The main general requirement was that lighting enhance and support the highly detailed video action appearing on the screen in each space, plus additional elaborate scenic elements. It had to help ramp up the gameplay and blend seamlessly with other visual elements to give everyone that ‘ultimate dark ride experience’. Eleven areas in total needed imaginative lighting, including the individual theatre spaces through which the ride cars pass plus the queuing area and car loading station where up six people are allocated to each vehicle. The dispatch area itself features four different moods – black light and UV denotes the ‘darkness’ and suspense; ‘angry’ is evoked with blue chasing lights; ‘happy’ sees the space lit with bright and positive colours and then there is ‘melodrama’ when the lighting descends into a gaudy, chaotic atmosphere with flashing and clashing colours.
Over 100 Gantom LED fixtures light the primary architectural areas, 80 Gantom DMX RGBW Floods are deployed ride-wide for highlighting and accenting props, curtains and other set pieces. Six Gantom Precision Z Spots in cool whites are picking out the graveyard theatre space spiders webs, bringing their intricacy alive with crisp bluish tints. Gantom One Pinspots are used in all the theatre spaces, ‘crowning’ the tops of the stages, and six Gantom Precision Z Floods are deployed lighting the popcorn machine outlets in the queuing areas. The result is based on great teamwork, creativity and fusion of ideas and skills between all expert partners. Together they collectively produced a world-class attraction that is a huge success and a whole lot of fun for the park visitors! Popcorn Revenge is an interactive dark ride in Walibi Belgium. It marks the world premiere of the innovative non-linear Erratic Ride, routing vehicles via different paths and rooms, each time giving visitors another experience.
The Painting with Light experts designed and installed the complete lighting infrastructure for this ride, illustrating the diverse skill sets and experiences offered by its experts working on both entertainment and architectural lighting projects. This brought a dynamic ‘crossover’ theatrical-environmental approach to lighting the different ride areas, adding to the atmosphere, fun and animated buzz. For Popcorn Revenge, the light specialists needed to drill down into the whole experience and sensory journey in detail before even starting to specify lighting fixtures. “We really had to get our heads inside the psychology of the Popcorn Revenge characters and storyline.” says Luc Peumans, CEO of Painting with Light.
The ride received international awards like Thea Outstanding Achievement and Park World Excerllence Award. The complexity of detail required was probably the most exacting challenge. After receiving the technical drawings of the scenery and descriptions of the visual material in each space, this was translated into a technical lighting design, including illustrations of how the lights would be used and explanations of practical aspects like cabling and maintenance.
Maintaining flexibility in the lighting design was another major challenge. All the movies playing in the theatres might be changed or modified in the future, so lighting had to be thought through not just for what is there now, but potential updates or reworks yet to come.
The Painting with Light team chose a mix of architectural and show lighting fixture. Most of the architectural units highlight the many highly detailed decor aspects of the ride. In the theatres, effects lights are instrumental in building a sense of anticipation throughout the all-action ride.
Every area needed a unique combination of fixtures. With the architectural and decor lighting being an essential element of the ‘show’, a fine balance of the two treatments was required. Finding this synergy was one of the main overall challenges, and an area in which Painting with Light excels by adding luminescent magic! The Popcorn Revenge interactive dark ride is being submitted for an award due to its innovative character and bold move to change existing ride dynamics, allowing regional family parks to create high-quality, affordable attractions with a unique IP. All involved partners have largely contributed to a successful implementation of all ride aspects.
Some feedback from the customer and trade press members: Jean-Christophe Parent, Managing Director of Walibi Belgium explains: “Popcorn Revenge is a ground-breaking world premiere, aligning image technology and erratic movements. The ride definitely provides new sensations, and we are very proud to be the first park in the world to offer this attraction. It stands out through its interactivity and accessibility; it is a place where young and old can have fun together, as a family or amongst friends.”
Lawrence Roots, Editor of ThemeParks-EU.com, UK:” Popcorn Revenge is addictive fun with action packed gameplay and such beautifully themed spaces. A fantastic creation by Alterface and partners for Walibi.” Martin Palicki, Publisher InPark US: “I was impressed with so many things about this ride, the pacing, the lighting, the music! Everything was really very high energy and the whole ride was non-stop fun. It was a truly amazing experience!”
