Description:

Arthur, the 4D Adventure a new attraction from Luc Besson

 

From the 19th December, Futuroscope is showing a preview of Arthur, the 4D Adventure, its exciting major new attraction for 2010, created by film director Luc Besson and based on the Arthur and the Minimoys trilogy. After a fun, interactive and instructive walk through the world of the Minimoys, in which they get to identify with these tiny beings, visitors join Arthur on a hair-raising race against time back to the human world.

 

The interactive build-up to the adventure

Arthur, the 4D Adventure has a big surprise in store for visitors as soon as they enter the theatre building. Immediately, they step into the world of the Minimoys: tiny beings living a hidden life beneath the soil, in perfect harmony with nature.

 

The enormous two-storey backdrops recreate four different zones of a world where life is lived underground and among the plants. The effect is to immerse visitors in a whole new dimension, making them feel that they have shrunk and become Minimoys. The empathy is deepened by a series of fun experiences that tell visitors their Minimoy weight, let them write their names in the Minimoy alphabet, and give them many more foretastes of the adventure to come.

 

Each set is packed with typical Minimoy items that teach visitors about the lifestyle and values of this underground people as they travel from the entrance tunnel to Max’s garage via Arthur’s grandma’s garden and the portal room.

 

In the portal room – last in the pre-show visit and, like all the other zones, based on scenery designed by Luc Besson’s lead set designer Hugues Tissandier – two glass elevators wait to treat visitors to a panoramic view of Futuroscope as they are taken 40ft up the front of the theatre to Max’s garage.

 

The tunnel to the Minimoys’ World

At the entrance to an underground tunnel, a typical Minimoy house made of earth and plants stands where the human world and the Minimoy world meet. Nearby, giant leaves and gigantic blades of grass loom overhead, enormous underground roots entwine, leaving the merest glimpse of the path ahead. The track is lined with moonstones – once old Minimoys who mysteriously crystallized into the rocks after coming here to die. Twice, a parchment map shows visitors how far the Minimoy kingdom extends.

 

Arthur’s grandma’s garden

Having arrived "back on the Earth’s surface" at the other end of this strange tunnel, our visitors find themselves looking at the radiant sky in Arthur’s grandmother’s garden... and the vast field of towering grass and gigantic poppies they have to travel across. When you’re the size of a Minimoy, a field is like a forest. A ladybuggy projected onto a video screen continues to forage, oblivious to the visitors moving among the poppies. The time has come for our visitors to go underground again, under Arthur’s grandmother’s garden, where the creepers, roots and leaves jostle for space as they climb the earth walls.

 

Underground in Arthur’s grandma’s garden

Arthur uses a telescope in his grandma’s garden to get into the Minimoys’ world. As our visitors reach the telescope, they can take a peek and – surprise! – they see Arthur’s enormous eye staring back at them. Further on is an animatic of an intriguing dewver, an amazing machine with a trunk that sucks up dewdrops from plants to be recycled into drinking water. The Sword of the Minimoys, driven into stone by their ancestors, represents the decision taken by this miniature people to never go to war again. Another age-old item is the interactive tablet that contains the Minimoy alphabet, and which visitors can use to

write their names in Minimoy. Then the moment arrives to take the elevator up the outside of the building (enjoying a panoramic view of Futuroscope) to Max’s garage.

 

Max’s garage

With its bolts, pistons, assorted spare parts, and other bits and pieces, Max’s garage is a two-storey scrapyard heaven. Depending on where in the garage their elevator lets them out, visitors can get a sneak preview of two enormous ladybuggies. They are in Max’s garage for repair, but these giant ladybirds have passenger seating on their backs. And after the safety instruction video, our visitors will soon be boarding these nimble transports for a manic adventure.

 

 

4D: sensory immersion in Arthur’s world

Visitors travel through the attraction in a 25-seater carriage that mimics the flight of the ladybuggies, the insect-shaped vehicles in the Minimoy world. There are four carriages on two levels in the theatre, facing the gigantic hemispherical IMAX DOME® screen. A prerecorded, synchronised program moves each carriage along 6 axes to rise, descend, tilt left and right and forward and backward in time with all the on-screen action. The feeling of flying through the air is reinforced by the breeze against the face, while a number of new and original effects add to the surprises: the feeling of flying through the threads of a cobweb, of a tingle down the back of the neck, being brushed by a frog’s wet tongue or hit by an angry bee’s sting!

 

Don’t miss it !!!

 

 

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