Inspired by the Dr. Seuss book “The Sneetches”, “Fish Oil Salesman” McMonkey breezes into town to take advantage of the poor gullible Sneetches. Convincing them that life is better with “Stars Upon Thars!”, but as soon as they all pay for stars, he convinces them otherwise and charges them to have their stars removed. This attraction was extremely difficult to design. There were endless design challenges involving the tight reach envelope, the emergency evacuation problems, and because the overhead track went all over the land, it affected every structure, roadway, and tree. The scenic for the attraction was completed before the park’s 1999 opening but it was never installed, the ride vehicle challenges were just too much. The scenic was crated and stored and sat for 7 years in storage, while 2 temporary vehicles which I designed at the last minute circled the track to make it look useful. Universal decided to give it another shot and reconfigured the track with emergency stairways etc. and turned the individual ride vehicles into a train. The ride is now open with a new name, and a thrill to finally see all that “wasted” work at last! 2007 field art direction by Chris Lauren and color boards below by Karen Thompson. Click on any picture below to enlarge.
