Garfield graces the Sally Dark Rides booth

Garfield, the lazy, fat, and cynical orange American cat noted for his love of lasagna and sleeping, greeted visitors at the Sally Dark Rides booth at the recent IAAPA Expo. Garfield was in anamatronic form along with his friends, destined for Six Flags China to appear in Garfield’s Underwater Adventure. That’s an interactive, 4D, cartoon style, family-friendly dark ride in which guests will go on an adventure with Garfield, Jon and Odie as they travel underwater, trying to collect the contents of their sunken lunch basket. The ride is the perfect mix of practical and virtual, blended together seamlessly. Who knew that Chinese love Garfield?

Once installed in China, Garfield’s Underwater Adventure will consist of ten six-passenger, yaw enabled, dual-dispatched ride vehicles. The ride will take three minutes 45 seconds and will include special effects including a scent machine, in-car audio/lighting, and animated scene lighting. There will be four animatronics (Garfield, Jon, Odie and Fish) in the facade that talk to guests. In the queue will be three animatronics (Garfield, Jon and Odie) with multiple movements. The queue is themed as a submarine interior with multiple TV monitors to deliver the story, mission and gameplay strategy. In the ride there are five large, interactive 3D projection screens, three animatronics of Garfield, Jon, Odie and 12 animatronic Underwater Sea Friends (Crabs, Clams, Jellyfish). In the queue and ride are approximately 900 square meters of scenic theming. Approximately 40% is architectural (submarine interior, sunken pirate ship, etc…), 60% will be organic (coral reef, sand, plants, etc…)

In 2014, Six Flags and Riverside Group announced a strategic partnership to build multiple Six Flags-branded theme and water parks in China. The first Six Flags parks in China will be located in Haiyan in Zhejiang province, and Bishan, a district of Chongqing. The parks will feature a number of record-breaking roller coasters and water slides, unique thrill experiences, incredible live shows and more. The children’s area of the theme park will feature Garfield and the Garfield characters from the world-famous comic strip, including retail, restaurants and branded attractions.