Islands of Adventure’s Very Unusual Abandoned Dr. Seuss Ride

A Wubbulous Woe from Wayback

Imagine a brand-new theme park just opened with thrilling roller coasters, the latest and greatest dark rides, as well as attractions that make the impossible possible. Now imagine that same exciting theme park, above its most colorful pathways, has a set of tracks that are completely unused. No roller coaster speeding by, no smiling riders waving to everyone below—just an unusual silence that makes you wonder, “What is that ride, and how can I get on it?”

That’s what happened in the early years of Universal Islands of Adventure. One of its rides was constructed, delayed, and abandoned until being redesigned years later.

This is the wubbulous story of Sylvester McMonkey McBean’s Very Unusual Driving Machines at Universal Islands of Adventure.

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Dr. Seuss at Cartoon World

You may already know the original concept for Universal Islands of Adventure was a theme park called Cartoon World. For the purposes of this story, here’s a quick recap.

Cartoon World—planned to be the second gate next to Universal Studios Florida—was a theme park concept in the early ’90s featuring licensed cartoon properties such as Looney Tunes, DC Comics, the work of Jay Ward, and Dr. Seuss. Universal, not having a strong cartoon catalog of its own, partnered with rights holders: Warner Bros.; Jay Ward’s family; and Audrey Geisel, widow of the author known as Dr. Seuss.

At first, she was not interested in the offer. Geisel, not realizing Universal’s level of quality, was protective of her late husband’s legacy and did not want his work cheapened into some sort of carnival. Her mind was made up, but Universal was not ready to give up.

Executives connected with Dr. Seuss’ literary agent, who was impressed by Universal’s pitch and swayed Geisel to come see for herself. Universal gave Geisel the red carpet treatment—flying her out, hosting a Seuss banquet, and pitching their ideas. She agreed, and Universal penciled in Dr. Seuss’ whimsical work into the plans for the upcoming Cartoon World theme park.

Early park concepts included a children’s area based on the characters and stories of Dr. Seuss. Early concept art sketches out attractions such as a possible Mount Crumpit Grinch roller coaster and what comes across as a Seussian car ride.

Publicly confirmed information about this ride is unavailable, but some broad details are revealed by zooming into this pixelated concept art. The concept, at least in this art, seemed to have a mostly low-to-the-ground roadway-type track with some elevated flyovers, all on a dedicated plot of land.

This ride type, although nice in concept, would take up a lot of real estate, much like Tomorrowland Speedway at The Magic Kingdom. Land in a theme park is valuable, considering how much space is needed for facilities, retail, dining, conveniences, and entertainment. With that in mind, the Dr. Seuss area may not have had enough room for such a ride.

Another piece of Cartoon World concept art, this one by Wes Cook, outlines a more ambitious version of the Dr. Seuss world and car ride. This over-the-top concept art has some finer details when zoomed in, despite the low resolution. In this version, the ride’s elevated layout weaves through the land’s architecture as well as small themed tunnels along the ride path, suggesting the ride could’ve had covered show scenes. But what story would the ride tell? Well, standing atop the ride’s entrance is the Sylvester McMonkey McBean character from The Sneetches, hinting at the ride’s potential theme. The concept art also has Sneetches walking along the tracks and two stubborn Zax at an impasse below. As a note, the story of the Zax was published in the same book as The Sneetches; more on those characters later.

Overall, this concept was extravagant but was more practical by using space more efficiently. The elevated roadways laid out a way to take up less room: build it above the land.

Cartoon World Canceled, Seuss Ride Continues

The full concept of Cartoon World, unfortunately, never left the page. By most accounts, negotiations between Universal and Warner Bros. fell through, meaning Universal lost out on major intellectual properties such as Looney Tunes and DC Comics.

Universal—still having the theme park rights for Jay Ward and Dr. Seuss properties—formed a new second gate using the success of Jurassic Park, the newly acquired Marvel Comics, and its leftover Cartoon World concepts.

Universal transferred its plans for a Dr. Seuss children’s area to this new park, Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. The Seussian land—to be named “Seuss Landing”—carried over, and so did many of its general ride concepts: round rides, a Cat in the Hat dark ride, and the potential Sneetch car ride. The company filed for the lengthy trademark of “Sylvester McMonkey McBean’s Very Unusual Driving Machines,” and the car ride was underway.