UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — It's not often that one exits an amusement park attraction thinking, "That ride was really well-written." But that just might be a common response to The Simpsons Ride, which opened last year at Universal Studios theme parks here and in Orlando, Fla.
In both locations, The Simpsons Ride replaced the aging Back to the Future ride, using the same building and much of the same mechanics. The Simpsons, a simulator ride that faces a multistory movie screen, uses the same ride system as Back to the Future, albeit updated. Instead of taking a journey with Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), park guests visit Krustyland amusement park with the Simpsons.
But the characters look differently than they do on TV. They were created for the ride as 3-D renderings.
"When you blow something up that big, there's a level of realism needed," said Matt Warburton, a supervising producer on the TV show who worked on the script for the ride. "With watching a show, there is not this illusion that you're part of it. In order to make that leap, the Universal guys, who know from doing a million projects, know that there needs to be this depth."
As it begins, riders feel as if they're in a roller-coaster car just behind the Simpson family getting ready to go over the coaster's first hill. Sideshow Bob (voiced by Kelsey Grammer) is once again threatening Springfield's most famous family.
"There's nothing you can do, you're about to die!" Sideshow Bob rages.
"You sound like my doctor," Homer (voice of Dan Castellaneta) replies.
As the coaster careens down its path, Homer winds up running a different direction on the track, chased by a wrecking ball.
"You don't want to hurt me, ball. We're both big and round and never finished high school," Homer says.
When the roller-coaster track snakes around a corner and through a giant Krusty head, riders hear Krusty say, "Welcome to a magical journey into my mouth."
It's curious that a "Simpsons" ride would end up at Universal Studios because the franchise is owned by 20th Century Fox, a rival media company. Mike West, executive producer for Universal Creative Studios, said his company opted to license "The Simpsons" because it fit the theme parks' audience profile.
"We felt it was a very good intellectual property for our demographic," West said. "We did some surveys prior to the attraction, and we found our guests were running on the same lines as the demographic as Fox and 'Simpsons' viewers. We thought it was a real, natural fit and we're always looking to update attractions."
For Warburton and the other writers -- all veterans of the "Simpsons" TV show -- scripting an amusement-park ride proved more cumbersome than a 30-minute episode of the series. It also required a longer script.
Although the ride itself is brief, the loading area includes multiple videos featuring the animated denizens of Springfield; each one airs in a 20-minute loop. There's also the room immediately before the ride, where safety instructions are reviewed by "Simpsons" characters.
"It was a really long process figuring out what the story line was going to be," Warburton said. "It's in a building where you go from room to room, and then there's the ride itself. We had to break it down into chapters and figure out what we were doing in each place.
"The ride itself is short, but it's more packed with information and more dialogue per minute. And because the screen is so large, you can bury sign jokes in the back."
"The Simpsons" has a long history of episodes set at theme parks, and Warburton himself is a fan of attractions like the one he helped create. He wrote a "Simpsons" episode that included a parody of Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center.
"Mrs. Krabappel wins teacher of the year, and that's where the convention is held," he said. "I especially love EPCOT Center, and I ended up talking to some of the (Disney) Imagineers and we really hurt their feelings (with the jokes and sight gags in the episode). I felt terrible. I was like, 'Aww, come on, man, I love that stuff! It's coming from a place of love!' "
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The Simpsons Ride is open during regular park hours at both Universal Studios Florida in Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood.
Both parks have assorted ticket options, but a basic, one-day park pass in Orlando costs $73 online ($75 at the gate) for adults and $63/$65 children ages 3-9.
A daily party with costumed "Simpsons" characters to celebrate the TV show's 20th anniversary will be held through Labor Day at the Hollywood park. The cost of a two-days-for-the-price-of-one ticket in Hollywood runs $67 online for riders more than 48 inches tall and $57 for riders less than 48 inches tall. At the gate, tickets cost $67/$57 for one day.