Universal’s Fan Fest Nights Brings Star Trek And Back To The Future To Life With Delightful, Mixed Results

Ever since the co-founder of Universal Pictures, Carl Laemmle, opened the gates of Universal City to patrons in 1915, Universal Studios in Hollywood has sought to bring the public up close and personal with the magic of filmmaking. While this venture began as a simple pulling back of the curtain and demonstrating what goes on behind the scenes on a studio lot, the mission expanded once other studios in Los Angeles began to follow suit. Around the time that the Music Corporation of America (MCA) took possession of the studio in the early 1960s, it was decided that the tour should now include some staged elements. Seeing an opportunity to compete with The Walt Disney Company’s success with their theme parks, Universal then decided to build a park around their studio lot. By 1990, they not only boasted several rides and attractions to go along with their tram tour, but ads for Universal Studios theme parks (in both Los Angeles and Orlando, Florida) promised guests that they’d be able to “ride the movies.”

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That promise is always what has kept me more interested in visiting Universal Studios over the years. Where the Disney parks are more geared toward children (and the inner child in adults), Universal has always retained an interest in catering to the cinephile. Whether it’s the tram tour itself, the use of props, costumes, and actors from their respective films, or including some bit of cinematic magic during an attraction, Universal has shown a remarkable commitment to cinematic immersion, especially as seen in their newest park, Orlando’s “Epic Universe.” This is part of why their annual Halloween event, Halloween Horror Nights, has become such a seasonal staple. Not only is the haunt a good mix of licensed horror films and original concepts, but each maze is attractively designed, and the best of them aren’t just spooky but truly immersive, making you feel like you’d stepped into the movie screen.

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Now, Universal Studios is attempting to kick off a sister event to Halloween Horror Nights: Universal Fan Fest Nights, a Spring/Summer attraction that’s run after-hours in the park, featuring a mix of fan-friendly properties and activities. I was lucky enough to attend the opening night of FFN this past weekend, and while there are some aspects of the event that suffer from kinks that need working out, the best parts of the attraction indicate that Fan Fest Nights could indeed be a legitimate way to live out your cinematic fantasies for an evening.

If you’ve dipped your toes into geek culture (and let’s face it, if you’re reading this website, there’s a good chance you have), then you know that fan conventions have been a huge industry for the past couple of decades, with no sign of waning. Cons have developed to the point where they’re all specialized in some way, so while there are the big cons like [Insert City Here] Comic Con, which attempt to cater to a wide variety of fandoms, there are dozens of offshoot cons — ones that are based around anime, or fantasy, or horror, or a particular franchise, and so on. While every convention makes a point of featuring some manner of attractions (guests, panels, events, etc.), a large part of the draw of a con is for fans to simply cosplay and congregate.

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It’s that latter vibe which Fan Fest Nights seems to want to cultivate, and if opening night is any indication, they’re doing a pretty good job of it. While the park does have some strict guidelines for cosplay, it certainly seems to welcome whatever fandom you wish to celebrate during your time there. Of course, most folks attending FFN will want to take advantage of the immersive possibilities of dressing up like characters from the provided worlds and attractions; I myself saw a bunch of “Star Trek,” “Dungeons & Dragons,” and “Back to the Future” characters. There’s also Universal’s full-time “Harry Potter” section of the park, and FFN certainly doesn’t ignore its popularity; not only are “Potter” cosplays welcome, but some additional performers had been hired to mill around The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, including some who were showing off some really impressive puppeteered creatures (a baby dragon and a fuzzy Niffler, to be exact). There’s also a lights and fireworks show against the already-striking backdrop of Hogwarts Castle, and while it isn’t so elaborate as to best its counterparts at the Disney parks, it’s still very entertaining.

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Although the years-long popularity of Halloween Horror Nights has allowed Universal to get Fan Fest Nights up and running fairly quickly, it feels like there are some drawbacks to the experience which, despite not affecting HHN, unfortunately translate poorly to FFN. The biggest aspect of this is that FFN is an after-hours experience presented at an amusement park that’s open year-round, which means that some much-needed maintenance on the park has to continue while it’s open. Thus, while the park in general remains open to attendees, there will periodically be some attractions that are closed for the night.

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This was the case on opening night, when the ride “Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge” was closed for maintenance. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big issue, save for the fact that guests were encouraged to wander all over Super Nintendo World to look for Yoshi’s eggs, a scavenger hunt which resulted in a special meet-and-greet with Yoshi himself. The closure made the experience feel a bit stunted, especially as Super Nintendo World is a bit of a cul-de-sac in the park itself. Of course, closures aren’t an impediment to Halloween Horror Nights, as the mazes and scare zones are more than enough to occupy a guest’s time for the entire night, so part of the problem is that there isn’t yet enough to do and see at Fan Fest Nights.

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Additionally, although it wasn’t an issue on opening night, it was notable that the tram transporting us to “Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley” (more on that later) required guests to be quiet as we were driven by several active soundstages that were currently shooting things like the next season of Max’s “Hacks.” Again, this hasn’t been a problem for HHN, given that the mazes and even the Terror Tram tend to steer clear of the stages, but if FFN is going to continue to expand into the backlot, it might be an issue going forward.

As I said earlier, the mazes at Halloween Horror Nights really showcase Universal’s talent for immersion, and it helps that each maze contains a quickly digestible “narrative.” It’s fairly easy to walk through a maze and know everything that’s happening. For better and worse, the “in-world experiences” at Fan Fest Nights are more ambitious affairs, and despite having their moments, there are still some kinks that could be worked out. 

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In “Star Trek: Red Alert,” you and a bunch of fellow guests are transported to the Enterprise-D and are escorted from sickbay to the bridge when a mysterious alien entity threatens the ship. In “Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep,” you and the other attendees are split into groups by class (Fighter, Ranger, etc.) and taken through an adventure by some Harpers in order to stop the evil Xanathar the Beholder. During each experience, there were moments where the immersion effect was genuinely great; for myself, I was thrilled to go into the Enterprise’s turbolift, where there’s a rumbling floor, making it feel like I was riding up to the bridge. Most impressive was the way the actors effortlessly glided between their scripted blocking while milling amidst the guests, just enough to make us feel like we were a part of the show as opposed to simply walking around and watching the show.

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However, the experiences are heavily reliant on scripted dialogue, seemingly delivered live by the actors. It felt like the sound system (or perhaps the sound mixing) wasn’t up to snuff, meaning that so much of the explanations of what was happening got lost. Additionally, while it was neat to be making eye contact with the actors during the experience, it felt like they were too “on rails” to really bring us into the story, something that felt especially egregious as a friend of mine was even wearing a Starfleet uniform.

While adjusting the mic and sound levels feels like it would be a quick, easy fix, a potentially trickier yet no less important element to address is how each experience is made up of environments without ceilings. This lack of ceilings is similar to the way the mazes in HHN are constructed, and certainly has to do with how quickly these structures need to be put up and struck. Yet, where the HHN mazes are all about distracting you with things to look at while you’re constantly moving, in the FFN experiences, you’re brought into spaces where you stop and stay a while, and are encouraged to look around. This is fun until you eventually look up and see the bare inner workings of a soundstage, thus shattering the illusion. That turbolift effect is ruined once you simply look up and see you’re not actually moving!

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Full disclosure: I am far from the world’s biggest anime fan, and have only a cursory knowledge of that subgenre of animation. Yet I’m certainly aware of its popularity and influence, two things that were abundantly on display at Fan Fest Nights. By far one of the most popular attractions was the character meet and greets for “One Piece,” so much so that the lines were prohibitively long for me to experience them. That’s because each of the “One Piece” characters was being portrayed by live actors in costume, which is a distinction from the meet and greets of Yoshi and the Mario Bros. in Super Nintendo World. The latter has the performers in a “mascot” style suit that you’re used to seeing at other parks, and thus, there isn’t much for them to do besides move a bit and pose. Whereas, despite their animated origins, the “One Piece” characters are presented a la the Marvel and “Star Wars” characters in Disneyland, where the actors can interact with guests in character for a while.

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While the “One Piece” fan zone took up a good portion of the Upper Lot (complete with photo ops, live sketch artists, and a themed restaurant), there was just a little bit of space carved out for fans of “Jujutsu Kaisen.” In addition to a stand selling themed snacks, Universal’s Dreamworks Theatre was showing an original short feature, “Jujutsu Kaisen: Hunger of the Cursed,” at staggered intervals. While I did not get to see the short myself, it seems that it also attempts to involve the audience with its storyline. Overall, the anime attractions at FFN appeared to be super popular, a sign that perhaps Universal should look into licensing some more properties to cater to those fans.

For me and my friends, the unequivocal hit of Fan Fest Nights was “Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley.” Although there weren’t any rides to be had (even though, ahem, you could still bring back “Back to the Future: The Ride,” Universal!), the attraction felt like a mini-amusement park all its own. Once the tram dropped us off near the Courthouse Square area of Universal’s backlot (which, of course, is where the original 1985 film was shot – sort of), not only had the entire area been transformed into Hill Valley, California in 1955, but there was a ton to do and see. There were several photo ops: one with the DeLorean time machine (including a live Einstein!), one with the constantly-burning tire trails and rotating license plate of the time machine next to the clock tower, one with the giant speaker from Doc Brown’s lab. There’s also a snack bar (featuring BTTF-themed treats) and a merch kiosk. The highlight, though, was a rotating group of actors portraying the key roles from the film: Marty McFly, Doc Brown, George McFly, Lorraine Baines, Biff Tannen, and even the high school principal, Strickland.

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Not only did the actors perform scripted vignettes from the movie, but once they were finished, they would naturally and entertainingly interact with the nearby guests. Essentially, the entire experience is on a 45-minute loop, ending with a recreation of the night Marty goes back to the future thanks to lightning hitting the clock tower. Yet within those 45 minutes, you have free rein to mill about the spacious backlot area, catch various vignettes you may have missed the last time around, interact with characters, and witness things like an entire Enchantment Under the Sea dance live performance from a band portraying Marvin Berry and the Starlighters. In other words, though some of the experience is “on rails,” it feels much more interactive and immersive than anything else in FFN, and is the sort of experience worth going back again and again for to discover what else you can see and what you may have missed.

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It’s “Destination Hill Valley” that feels like the best example of what Fan Fest Nights should be: an attraction that is immersive and personalized enough to feel like both an indulgence and a reward for being a fan.

Of course, there are limitations to expanding and improving Fan Fest Nights, but it feels like Universal has a really good start here. Obviously, the fact that basically the real set for “Back to the Future” was already part of the lot helps give “Destination Hill Valley” a huge leg up, while the “Star Trek” and “Dungeons & Dragons” experiences needed to be built from scratch. Yet there are ways to expand the latter — why not have “Trek” characters hanging around the Ten Forward bar? Perhaps some area of the park could be designated as a zone for a quick game of D&D, DM’d by a hired actor?

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When it comes to replicating the success of “Destination Hill Valley,” there are certainly other Universal properties around to utilize. Though a “Psycho” experience would be best left to Halloween Horror Nights, why couldn’t there be an exploration of Amity Island around “Jaws?” Once the “Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift” coaster opens, it’d be a hoot to see Dom Toretto and his gang milling about the park, perhaps driving around in one of their signature vehicles.

Whatever the case, it’s clear to me that Universal could end up turning Fan Fest Nights into an event which rivals Halloween Horror Nights — and maybe even surpasses it — with just a little bit more effort. As it stands, Fan Fest Nights is a very charming affair, and “Destination Hill Valley” makes it a must-see if you’re a fan of “Back to the Future.” If not, hopefully Universal will create something for the event that you are a fan of, because being a fan of something at the park is indeed key to the whole experience. All it takes is a little bit of immersive magic to make a Fan Fest Night truly memorable.

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