Universal Beijing Claims Best Show Award in Park's First Year
Universal's newest theme park wasted no time in claiming its first Theme Park Insider Award.
How to Train Your Dragon: Untrainable from Universal Studios Beijing has won the honor in our Best Show category this year. Featuring large-scale puppetry, projections, animation, scrims, and live-action stunts, Untrainable follows Toothless, Hiccup, and Astrid among many other favorite characters from the Dreamworks Animation franchise.
Honestly, this one flew (if you will) under the radar. Playing in the Universal Majestic Theatre on the park's Hollywood Boulevard, the show is not listed on the Universal Beijing website nor mentioned in its press materials. When I reached out to Universal's press relations department for information on the show, they actually ghosted me. Apparently, this is the show that Universal cannot name.
But full show videos abound online and now having watched them, I see why so many of you nominated and voted for this production.
You can see Theme Park Insider readers' Top 20 picks this year on our updated Best Theme Park Shows page.
In the fall, Theme Park Insider invites subscribers to its email newsletter to nominate candidates in each category for the annual Theme Park Insider Awards. If no candidate receives a majority of the nominations in its category, candidates with the most nominations are named finalists. Theme Park Insider readers then are invited to vote for the winner from among those finalists in a poll posted on the front page of the website.
Here are the other winners of the 21st annual Theme Park Insider Awards:
- Insider of the Year : Universal Parks & Resorts Chairman Tom Williams
- Best Halloween Event: Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida
- Best Holiday Event: Holidays at Universal Orlando
- Best Hotel: Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge at the Walt Disney World Resort
- Best Restaurant: Mythos at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure
- Best Roller Coaster: Jurassic World VelociCoaster at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure
- Best New Attraction: Jurassic World VelociCoaster at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure
- Best Attraction: Disney's Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Best Theme Park: Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure
To participate in the selection of the 22nd annual Theme Park Insider Awards, please subscribe to our email newsletter, through which will we send the exclusive nomination forms later this year.
Replies (2)
Thanks. Fixed.
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Wow, I was impressed after watching the video - I was expecting something similar to Mickey and the Magical Map (from my "home" park of Disneyland), but this show definitely is a level above the Disneyland production. Would love to see Universal bring it over to USH - the Special Effects Show is a bit dated and does not have much repeatability (though I still love WaterWorld!)
Robert, FYI the link for the best theme park shows goes back to this same page.