Marvel Super Heroes 4D goes live
The biggest new experience to be launched in over seven years; Marvel Super Heroes 4D officially opened its doors.
Spreading across three floors of our famous domed auditorium, Marvel Super Heroes 4D brings to life some of the world’s best loved Super Heroes through a mix of 4D animation, interactive themed areas and startlingly realistic wax figures.
A group of young Marvel fans were the first to enjoy the new attraction, taking their seats in the newly installed 4D cinema to view a specially commissioned animated 3D Marvel film short with added high impact “4D” effects. Eleven year old, Nathan Wilson from Ealing, London was suitably impressed. “The film was awesome; the Heroes came right out of the screen over your head and you could feel the robots scuttling past your legs when they invaded. I liked it best when the Hulk clapped and sneezed – even though we got pretty wet!”
The youngsters also got up close to six Super Hero wax figures and tried out a range of Super Hero interactives from turning invisible with The Invisible Woman (as portrayed Jessica Alba), going green with our biggest figure ever, the gargantuan 4.5m Hulk and trying out Wolverine’s deadly adamantium claws alongside the mutant hero (as portrayed by Hugh Jackman). The other wax figures featured are Spider Man, featured in a cleverly inverted office where guests can literally “hang out” on the ceiling, Head of S.H.I.E.L.D (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division), Nick Fury (as portrayed by Samuel L Jackson), and Ironman*.
“This is the biggest new experience we have introduced here at Madame Tussauds London since we re-developed the Chamber of Horrors over seven years ago,” commented General Manager, Edward Fuller. “We’re delighted with the results. The 4D film action spills out of the screen right over the audience who should expect special effects involving water, smoke, seat tremors and wind. Every centimeter of the huge 70m dome is fully utilised and people absolutely loving it”.
The experience took six months and a diverse collaborative team of experts to bring to life. The figures and themed experience were created by our Studios teams and unrivalled sculptors. More than 1000kgs of clay was used in the making of the Super Hero figures as well as 100 litres of oil paint to build up the accurate skin tones and 50,000 individually inserted hairs! Each figure cost £150,000.
The film has been created by one of the world leaders in CGI feature films and 4D attractions, Threshold Animation Studios, working in close collaboration with Marvel. The nine minute film presentation unites a crack team of Marvel Super Heroes – Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Ms Marvel - in an all new adventure set in London, and is the first time ever that a group of Marvel Super Heroes have been brought together in a 3D film. The story took 30 draft scripts, used more than 1,000 reference photographs and notched up 13,000 hours of CGI animation time to come to the big screen. And Marvel fans should listen out for a sneaky cameo voice over from the legendary Stan Lee.
* For a limited period at opening the attraction will also feature the figure of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Ironman. A fully armour clad Ironman suit will be installed with accompanying interactives later in June.
