Inside of Snoopy Studios

When I designed Snoopy Studios (called Peanuts Studios in early concept) for Universal Studios, Japan, I wanted to ensure that the area would be kid-friendly. By putting the majority of the elements indoors, into a soundstage, I could include things that couldn’t work outdoors.

The indoor environment also offered limitations that worked in my favor. The original outdoor rollercoaster design was most challenging. It would likely have excluded the same guests most interested in the characters: small children and their grandparents. Once the attraction was moved indoors only a kiddy-coaster would fit. Although the thrills are mild the speed actually seems greater indoors (it’s the close proximity to nearby walls and objects that causes the illusion).

The Charles Shultz comic strip has no environments to work from, but it does have a distinctive drawing style. It was easy to translate this style onto backdrops and comic set pieces in an indoor environment.

Also indoors it is easier to create challenging interactive games. Video monitors don’t work well outdoors. But we didn’t rely solely upon video monitors anyway. Our studio needed a number of studio departments. A Music Department was created that offered interactive musical instruments. An Art Department would allow guests to color Peanuts characters. Guests could control Special Effects over at Charlie Brown’s house. And tired guests could sit back and enjoy Peanuts cartoons at the Screening Room while others burned off energy playing in Spike’s Western Town.

I really enjoyed designing and working on Snoopy Studios. This was a great project, but I had another great project offer too.

Snoopy Studios Environment

Theme parks are all about environments and how the guests view and interact with them. Charles Shultz’s Peanuts comic strip, although terribly witty, is all about ideas and characters. There are no environments in the Peanuts world save Snoopy’s doghouse. And given the fact that Snoopy is so often pictured sleeping on the crest of the gable, even this element is depicted more two-dimensional than three-dimensional.

When I was given the task of designing Snoopy Studios (called Peanuts Studios in early concept) for Universal Studios, Japan I needed to find a way to solve the environment problem. By putting the main show indoors it could become a comic outdoors. This controlled environment would allow for many more opportunities.

From the start the plan was to theme the area as a studio. I took the idea to its furthest extreme. The main attraction and the retail location would be designed as soundstages. In the remaining outdoor area the program called for a waterslide attraction. For a studio this area became a Water Stunt Slide apparently rigged onto the studio water tower.

Next to this I designed a very simple (small-kid-friendly) hedge maze. Within it I included the Great Pumpkin patch. This area became the studio Greens Department. At the end of the maze was a greenhouse filled with a number of appropriately themed interactive amusements. The greenhouse was carefully situated so that it could be utilized separately of the maze on inclement days.

Greeting guests to the area was a Snoopy fountain and a Studio arch. The new plan added a sense of place to the area as well as improving guest flow.

Snoopy Studios

I was working for the Universal Studios, Japan project on a live show called Animal Actors, when I was asked to take on another attraction as well. Snoopy Studios (called Peanuts Studios in early concept) was to be an area geared primarily to children. The area would function similarly to Fievel’s Playland at Universal Studios Florida.

When I first started on the project a preliminary concept plan had already been generated and it was my task to make this concept work. When Japanese investor’s first reviewed the concept they were less than enthusiastic. Their biggest concern was that the area was located entirely outdoors. The weather in Osaka, Japan is very hot and humid in the summer, and sometimes snowing in the winter.

The critique offered me a chance to address their concerns along with a few of my own. First, I wanted to ensure that the area would be more kid-friendly. But also, I was having great difficulty with the Snoopy theme in an outdoor environment.

I created a new plan for the area and I was able to get approval from management, but they remained wary of the investors and wanted to ensure that the ideas were fully understood. I was given six-weeks to turn a single two-dimensional plan into a very small scale show model.

I tried to explain to management just how big this challenge was, but in the end I decided that it would actually be a very fun opportunity. We contracted with Rijn & Reisman, a model shop that I had a very good working relationship with. I had to, single-handedly, draw every building and set element in the land. The detail necessary for a model was nearly as much as for building a final project.

The model shop couldn’t wait until I was done drawing and meet the deadline too. They had to start building while I was still drawing. When I brought them the first drawing I got my first surprise. They asked me what color the floor was. I wasn’t sure what was going to sit on the floor and they wanted to know what color it was!

The model had to be drawn, painted and built all at the same time. But six-weeks later it was ready to go and on a plane to Osaka. This jewel of a sales tool worked perfectly and the final project closely resembles its earliest concept.

Universal Studios Japan and Animal Actors

The Seuss team had really wanted me to stay on and relocate to Florida for field installation, but I wasn’t in the budget. Still, I remained in demand at Universal Creative and I was assigned to Universal Studios Japan – a theme park destined for Osaka, Japan.

My first assignment was Animal Actors, a live stage show for live animals. I worked on several different versions of the show and I couldn’t say what was finally built, since I left this project before its completion. The show was located in a section of the park that used an American West theme. From some of the photos that I have seen I suspect that some of the details pictured ended up in the show.