IAAPA Presents: Universal Studios Japan

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From our studios in Los Angeles and
Tampa. This is a green Tag theme

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park in thirty. I'm Philip,
and as always I'm joined by Scott Swinson

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of Scott Swinson Created Development. Hello
Scott, Hello Philip, Welcome back to

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the United States. You've been You've
been traveling abroad for a while. Yeah.

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So between this last recording, when
I was on my way to the

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airport and I just got back last
night, I went to Japan, and

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then I had a layover in Hong
Kong and I went there to see the

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Halloween events. Of course, yes, of course, and of course I

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spent my to hour layover running to
taking a taxi to Hong Kong's Land,

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which was a journey, an odyssey
in none of itself. But I went

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to Universal for the Ayapa Presents Universal
Studios Japan, which was a fantastic event

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put together by the Asia Pacific region
there and it had education and it had

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tours and whatnot. And what I
did was I really want to talk about

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this event on the show. So
of course I took notes as I do

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during the present hation, meticulous notes, and I what I ardiculously is what

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I tried to do and I've created
a spreadsheet with various tabs and yeah,

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oh yes, yeah, I know
you really truly. So what I tried

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to do then was take the big, big key takeaway moments they mentioned in

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the presentation, and then make sure
that the next day when I was there,

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and then the following day when I
was there meeting with the team,

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that I made sure to go to
those experiences so I can speak firsthand about

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you know, what they were talking
about the presentation, right, So,

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so in other words, here's what
they said, here's what they did,

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Yes, are they in line?
Yeah? And then what can we take

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away for our audience? So so
yeah, so so basically the presentation,

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tom Merman, our old buddy Tom. He kicked it off, and uh,

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he gave us some background just kind
of underlying the importance of USJ.

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He said that one in five visitors
to Japan actually attend USJ, which really

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really underscores, you know, that
they're a cornerstone for the market and underscoring

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that it's the number three most visited
a theme park in the world. And

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he talked about they have them having
three pillars as a management and creative team

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to become the destination of choice,
the employer of choice, and to give

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a return to shareholders. That's kind
of basic right in his I think in

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their view, becoming a destination of
choice means staying culturally relevant to Japanese culture

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particularly, and for them, their
biggest way to do that is IP overlays.

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So of course we know that they
just opened Super Mario there not too

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long ago, and it was a
huge it's an enormous expansion. It's the

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much larger here than the one in
the US, right, that's very popular.

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They have a lot of IPS there, and specifically what they want to

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talk about in the presentation was not
the like the permanent eyeps, but what

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they call temporary ips, which is, you know, the temper ips that

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they use for their seasonal overlays basically, and of course, since it was

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Halloween time they taught, they focused
in on the temporary ips that they utilized

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for Halloween. So so so before
we get before we get too deep in

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here, I have just a couple
of quick questions because I honestly don't know.

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So Universal Universal Studios Japan is that
a is that a licensed Universal Studios

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or is it part of uh Universal
Studios that we know here in the States.

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It is part of our universal Yeah, it is team members from the

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from from US will go back and
forth. But there is a team based

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there in Japan, and I'd say
the team is kind of mixed, right,

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there's a there's a core team that
is Japanese, but they but kind

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of they have rotating folks from the
other parts come in. And then the

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other question I had was when you
stay when you say they want to stay

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culturally relevant with but they and the
way to do that is with intellectual properties.

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Are the majority of these intelect properties
Japanese focused or are they just popular

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in Japan? So I think they
are both those things because honestly, all

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the examples that they shared were all
all anime. Okay, good good,

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That's what I just wanted to clarify
that real quick, because you know,

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I know that if if I'm questioning, and I have a little bit of

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insight into this stuff, but if
I'm a questioning, I just want to

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make sure that we're being clear with
our listeners as well. So that's great.

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I'm glad to hear that. I'm
glad to hear that because I didn't

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I know that in some countries,
for example, all of their intellectual properties,

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all the intellectual properties that are so
cool and popular come from other countries.

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Yeah, and I just was I
was curious to see if that was

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if that was the case here,
but clearly not if it comes from anime.

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And of course you know Mario and
that sort of stuff. So that's

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that's great. Yeah, so cool, right, I just wanted to clear

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that's right. Clarification. I would
say that I think the permanent stuff is

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is definitely you know, Harry Potter
is not there whatever. But all the

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temporary stuff is either from anime or
from local artists. Like there's a song

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that was composed this year that's from
a local pop singer that's very popular in

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Japan. So they So, I
think his point is valid in that that

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they have trying to be a destination
of choice for locals and for visitors.

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And if you're visiting Japan, you
know you want local you know, you're

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visiting Chan for Japan, You're not
visiting Chan for America, right, So,

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and I think so, I think
that's that's very smart them. They

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and then they they gave a presentation
called Unlocking the Power of IP and Entertainment

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Programs and It was presented by Dan
Mitchell and Dan Peiz from the creative team

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there. They didn't say anything that
our listeners would not be familiar with in

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terms of the overarching view. Right. They talked about how it's cheaper just

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like we do. It's cheaper and
potentially more beneficial to do temporary installations,

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which we've talked about. They talk
about adaptive reuse is what they call it,

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which is what we would call utilizing
your assets. They talked to the

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balancing new ips versus established ones because
the new ones can be cheaper, but

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it's hard to work with them potentially
they've never done something established stuff is more

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expensive. And they just talked about
it being helping driving attendance for shoulder seasons.

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They didn't use the term shoulder season, that's my term. And then

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you know, they also talked about
it helping to basically suck crowds away,

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you know, during peak times into
so everything we've talked about, so right,

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yeah, right, So it's interesting
because you know, you mentioned you

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mentioned the term shoulder season or lower
attendance periods, and I can remember I

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just had a very long discussion with
one of my clients about the way Halloween

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events actually started in Theme Works,
and that was to cover the shoulder season

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between summer and Christmas, but that
shoulder season really no longer exists. Halloween

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has become such an integral part of
it, and utilizing these temporary eyps,

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as you say, seems to be
a smart way because you just know you're

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going to do a pop quote unquote
a pop up ip for Halloween and potentially

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for Christmas or the winter season as
well. So it seems like the idea

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of Laura attendance period that's no longer
the Halloween season in most cases. Is

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that still true? Is that still
true in the Japanese market as well.

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That's a great point. And I
asked several members of the creative team and

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they didn't give me an answer,
so I don't have an official answer,

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or at least they didn't want to
go on the record give me an answer.

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I also couldn't even get from them
an on the record answer about what

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percentage of their folks attending Halloween were
annual passes versus visitors, versus international guests.

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They would not tell me any of
that. What I can say from

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my experience there at the event is
that this almost seems like it is developmentally

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several years behind the US Halloween events
in that I sense that this is still

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something to fill a shoulder season.
That is, it has yet to come

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into its own in the way that
Universal Studios Orlando is its own entity.

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I don't think that it has gotten
to that point yet. So it feels

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it just feels developmentally behind in that
way, like like the creative direction for

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the event as a whole is definitely
lacking, and some of the spaces are

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you know, just a lot of
the Clearly they're focused on the IP and

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making the IP integrate into event.
They're less focused on we're creating an event

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in and of its own that that
people are coming for. It's more like

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we're doing something to encourage people to
visit, and that thing is IP and

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it happens during quote unquote Horronites.
But honestly, as someone visiting, I

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would I would not even know that
it was horrorites. There are not there's

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not signage, there's not banners on
the street, there's not a cohesive design

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anywhere. I mean, there's barely
a map, right, I mean,

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it's really it's really like, come
for our parade featuring Pokemon and come for

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our Halloween Pokemon Dance Party featuring DJ
Gangar, and also come for the Jujitsu

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Kaizen experience. Oh, by the
way, these are for Halloween. That

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makes sense, not really so yeah, so what I'm hearing is unlike unlike

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Universal Orlando Halloween Horonites, which is
almost well no, not almost, is

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now a brand unto itself as we
are seeing in the in the Vegas installation.

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You know it is a brand unto
itself. This is still to your

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point, at the point of its
development where it's let's srow them throw some

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Halloween things into our park mix and
see how this how this stands as opposed

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to diving into all things Halloween,
which you know it may it kind of

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makes sense really because Halloween is significantly
more of an American yeah holiday slash celebration

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anyway. So if they are trying
to remain culturally culturally valid and uh and

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connected to the to the local culture, then to be able to say,

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you know, here's this, this, and this, which are all Japanese

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in origin and Japanese in popularity,
and by the way, we'll we'll wrap

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it into that sort of Halloween thing
that goes along with yeah, it could

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also it could also be. But
yet I think to your point, it

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basically they're not utilizing the brand of
Halloween Hornites almost at all, to your

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point, And I think to your
point, it could be. It could

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be again they would not answer me
when I asked, So it could be

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that it's because they're unaware of uh, you know, of of what what

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it could be, you know,
or that or whatever. Or it could

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be it's not popular in the Japanese
market, or it could also be that,

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which is what I personally think the
reason is because again there maybe like

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a decade behind the US parks.
I think that it's not a separately ticketed

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event. So therefore you don't you
almost like don't need to make it a

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thing. Like if they were to
transition into charging for this thing, then

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there would be a reason to call
this thing horrorites, and you would have

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to come up with reasons for people
to attend, and you would need to

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program those things, right, And
if you look back at our history here

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in the US, that's kind of
what happened, right whenever Halloween exactly,

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you know what I mean. So
that's what I mean, Like they're developmentally

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behind like, and maybe they'll never
do that because of the culture. Maybe

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they'll never make it. I would
maybe it's not right for the market,

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maybe there's not that much draw for
it. But yeah, this is no

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different than many many, many parks
went through here in the States where it

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was Okay, let's add let's add
some trigger treating stuff, and then let's

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add some and it developed into Halloween. Now in many, many cases,

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if it's going to be scary,
or more accurately, if it's going to

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be outside of the family friendly theme
park brand, then it's going to be

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a separate admission tape. So and
I know that when we made that decision

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at Bush years ago, which was
you know, it's been twenty four years

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since since Hollow Scream started in Bush
Tampa, and it's that decision twenty four

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years ago was a tough discussion to
have. It was, you know,

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do we have enough? Do we
have? Are we willing to brand this

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as its own separate entity. And
the only thing that kicked it over the

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edge was actually having the idea of
this is Holo Scream at Bush Gardens.

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Now, it later transitioned into Bush
Gardens Hollow Scream, but the idea was

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so that we wouldn't undermine the daytime
brand. We would make it a separate

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admission price, so that people couldn't
accidentally stumble into something that was too much

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for them. But it sounds like
what they're doing at Universal Studios Japan is

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they're doing stuff that is is so
much in line with their day product that

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they don't really have to worry about
that. Yep. And and they may

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eventually, you know, discover,
hey, here's an opportunity to get a

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second gate yep, as many parks
did here in the in the States.

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Yes, but I don't know,
it's just it's just interesting to me to

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see how how they handle the same, the same, potentially the same event

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in different cultures, I agree.
And who knows, you know, they

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wouldn't tell me, They wouldn't give
me an answer either way. So it

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might be a market mismatch, or
it might be that they're just unaware,

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you know, of you know,
speaking to the creative team, it became

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clear to me that not a lot
of them had visited other events or really

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you know, even knew what happens
at the other Universal parks, you know,

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So so it could be that you
know, it's like the idea of

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a second gate is so foreign,
or you know, it could just not

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you know, or or they're not
sure it would work, or you know

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whatever. I don't know, but
it's just it. It doesn't lean into

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that. And to your point about
the offerings being integrated, So the houses

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are open almost the entire day.
It's not like it's not like they open

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at night, you know, at
six pm. They're open from like ten

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am to nine thirty pm the closing
time. And then the only thing that

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is timed is the scare zones.
They open at dark, and there's an

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announcement that plays for like the hour
beforehand, like every like fifteen minutes that

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is warning people that the streets are
going to fill up in these areas and

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they'll be startling effects and you know
you might get scared and blah blah blah.

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So it like prepares people, and
then the scare zones come in for

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basically the last two hour two to
three hours of the event. So so

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all the Halloween offerings are available for
the entire for every day, like they're

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just normally. It's just like Christmas, right, They're just normally available and

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open. They're not they're not se
so anyway, Papa within the brand.

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Yeah. So, so the examples
that they gave during their presentation about IP,

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I thought I would go through some
of them and just give some takeaways.

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So the one that I thought was
actually the most impressive, and to

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me is like, again, these
are things that it's so impressive, I'm

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not sure it would work in the
US because of the you know, the

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cost and how how how much of
a lift it is, and it's something

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that was only lightly touched on during
the presentation, but when I experienced it

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myself, I was almost flabbergasted.
So this is the Jujitsu Kaisen experience,

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which happens in the four D theater. Ju Jitsu Kaizen is a relatively new

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but wildly popular anime series and it's
kind of an action horror anime series.

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I love it, of course,
because it's horror and anime and action and

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whatnot. So I love it.
But it's relatively new. They're only in

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season they're currently airing season two,
and it's very it's relatively adult, so

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it's not for kids because it's you
know, a lot of fighting and blood

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and demons and everything. And what
they did was they designed an experience for

218
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their forty theater, which usually has
a Shrek And the best way I can

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explain it is that they basically wrote
an original, full length episode that you

220
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watch in the forty theater, an
episode that is animated for four D and

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that is using the actual voice actors
from the anime series, and that fits

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with the script and not only fits
with the anime series, but it's almost

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like a canon episode that is like
added into the series. So it's almost

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like it's like here having like something
like The Last of Us where they made

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an episode that you can only watch
at Halloween horrorites, but that contains information

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that's part of the series, right, So yeah, yeah, it's completely

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And this is they do this every
year with a different series. So they

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had Detective Conan one time, and
it was a whole case that you you

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know, that had had information that
actually was referenced later in the anime series

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in it, so it became part
of canon. I mean, it is

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this is something I'm not even sure. It's like I was flabbergasted at the

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depth of this, of getting the
voice actors, writing the script, you

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know, coming up with a whole
episode, making it four D, you

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know, which is a separate animation
studio to make it four D for forty

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three. It was yeah, like, well, and this is the kind

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of thing, This is the kind
of thing that you're right, is very

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very expensive to do here in the
States. However, with an up and

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coming with an up and coming IP, you know, you have the ability

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to get hold of the voice actors
or the company who owns the IP,

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who owns the brand is far more
willing to make their their writers or their

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animators or their voiceover actors available to
you because they're still looking at it as

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investment in long term success. So
yeah, this is something that you couldn't

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do with uh, you know,
a long long standing i P, which

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is more expensive to begin with.
But I would guess that this is not

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only a pop up for Universal to
test it and see how it works with

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their market. It's also a pop
up for the people who own the who

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own the i P outright and to
say, is this something we can do

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perhaps full time? I mean,
it almost sounds like it almost sounds like

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an audition for a long term agreement
or perhaps even an agreement with some other

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uh some other park, or or
even doing their own live engagement, interaction

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stuff, but it sounds great.
I love the idea of making it sort

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of uh, this is this is
season one point five, right, this

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is season you know two point three, because it's it's tied into who,

254
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it's tied into the show bible of
the whole you know, story arc and

255
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yet and yet unique to them.
So there's a lot of advantages to this.

256
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There is. There's a lot of
advantage and it gets even better there

257
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are easter eggs. Keep in mind, this was all in Japanese, so

258
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I'm, you know, at best, my translation is rocky at best.

259
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But what I do know is that
there it gets better because they were easter

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eggs in it. So like at
the end of the episode, after the

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characters have had their battle and succeeded
their teacher, because it's it's three school

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kids that you're following, they're the
main protagonists, and their teacher is showing

263
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up and he's like basically, they're
like, oh, well, let's go

264
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to Universal Studios Japan, and they
talk about ho They're going to go to

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University Studio Japan and like ride rides, which is great and it's integrated into

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the story. And then they're basically
like, what's our reward And he's like,

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let's go to USJ And I'm like
wow. And then they also he

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basically he was like I was just
there and he had like a thing of

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popcorn. He like throws popcorn that
you can buy out on the street,

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like the popcorn that like the chocolate
popcorn that you can buy at the event,

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he like throws at you in the
forty theater. Love it, absolutely

272
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Love that. Yeah, that's the
see that's the kind of integration of of

273
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of merchandise, culinary, guest experience
that that is is just so so impactful.

274
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It's it's sort of like back in
the earliest days of Muppet Vision at

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Universal I'm sorry, at Disney Studios, Disney Hollywood Studios. They there was

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one point in time where they actually
broke through the wall of the theater and

277
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looked out into the park. I
loved that sort of seamlessness. And that

278
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sounds like this sounds a lot like
that's the kind of thing that they're that

279
00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:48.279
they're aiming for. However, they've
done it in such a way that it's

280
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not going to age out quite as
quite as quick well, and they've done

281
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:53.759
it for just a what two month
run, you know, with an external

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IP and what another level steps it
up in even if possible, and even

283
00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:03.400
an extra level. Right outside of
the forty theater, you can buy in

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the exclusive popcorn bucket, like with
the guy who throws the popcorn at you,

285
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like in that scene, like it's
his popcorn bucket. You can get

286
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outside the theater and you can buy
school uniforms, the uniforms that they were

287
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wearing in the episode, out in
the merch store. It like, this

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00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:26.039
is excellent. This is a plus
temporary IP integration. I just kept thinking,

289
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this is a month and a half
that they did all this work for

290
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a month and a half, a
thing that's gonna just play. I mean,

291
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yeah, kudos, kudos, But
well, but if it's going to

292
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if it's going to help anchor the
IP in people's brains so that it's going

293
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to make it so that season two, season three, season four, season

294
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fifty, season sixty continues to be
there, you know, it's it's a

295
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great It seems like a great investment
in time and an effort, and it

296
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also makes it you know, not
only not only is it good for the

297
00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:57.400
for the long term of the brand, but also it's it's a great sort

298
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of short term makes it cutting edge
for the park. Yep. So yeah,

299
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and everything you just said they did
talk about in the presentation when they

300
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went through like kind of you know
that. I think they're all on the

301
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same page. They have a few
other ones I want to get through quickly.

302
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Not as much time on these.
But they do a Sadoku Satoku,

303
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which is the Japanese version of the
Ring. They do an overlay of that

304
00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:26.920
on their version of Space Mountain.
They're like Space Odyssey ride. They do

305
00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:30.160
overlay on this one. It's not
nearly as immersive. There's really just some

306
00:22:32.039 --> 00:22:34.599
you know, some some some story
and screen changes here and there, and

307
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then as they're riding through you see
see some overlays of that. They still

308
00:22:40.279 --> 00:22:45.000
are doing their Biohazard maze, which
is from Resident Evil, and you can

309
00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:48.400
it's the same one that they had
I think and they think deybuted it in

310
00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:52.079
twenty eighteen or nineteen one. It's
still there and you can choose the two

311
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routes of the main characters and it's
very you know, it's just like the

312
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Last of Us. It's a game
IP maze integration. However, the big

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thing for this year was they're doing
a Chucky Maze, but they're just like,

314
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we are here and it's kind of
for you know, because Chucky has

315
00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:11.039
a new series on Sci Fi,
so that's kind of why there's a lot

316
00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:15.599
of push for Chucky. But they're
they're doing it as kind of like the

317
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Child of Chucky, and it's an
original storyline just written just for this maze

318
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of kind of how Chucky's son is
like rebelling because he doesn't want to kill

319
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people, and he like tries to
kill his dad and then like, you

320
00:23:30.200 --> 00:23:32.759
know, you can't kill Chucky and
so he like comes back. It's like

321
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this whole fight between like father and
son type of thing that's happening throughout the

322
00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:40.680
Maze and Chuck. You know,
Chucky's sun Is speaks in Japanese because he's

323
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Japanese in this story. But they
did use the original voice actor for Chucky

324
00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:52.200
in the Maze, and they had
I mean, they used Brandy. So

325
00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:56.279
basically all the fabrication right is is
original, but it's made to look like

326
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it fits within the universe of it. So that's that's another I guess we

327
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don't we don't do it that way
in the parks, but it's it's an

328
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if you can get the IP holder
to agree to something like that and you

329
00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:11.440
and you have the capacity to to
work on things like that, it is

330
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:15.440
interesting. The only cabot I'm going
to add to that is they added a

331
00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:18.559
forty element into that maze, which
I don't think helps the story at all.

332
00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:22.119
Like there's no narrative reason for the
forty element, and it definitely takes

333
00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:27.640
away from from the Chucky element.
But the Chucky stuff is good as in,

334
00:24:27.799 --> 00:24:30.839
like it makes sense, it follows
a narrative, it makes sense.

335
00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:36.839
It does look on brand for Chucky. Chucky looks like Chucky his son,

336
00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:40.920
you know, looks. I mean, so those pieces fit so well,

337
00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:42.839
that's no, that's that's great.
Well, you know, and what's interesting

338
00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:48.480
is when you say, you know, use like utilizing the original voice actors.

339
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I've I've one of the ips that
I've been involved with a couple of

340
00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:56.880
times is the uh the sesame Street, I peas and getting you know,

341
00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:00.519
getting a lot of Even when we're
doing new shows, you have to work

342
00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:03.359
it into the budget because with those
eyeps, you cannot allow these characters to

343
00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:11.000
appear without utilizing the actual approved current
voices or voice actors. And there's a

344
00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:15.160
couple different ways around that. It's
it's usually it is done in larger productions,

345
00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:21.720
larger we'll call them full time productions. It is done with a full

346
00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:23.519
script and a new recording session,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

347
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But there are times that, like
for smaller inserts, for shorter periods

348
00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:37.240
of time, they can get bits
and pieces of character lines and dialogue from

349
00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:42.960
others, from other scripts, other
shows, et cetera, edit them together

350
00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:45.640
in such a way to create a
unique piece. Now, yes, the

351
00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:51.680
actors do still get their residuals for
those because they're being utilized again and in

352
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:53.079
a different way. But you don't
have to You don't have to pay the

353
00:25:53.079 --> 00:25:59.519
cost of the or the the full
recording session. You don't have to bring

354
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:03.960
in the studio technicians. It's basically
just an editing situation and some royalties.

355
00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:07.599
So there's a bunch of different ways
to get around that. I'm not sure

356
00:26:07.640 --> 00:26:08.799
how they did it here. I'm
assuming, based on what you've told me,

357
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because of the robust storyline, that
it did require its own separate recording

358
00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:18.400
set. It was, but the
idea again once again, IP holders love

359
00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:23.680
it when you use their original voices, because again just reinforces the reality of

360
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their brand. And the last element
that they gave an example of that I

361
00:26:29.640 --> 00:26:34.200
visited myself was the Halloween Pokemon Dance
Party, And essentially this is just what

362
00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:37.759
it sounds. It's actually fairly long. It's like a thirty minute stage show

363
00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:41.400
that is a dance party, and
it follows a classic Pokemon beats, like

364
00:26:41.720 --> 00:26:45.640
Pikachu's having a dance party. The
Japanese version of Team Rocket breaks in and

365
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:48.319
tries to take it over, and
they summon Ganngar, and then Gangar is

366
00:26:48.359 --> 00:26:52.920
like, no, we should actually
party with them, and then Pikachu's like,

367
00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:55.599
you can party with us too,
and it's a happy ending. But

368
00:26:56.519 --> 00:27:00.039
what's interesting about is they work directly
with the Pokemon company to kind of come

369
00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:03.640
up with the storyline for it,
so it's a storyline that happens throughout it,

370
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:07.759
and also to choose characters, and
they made original costumes for them.

371
00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:11.759
So so Gangar is featured because he's
the Halloween Pokemon, right, but it's

372
00:27:11.799 --> 00:27:15.559
like a DJ Gangar, right,
and like there's a DJ Pokemon Pikachu.

373
00:27:15.799 --> 00:27:21.799
So then there's extensions of these characters
so you can go there. Their dining

374
00:27:21.880 --> 00:27:27.200
experience that's right next door is you
can get meals that feature DJ Gangar and

375
00:27:27.279 --> 00:27:30.160
DJ Pikachu. Right. You can
buy them as plushies. So there are

376
00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:34.319
extensions of these characters, but these
are original costumes that were made for this

377
00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:40.599
Halloween stage show that's there at USJ. So it's it's very similar to the

378
00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:45.319
ju Jitsu Kaisen thing, but it's
using Pokemon and you know, just customizing

379
00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:51.200
the characters to fit that. Yes, and the last thing I want to

380
00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:53.799
mention, which because I would be
remiss if I did not mention, this

381
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:57.240
is a big piece of the their
overall event. This has nothing to do

382
00:27:57.319 --> 00:28:00.559
with the IP or any of that, but a big piece of the relevant

383
00:28:00.839 --> 00:28:07.160
and usj's philosophy is crowd engagement and
that came up in my observations over and

384
00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:12.759
over and over again, and it
basically is they're using choreography to engage guests.

385
00:28:12.759 --> 00:28:15.839
And as far as I can tell, this is a very uniquely apac

386
00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:21.559
region thing, because I don't I've
never really seen this in the US parks.

387
00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:26.160
Basically a big part of this of
all the seasonal activations, and not

388
00:28:26.200 --> 00:28:30.079
just say this part, but also
at Hong Kong and around the other Asian

389
00:28:30.119 --> 00:28:34.559
region is like special dances. So
there are dances that Universal has developed and

390
00:28:34.599 --> 00:28:40.519
there's like online guides that they've released
and their characters try and teach you how

391
00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:45.720
to do the dance. So the
big thing this year was in the scare

392
00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:52.440
zones, every like half hour whatever, they're all the characters like stop what

393
00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:56.640
they're doing, they stop scaring it
and they start dancing to this song and

394
00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:00.440
if you know the dances, they
will like pull you into the dance and

395
00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:03.160
like dance with you if you know
the choreography. And they do this for

396
00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:07.279
the whole duration of the song and
they just go back afterwards. They just

397
00:29:07.319 --> 00:29:10.960
go back to their normal secar acting
thing. But it happens like park wide

398
00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:17.279
everywhere, and every year they have
a song custom developed for Halloween, and

399
00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:22.160
this year it's Show by Ado and
it plays like everywhere, not just in

400
00:29:22.279 --> 00:29:27.680
this but it plays in the Pokemon
Dance Show, it plays in their other

401
00:29:27.720 --> 00:29:30.839
Halloween nighttime dance show. Like it
just they just shove it everywhere they can

402
00:29:32.519 --> 00:29:33.720
and really try and teach the guests
how to do it. And it's the

403
00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:38.519
same with their No Limit. There's
a part in the No Limit Parade where

404
00:29:38.680 --> 00:29:44.799
they all just the parade just stops
and the guests are invited into the parade

405
00:29:44.839 --> 00:29:49.559
route to dance with the characters using
the choreography that they're teaching you on the

406
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way over, and then the guests
are told to leave and they all exit

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00:29:55.640 --> 00:30:00.519
the parade route and the parade continues, which is a logistical fe that would

408
00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:04.440
be utterly possible in the US.
It would be logistical nightmare. So it's

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00:30:04.440 --> 00:30:07.440
funny. I have I have experimented
with this. I did experiment with this

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00:30:07.480 --> 00:30:11.720
several years ago for a summer event
at a at a at a zoo actually,

411
00:30:12.319 --> 00:30:17.839
and we did do We did do
well. We at the time,

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00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:22.240
we did YouTube videos because TikTok was
not as popular as it is now,

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00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:26.559
to try to help teach the basic
dance and get everybody to come out,

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00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:30.559
and it did it. We had
less success with it than one might than

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00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:33.559
than obviously they're having there. So
I think it is a cultural thing.

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It's also something that I think is
unique to incorporate in a Halloween event.

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00:30:37.559 --> 00:30:41.759
I think it would. I think
it might stumble and fall here, although

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00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:45.799
with the with the growing popularity of
TikTok dance videos, I could be wrong.

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00:30:45.960 --> 00:30:48.920
I don't know, but it's clear. It's clear that it's a cultural

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00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:55.599
thing and works very very well for
them. Another thing that works very very

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00:30:55.599 --> 00:30:57.680
well for us is making certain that
we try to stay on our time limit.

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I mean, we ain't called Theme
Parking thirty for nothing, and we

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00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:04.240
are out of time for another week. So on behalf of Philipernandez with Gantem

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00:31:04.319 --> 00:31:08.720
Lighting and the Haunted Attraction Network and
myself Scott Swinson with Scott Swinson Creative Development.

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00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:14.799
Thank you so very very much for
tuning in yet again for another episode

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00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:17.960
of Green Tag Theme Park in thirty
and we will see you next week.