MOVIETOPIA PUTS YOU IN THE SELFIE PICTURE
When the Candytopia experience rolled into Houston, it was one of the most delightful things you could imagine. Now, the organizers are teaming up with Planet Hollywood to do for movies what they did for confectionaries.
The project came about after Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl went to one of the traveling Candytopia exhibitions. Impressed with the way the attraction was able to craft a fully immersive experience, he saw the way that his company’s vast collection of memorabilia could be used in a similar manner to bring popular movies to life. Houston will be the first place that the concept is presented.
Movietopia definitely has the same sense of whimsy. The very first thing you experience is their re-creation of two iconic scenes from “Titanic.” With employees on hand to help you catch any picture you like, you can stand at the bow of the ship for the famous “Jack, I’m flying!” scene. More impressive, though, is a giant slide made out of the raised stern of the ship. This is a surprisingly intense two-story drop down the polished wood that leaves your heart racing. Turning a tragic part of the film (and real-life history) into an amusement seems a little gauche, but it’s hard to think like that when you’re rocketing down into the arms of a giant teddy bear named Jack.
The experience has a lot of great props from iconic movies. There are gowns that Robin Wright wore in “The Princess Bride,” an original Darth Vader helmet, the bags and cups from the Big Kahuna burger in “Pulp Fiction,” miniatures from “Beetlejuice,” and more. From a strictly memorabilia standpoint, it is worth the trip.
It’s very much an adult playground, although movie-savvy kids will likely get a kick out of it, even of they don’t get all the references. With the Disney and Marvel stuff all stored in other paying locations, patrons are more likely to see such things as the live-action “Flintstones” movie and Indiana Jones flicks. These are definitely what makes Movietopia an adult playground. There are monkey bars and swings and pits full of rubber snakes for you to roll around in. The idea is to be ridiculous and without shame, and that is a lot of fun.
Highest on that list is the “Forrest Gump” section. Where Candytopia had a giant marshallow foam bit, Movietopia has a boat filled with plush shrimp that you can jump into. Again, there are probably not a lot of school-age kids who have seen the movie and will get the joke, but they don’t need an excuse to hop into a playground. What it lacks in the universal appeal of candy it makes up a in plastic Hollywood magic.
That said, Movietopia — even more than Candytopia — is a selfie factory. From Ferris Bueller’s car to a giant bowl of cereal from “Honey I Shrunk the Kids,” where an employee will use a projection to pretend to eat you, the clear goal is to get your picture taken as much as possible for social-media shares.
It’s not that it’s a bad thing, but it does have the slightly dehumanizing sense that you are becoming a product more than a person enjoying the glamour of film. The hallways with the memorabilia tend to be narrow choke points where a crowd will push you along to the next attraction, so appreciation of the items on display is rushed. They want you interacting with the set pieces and hitting up Instagram, which comes across as if you’re paying to advertise for them.
As a quirky celebration of film, though, it is something new and different. You will definitely see things from movies that you would otherwise never see, and there is something incredibly decadent about sliding down the Titanic. It’s a bit mad, and that makes it fun.