Slated for a 2018 opening on Yas Island, the 1.65 million-square-foot Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi will offer 29 as-yet-unannounced attractions across five themed lands, all featuring Warner Bros. animated franchises, including DC Comics, Hanna-Barbera, and Looney Tunes.
Metropolis, featuring Superman:
Gotham City, featuring Batman:
Cartoon Junction:
Dynamite Gulch:
Bedrock, featuring The Flintstones:
From the park's press release:
Guests will be swept away in Hollywood-style when they enter Warner Bros. Plaza, a celebration of all that is the Golden Age of Hollywood. Upon entering the park through the Warner Bros. Shield archway, guests will be transported to Hollywood where Art Deco architecture lines the streets and authentic, Tinseltown details evoke the rich history of Warner Bros.For the first time in the Middle East, Super Hero fans will be able to stroll the streets of Superman’s Metropolis, a modern-styled city of towering skyscrapers, and prowl the dark alleys of Batman’s Gotham City in this larger-than-life land where heroic exploits and action-packed family fun wait around every corner.
The vibrant Cartoon Junction will bring together Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, and other famous characters under a stylized cartoon sky that will immerse guests in the wonderful world of animation. From the fun and frenetic to the out of this world, Dynamite Gulch will take you to the stars and deep into the canyon. Lastly, guests can explore Bedrock, a prehistoric world powered by birds and dinosaurs, where the modern stone-age family can have a “yabba dabba doo” time like The Flintstones.
Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi will join Ferrari World Abu Dhabi in the Yas Island development, which also includes the Yas Waterworld water park, a Formula 1 track, concert area, golf course, beach, and marina. Yas Island also will be the home of SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, which was recently announced for a planned 2022 opening.
Miral is developing the project, in conjunction with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment, with creative design by a US-based design firm you've probably heard of if you've read this site for any length of time, but that I've not yet been cleared to reveal.
When it opens next year, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi will become the sixth theme park in the United Arab Emirates, following Ferrari World, IMG Worlds of Adventure, Motiongate Dubai, Bollywood Parks Dubai, and Legoland Dubai. Dubai Parks and Resorts, which operates Motiongate, Bollywood Parks and Legoland, has announced Six Flags Dubai for a 2019 opening, and IMG Worlds has announced a second gate for its resort, as well. With SeaWorld planned for 2022, that would give the UAE nine theme parks across three resorts (Yas Island, IMG Worlds, and Dubai Parks and Resorts), in an area about the same as that between Universal Orlando and Legoland Florida.
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Everything there doing looks fun and I would love to visit one day but they need to update their laws in order for me to ever go there. The fact the homosexuality is still banned is disappointing to say the least. I will not visit a country that clearly doesn't want us there and I would urge anyone who agrees with that to avoid the UAE.
LGBT people are helping design these parks. And a lot of US states have anti-LGBT laws on the books, so glass houses....
Robert is absolutely right. Yeah, they're a bit conservative but as long as in public or with strangers you behave as you would around your grandparents, you're probably fine.
- Brian from Florida
Regardless of all this I still think some of those attractions look amazing and I can’t wait for someone the write a report on them so we can see them in greater details. Thank you.
Regardless of all this I still think some of those attractions look amazing and I can’t wait for someone the write a report on them so we can see them in greater details. Thank you.
North Carolina is different because it is a sovereign State under the United States, a Democratic Republic. They had every right to pass and enforce HB2 under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, and under the same Constitution, people and organizations had the right to boycott and protest what is believed to be a usurpation of civil rights in order to leverage North Carolina to amend their state law until a Federal Court rules the law is unconstitutional. However, in other countries, the US Constitution does not apply, and the law of the land is established by that country's rulers. Sheikhs in the UAE tend to look the other way in terms of enforcing written and established laws of those sovereign nations, because they see the benefit of an inclusive and free society over a religious caliphate established in neighboring Kingdoms. However, that doesn't mean they cannot be influenced or pressured by religious leaders to enforce established rules and laws that would negatively impact tourism.
Foreigners should enjoy and be grateful the current UAE leaders see the value of tourism, but that should not be taken for granted and certainly should not be assumed as acceptance of what locals and many leaders in those nations and nearby Kingdoms would consider abhorrent. If you find these countries' views and unenforced laws on certain social issues repugnant, you don't have to visit. Flaunting such social "freedoms" we find normal in Western Nations is like poking the bear, and could disrupt the current laissez faire attitude towards homosexuality and women's rights in the UAE. However, I don't think boycotting or protesting these extreme religious views is going to change the attitudes many in the region have for these issues. Many people living in the Emirates hold extreme views on many social issues and have the right to live and work in a country that is comfortable to them, and we as visitors in their country should respect that.
Similar interior lighting is used in Antarctica at Sea World Orlando, where the penguin habitat lighting is designed to mimic conditions on the frozen continent. Since Antarctica is in the southern hemisphere, guests will notice that there is very little time during park operating hours in the summer where the lights are at full daylight settings to simulate the nearly endless nights penguins would experience at their home. Conversely, guests visiting in the winter months would see lights constantly in their daylight setting to simulate the long days experienced in the Antarctic summer.
I think it would be pretty easy for designers to appropriately simulate the look and feel of these different themed areas along with transition zones.
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