The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure
| The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure | |
|---|---|
| Chessington World of Adventures | |
| Area | Wild Woods |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | 18 March 2017 |
| Replaced | Bubbleworks |
| General statistics | |
| Attraction type | Dark ride |
| Manufacturer | Mack Rides |
| Designer | Merlin Magic Making |
| Theme | The Gruffalo |
| Capacity | 1,200 riders per hour |
| Vehicle type | Tubs |
| Duration | 6 minutes |
 Fastrack available |
|
 Must transfer from wheelchair |
|
 Assistive listening available |
|
 Closed captioning available |
|
The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure is a dark water ride that opened in March 2017 at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in Surrey, England, developed by Merlin Entertainments. It takes riders through scenes based on The Gruffalo franchise. The scenes consist largely of digital projection and include clips from the 2009 animated Gruffalo film.
The ride utilises the original Bubbleworks exterior repainted, plus an added green screen photo opportunity in the queue. The riders then enter a redecorated station, with details such as leaves on the ceiling and a stage-flat backdrop.
The scenes throughout the ride depict the Gruffalo story, using screens, ambient lighting, projections and some animations. The ride ending retains the two smaller of the three sets of fountains, from its predecessor Prof. Burp's BubbleWorks.
The original Prof. Burp's BubbleWorks ride operated for fifteen years, before being redesigned for a sponsorship deal at the end of 2005, without the involvement of the ride's original designers. During this refurbishment, the ride's factory theme was changed to suit the new sponsor Imperial Leather, with most the animations and effects removed. By 2014 the Imperial Leather sponsorship had expired and so the brand logos were removed, but the ride remained in a poor condition. On 6 September 2016, the ride closed and the remaining props auctioned off.
On 1 January 2017, Chessington announced that The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure would replace Bubbleworks. The new ride was produced by Merlin Magic Making and officially opened on 18 March 2017, with the surrounding area renamed 'Wild Woods'.
Many of the Bubbleworks sets were simply screened off behind partition walls, since the building space had been designed to accommodate the original larger scenes than those in the new ride. The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure features far fewer animations, props and scenic detail than the original Prof. Burp's BubbleWorks, instead employing TV screens and projected images on to whited-out sets, with the remaining spaces shrouded in darkness to hide blank spots.
Coordinates: 51°20′51″N 0°18′56″W / 51.34750°N 0.31556°W
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