The Parkz Update: An Afternoon at Warner Bros. Movie World's Hooray for Hollywood parade.
Warner Bros. Movie World has debuted its latest event, 'Hooray for Hollywood' in celebration of the theme park's 30th birthday. We headed along before the current Gold Coast lockdown to take in some of the old and new characters, props, entertainment and dining options.
Image: Parkz. New and old comes together for the parks 30th birthday.
Update By Parkz
1 July 2021
Hooray for Hollywood is a 30th anniversary event, running for the duration of the winter school holidays.
Out in the park, management have dusted off many props from the archives, such as this Speed Racer car from 2008 (Which was originally set up temporarily at the current location of the Fast Track / Photo Shop.
Perspective alley has a new photographic backdrop replacing the old hand painted one. Neo and Trinity from The Matrix are back too.
At the DC Superheroes store you can turn your camera sideways and pretend to scale a building.
Memphis Belle featured in the old Movie Magic Special Effects Tour.
Visitors can also pose on the Yellow Brick Road from the Wizard of Oz.
Part of the locker area has been converted into a Green Screen photo booth.
Perhaps the most treasured throwback is the temporary return of "Marvin the Martian in the 3rd Dimension", which ran from 1997 till 2005. For something produced in the 90s, it holds up quite well, but expect a lot of cheap 3D tricks poking out of the screen.
A few temporary food stalls have appeared too. This Streets ice cream van has popped up in front of another ice cream shop, Sweet Treats.
Backlot Bites is styled after a catering van and sells a number of contemporary food items, including karage chicken bowls and brisket grilled cheese.
Salsa grilled cheese is the vego option.
The franchise Doughnut Time is also operating out of a marquee at the end of main street. They're basically standard donuts that have off the shelf confectionery glued to the top.
The park has a full roster of entertainment during the Hooray for Hollywood event, but the highlight comes at 4:30 with the parks "biggest parade ever".
Ok, so who knew the Bonnie and Clyde car was actually operable?
The parade opens with Tom & Jerry.
The Pursuit Special from Mad Max, possibly the most underutilised IP at Movie World.
All the old classic floats are here.
Probably one of the oldest floats still going.
And it wouldn't be a Movie World parade without random dudes getting in the way of everyone's view.
A jeep from Memphis Belle.
Generic movie characters such as astronauts and Braveheart warriors also pad things out.
One of the new floats is this American style trolley bus. What is interesting is the "Main Street" lettering all over it and the rather solid construction. Could this eventually be used as a Main Street vehicle guests can ride on, similar to what you'd see at Disneyland? We can only hope, it would add a great bit of kinetic to Main Street.
Once upon a time Austin Powers was the MC for the parade.
The most PG thing Movie World has ever done.
A piece of Carnivale has successfully escaped back to Movie World.
Yosemite Sam is seldom seen in the park, though perhaps not as rare as Roadrunner.
The first of the Justice League floats arrived at the park around 10 years ago, and delivered a step improvement to the parade.
At the time the Justice League Heroes & Villains parade was also the first attempt at running an evening parade, and arguably paved the way for a much fuller roster of evening events.
Supergirl features on a new float with three rotating rings of backdrops.
Wonder Woman's fantastically detailed float.
Superman's fortress of solitude, which appeared in more recent times.
And of course, the ever present Batman.
A piece of the Police Academy Stunt Show lives on.
The parade runs for around 15 minutes. Perhaps the one thing lacking in all this was a bit of "sparkle" considering the Hollywood celebration theme. Think millions of yellow fairy lights and confetti.
The large number of roving performers add life to the parade though.
In true throwback style, Gizmo from the Gremlins makes his debut on this brand new float.
The float is quite detailed, even featuring an animated video game.
The biggest laughs come on the back of the float, with this re-creation of the infamous kitchen scene from the Gremlins, complete with one being pulverised in a food processor.
And that sums up Hooray for Hollywood at Warner Bros. Movie World!
As the sun sets the crowds depart.
Main street has a few "Hollywood Walk of Fame" stars stuck to the bitumen.
Update By Parkz
1 July 2021