Robots put Futuroscope back in the driving seat

Robots are the present as far as Futuroscope is concerned, and are the central theme of its three major new entertainments this year: Le Zoo des Robots(The Robot Zoo), an amusing interactive attraction for all the family; La Forêt des Rêves(The Forest of Dreams), a spectacular new evening show; and Danse avec les Robots (Dances with Robots), an extraordinary ride that combines state-of-the-art technology and artistic creativity. 

Attracting more than 30 million visitors since its park first opened at Poitiers in 1987, Futuroscope’s unique selling point has always been its ability to harmonise the apparent opposites of fun and education. At first it was enough for Futuroscope to concentrate on vast, visual imagery in futuristic theatres, until audiences began to decline alarmingly in the early 1990s. Futuroscope no longer had a monopoly in two- and-a-half-dimension screens and multi-directional sound.  With Imax screens springing up all over Europe, the novelty was lost.  Through sheer audience size Imax, too, was able to commission exciting new material and sometimes to persuade mainstream film distributors to make special versions of popular movies. In contrast, the offerings at Futuroscope began to look old fashioned and uninspiring.

Futuroscope prefers to put the self-evident decline of its theme park during these years into a wider social context. “As we cocooned ourselves in the present and in our hedonistic behaviour,” it says, “it was as if the future were being erased in front of our eyes.” The solution, one that required enormous expenditure and a huge leap of faith, was to introduce technology on the very edge of feasibility and to embrace the audience in ever more sophisticated interactive rides. 

Dances with Robots is the supreme example. Ten robots, each standing seven metres high and capable of movement and enormous acceleration along six axes, perform a new form of automaton’s dance in a vast ballroom. The participants who climb on board one of the robot arms find themselves whisked high in the air in the wildest of waltzes. The entire choreography, created by Kamel Ouali exclusively for Futuroscope, is shown on a cylindrical screen, 33 metres long, as the dance develops.

Another technological accomplishment is the new Adventures in Animation, whereby a virtual actor, Slim, is assembled then relocated in a boxing ring, where he becomes the unwitting hero of a hilarious bout against a traditional heavyweight bruiser. The 3D effect is achieved by wearing glasses equipped with matching polarizing light filters that enable each eye to capture one of two distinct images projected simultaneously through identical filters onto a 562 sqm silver-painted screen.

These new attractions supplement the dramatic creations of 2004 and 2005, including Peril on Akryis, where visitors take the controls of a robotic cleaner that purges the city of evil parasitic creatures. The seats of the simulator are moved by hydraulic jacks that reproduce an acute sensation of speed, synchronised with the image and cinematic special effects. Similar technology is used for Race for Atlantis, a three-dimensional dash into the heart of this mythical city. Powerful hydraulic jacks, operated by computers, activate the platforms. Images are projected on a giant dome-shaped screen and the 3-D effect is created by means of liquid crystal glasses and powerful individual sound systems, placing the visitor right at the heart of the action. 

Futuroscope has also harnessed Imax technology to create an experience that not even the largest standard Imax cinema can emulate. In Travellers by Land and Sea, visitors meet the masters of the air and the sea and join them as they journey unrestrained and unequalled across their habitats. Two gigantic screens, one in front and one under their feet, allow them to fly like birds or swim with the whales and dolphins as two films are projected simultaneously. The cinema has two viewing arenas, one above the other, separated by an oblique glass floor. In the upper section, nearly 250 seats in tiered rows face a giant 672sqm screen. In the lower area, a second inclined screen, a prodigious 748sqm, stretches out beneath the spectators’ feet.

Not everything requires this exceptional level of investment. Star of the Future, which enables visitors to discover the secrets behind cinematic special effects, owes far more to novelty than technology.  Willing participants are invited to turn up to an audition and become actors, a genuine test of their acting talents. Then they travel in pods behind the scenes of eight film sets and see how computers enhance their efforts by technical trickery.

Journey into the Darkdeliberately eschews dramatic effects to create a different, even mundane world – a world familiar only to the visually impaired. To recreate the challenges of their daily life, you are led by a blind guide through a series of specially arranged zones prepared using only objects, smells and sounds. As Futuroscope speculates, could this be the way to achieve a better understanding of those with visual handicaps and even to build a better tomorrow’s world, using eyes that do not see?

Visit www.futuroscope.fr to find out more 

From our July 2006 newsletter