A cold front swept over the Cloud Cuckoo Land Theatre in 2012, plunging it back into the chilly climate of the Ice Age. Guests joined their favourite characters from the film franchise on two different adventures during the attraction’s lifetime.
Fact File
- Location:Â Cloud Cuckoo Land
- Manufacturer:Â SimEx/Iwerks
- Ride Type:Â 4D Theatre
- Running Time:Â 12 mins
- Showing:Â Every hour
- Opening Year:Â 2012 (24th March)
- Closing Year:Â 2016 (6th November)
Guests first entered the queue line which featured figures of some of the characters from the films among glacial theming and were given a pair of 3D glasses. During the queueline guests passed-by screens showing highlights from the Ice Age films, as well as passing through a green-screen room for a photo opportunity. If guests didn’t wish to have their photo taken, the member of staff would happily let them pass through.
Inside the theatre were several rows of benches, and once seated guests were whisked away to the colder climates of the Ice Age. Air conditioning units brought the temperature down as guests join Sid, Scrat, Manny and others in 20,000 BC where they’d find themselves immersed in an all-manner of situations by the theatre’s 4D effects!
Housed within the Cloud Cuckoo Land Theatre, this venue has seen a variety of changes since it contained the Fun House – the park’s old funfair. However, in 1981 it was converted to a theatre during the development of Talbot Street. For many years it housed the park’s dancing water show, Fantastic Fountains.
When Tussauds took over the park, the venue was converted into a regular theatre for the Land of Make Believe’s magic show, when it was redeveloped with its now familiar colonnaded entrance.
Between the end of the 1996 season and the 1999 season, the theatre sat vacant until the arrival of Barney and Friends during the summer season. This proved so successful that Barney returned to the park full time from 2000 and once again became central to the entertainment venues of the park. Over the following years, the theatre became home to an ever changing line up of famous children’s TV characters, as part of the ever changing Cred Street. From 2007, the park once again began to produce small scale in house shows for the theatre, with Sir Algenon and friends spending several seasons performing there.
2011 saw a change once again to the format, as the park’s own show was replaced by The Go!Go!Go! Show which was brought in from the West End to try and turn around the flagging interest in the theatre, unfortunately this wasn’t to last, and for the 2012 season its use once again changed to that of a 4D cinema with the arrival of Ice Age.
Although Ice Age remained at the resort in 2015, the previous film, which consisted of various scenes from the movies, was replaced by the short film ‘No Time for Nuts’ which saw Scrat at the centre of the action.
After the reduction in the frequency at which the film was shown during the 2016 season, the attraction did not return for 2017.
