Harry Potter World Literally Comes to Life!
Posted on June 17th, 2010 at 9:51 am by
If you ever wanted to see Hogwarts in real life… now you can!
Daniel Radcliffe along with fellow Harry Potter cast members including Rupert Grint (a.k.a. Ron Weasley) attended the recent grand opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. The actors collectively waived their magic wands to commence the official opening of the Hogwarts-inspired theme park.
Speaking about his impression of the new park to todayshow.com, Radcliffe said: “I kind of didn’t know what to expect when I first heard about the idea, but what’s amazing and I think what allows us to enjoy it so much is just the fact that so much effort has gone into it, so much care, and love, and time, and attention, and creativity, and originality has gone into it, that it’s, yeah, it’s fantastic.”
The 20 acre amusement park, developed through a partnership between Universal Studios and Warner Bros., features Harry Potter themed attractions of all sorts including rides, restaurants, stores, and even a replica of Hogwarts Castle. Set designers from the Harry Potter films helped create the theme park and Harry Potter author herself, J.K. Rowling, who also appeared at the opening, was closely involved with planning and developing the Wizarding World.
So far, Harry Potter fanatics seem to be satisfied with this monumental indulgence in wizard fantasy. Usually I brush off these types of attractions as commercial tourist traps, but this place actually sounds like it might be creatively entertaining.
