History Planning for
The Simpsons Ride started two years prior to its opening.
The Simpsons creators
James L. Brooks and
Matt Groening, as well as executive producer and current showrunner
Al Jean, collaborated with the
Universal Studios Florida's creative team,
Universal Creative, to help develop the ride. Music for the ride was composed by
Jim Dooley, who worked with composer
Hans Zimmer on the
feature film and
video game. The ride is located at both Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood in the former
Back to the Future: The Ride buildings at both locations. The
Back to the Future opened in Florida in 1991 and closed March 30, 2007, while the Hollywood version opened in 1993 and closed on September 3, 2007. The construction began at Universal Studios Florida in May 2007, and the original concrete on the ground from
Back to the Future: The Ride was dismantled and replaced by a red and blue ground holding trees and benches. The building was given a complete overhaul; the cars were changed and the original
Intamin mechanics system was updated by Entech Innovative Engineering. The construction began at Universal Studios Hollywood in mid-September 2007, with the disposal of the building's
Back to the Future insignia. Outdoor painting on the building began in January 2008. In the summer of 2013, shortly after the Springfield U.S.A. land opened near the ride, the Universal Studios Florida version of the ride received notable projection system upgrades, as well as adding a few new lines for Homer recorded by Dan Castellaneta. In April 2022, the Universal Studios Hollywood ride reopened from refurbishment with an updated soundtrack and slightly altered timings. As a result of the
Walt Disney Company's
acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019,
The Simpsons are now a Disney-owned intellectual property. Unlike the Marvel licensing agreement signed in 1994 granting
Universal Destinations & Experiences the rights to use those characters in perpetuity, the licensing agreement between
20th Century Fox and Universal Destinations & Experiences was term-limited, rumored to be for 20 years, in which case it would presumably end in 2027.
Ride mechanics The four-minute ride There are 24 ride cars, each seating eight people, The projection system uses four overlapping Sony
SXRD 4K resolution projectors on each dome, using custom-made semi-circular
fisheye lenses to project undistorted images at a rate of 60 frames per second (in comparison, most feature films project at 24 frames per second). rather than the traditional 2-D animation seen on
The Simpsons and the queue and pre-show of the ride. The animation reference was provided by
Film Roman, the animation studio that animated the series until 2016, when
Fox Television Animation took over. Each car contains 12 speakers and a
Dolby 6.1 surround sound, while the domes contain an additional 90 speakers. Each dome features 12 8-passenger ride vehicles arranged with 3 cars on the first level, 4 on the second and 5 on the third. Each vehicle is mounted on a
motion platform atop a
scissor lift, which raises the vehicle into the dome. The motion platforms move a total of three feet. In addition to the motion-based ride vehicles, riders also feel water effects, smoke, mist, and experience lighting effects and scents.
The Simpsons Ride uses new technology that reduces its energy consumption. According to Universal Studios, the ride saves over 55,000
watts on average and 662 kilowatt-hours per day. The ride includes over 2,500
LEDs, the largest number in theme park history. ==Ride experience==