New Details Emerge About Universal Orlando's DreamWorks Land, Opening This Summer

Feb 29, 2024 in "Universal Orlando Resort"

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Dreamworks Land concept art

Posted: Thursday February 29, 2024 9:50am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

This summer, Universal Orlando Resort is set to unveil DreamWorks Land, a new themed area replacing Kidzone and inspired by iconic characters from the hit movies Shrek, Trolls, and Kung Fu Panda.

Dreamworks Land concept art

The new land will feature Shrek’s Swamp, Trolls Trollercoaster, Po’s Kung Fu Training Camp and Store. Here are the full details about the new experiences coming to DreamWorks Land in Summer 2024:

Shrek

Shrek’s Swamp Meet: Guests can visit Shrek’s Swamp Meet to interact with beloved characters Shrek, Princess Fiona and Donkey, the noble steed eager to joke around and converse with guests, just outside of Shrek’s cottage.

Shrek's Swamp Meet at DreamWorks Land at Universal Orlando Resort

Shrek’s Swamp for Little Ogres: This ogre-sized play area features four fun slides, wet play areas and a playground where guests can climb, bounce and splash around as well as venture into Shrek’s outhouse.

Mama Luna Feline Fiesta: The blockbuster film, Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish, comes to life with this new interactive experience that takes place in Mama Luna’s retirement home for cats. Here, guests get to play with Mama Luna’s many cats on vivid interactive screens activated by buttons, bells, maracas and levers. They might even spot the one and only Puss in Boots himself.

King Harold’s Swamp Symphony: Guests can create their own melodious masterpiece as they trigger a choir of ever-changing frog ribbits by continually stomping on an array of interactive lily pads.

Swamp Snacks: Families can feast like an ogre at this new kiosk, which will serve scrumptious snacks inspired by Shrek, including Shrekzel, Far Far A Waffle, Frozen Ogre and more.

Trolls

Trolls Trollercoaster: After strolling through a dazzling marquee starring cherished Trolls characters Poppy, Viva, Tiny Diamond, Satin and Chenille, guests of all ages can take a ride on the iconic Caterbus escaping evil spiders as they speed along a bright orange and yellow track aboard this family-friendly rollercoaster.

Trolls Trollercoaster at DreamWorks Land at Universal Orlando Resort

Poppy’s Playground: Nestled under a giant, 20-foot mushroom is Poppy’s Playground – a shaded play area featuring colorful flowers and bugs with a bountiful array of fun bouncing and climbing structures for the youngest of trolls.

Trolls Treats: Poppy’s boombox from Trolls Band Together has been transformed into a playful kiosk that offers up brightly colored Trolls ice cream treats inspired by Poppy and Branch like the pink lemonade-flavored Poppy-licious Pink and huckleberry-flavored BroZone Berry.

High Five Hideaway: Cloud Guy hosts this all-new retail location featuring the latest merchandise including apparel, plush and accessories from Shrek, Trolls, Kung Fu Panda, Gabby’s Dollhouse and more.

Kung Fu Panda

Po’s Kung Fu Training Camp: Inspired by the hit Kung Fu Panda films, this all-new play area brings the Panda Village to life like never before. Within both wet and dry play areas, guests have the opportunity to help the pandas wash and dry their laundry with enormous water cannons, dump buckets, giant fans and more. Guests will also encounter fun elements throughout the experience, including an interactive gong, mischievous, giggling baby pandas, and oversized merry-go-round noodle bowls from Mr. Ping’s Noodle Shop.

Po's Kung Fu Training Camp at DreamWorks Land at Universal Orlando Resort

Po Live!: This digital, interactive meet and greet experience gives guests the opportunity to interact with the famous Dragon Warrior himself as he teaches them cool Kung Fu moves, cooks some delicious stir fry and babysits his little cousin, Ling Ling…all at the same time.

Additional Experiences Featuring Dreamworks Characters

DreamWorks Imagination Celebration: Popular DreamWorks Animation stories leap off the screen and come to life in DreamWorks Imagination Celebration. The multisensory adventure combines hit pop songs, high-energy dancing, advanced technology, and more to create an imaginative party atmosphere that will transport guests to the worlds of their favorite characters within the all-new DreamWorks Theater.

DreamWorks Character Zone: At DreamWorks Character Zone, guests can meet, greet and interact with their favorite DreamWorks characters like Gabby from Gabby’s Dollhouse and more.

Discuss on the Forums

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Tom MorrowMay 24, 2024

Universal is gonna run Universal out of business at this rate

MisterPenguinMay 24, 2024

So it's not just Disney that isn't *responding* to EU, it's also Universal not responding to EU!!

lazyboy97oMay 24, 2024

Or Pokémon, or any of the other grand plans that were developed rather far into the design process. People complain about Disney cancelling projects but they’ve got nothing on Universal and just Kid’s Zone. The area wasn’t designed to be what it is, so something more ambitious would have some significant costs associated with things that are not guest faxing. But this project was something quick and cheap just to say they have something new this year.

BrianLoMay 23, 2024

A very fair take on the status. I have seen a lot more positivity about the project, which sort of strikes me as people not really understanding what it is. Unless you live regionally close to it I guess and have little kids. I really think it weakens and cheapens their parks brand, personally. Maybe I'm alone in that thought.

Tom MorrowMay 23, 2024

Anyways, Yes. By itself, it's fine that it's mediocre, a minor improvement. Bigger picture though, another mediocre addition/change to USF shouldn't just be dismissed "because they have other stuff going on". The park really needs help.

Tom MorrowMay 23, 2024

True, there aren't "Universal adults" per say, but as a lover of theme parks and not just Disney and Universal, from most people I talk to who fall under that description / not Disney Adults, the general opinion among them is usually what I said above: Disney sucks now, Universal is untouchable. I have encountered some of this as well (unfortunately), in addition to people who aren't anti-woke and used to love Disney parks but now bash everything they do. The people hating on Disney / Disney parks because of perceived "wokeness" are truly pathetic whereas I think a lot of theme park enthusiasts just want to belong with the group.

sonoma15May 23, 2024

The Texas project is very much intended to be on something like the level of Peppa Pig park - albeit bigger and not just a small portion of a parking lot, so I wouldn't expect any dark rides, but it's intended for that age range. I would expect a small coaster, a kid friendly water ride (as shown in the concept art), and some small flat rides. It's possible a small scale dark ride like Lost Kingdom Adventure at most Legoland parks could be added in the future. I doubt they will even get something like Villain-Con at opening though considering that alone would eat up like 20% of the parks budget, but I do think that would be a good fit for this park.

BrianLoMay 23, 2024

So anyways, this land is ‘fine’. We’ll see how some of it holds up to wear and tear. My criticism is going to stem from the fact that this is just more doubling down on mediocrity in USF. I’ve waited literally over a decade of obsessive recurrent Kidzone replacement rumours for us to essentially wind up back at a place that we started. It isn’t lost on me this should have been Super Nintendo World five years ago. The real analogues here are Toontown and Dinoland USA. The former from the same general time period. How it has been seemingly revised and refreshed in recent times to something I largely feel is a permanent fixture In the park. I went from being quite content with Galaxies Edge ripping out Toontown to feeling like it’s really become a permanent quality, LASTING part of Disneyland. This Dreamworks project is just another one that already has a shelf life. Or Dinoland, which is being reborn into an actual nice land with its random attraction still off to the side, but meaningfully incorporated and hopefully refreshed in a positive way. No I don’t want them ripping out ET, so I guess I’m weirdly thankful it’s still there totally untouched. Why is there no proper indoor retail, indoor dining, a quick serve. Instead of a false noodle shop facade. It’s all very temporary and another stop gap, because that’s what it is. So I’m not so much judgemental of the finalized product as much as the ‘why’. Can we start the ‘Dreamworks land to close in the New Year’ threads yet? My other criticism is yeesh. You all realize this is the type of energy that the Texas project is bringing - right? This is what they’ve put into their billions of dollar flagship original park with admission prices creeping towards 200$. The cheap regional Kids park is not going to be what everyone wants it to be. I think a VillainsCon might be the best attraction that regional park would even support. Maybe some cute bus bar dark rides if we’re extremely lucky.

JT3000May 23, 2024

There's been a decent amount of Disney criticism within certain circles of the enthusiast community recently, the sort of people who will visit sites like this, but I think they often fail to see the bigger picture. Disney still has a significantly larger and more rabid consumer base than any of its competitors. I'll just say I've never heard of a "Universal adult." The parks have their fans, for sure, but I've never seen or heard of anyone who makes them their entire personality. If a D23 equivalent existed, I'm sure people would show up to watch, but not as many. Also, a pretty decent portion of the wider Universal praise I've seen online lately has been coming from people who've recently decided they hate Disney, for reasons that have nothing to do with the parks themselves. They aren't even actual Universal fans. They just hate Disney, so they prop up their competitors (and some of these people have probably never even been to said parks.)

BrianLoMay 23, 2024

That’s because Disney Fanatics in general outrank Universal fanatics many, many times over. No one is really signing up to attend C23 to celebrate all things Comcast. The praise is louder, but so seemingly is the criticism. I’m also not totally disagreeing with you, there isn’t as much critical takes against Universal probably because there are just a lot less people who actually care enough to be critical. Or actually have a relationship enough with their product that is more than a decade or two old. The problem with the lack of criticism is probably an issue within the Disney community itself… rather than the Universal one. The hypocrisy springs from the Disney fans who think the grass is greener, but refuse to actually critically judge the other side.

JT3000May 22, 2024

Not crazy, just too biased to see the situation clearly. Biased Disney fanatics outnumber similar Universal fanatics 10 to 1, and they always have. But I don't expect someone hyperbolic enough to complain about the theming of temporary food stands to realize this. They're food stands, dude. This narrative falls apart when you realize that someone can be both forgiving of a kid's playground not being the greatest thing ever while also offering harsh criticism of what they did to Kong. Which you should, because I just described a number of people, myself included. It's all about managing expectations & priorities. Offering hyperbolic criticism of every little thing they do won't help anything. I promise no one at Universal is reading this thinking, "I'm sorry you don't like our food stands, sir. We'll add the 3D back to Kong immediately."

lazyboy97oMay 21, 2024

It is only that because it was such a short project.

sonoma15May 21, 2024

Well I like villaincon (I am a top 50 villain) so thats why you haven't heard any hate about it from me. I like tron too, it's a must ride everytime I go to MK (unless I get screwed by the virtual queue which has happened multiple times to me). It's funny hearing these "universal" fan takes from y'all whenever people don't complain about every little thing Universal does because I go to both resorts at least once a week nearly every week and love both. I just love theme parks.

Andrew25May 21, 2024

Probably something similar to USH's Fast and Furious coaster. There's a bit of land available by the soundstages that can provide additional space for the layout if they wanted to.