Park Profile
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Painting
Rainbows The design behind Europe’s newest theme park
MAIN PICTURE: This highly themed retail store is typical of the park’s imposing buildings FACING PAGE,CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Believix (dark ride), Castlello di Alfea (Planetarium/4D cinema), Yucatan (Spillwater), Huntk Secrets and Seekers (dark ride)
the Western area, the Toon area; all the time they are the same. Magic was the start but in the end it became total fantasy! You will find rides from well-known manufacturers like Intamin, SBF and Vekoma, however only the launch coaster by Maurer (Shock Steam Machine) was custom designed for the park; the rest are standard catalogue attractions but the difference is provided by the theming. The Spillwater (Yucatan) is the first time that such a ride has been combined with a dark area so it becomes in some parts of the attraction a dark boat ride with effects inside.
The biggest challenge for us was the big dark ride (Huntik Secrets & Seekers), because we also manufactured all of the environments inside the attraction. The whole concept was our idea, realised in co-operation with Rainbow and Alterface. The idea was to do a really massive American style 3D interactive dark ride, a combination between Spider- Man and Men In Black.
Unique Attractions We have done several dark rides before, including Reset at Mirabilandia, which was one of the first big media-based dark rides, however this is different to any other dark ride in Europe, and it’s become one of the top attractions in the park because it is a unique attraction.
It was the biggest park opening this year in Europe. Rainbow MagicLand, which opened in May at Valmontone outside
Rome, is the second and largest park project by Alfa Park, following the debut in 2009 of Miragica in Molfetta.
Fabio Pignata of Art Project Srl, who worked as artistic director on both parks, explains why Rainbow MagicLand is the most highly themed park ever created in Italy
he original name for the park was going to be Terra Magica, with the theme of magic. The park was then delayed, and Alfa Park brought in the IP (intellectual property) of Rainbow SPA with Huntik, Winx Club and PopPixie.
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Because we had already done the designs for Miragica, Alfa asked us to take responsibility for the overall park design in Rome, including supervision and installation of all themed environments. From the first pencil drawing to the first bolt, it all came through us!
The result is a combination of concepts from
Rainbow and our ideas of magic. It is probably one of the most highly themed parks in Europe, and certainly the most themed in Italy. Some features are really, really big and impressive, however the park is still “naked” because the landscaping is very young; it takes at least three years for all the trees and plants to grow.
Fresh Themes We wanted to give the park a totally different ambience compared to the other parks and its Italian competitors, Gardaland and Mirabilandia. We chose themes that were different from the standard themes you find like the Far Eastern area,
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There’s 3D projection on 10 screens, but also animatronics that interact with the shooting system. As well as wind effects, lighting effects and effects inside the car, the vehicles have 3-DOF (degrees of freedom) movement, so they accelerate, brake turn, tilt and pitch in synchronisation with the action on the screen. The audio system developed for the car has no audio pollution affecting others cars or the ride environment itself. There is also a Winx Club dark ride with suspended gondolas (Believix) but the budget was smaller and so this is a lot more simple. Elsewhere there is a whole kids’ area featuring pixies. For the little ones it’s a lovely area, very colourful, and the children will recognise many of the characters and buildings from TV.
There were several problems with the park at first, because not all of the attractions were open. Everything was done in a very short amount of time, in only two years and four months from drawings to completion, and so some of the commissioning was still being done after the opening of the park. Now, however, everything is open and wherever you go, even if you are not riding the attractions, I know that you will have an immersive experience thanks to the magical theming!
Fabio Pignata was talking to Owen Ralph
www.art-project.it
SEPTEMBER 2011
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