Never Never Land Opens

First impressions of attractions at the new leisure park including high-tech film projections.

Anglia TV reporter Surrey Beddows visits the newly-opened Never Never Land leisure park at Southend-on-Sea, Essex. An actor in the role of Merlin emerges from the past through mist and coloured lights to welcome visitors to the future. The new attractions have been billed as a high-tech wonderland offering a unique and magical adventure for children of all ages. Guests set out to explore. Four castles each offer a different fairy tale experience through projected film onto a model of a story-teller. The telling of Jack and the Beanstalk has an atmospheric soundtrack and lighting for dramatic effect. The projected faces of actors playing the giant and small Jack appears amidst an elaborate set. Brian Larcher of the Living Images company which produced the effects explains that the film of the actors’ faces is projected onto dummy models of those actors to bring out the characters. Another example shows a woman story-teller projection. The company is planning to work with East Anglian Tourist Board and hoping to create William and Mary animated projections for the House of Lords. Other attractions shown in darkened interiors include teenage girl dolls and superhero toy figures. The Mayor of Southend, Councillor Ken Cater is asked about value for money as the cost appears to have doubled from the initial quarter of a million pounds. He queries the figures and stresses that this is an important commercial venture for Southend. Entry is £1, 50p for children, and more expensive at night as the attractions look better after dark. More scenes of fairy tale character models on site including Dick Whittington’s cat and a frog, a model railway and a model of Merlin with a dragon. The new leisure park stands on the site of an earlier Never Never Land. This video was made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

Keywords

Leisure attractions; Leisure parks; Entertainment design; Film projection; Talking heads; Fairy tales; Story-telling