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

Constructing a Very Unusual Machine

Plans for Sylvester McMonkey McBean’s Very Unusual Driving Machines moved forward as construction began. The process was very involved because this was not a standalone ride. The track sprawled across the rooftops of Seuss Landing, which affected many of the area’s buildings and pathways.

As if that wasn’t complicated enough, Seuss Landing was designed and engineered to have no straight lines in the style of a Dr. Seuss illustration. For this look, Universal went as far as to relocate hurricane-damaged trees, which were deformed from extreme winds.

The fluid architecture was visually wonderful but structurally difficult to engineer; Seuss’ abstract illustrations weren’t meant to work in real life, but the crew made it work by using shaped structural steel. The area had plenty of curved structures, such as twisted track supports for the monorail ride and the free-form trusses over its station. Crews engineered and constructed sturdy-yet-squiggly support structures out of curved steel plates.

These supports were so oddly shaped that two Dr. Seuss characters could be placed at the base of one of the structures. These were the Zax: two prideful creatures who crossed paths but refused to budge when asked to move. They both stood their ground as time and society moved on, building entire cities around them. As the legend goes, these figures were the first pieces installed at Islands of Adventure; thus, the entire park was constructed around these two, just like the book.

Seuss Landing Taking Shape

To complete the Seuss look, the scenery and facades of Seuss Landing were carved from polystyrene foam, which was then sealed for durability. Even the tops of the buildings were dressed up. Crews put in a lot of work to make the Seussian world look good from the ground level and from above with the monorail in mind.

“You can’t feel the playfulness of a space if it wasn’t created playfully.”
Lisa Girolami, show producer of Seuss Landing, Recalled to Adventure podcast, 2024

From concept to construction, Universal poured a lot of time, resources, and effort into theming the rooftops; the only way to see Seuss Landing from that angle would be from the Very Unusual Driving Machines, which just goes to show how dedicated Universal was to include this ride. As a connection to the book, Seuss Landing even featured a Sneetch Beach area, which the tracks passed over.

The team had overcome a lot of challenges as the ride hit some figurative bumps in the road. Progress on Sylvester McMonkey McBean’s Very Unusual Driving Machines was behind schedule while the park’s opening day neared. Work continued, but the ride’s props were put in storage until it was up and running.

It was a special but flawed ride system that still needed fine-tuning.
Allegedly, the nearly £2 million ride system cost closer to £5 million after corrections and modifications. Even still, the ride wasn’t ready. The project was becoming more and more costly, and its opening was becoming more and more unlikely.