florida and Japan. The park is divided into two lots and most people choose to begin their experience with the one-hour narrated studio tour which takes you through the sets of many Universal movies such as “King Kong”, “Jaws”, “Fast and Furious”, and “War of the Worlds”.

Trams took us through simulated earthquakes, thunderstorms, flash floods, old Western towns, the palaces of the Scorpion King, the mysterious island where King Kong dwells and even subjected us to a shark attack! Some of the studios were closed to the public as shooting of a few popular serials was going on. As we got off the ride, trying to store away every tiny detail of what we just saw, we realized that the live show “Waterworld”, based on the movie of the same name, was about to begin in a matter of minutes.

 Donkey, from Shrek, interacting with children

Breathlessly we took our vantage seats far away from the “splash zones” specially marked for those in the mood for some wet time on a hot summer day! Stunning acrobatics, water ski stunts, and amazing pyrotechnics kept us glued to our seats the whole 20 minutes. The show seemed to have gotten over all too soon. But in Universal Studios there’s always plenty of action and thrills all through the day.

Next, we decided to hit the popular rides before lunch hour. Believe me, it’s not a good idea to get on one of those rides soon after a heavy lunch!! As we approached the queue for “Jurassic Park – the Ride”, we could hear the screams, shouts, and laughter of those who had gone before us. The ride started out tamely enough with us floating through a land inhabited by big and small dinosaurs, who occasionally snorted water at passersby. And then, all of a sudden we felt ourselves plunge down an 84 ft. vertical waterfall. Down, down, down, and then a huge splash—we were floating calmly again! It was amusing to go up to the souvenir stall and see pictures of us just as the plunge began— open-mouthed and terrified.

Near the entrance to Universal Studios

Pumped up with adrenaline, we decided to go on the newest and most terrifying ride in the park—“Revenge of the Mummy”. Park attendants directed us to put away all our belongings including things such as cameras and sunglasses in special lockers provided for this purpose at the entrance to the ride. This itself was enough to build up the anticipation since this is a feature we haven’t noticed in any of the rides at theme parks so far. Soon, we found ourselves winding our way down dark corridors depicting fictitious Hamunaptra—the City of the Dead, inhabited by mummies and scara