Podcast: The Ride - Villain-Con Minion Blast with Van Robichaux and Evan Susser

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

Van Robichaux and Evan Susser return to the show to discuss working on Villain-Con Minion Blast! Now Open At Universal Studios Florida! Candlelight Processional Episode up at The Second Gate: Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever. Dog. show return to talk about their work developing universal studios new ride illuminations villain minion blast on today's podcast the ride Welcome to Podcast The Ride, a podcast about theme parks where today we finally interrogate the bastards who dared replace Shrek 4D. I'm Scott Gairdner, barely keeping it together in front of these fools. But at least we're here with a purpose for them. Mike Carlson, what do you think? I'm here. I'm clenching my fists. Just I want to hit somebody.

We trapped him. We've been all nice leading up to this. But now we get to let it all out. Jason Sheridan. I can't even look at them. Even though I very much enjoy this new attraction. It doesn't matter. An American classic went away for it. Even though I very much enjoyed this new attraction. It doesn't matter.

An American classic went away for it. I guess I'll give an actual introduction. We can go backwards and make you guys villains again if you want. But genuinely, been looking forward to this episode for a long time. And you know what? I feel like a lot of guests on this show, people we have on the show, are funny friends, people from the world of comedy. But I think there's a kind of guest we'd like to have more, which is the people who actually work on the attractions, who put these things together. And today, these guest categories have finally merged.

And we're so excited to have you guys together. They wrote for Brooklyn Nine-Nine. They wrote the feature film Fistfight. And most importantly today, writers of Illumination's VillainCon Minion Blast, Evan Susser and Van Robichaux. Hello, folks. Hey, how's it going? Good to be here. You guys got all smooth since you became a quiet storm show.

We're going to theme park celebrities these days. You've got to regulate the energy yeah yeah yeah um you know i was a little nervous you guys would uh be um honest about the shrek 4d of it all but i i do want to say uh i consider this all um delayed revenge against shrek 4d for taking out alfred hitchcock uh oh yeah amen brother yeah yes so you as a child or well i don't know when it happened a teen. I forget when the changeover occurred. You were like waiting.

Somebody needs to take a shot, and that's got to be me. But anyway, go on. Okay, sure. I know we didn't just talk about it. That was a last year thing, right? Yeah, yeah. I don't know the timeline. Well, congratulations.

You slayed the beast. Yes, I slayed the beast i slayed the beast uh the alfred hitchcock experience had a great rear window section where they had little screens yes yeah inside of windows and you could look through binoculars yeah from across the way like the optimal place to do it was up like raised up on the second level big fan of that very formative in my mind like a perv simulation yeah you could be a pervert like alfred was. I was a big fan of that. Very formative in my mind. Like a perv simulation. Yes, absolutely. Where you could be a pervert like Alfred was.

Yeah. I was a very excited seven or eight year old trying to find the murderer and I'm like, that's just a lady undressing. Where is the crime? I've got to keep sweeping.

You were upset. No interest in that. Yeah. Go ahead, Evan. I was just going to say it's exciting to be here and all the time that we were working on the ride, you know, thinking about

how is it going to be enjoyed by the podcast, the ride crew. Right, right. All of the things that you guys discuss each week, I was imagining waking up at night saying, oh no, what are they going to say? What are they going to say? How would they plus it up?

Are we plussing it up? How do they want it to be plussed up? Do they want to burn it to the ground for insurance money? A premise they haven't said in many years? Yes. But no, seriously, I think that it was a true thrill and it's exciting to

be talking about it with you guys. Yeah, jeez. I've really been looking forward to it for a long time, to finally triangulate all this and to get down there and experience it. We weren't immediately on the ball, but this hasn't been open for too long. No, yeah. This opened in August. I did a soft opening in August, and then it's been open now for a few months. It's great.

You guys are pretty good, pretty on the ball as far as getting down there, organizing a whole Orlando trip it's uh it's great you guys are pretty good pretty on the ball as far as getting down there organizing a whole Orlando trip just to do it I myself have not been since it's open I was there pre-open uh when it was it was up and running but not open to the public yet but I've never ridden it with a live audience or anything like that so you guys are ahead of me wow um I think they're loving it. I sensed good vibes. No one was revolting or putting their guns down and looking at their phone. I felt a lot of engagement. Yeah, I mean, there's so much to ask you guys about.

I don't like, should we just go back to the beginning, which I guess in this case is that you've been uh you've done stuff with illumination for for a long time now so you've been in you've been in their world and in minion world specifically for is that was was that the beginning you it was it's i know there's like there's been shorts there's been ads i i forget your entire filmography our our illumination experience has started with working on a Minions short called Minions Scouts. It's available on Netflix under the Minions and More Volume 1 compilation. Which weirdly has Shrek 4D on it, too, just to pad it out. It's one of the Ann Moores, sure.

And then we... We did some commercials. Did some commercials for them featuring the Minions. And then we got... We worked on a boarded Super Bowl halftime commercial for Minions 2, The Rise of Gru. Wow, wow. That did not come to fruition.

No fault of ours, I hope. But go ahead, Evan, you were going to. And then, yeah, we got an email about it was kind of not specific and said, oh, they have people at Illumination have another thing. Would you be interested in talking? And I was assuming, oh, maybe it's another short. Maybe it's a commercial. Didn't know. And then we heard theme park ride and our eyes lit

up because it seemed exciting yeah um and initially van maybe you will uh my kind of understanding was that we were being brought on specifically just to do kind of the pre-show uh video that you would watch yeah okay and through kind of elbowing our way, we managed to ride this thing all the way through and become a part of both the entire ride and also the Minion Cafe and the whole thing, which was a really fun experience as far as people who grew up going to the theme parks. Yes, both big fan, not even just people we've had on the show because we know you. You're like both like a big theme park people and, like an old Epcot head, I feel. Oh, for sure. And universal, clearly. No, yeah, I jumped at the opportunity.

Look, I'm going to back up a little bit just to give the real behind the scenes and tell just the shortest version of the real story, so to speak. Oh, wow. Evan's lies. the real story so to speak oh wow which is lies we've been a long time writing team but a few years ago um we started to have interests that diverged a little bit and we actually decided that we were going to go our separate ways uh and start working on projects separately and we sent out an email to a lot of our contacts and people we'd been working with on projects to explain this all to them, explain it was very amicable

and that there were a few things we're going to still work on together. But moving forward, you know, you kind of got to pick one or the other sort of a situation. And the next day, one of the people we sent that email to was a person from Illumination

who emailed back about this project and very clearly uh had not read the emails from us saying we were no longer working together just a slight correction i don't think it was an email back but it was an email basically sent the next day to us seemingly maybe inspired by the email but clearly by seeing your names in an inbox and Yes, and so we looked at each other, and at the time it was, I think, proposed as like an eight-week job. So then even before having the initial phone call,

we had a discussion of like... They were being very mysterious about what it even was. And in the past, we'd had good experiences, and we said, eh, you know what, why not? And also just to kind of, I think, prove to ourself that it was amicable and that we could get along. We were like, why don't we just, you know, why not? I believe the phrasing was one last heist.

Right. Exactly. And we said, sure, let's have the initial thing. And then when it was a theme park, right? And then, so yes, it extended in a very funny. And so now we've been working together on theme park rides and illumination projects for three and a half years. Oh, my God. So your day.

So your breakup lasted for less than a day. Yeah, pretty much. Wow. Wow. We are. We are a hybrid team now. And we do do solo work as well, which is actually a difficult situation to get yourself into. You really can only do it by accident.

Yes. So any themed only do it by accident. Yes. So any themed entertainment, it comes in your duo. I think we're pretty locked in. You know what? I don't know. I don't even want to commit to that. You know, I think that. I think Van really impressed some of the people at Universal.

No, but it was a very funny way to come into the project. I'll say that. Yeah, wow. Okay, so under a cloud of drama, you immediately enter a mysterious, foggy world. You don't know what you're dealing with. You'll find rules on the project. Yeah, yeah.

And then, okay, so it's eight weeks initially, and you think you're doing pre-show. And what do you know at that point? Is ride premise established? So at that point, I think that they had come in, and from the highest level, there had been some agreement as far as what the attraction would be. I think the, Vanna, maybe you remember some of these details better.

The idea, i think it was already that it was going to be villain con that it was going to be a convention and that you would be competing to join the vicious six which all uh remained uh but beyond that there was a lot of stuff that was not locked in like the number of physical rooms that would be able to be spaces in the ride had been locked down. Basically the track layout. And the general premise but then exactly what was happening in

the specific rooms that you would move through, that was still up in the air. Which sort of characters were the character who was the primary character within that space was somewhat locked in, but still flexible.

Like the idea of like, it's roughly this number, because you're dealing with the Vicious Six, which is like a villain super group that comes from, that's from Minions 2, correct? And maybe there's the vague notion of like, each one of them has a space, but you don't know that breakdown or order. Which also at the time,

Minions 2 Rise of Gru had not come out yet. So we saw the movie in advance, which also sometimes made this a little tricky because understandably, you know, Illumination, these movies are very valuable. And so they would occasionally give us like two hour windows where we could watch the movie. And then we would have to like frantically write notes

because the idea is that you want to be referencing things that these characters are doing. Understand the characters, be able to write in their voice, but like had only been given access to the movie one time for two hours and couldn't go back and reference anything. And it was how rough of a state also.

No, it was pretty. It was a delayed because of the pandemic movie. So it was pretty. I think it was, I think every time we saw it, it had been finished, but it was being held but you couldn't scrub right back and forth no right exactly but was it remote you were watching it remotely yeah yes but with the sort of like thrown together during the pandemic to remotely screen things barely functional systems everyone

in hollywood ran off oh we did a similar we did a similar thing when we watched Jay and Silent Bob's reboot during the pandemic. Equally under Lockheed's office. By we, you mean I kind of avoided that particular Zoom. Scott popped in for a second, maybe. And I was dismayed to find that I had not cleared the movie entirely. Right. There were still 10 minutes to go when I showed up. Can I ask, when you guys came on board, were they already set on the moving walkway element and the shooter element?

Yes, there was, I believe, Finn? Yeah. Yeah, it was. You were always going to be on a walkway. The walkway was locked in. And the blaster. And the blaster element. The functionality of the blaster and the design of the blaster was not locked in. And there were lots of discussions about that that we were involved in. Something that happened, which I think is what resulted in us being so involved, was early on there were just these all-hands meetings every week with every department for the ride.

And we were at those meetings. Yes, and it would be interesting. Sometimes these meetings, because I think it's a big project, and you kind of don't know what's going to be most urgent. So sometimes we would be on this meeting, and it would be like, okay, today we're talking all about the pre-show video, and Van and I would be talking, listening, be very engaged. And other times it would be like, okay, we need to talk about

how much steel is being ordered. And we were just on these calls and through that process, we started to learn and get ideas. About the steel. About the steel. But also there would be meetings about, you know, the blasters and how they would be designed. You know, there was a whole discussion of that, you know,

you want people to be holding onto the blaster and not, you know, swinging them wildly. So that was where it came from to have a design to have two buttons on the blaster so that there would be a reason to hold it with both hands. Um, and all of that kind of stuff, we started to kind of be exposed to every element of a theme park ride design, which was a very cool, you know, experience. But also sometimes I found myself, you know,

shaking my head. I don't know what is being discussed. I have no idea. When you're also watching probably the triangulation of like, that there's illumination involved and then universal functional people. And that's something i always wonder about these things is like is it just everybody kind of like stepping forward and checking with each other about what's feasible constantly and everybody like slowly moves towards the finish

line uh because it's like yeah how do you write for spaces that aren't fully figured out i mean that was a complicated part of the project was it was a constantly moving target, but you had to, no pun intended, about constantly moving targets. But we did have to keep, like, revising it in sort of in all directions, like moving closer and closer to what

is the actual premise of these things going to be, but then there would be, like, you know, curveballs thrown where it's like, there's actually another section of the line now or you know um this last room is good this room's gonna have two walls instead of one wall that are gonna have stuff on it and oh so suddenly you gotta fill so suddenly you gotta like redefine what would you know move around maybe this space would be better for this character if it's gonna have two walls and things like that huh um because was a thing that happened was, so there were these spaces that were kind of defined, but there was a sort of like a horse trading of what character would go in what space to best suit the concept elements for that character.

Wow. Like how long did it take where you were comfortable just like, I'm going to take a big swing here. Like how many meetings before you were like... I wish I could find... I should have looked up the email because there was, I think a few months in, we took a big swing. Alright, Gru dies. That's how it's done.

Kevin kills Gru. Who's Kevin? Kevin the Minion. Oh, I got to cut that out. Kevin the Minion. I think we just lost our job just go straight to van um but there were there was a point where um i think we got comfortable with the level of uh involvement that was being both expected and allowed from us. And, you know, we kind of started reshaping some big parts of the ride.

The entire part of the premise that VillainCon is being held in Orlando at Universal Studios came from us. Oh, wow. Oh, wait, because, okay, so VillainCon um i'm no expert in these movies at all but villain con came from the first minions correct and but that is also a period piece that's right so that is in the 60s it's being held i believe it actually may be in orlando or florida yeah it's in florida okay i think it's in florida maybe not specifically orlando but but it's set in the 60s. Yeah. And so that's 1960s VillainCon you see then.

Because that's pre-Grew. That's pre the rise of Gru's Rise. So is VillainCon a place that the minions are going to like hunt out possible? They're looking for a new boss. Yes, and so they go there and that's where they meet Scarlet Overkill who becomes their boss in the film. But Sandra Bullock?

Yes. Villain Con exists, but now you have still more logic to work out in that you have to get it up to 2023. I thought that the idea of people will hold conventions at the hotels,

at the theme parks, and things like that. And so I thought the idea that maybe the convention itself is being held at the theme park secretly would add an extra element of fun for the like young riders of the ride to feel like they're, they're really immersed in the experience and like double immersed. Not only is it like there's a whole make-believe inside, but you're like already in it when you're at the park deciding to go sure sure and yes so it is i guess that's an important thing to note that universal studios exists in the world of the ride you are

transporting to a fully other world because there's jokes right away in the pre-show about that and a funny thing if i name check things everyone should take credit please uh if i bring something up but that they're uh pretty like good uh hit at universal a joke about how um wait oh god what is it it's about the parking um that like it's a universal orlando just got a lot more evil which considering how much they pay for parking is really saying something. Yes, that was a joke that we wrote. Which was funny, though. We wrote the joke, and I'm out here looking at

living in Hollywood and how much they charge for city walk parking. And then I looked up how much they charge for it in Orlando. It's actually much cheaper. Yeah. I was curious. I bought a bottle of water at Vinyard Cafe, much they charge for it in orlando it's actually much cheaper yeah i was curious a number i bought a bottle of water like at vinyas cafe and i'm like wow very reasonable down here the joke was

still worked yeah yes yeah because paying for parking when you're going to a theme park i know they all do it but it feels ridiculous to have to do yeah yeah the hotels even now it's getting worse if the joke doesn't apply now it will certainly apply in seven years. But yeah, we were unsure how they would feel about that, but they actually liked that at Universal, and they were in for it. They're cool at Universal. I'm all in favor for taking credit for a lot of things, and I think we should continue to keep doing that throughout this whole thing. But I should say that it was a very collaborative process and a lot of people on all sides. Universal Illumination had a lot of great ideas and people.

It's not even like it's not like every funny thing that's in the thing came from us. Everyone contributed all sorts of ideas. I can't clarify anything you don't like about the ride. Didn't come from me. May have come from. Right. And they were also very open to, like Van was saying, like, well, if you guys have any, you know, ideas about how, like, you know,

the mechanical engineering should be done, you know, feel free to chime in. And I did. Yeah. I got unnecessarily but very involved in the app design. Uh-huh. Yeah, the app is very detailed. Like, for one thing, i'll pay a compliment it

works uh not always guaranteed with theme park theme park based apps but um i was reading like some you know theme park blog coverage of like here's different uh things you can get and here's different settings you can do and customize. And I'm like, wow, I didn't even barely scratch the surface with the app integration. Yeah, there was a lot of time was spent kind of trying to figure out exactly what the amount of depth of customization would be in the app and balancing that with the ability to just go on the ride

and play it without even really having the app oh sure um and it that was a tough balance to hit but i i feel like there is a there's there's a deepness in the app if you get in there and try and change the settings and evan and i also wrote all of the copy in the app as well oh wow jeez i have a question and not to be presumptuous and tell you how to do your podcast. Should we explain what the ride is? Yeah. Yes, possibly. Probably.

We've hinted at it to some extent. But okay, so now it's like a quiz to make sure I understood. Well, I can do it if you would like. Sure, absolutely. Sure. So the premise of this ride is that you are attending VillainCon to join the Vicious Six. And VillainCon is kind of like a Comic-Con-like event. You wait in line, except instead of comic book fans and vendors, it's all villains.

And so the Vicious Six, which is a notorious supergroup, is looking for their next member. And you get in line like you would if you were going to comic-con a convention you see very funny videos where it's kind of vnc which is a villain news channel um they're you know doing uh i'm gonna step in because evan is really just uh he's butchering he's flailing he said very funny he should have said extremely funny first of all credibly rewatchably perfectly funny but so yes so the the in the ride itself that you get on is a moving walkway blaster attraction um but there's a lot of fun leading up to that which is based on the premise uh you are at villain con and you are in line for a specific experience that is being

held at villain con and if you've ever been a specific experience that is being held at villain con and if you've ever been to comic-con or any of these big conventions it's all about lines which made it a great way to theme a theme park because most of your ride because most of your time in a theme park ride is spent in a line yeah and so you're really on the ride as soon as you're in the line because part of the experience of being at any convention and being at villain con is standing in those darn long lines. Sure, yes. But to make that experience a little more bearable,

there are televisions throughout that are playing a special VillainCon edition of the VNC, which is the Villain Network Channel, which is sort of like CNN for villains. It's from the Despicable Me universe. Sure, sure. And we were able to get the announcer uh voice actor who was the villain con network uh like newsman in the 1960s in the uh minions film

back yes who's very 60s style we will we style him up to 70s yes yes um and he kind of sets the premise for wait does he oh so the the look change you like you well no in the 60s he is in the first minions movie he's in the 60s in the second movie you see him again he's in a 70s look and we went with the 70s look oh i say move him forward a little bit but uh he does also set off in the premise he he sets up that villains have come from around the world and throughout time, and they show some villains traveling through a time machine, which does help address, we talked about this a little bit off air, that this is designed to function canonically so that it can have taken place within the world of the films and there is a time machine added so that villains who perhaps didn't uh contemporaneously exist within the films can be featured within the villain con attraction because minions the the the first minions is a prequel that goes way way back we're dealing with it goes back to the beginning of time essentially yes yeah so we have a long timeline so you figured out because we were talking about how timeline is an issue in many, especially recent theme park additions and areas. So you thought this through, what is the way to justify.

To their credit, the folks at Illumination were very concerned about making sure the timeline was able to, at least if you squinted, match up and work. Sure, sure. you know at least if you squinted match up and work sure sure do you feel like you've like now planted seeds for future minions projects by adding to the sort of canon uh you know i can't uh really get into any detail on that but actually the answer is yes okay great i i did have the thought having just a few months ago watchedions Rise of Gru and then doing this ride going like, wow, the Vicious Six looks great. They've aged really nicely. Yes, yes.

Probably villain technology. They may have traveled by time machine. So anyway, to continue with the ride description, you make your way through several versions of the line. We call it the queue, that's the internal. That's what you say, yeah. Correct, yes. The official terminology. call it the Q that's the you say yeah technology terminologies and you make it

to I believe is it q5 I believe that's right which is when you have are able to walk out onto the villain con show floor but this implies not to get into weeds I guess but like that's what you know the area like those are all coded in some way so you know so we're like you're writing for q1 q2 yes wow and so uh in q5 you get a little bit of free roaming ability you're walking around inside of a space that is built out to kind of look like

you're seeing booths at a convention so there are yeah various vendors of villainous goods and services. There's Malicious Motors, which is sort of where villains get their getaway vehicles and evil cars and whatnot from. There's the Diabolique Boutique, which is sort of a fashion house for villains where you might get your super villainous costume made. There is, what is the pet store? What is that?

That's called the Corrupt Companions, I believe. Oh, that's good, yeah. And that's, you know, your evil pet foods and whatnot.

Right, right. Yeah, great giant gator. Yes, giant alligator. Yeah, really good feature there. And so just to pause on the explanation and just get into some more evan and i the most important part yeah uh i think that was my favorite part of the ride was

so we did work on a lot of the placemaking line stuff yeah um and so those booths uh both concepting what some of them were but then also like the physical objects that are in them. Malicious Motors has a like bunch of license plates up on the wall that say like, you know, like too evil for you kind of type things. Yeah. Yeah.

And we wrote all of the license plates and things like that. And again, there were other people pitched on these things as well, but the, I'm like flipping through a couple of things that grab pictures of, and there's the, in the, in the pet area.

Cans of corrupt delights. Yes. Fiendishly flavorful. And then it's different at bat food, scorpion food, vulture food. Yeah. So like the process with a lot of that is we would get sent like the art department at Universal would mock up a like label and then that would get sent to us to revise the copy on sometimes pitch a new like maybe instead of bat food it's this type of thing and so there was like a ton of collaboration between us and the different departments at universal working on this stuff

and like malicious motors uh has a like a car console like a steering wheel and buttons and gauges and you know that got sent back to us with somewhat generic like what the gauges said and you know we changed them to be things like oil slick and uh more specific things and so there's a lot of uh a lot of interesting places where there's quote unquote writing that you might not expect on a ride. What a dream to get to just like fill out specifics. Just like. Yes. Yeah.

Like in really specific assignments. Just make that funny. Just make that funny. Things like that is. And this is a. You could not go on the attraction three times and not see it. But there is a map of the VillainCon floor. And they have every every which is all these

booths that you don't see because kind of the premise is that you are going through this queue you're going through a small portion of the show floor and you see a map that shows a much bigger portion of and it's all of the boot all of the booths that you don't even get to see and little you know there's little small things i think some of these i'm saying didn't necessarily make it but it's like torture chamber and and just little things labeled, like things that you might imagine would be at a convention. One I really like, false sense of security room. That one was tough to get through.

There were some people who did not, could not understand that joke, I think very fairly. I guess it's a good one to look at later. When you're doing all this, and you're writing all these jokes, was there anything that you were surprised when you actually saw it? Or was literally everything like, yes, no, yes? Would you get emails that would list yes, no on all your ideas? Sometimes yes, but then other times you would get there when we got there,

like, oh, wow, that is... Oh, so they just, yeah. Yeah, some of the stuff did... You never hear back about it, and then it's just there. we got there, like, oh, wow, that is... Oh, so they just, yeah. Yeah, some of the stuff did... You never hear back about it, and then it's just there. Yeah. Ah, okay. So you're leaving this queue.

You head in to go and get your blaster, and there's a little area where there's these blasters that are on a conveyor belt. To simplify it for people who may not be familiar, blaster is a word we use in the theme park business

because we don't want to say gun things have changed things have changed since they proposed a dick tracy ride where you have a tommy gun so you're a blaster which is not a gun not remotely not remotely similar no um everyone gets to pick one up and one of the things that's unique about this ride is that, unlike some similar attractions, the blaster is not attached to a ride vehicle. There's no cord coming out of it. It's not mounted on anything. You freely hold it.

You pick it up, and then you drop it back off. And so you can, when you're on the ride, you can move around 360 degrees up and down and blast any direction that you want. So how is that calibrated so quickly? I hadn't actually thought about how that worked until you mentioned it.

While they're on the conveyor belt, charging belt, that is when they get recalibrated and recentered to know what direction they're facing with the system. There are sensors up in the ceiling.

I believe it uses ultra-wideband radio, the same thing on iPhones where you can find your keys now. I also believe it's ultra-wideband. And then inside the blaster itself, there are accelerometers and things that it can get its own orientation and so there are multiple systems getting the orientation of it and they all

communicate back and forth and that gets uh gives an orientation and position and angle of the blaster to the computers that are controlling the screens well for you van was there ever any onboarding of uh having like wrapping your head around what all of this is or is the in the first conversation about this are you like yes got it i understand i i this is all just like no one told me any of this i had to figure all of it out there i was given access to like a like internal wiki that explained all of this and i just on my own read all of it wow there were like these to me incredible diagrams explaining uh how all of the signals and messages were sent to each other and where they were queued up within the system and so it's

possible that the typical writer on a thing like it does not may not dive into your with may not go on stealth missions to see documents that they were not specifically. But it came in handy as we were getting to the last phases of the ride and I myself being familiar with the technology I had a sense of like what could be changed at this point and what's completely off the table. And so we were pitching things like different sounds a blaster could make and things that I you know the color that it showed when you were blasting a certain thing and things that I knew were tweakable at this point in the process.

Wow. Van definitely had a technical knowledge and understanding that I think they were shocked to discover in a writer. I had the ride running in my office. Because I had enough of the existing technology they were using for the ride already that I was able to run a version of the ride in my office for Evan and I

to like... What does that mean? What does that look like? I brought both the energy and spirit and mind of a child to the process and was able to just say, oh, wouldn't it be fun if you could blast really big?

Very helpful. And you know what? Sometimes that was valuable too. And sometimes Van would say, no, not possible at this point in the process. So anyway, you get your blaster. You also picked up burgers once. Right.

So you get your blaster and you walk onto a moving conveyor belt. It's sort of like the conveyor belts in an airport, except this one can move around corners and curve. That's where I suddenly was, because I think everybody was probably, you guys especially, I would imagine, are wrapping your head around how is that going to work.

And once I saw the first corner bend, I'm like, oh, here we go. All right, I get it. That works really smoothly. Can you all stand on spots too can you explain to me how that works uh it's segmented and okay it's it's in like a semi-circ like crescent shaped segments that overlap and so that's how it's able to but it is the same piece like are we getting moved on to a different piece no you're on you're

standing on the same piece that they just sort of are able to corner because they're overlapping and there's a little more underneath. And you don't really notice it, but the floor underneath you slightly changes what piece of floor you're on. You're illustrating things with your arms, which actually is very helpful. But I'm going to ask you to do one more, which is what I'm on with the dot. Do you know the shape of it if you were to take it out of the belt? Yeah, it's like a half circle, but a little bit of a crescent carve out on the straight end of it. So slice a circle in half, you've got two halves. But then carve out a little crescent on the inside.

Almost like a macaroni. Yeah, almost like a macaroni yeah it's like a macaroni piece okay those are stacked on each other okay interesting so you move them and so you're in on that and then you're moving through different themed rooms themed to the vicious six and what and what is the like um the the the overall when you get to that point what is that within the premise of the convention sure so, sure. So you're entering the Vicious Six challenge, which is like a side event they're holding at Comic-Con that they've designed and put on. See, the Vicious Six in Minions Rise of Gru kick out Wild Knuckles. Okay.

So now they're down to the Vicious Five, so they need a new member. Okay. In Minions Rise of Gru, you think that Young Gru might be the new member. It doesn't. It doesn't work out. So they're still in search of a new member uh in minions rise of gru you think that uh young gru might be the new member it doesn't it doesn't work out so they're still in search of a new member okay and so this could be you the attendee of villain and so it's it's sort of like if you go to comic-con and there's an activation for the new godzilla movie and you go into a room and it seems like godzilla's there or something uh it's that sort of experience being held at villain con where there's a sort of a separate activation being put on by the vicious six and for them it's because they're trying to recruit a new member they figure we're better than villain con all the most villainous

people are gathered and so you're being scored uh on your blaster you're getting a score and that's all for them to judge whether or not you can become the next member of the Vicious Six. And you guys have worked on a Comic-Con activation as well. Yes, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine Comic-Con activation. And also the Detective Pikachu. Unveiling of Detective Pikachu at Comic-Con New York. I don't know that. I don't think I knew that. I believe that Ryan Reynolds was voicing Detective Pikachu.

You planned how to unveil Ryan Reynolds? Us, Dave Foley. It was an insane one-day writer's room. Legends of comedy. And I don't know if they used anyone's ideas. I think they may not. They may not. Okay.

Well, I'm sorry not to step too far off the moving walkway. Sure. But if we're talking convention experience, Van, you've also, you've put together entire conventions. You're one of the main architects of this ongoing convention called BugCon. Yes. Which is devoted to BugMain, who is a hip hop artist slash cult leader. Yeah.

And I feel like genuinely there must have been a lot of crossover between, because BugCon is a pretty advanced technologically event. There was a moment. You essentially are almost doing solo. That is where I don't think if you, maybe some people listening have been to BugCon.

If you haven't, and I hope there's a future BugCon, it really is a technological achievement. You might think more people are involved in putting it together than you very frazzled with a number of minions, you might say. Yeah, but it is, I would say, 80% me, 20% like a dozen other people. And there was a moment uh where i was simultaneously working on villain con and bug con 2022 i did those projects did overlap um but yeah i have kind of become uh i think uh entertainment's foremost expert on fake conventions but that you can also

attend yes yeah yeah yeah that are actual experiences real fake conventions but that you can also attend yes yeah yeah that are actual experiences real fake conventions that are very that i've like uh both very rewarding uh both the universal one and the and bug con uh not only that you've also put rides together as part of these at the last bug con uh yes we did have a spacey mountain space a a terrifying trip through the career of kevin spacey which was a like it was like a headset based yes it was a roller coaster simulator experience uh with a fully fleshed out track that you actually you that that moved along that was perfectly moved around and encountered big kevin spacey at you and they were more advanced than this minions ride in a lot of

ways in some ways in other ways less advanced i mean i just think well attended i just think universal like lucky that you would deign to participate and give them any of your knowledge well thank you that's a high compliment. I appreciate it. But yeah, no, there was a surprising amount of overlap there. Yeah, and between everything, because I mean, your listeners are picking this up, but if you don't know Van or haven't heard Van on other podcasts, like, yeah, your technological experiences,

what do you even call it exactly? Because beyond like your your app awareness and and uh programming i think is okay yeah i wouldn't have had that term at the ready no sorry it's your polymath um but yeah you know i so i went to college to be an engineer and i quit engineering school the first week and switched to screenwriting wow um but i've always had that engineering bug still wow um and so it kind of became my my hobby um i kind of describe it as like you'll hear that there's like an engineer who dreams of one day writing a book i'm like a writer who dreams of one day engineering a complex system which to some extent you have

to feel like this is one of the biggest accomplishments i would think uh yeah no it was really thrilling to work on it it really ticked um all the boxes i think could tick for me yeah um when you're sorry go no please when you're like on now like another shooter ride are you trying to break down technologically what's happening another oh excuse me uh blast blasting a ride where you blast yeah like a midway you don't hear about mass blasting buzz light year i mean for better or worse the i think the reason i was well suited for this is that has not changed for me at all because that was already happening you were already breaking that down yeah i was already like okay so on buzz light your blaster the reason it's attached is it's getting the coordinates of where it's pointed at by how it's moving things like

that right um if okay uh feel free to not answer this or generically answer it but i imagine that with you guys and other people in the process at universal that there must have been some let's say judgment or comparison to other recent rides of the blasting variety. You must have been kind of like comparing yourselves against maybe let's say lesser versions

of the genre. There's a very exhausting ride that's somewhat similar and we were keen on not having our ride be quite so tiring on your arms. Sure, yes. While also feeling like you aren't actually interacting with it. But I won't go further.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you want to feel like there's cause and effect, like there's actual way that you weren't just flailing around with no specific... Sure, sure. You didn't understand um which is a big challenge when you are uh not seated when you're holding a weapon uh is that a lot can i say weapons okay just all right just all right i'll always keep a blaster uh um uh but

like uh i was in it was ever was there ever anyone trying to back up and say, let's not do... Yes. Or let's not do a blaster that's as weighty? There were comparisons to other rides made as like, we don't want to be like this or that, both because that is a problem. But also, I think out of not wanting to be, uh, compared unfavorably. Yeah. You want to distinguish yourself and do your own thing. If you're,

yeah, you don't want it. You don't want what's different about an attraction just to be the, uh, IP or characters. You want it to feel like a different experience. Sure. Uh,

one of the leads on the project had, uh, previously worked at Disney and had worked on toy story, midway mania. Okay. Um, so we were all very positive about that one. Was there ever an idea to not make it just a regular blaster,

like something weird like a sword or something? No, it was pretty set on it was going to be a blaster throughout the whole process. The big conversations with it had to do with how much functionality would be on the bl process. The big conversations with it had to do with like how much functionality would be on the blaster.

Right. Um, you know, uh, there was a moment when, uh, you would have more ability with the blaster to be like selecting different weapons.

Yeah. And cycling through weapons and things like that. But there was a concern about giving too much immediate on weapon depth, excuse me, on blaster depth. And that making any writers who are not familiar with video games of that genre and things like that too confused. And also you want people to be looking at the attraction and not the blaster. Blasters have these great little screens on them that let you know what projectile you're using and what your score is but it's also like this pressure to from ourselves don't use the screen too much because you don't want people staring down at the screen on their blaster which we could show whatever we want on but sure like the action to be out in the big world around them

where they're built out columns and kids are already looking down at their screens you know what i'm looking at screens on blasters. There you go. I think the blaster, I thought it was very satisfying to hold, and it is larger than some other blaster-based rides, but it is very light. I was impressed. Definitely a challenge is figuring out what,

because all of the stuff that you put into it can make it heavier, so making it not too heavy, but all of the stuff that you put into it can make it heavier, so making it not too heavy, but also having the functionality that you want. That's... Evan wanted a soda dispenser cut for weight. The dispensing tech was like the soda itself. Yeah, cut for his weight. And then just to finish the walkthrough of the ride,

you do the Vicious Six challenge, and each member of the vicious six whether that be strongholds vengeance or nunchuck they kind of have their own room that they've designed that they have their own kind of unique way and challenges of how you can earn more points cause more destruction concluding in and this is a little bit of a tip to, you know, my fandom of wrestling, which Carlson can relate to. Bell Bottoms tells you a version of Ric Flair is to be the man. You got to be the man. It's to be the best.

You got to be the best. And as a surprise, all of the iconic villains from the Despicable Me and Minions franchise you discover are also there in competition with you. Whether that is scarlet overkill uh brat el macho vector and they come in and it's a fun thing that if you're riding the ride multiple times you might have a different version of who you go up against so you might takes lead in the right right yeah so you the first time you go through you might be finishing a battle with vector and then el macho comes in and then the next time you go through, you might be finishing a battle with Vector and then El Macho comes in. And then the next time you do it, it might be Scarlet Overkill.

So that's a little bit of variation. And you have a face-off against an iconic villain. And you can either win or lose against that iconic villain. And that battle is happening. It's gotten so intense that it's blasted out into universal orlando and you can see some of the iconic universal landmarks uh which was a really fun i think uh idea that man and i really liked and pushed for yeah this was this seems like the i i i don't know if we can give you you tell me if it's 100% credit for that idea, but certainly that it ends at the practical universal skyline seemed like a real victory.

I don't know what the modest way to say yes is. You gotta AT it up. It took other important stakeholders saying yes. Wow. And that's arguably as valuable as our coming up with the idea for it. And it also took heroic efforts and conversations with Universal Legal about the ability to blast at Universal properties and objects and what could and could not be included. Shooting a fart gun at Volcano Bay. Volcano.

Well, yeah, because you get sort uh say what's on that skylight it felt it was it felt validating for me as a fan of universal orlando and like the grandeur of universal and like how because i think for all the you know we'll get into a lot of complaints about uh city walk orlando but i think a real victory is the big lake or the big lagoon, whatever you want to call it, with kind of like the primary icons all there. It's the studio gate for Universal Studios proper. It's, what's the lighthouse, Jason? I cannot remember. Oh, the Ferris lighthouse

based on one of the wonders of the ancient world. Ferris lighthouse. I keep thinking Thanos. It's not that. No. And then it's not there literally, but the Volcano Bay volcano is there. And then, of course, most importantly, Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and the big smokestacks. Yes. So those are all lined up in a fantastic backdrop for a scene.

And you can damage them, right? I feel like I saw a video with like cracks on the uh the universal globe is there certain letters uh can be shot to unlock something whoa wow little inside tip geez yeah um just trying to think what word that could apply to the franchise can be spelled with the letters in universal and you might get there i can't i need to write this down there was a cut for time plan for toothsome's factory to be able to have a sort of a chocolate explosion oh wow that was sadly uh we just didn't have the like uh bandwidth when when we were told that toothsomesome could be included, I really went in on wanting

to explore the Toothsome mythology as a part of this ride on attraction. Yes, of course. At a certain point I was told, you know. He did pitch replacing the Vicious Six with Jacques. Wow. He did not. Was there an idea that when you start shooting or excuse me, you start blasting a Toothsome

that Dr. Toothsome like comes on and goes please stop! Please! This is my my home i'm running a business here uh no um there are no people in fact no people at all very good point yeah all right if we're gonna do that no people no no guests no executives um jason are you upset at the possibility that your beloved Ferris Lighthouse could be damaged in some way? Well, I mean, I was going to raise more the objection that if you were going from right to left, you would see the universal arches before twosome. Yes, you see it. But, you know, I figured if it passed legal, that was acceptable.

Yes, this was. We did have to take some geographical liberties for layout reasons. And to preserve the illusion that you were looking outside of a wall. There's essentially a concern with the parallax effect as you move past these screens because they are two-dimensional screens um but you want to be able to maintain the depth illusion the entire time and so the layout uh and arrangement of objects on the screen is very carefully done so that it doesn't suddenly feel like what you're looking at isn't uh doesn't have depth in the right way and i was

the big one bringing up the parallax concern yeah i was trying to figure it was apparently scott you mentioned concern about tooth from being destroyed the good news is when you get to the next uh which is called the kiss good night which is a term that i had not heard where bell bottom tells you hey you did a good job you unfortunately because it hasn't happened yet no one's made the vicious six but you can get back and try again but you can see behind her that robots are putting back together all of the damage at the park so that when you do the right again and you discover that it has not all been destroyed, it's built into the story of what happened, that it's being reconstructed. Okay. But if you do go outside the building, I think you'll see a little bit of damage that has been done.

That's fascinating. Wow, wow. Yeah, kiss goodnight. That's a good bit of terminology that you, because we've talked about that as like a, I've heard that reference as a Disney thing where all the characters wave to you. Yeah, at the end of the night. But specific rides, there is this desire to like give you one more little moment.

Yes, and I will say when we were down there testing out the ride and riding it over and over again for two hours, they have, you know, an employee that is there and i saw an employee who had only been there for two hours but could say the whole kiss good night word for word because he heard it over and over and over again so that was a unique experience that i you know you don't think that when you write something that someone is going to have to listen to it i think that the origin of the term is um when john leter was in charge of the Disney park.

Upon exiting every meeting, you would have to give him a kiss goodnight. He was really committed. He's the first one in in the morning, and he insisted on being the last one to leave. The last one to leave the park, yeah. Kisses for everyone. Okay, so you just referred to, Evan, you just referred to going down there, getting to test. Now I would like to get into the portion where you guys make us jealous. Make us jealous of access and cool things.

I mean, already the fact that you had a version of this in your office. What springs to mind when I say some part of the process that you got to do and had early access to that where we would, you know, nerdism about it. I hope we've covered it already. No, we were getting to do it. So, first of all, I was able to enter for a meeting Universal Hollywood through Walter's Gate. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, we've drawn Walter's Gate. We've walked through there.

That was my day. Every day was that for me at one point. Yeah, that's good. I mean, we've drawn a Walter's Gate. We've walked through there. That was my day. Every day was that for me at one point. Yeah, that's good. I'm not saying it's not good. I'm just saying we have to move. That's all I'm saying. A funny thing that happened early on was to test a version of the ride before it was up and running in my office. We tested it at Universal CityWalk in one of the theaters.

Now we're talking. Yeah, wow. Now we're. They hooked it all up so that we could use temporary blaster that was built out of pipes. Oh my god. Yeah, that's great. Wow. So that the levels could be shown at the actual scale that they were gonna be on the ride.

Wow. Oh, so they're not even necessarily using the entire screen. No. They're showing exactly what it will be with, wow. Oh, so they're not even, are they not even necessarily using the entire screen? They're like showing exactly what it will be. So each level would be shown in different sizes. That's cool. That's really cool.

And knowing that like, you know, for anyone who thinks that City Walk is, I don't know, mundane or something, that they're, you know,

magic like that could be happening around any corner. Yeah, wow. And then you made it down to Florida. Yes. I was there on there twice. I think Evan was there once.

I just didn't was there once. The first time I got to go when the ride was mid-construction, and so the demolition of Shrek was complete, except for a few, you know, like a donkey ear here and there, you know. Gingerbread bits um and uh the rooms had kind of been like cordoned off and sketched out and they were starting to put up some of the giant fake marble columns for uh one of the rooms um but it was like uh the whole place was kind of half constructed and that was a really cool experience to be inside of a ride as it was coming together like that.

Wearing hard hats and stuff. I was in hard hats but then they took us to the basically the universal R&D lab where they were working on the ride outside of that. And what was very funny was right next

to us, someone was testing a new iteration of the Harry Potter wands. Oh, wow. So it was like a fake thing from a movie about how you would imagine this works, where they're working on it right here, and literally right there, someone's got magic wands, and they're pointing them at a bookcase that's lighting up. It's like the Richie Rich scene with Professor Keenbean, where there's just chaos going on everywhere. Of course, that's the most famous version

of what you're talking about. The ride vehicles for the Velocicoaster. There was a section of track that could just go around in a circle that had the ride vehicle on it that could move. Just around

and around? Yes, it wasn't running while I was there, but it was there to test something. Whoa. Wow. The Veloceloop. So, there are a few places where I would like for you guys to hear something and then never reference it again and

please bleep it out of the podcast. So that's going on you. Well, we could always use the plan that susser instituted of that our bleep is the song moves like bert yeah uh that bleeped a story that people are still kind of curious there's been a request maybe to hear a story something that happened to you at sesame place in full maybe people behind the paywall maybe like don't we deserve to hear uh what do you think of that what do you have you have the the second gate is the second gate in club three a little further than that okay well maybe club four okay so once we do a club four you can finally hear the admittedly scarring unpleasant probably unsatisfying story should we in keeping in the minion universe though should

the bleep on this one be like happy or despicable me maybe just a minion a minion so anyway let's figure that out later and we'll get to the scoop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll run a little writer's room to figure it out. You guys are the experts. You can tell. What is the big new minion phrase that we could... Yeah. So next to us, I kind of snooped around a little bit. And I saw the...

Wow. So that is okay. That's pretty good. Interesting. And just to be clear, the intention here is you want us to leave in all of us going like, oh, wow. Yes. Oh, and then the listeners don't get to find out.

That's exactly right. What that is. They're not going to like this. Oh, no. They're not going to like it. Well, they loved the last time we did moves like Bert. Remember? Yes, I know.

Everybody was thrilled when I censored that Manatee story. This is different, though, because this is fun. The other two are awful. This is the first. Wait, yeah, well, that's maybe why the sound has to change. Moves Like Bert is only for when it's something deeply, deeply unsettling. Yeah, yeah. No, this is great.

So it was very exciting to kind of be inside the dream factory, so to speak, seeing other things. Yeah, yeah. And I'll say back to where any of the dream factory so to speak seeing other things yeah and i'll say back to the like where any of like the dream come true one uh one fun thing you know in addition to work on the ride we eventually started working on the greater minion land oh yeah um that's around there and when we were down for the trip uh we got an email hey uh we're gonna have to start this day a little early because we got to do a a taste test at a bake my day of all of the cupcakes and treats that are going to be sold at the park wow if only you were there and to uh have you know the executive uh chef at universal talking through

every cupcake and treat and all of the different flavor combinations i mean you know i think that they had really come to lean on Van for his technical expertise. But then they said, Mr. Susser, we need you. Susser, Mr. Susser, we noticed this white napkin that's been tucked into your shirt this whole time.

For months. In a fork and knife. Can you tell us something that you got to taste and can we use the same bleeping mechanism even though we don't need to? Yeah, sure. Time for months. In a fork and knife. Can you tell us something that you got to taste, and can we use the same bleeping mechanism even though we don't need to? Just here, tell us something that you got to take a bite of. A minion cupcake. Oh, okay. Whoa, geez.

Okay, do not let that through the mic. Make sure you can't do that. Don't worry. Well, yeah, I mean, we can get into some broader, yes, because this is part of, yeah. I mean, we can get into some broader. Yes, because this is part of there's the attraction. Yes. But then there is the broader Minion Land, which connects Despicable Me and Minion Ma'am, which has been there for a while. And then Minion Cafe, which you guys also participated in.

Yeah, I think that that was a little. We were not as full time on that project, but they would definitely come to us for decoration copy and also named a few items on the menu so what made it through that you or do you need to look at a menu to know I would maybe need to look at it but again I mean all of it was very collaborative

I don't feel the need to go through I want to see your initials next to everything something that I think we can take credit for that ended up in the Minion Cafe, not as a consumable item, but just as a decoration, was as part of the queue, we were trying to figure out ways to stretch the production budget for the videos for the line to make them not repeat as often. And so we added some static cards that are sort of the sort of information you would be being told at a Comic-Con. Oh, yeah. Yes. You know, where the, what the schedule is and things like that. Oh, all of the implications of panels that are occurring. Wait, the one I have in front of me isn't from the video part, but it's from

the sign iteration of it. But I really liked Mind Control Masterclass. You already RSVP'd. That's great. But all the video still versions are so funny. And one of those was a concession stand slide. And for that, we were trying to

come up with what are some fun villainous items that would be available at a concession stand. And one of the things that we were trying to come up with what are some like fun villainous items that would be available at a concession stand and one of the things that we came up with was um this uh villainous energy drink called manic energy and uh the artists did a great job designing the can the can is available as a collectible inside of the game oh then also there is a um a full size in the minions break room area of the minion cafe there's a non-function is a full-size in the Minions break room area of the Minion Cafe. There is a non-functional but full-sized vending machine that has various items. And there are cans of manic energy drink in the vending machine.

And that was one of the things where I showed up. And I did not know there was going to be a fully realized three-dimensional manic energy drink that was yeah came come to exist well and it's it's also it's the most fun experience it's the most you thing also given your work with rain with rain yes well rain energy drink is the official sponsor of bug con yeah yeah so it's a real you can really just like see straight through to yes there's a straight line that that vending machine is really fantastic in general that they mean, it's like specific products you can read, but there's just a full ice cream sundae in there. The cafe set deck people did a really tremendous job with a lot of the fine details like that. The vending machine also has exactly the right amount of bananas to be not too many.

Yes. Funny that they're even in there. A really functional amount. It's like one joke is that it's all bananas, but how satisfying is that? The awkward spacing out of selective rows of bananas. And then just a random fart gun in the middle. Fart blaster?

Fart blaster. Oh, right, right, right. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, it is definitely a restaurant worth going into and poking around details. I feel like you guys, I think there was a moment where you must have, you were texting me because you were specifically working on the break room sign with a lot of do's and don'ts. Yes. don'ts and i saw a little like a peek into the process of like what are the kinds of jokes that would be rejected for whatever like danger reason minion unlikeability reason also there was a not

to put uh there was a about the microwave not to put any uh any minions in it because can you imagine a child would go home after reading that sign and say, well, they said don't put a minion in a microwave, but surely I could put my little kid brother or sister in a microwave. Yes, yeah, yeah. And they may have just watched The Flash. Exactly. And that would have been a whole thing too. By the way, I've shown some restraint in not bringing up Flashgate.

We have so much to talk about. I was going to say. That's what I thought. But there's a tease if there's some business to go over with evan yeah don't worry we'll find a time to do it on the fourth gate oh that's not a bad combo um you know what though i'm looking at the sign that you wrote van or that i i assume you guys wrote together and here i'm looking at the don'ts list. And one of them is don't, this is about the refrigerator, don't unplug to charge fart guns.

Jason was correct. No need to correct Jason on that. Well, I think there was a bit of questioning in my voice. Well, that's canonically called the fart gun in the Unpickable Me universe. This was a tough balance that had to be struck working on a property that does explicitly use guns and knives

and other violent while trying to kind of tiptoe around that but for sure but yes um i feel like i mean these are all these ended up uh really funny especially the last one being the last don't being don't replace this list with a joke list um That was Evan, I'm pretty sure. That's very good. And then lots of minions advertising their services. You know, that one does lawns, one's a DJ, DJ Carl.

And then this reminds me also that there is a poster in here that connects back to the attraction for the cosplay contest. And this really, I mean, this manifests in the line and in your pre-show videos, but also in the store after, where there are minions that are in costume as Vicious Six members or other

Despicable Me universe villains, which is some very fun specificity and really good figures in the gift shop. The figures in the gift shop are awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I like seeing the presence of, of brat of Balthazar bread, which also it's something we haven't talked about is the,

the actual voice talent. Yes. Being part of basically everybody returned to do the voices and we were lucky enough to be in the recording session. So all of them amazing and so impressive but especially for me personally trey parker uh was really wild to uh see him do his thing he was super game to do it he was really excited he's a big theme park fan himself and so the idea of being a voicing a ride in a theme park was really fun for him. I think the chances of a South Park theme park ride are very slim,

given some of the issues with the IP and the theme parks in general. Sure, sure. And so I think this was like a big shot for him at theme park. Oh, man. Immortality. Immortality, yeah, yeah. He was so smart, and know, obviously his voice helped, but he also cannot help himself just being creative overall in general.

And he was, you know, thinking he was like, you know, wait, maybe I should do it like this because I think if I'm yelling at them, even though it's supposed to be intense, I think that,

you know, you don't want to be only intense. And he was, you know, really thinking about the, you know, guest experience of doing it. Wow. Wow. So yeah, he did a lot really thinking about the you know guest experience of doing it uh wow wow so yeah he had a lot of questions about you know what exactly is happening what are people

doing um and so that was really cool yeah yeah intimidating on any level i mean what a cool i can't like of course it's everyone who did voices in this really impressive but trey parker is the only one for like personally i would be just i think yeah there was a concern that he would be like who wrote this funny i i was trying to figure out the timing with um the pandemic and everything of like were there any remote they were always record like just trying to imagine dolph lundgren or john clove van Van Damme setting up a Blue Yeti mic in their home. So the way these were done, they were remote, but it would be the talent at an actual local recording. Oh, okay.

But the director and all the producers and everybody, they were remote? Yeah. Right. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. Correct me if one of these people is not in it, but Taraji P. Henson, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Lucy Lawless, Jean-Claude Van Damme all appear in this attraction? Or any of those not?

One of the names that you said was not able to appear in all of their dialogue is reuse as a result of, I believe. But we carefully selected the reuse so you won't even be able to appear in all of their dialogue is reuse. Okay. As a result of, I believe- But we carefully selected the reuse, so you won't even be able to tell. I believe they were having a shoulder or knee surgery. Okay. Does that narrow it down to somebody who, like, I don't know- A million years of combat.

Daraji, you just got too hard. I would like to know a little bit about this project or any other any interactions with the mysterious voice of the minions Pierre what's the last name I don't want to bungle a French pronunciation

or is it just coffin what's the guy's name? Kofin we did not have any personal interactions with him. We write a lot of stuff for the Minions specifically, for commercials, stuff for the movies, stuff for this. Yeah. And the original Minion stuff was recorded for this. And what I can say about the relationship is

he is the Minions, and so you can give him stuff one of two ways. You can figure out the Minioneese, that's the language the Minions speak, yourself. Or you can write it in English and say in Minioneese, and he'll figure it out. And it's kind of a balance between writing in those two styles. But you by now are comfortable with Minionese? Yeah, it's tough to put your finger on exactly how it works and how it functions, but we can just kind of write it. And also, you know, sometimes he will make it his own in his own sort of way. But he basically, like, you write it in that way, you send it to him, and what we get back and what's in the stuff always

is just like it's great oh like he's he's he's the man he's the pro at it there's no concern about like well we we better be on the zoom on that one make sure he gets it what he might fuck up doing the minion no no he does a great job okay what have what have we missed um any any other like details you're proud of any Any favorite parts of the experience? One thing I think that there are. So in the Minion Cafe, the dining room is kind of in different sections. And one of them is kind of the break room where the minions who work at the Minion Cafe, where they take their break. And we have some fake motivational posters that are Minion.

Yes, I like those. And those are some fun to work on and come up with fun slogans for. I think overall the whole experience really was like anything. When you write a movie or a television show, it's a real question of what is this going to be like when it comes

to fruition. I think the whole thing was pretty wild of thinking about it theoretically but even more so being like well what is this actually gonna feel like and be like and overall i mean the whole thing is a delight yeah and being on the ride was a wild experience because you know i've written tv shows and films where i've been on the set and i've also watched the finished product and it was weirdly like having both of those experiences at once like physically being inside a fully like all four walls no fourth wall

version of a thing that i had imagined yeah um so it was a strange feeling to sort of just be transported inside uh literally um because when you're on set it's a little different because the conceit that it's all fake is there because there's cameras and there's lights. It's still a process. Maybe there's like a physical item you thought of and like wow there's one of those. Yeah and then when you're watching the finished product well you're removed from it because that's

all on a screen and you're separated from the reality of it but with this I was just inside of these imagined spaces and it was a cool experience so cool oh and i will say one personal highlight uh so uh our someone who worked on this uh carson who you guys yes yeah carson uh so there is a a theme park tradition where the names of people who worked on an attraction are hidden somewhere inside the attraction, and there is a hall of infamy when you get to the end of this.

And he had taken the liberty as a fan of both Podcasts Aride and Go Boys that Commissioner Evan is on the wall. Wow. We saw this, yeah. That was a real highlight and and van vandal is the van representation yeah yeah yeah he shows up as vicious van no yeah there was some politics it was the main name that was the main name of the the ride and that i would somehow uh step on that cause But going back now to what I said about,

I mean, we probably can't talk about it more, but you two now are in the universe, canonically. Oh, yeah. So they could be characters. Yeah, no, that when I obliquely referenced some sort of possible ride spinoff, that was the Van Vandal. And the Commissioner of Ride. That would also be.

Film. Yeah. Which ties together the Despicable Me universe and the D right that would also be film yeah which ties together the Despicable Me universe and the Doughboys universe and migration that's all one thing now yeah yeah

and then Lost Continent's going away for this new expansion I heard yes I also I don't want to correct you but I don't know if you know

that your name isn't actually it is the commissioner oh it's the commissioner it does not say heaven oh yes even better wow you're just breaking his heart I'm just isn't actually, it is the commissioner. Oh, it's the commissioner. It does not say Evan. Oh, yes, even better. Wow, you're just breaking his heart. I'm just stating facts. I think the commissioner is better

because last names were not going to be allowed. Yeah, last names were not allowed. So Commissioner Susser, while that would have been very fun, last names were not going to be allowed. And then Commissioner Evan is not what I got. I would have liked to let you believe it forever. It would have been better to let you believe it forever.

It's more canonically correct. Yeah, yeah. I don't know how I was the one telling Mitch about that. Mitch didn't know that there was this permanent... This is me telling him something he'd already heard, but it was in one ear. Well, maybe the listeners

to these shows will have a chance to tell mitch themselves and it'll be like the first time he's heard no i have never heard that definitely two people have never told me that um can i ask did either of you come up with the phrase agnes's honeymoon soup no actually that was i think that that was already by the people at minion cafe someone came to that and that was that was considered almost a North Star for all of the food items on the menu. That's the level. I only bring that up because that was my lunch the very last day. Oh, and how was it?

It was good. Yeah. I liked all the food. At Minion Cafe, we were involved in the names. We're not involved in any of the uh preparation of the food or anything like that so i feel like i can somewhat objectively say i think it's if not the best some of the best food in the park it's that seems like reviews it seemed like what jason uh said and let's let's uh let's talk about those tots a little bit you have this i like the tots a lot yeah what's the official

name of the tots does anybody know i think it's the official name of the tots? Does anybody know? I think it's just Minion Tots. I think it's Minion Tots. They're more of like a crispy outside kind of mashed potato-y inside. And the Minion face is kind of like smushed into the potato piece. Wow. Cool. Yeah, it seems like you got an iconic new snack there. Sorry, did you say anything when you tried it? Was there anything there anything like you know these tots are salted too much or anything did you say anything along those lines just

just a little bit of a like plus up so i can say um for the there's a lot of uh purple evil minion desserts yes i drank the drink yeah sure px41 oh um but there's a some some purple minion cupcakes and things like that. And there was, during the taste testing, some people concerned about the flavor being seeming too medicinal because it had that sort of Dimetap grape flavor to it. And I was a big defender of Dimetap grape, one of the all-time best flavors. Yeah, I hear you. And I said, to me, that's a plus. And they kept that then. Here's my thing, is that the Flaming Moe

is not medicinal in the way that it was described on the episode of The Simpsons. And it's still, I think, the same kind of like orange flavor thing. And it should be more like cough medicine or something. I think so. And. And it's still, I think, the same kind of like orange flavor thing. And it should be more like cough medicine or something. I think so. And just speaking of the flavors, I have to say there's some dipped popsicles that they sell there. And we got to try those.

Those are really good. And the Vector's orange popsicle has a great orange flavor. Okay. Okay. And the banana flavored's Orange Popsicle has a great orange flavor. Okay. And the Banana Flavored Minion one, they've got a terrific banana flavoring going on on all of the stuff at the Minion Land that is not the candy banana flavor you're used to. I don't like that flavor so much. You don't like their flavor? No, I haven't had the Universal, but I'm curious. Like Banana Runts flavor? I don't like people to put down the Banana Runts flavor. I don't know i haven't had the universal i'm curious like banana runts flavor

i don't like people to put them the banana runts i'm not i don't like them personally i don't like the sentiment you don't like the people i mean i guess i just insulted i guess actually it came out you know what it really drives me nuts and i start to dislike people that don't like banana run that's true i have to admit it here shows up on every podcast and creates Discord. You just blow up the relationships. He always brings banana runts. I like banana runts, but I understand, I guess, if you don't like it. Like the other flavors, though,

of runts are okay? Yeah, just that banana runt flavor is not to me. What do you think about banana runts? I like it. Jason? I like it. Isn't there a whole thing of like, oh, that's how bananas used to taste and that one is extinct. Yeah, right.

That's a common, old wives tale common knowledge. Are you in the middle on banana ruts? I'm trying to figure out. I like them. No, I like them. Okay. Are you saying that because I'll hate you forever?

Are you afraid of, you need to curry Mike's favor in this tense situation. My fists are clenched again, Jason. You're either with me or you're with Mike. Choose, Jason. Choose your favorite. They do this every time.

Please, help, help, help. There's always so much pointing in these recordings. Yeah. Anyway, I should have tried. Now that you're talking about banana runts, now I'm more excited about going to try those. But not doing what van is because it's the it's not a similar thing right so you will never eat the banana stuff

down there yes i guess not i guess i'll try it but just only to get mad just so i can make myself upset closer to run flavor um i have one more cafe question on the second gate we just did an episode about the today cafe which is a nearby restaurant and i watched a video where al roker was um talking about his new butternut squash tart at the today cafe but he also talks about the minion cafe a little bit and he says that he had a dish that uh that was meant to be minion brains that is something that al roker said on television. I do not know what. Can you shine any light into the process? I have no idea what that is. I think what he's talking about,

and it is not meant to be Minion Brains, but it's the udon noodle soup that is served inside a Minion shape. If you follow it, a lot of steps. If you haven't heard the second gate episode, and please check that out if you want more cafe talk. But it's a bowl with a Minion face on it, and you kind of turn it over and dump it. And it's yellow noodles. So Al just took that as his brain saw that, or interpreted that as Minion brains.

And then he goes on to say, kind of grim, but tastes good. It's a tasty dish. He was upset by it. He thought he was devouring the brain. He thought he was doing Ray Liotta eating a brain. That was the intention. But I think it's a fun accident. That's true.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's open. Anybody can interpret it however they want. I have another good little funny story involving food while we were there. So at our lunch from working, there was some writing that I had to get done for, I think for the ride that I had to do at our free time. And I was like, okay, I just need somewhere to work inside the park. So I think with Van, we just got a quick burger at this burger place and I'm like okay I'll set up my laptop here

and I'm working I'm trying to focus I'm like you know as far as places and a park goes it's just a burger place it's relatively quiet and then all of a sudden a simulated earthquake began because I was in Richter Cafe a themed San Francisco where there were earthquakes

that regularly go off. So hard to find a place to work. about Richter Cafe. I've never been in there. I know that name. Every 10 minutes, you get an alarm and a rumble. Oh, wow.

So it's not the best place to get some work done, after all. That's very funny. And some new information to me about Richter Cafe. I've never had the pleasure. How was the burger? It was good. I thought it was good,. How was the burger? It was good.

I thought it was good. Not as good as many cafe food. No, of course not. What else on the way out? Van, you've been working with a... You requested a pen over there. I don't mean to start if you're not ready with whatever you're up to. I've got one thing that I want to do. This is just a fun little surprise. It's going to involve

some bleeping, though. Ready? We've got the sound effect. yeah pleasant bleeping or unpleasant bleeping uh pleasant bird or pleasant bleeping but it's because i want to do something groundbreaking on the podcast oh my god um so we cannot say what it is but uh evan and i are working on another piece of themed entertainment and uh a full a full physical spacey Mountain, perhaps? I can't get into the details of what it is, but I actually have part of a script that is in process between Evan and I.

Because I was busy with a Bug Main concert, I didn't get back to Evan in time with this work, and this is due. And so what I'm going to do right now is I am going to do a little bit of our work on this piece of themed entertainment live on the podcast sure so yeah this is we're going to be really quick here but this is going to be this is going to be for a piece of themed entertainment somewhere and it was given notes were given on it and conversation was had live on the podcast wow

wow so here's okay you're hearing the creative process. Some of it. Evan, you've got these lines in the intro for this character. And I think they're good, but some of them are a little long.

And the wind-up lines specifically. I was going to say brevity is probably important. They a little long. And the wind-up lines, specifically. I was going to say, brevity is probably important. They're too long. I don't know what they are, but they're way too long. So I think we should do another pass where we just trim down the length. Okay, sounds good. That's it. Oh, okay.

We don't get to hear it. No, no, you don't get to hear the lines. Wow. But you have to hear a. No, no, you don't get to hear the lines. Wow. Got it. Got it. You have to hear a little bit of the process. So you might be somewhere on this globe hearing a line, and you might think that was the perfect length for a line to be.

Wow. That was because of the work that happened just now. You will know that it was tuned up, that ultimately the length was gotten, Evan got there, but Van really caused the length to be perfect by giving the note that's correct well can i ask why you needed the pen to figure out what needed to happen i hadn't read this at all oh so you literally that was a live during this podcast i have been working on this and noting this up and figuring out what the fuck did you tune out when we were talking about banana runts or something yeah i, I love banana runts, but I wasn't paying attention.

Oh, so you just said something. I ended up accidentally saying something. Wow. And so, no, that was a live come up with note. I didn't come in with that note. Okay, okay. That happened on the podcast. Geez.

I think it's cool. I guess I don't like that you're kind of like double dipping, that you're on the clock with multiple things. You're here getting a very generous guest fee and then you're also accepting another salary at the same time but i guess it's that double up that you know lets you accomplish so many things contractually we're allowed to do anything that's non-interfering and so i think that that meant i had to get that work done while i was here to really prove that shit it is allowed contractually because we don't have a contract

so really anything is allowed. You guys could do whatever you wanted. Anything goes, yeah. You're not even, it's nice of you both to like participate and talk at all because that's not even something that we. It's not in the contract.

No, no, no. Yeah, yeah. You could just sit here and not tell us anything. That's true. But I guess it was more fun that you talked and told us behind the scenes information.

Can I ask one question? Yeah. How told us behind the scenes information. Can I ask one question? Yeah. How many different behind the scenes bathrooms did you get to go to in Universal Orlando? Stuff that's not available to the general public. I'm thinking. Who? Two.

Anything unusual about them? Eight. Eight. Two seems right. Eight. That too seems right. Okay. Okay. And did anything like interesting or scandalous happen in any of the bathrooms that we show? Okay.

Okay. Good. That's good. So we'll lay off on the bleeps for now. Great. But hey, if that kind of winds it down then I think I can say Evan Susser and Van Roche you survived podcast the ride

what a blast thank you for all of your not only behind the scenes intel but doing behind the scenes work right in front of us fascinating to see the process I'm going to pass on this I'm not actually just kicking it back to you

but if he wants to maybe you want to get your hands in there I not actually just kicking it back to you. But if he wants to, maybe you want to get your hands in there. I don't know what we had to bleep from that. I said the name of a character. Oh, the name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, can you tell us what that is and we'll bleep again?

What property you're dealing with? No. No. Unfortunately not. God, shit. Yeah, all right. Can we Google that name and figure it out? The name is not out there? Oh, interesting. Okay. Wow, this isn't a name that's out there, all right. Can we Google that name and figure it out? The name is not out there?

Oh, interesting. Okay. Wow, this isn't a name that's out there, Puck. So, I mean, in a way, we don't have to bleep it. No, you do. Okay. You do. But we haven't signed any NDAs.

Do you need to make us sign an NDA before? Or maybe we just wrap this up before we get out of here before you can make us do that, and then we can release whatever we want. Can we name a couple movies real quick and you say yes or no? I'm writing NDA on my knuckles right now. Land Before Time Ride. Wedding Crashers 2 now done as a ride and not a film. Ah, you got it.

Sweet. Oh, wow. But we need your help to do the ultimate wedding crash. We can't do it alone this time. Seems good. Yeah. Getting to crash it and then you're in like

a wedding crasher vehicle using a wedding crasher. I should get on the tram tour and place a hard pass section. Yeah, Brad Cooper to come in and be like, I'm on to you. My private eye.

He looked into you guys. You gotta see, he's not doing all the rides at this point. He didn't do Rocket in Florida. Wedding, you know what? Well, tell him he can wear where fake nose

that he's in it'd be even bigger than the previous wedding crashers as a like a bar or a club at old pleasure island would be a really good idea it's a wedding every night you're always crashing you're always crashing a big wedding and it's all just the tropes of a wedding geez that's a great but there are characters playing there's gonna have to be a few performers but it's of course as the years go on they'll be fewer and fewer yeah so there'll be like a bride and a groom by the end kind of like a tony and tina's yes oh which we didn't do this year yet i wanted to do tony and tina's wedding this year but we didn't do it in the show tony and tina's do they do it in la uh They have. Yeah, how do we do? Where do we go? I don't know if it's

running right now, but we'll have to figure that out. There's a nice Peter out of the episode. Looks like a Tony and Tina's performance losing Steve after the dessert course. Alright. I had a good idea and then... Okay, well, we forgot one thing, which is exiting through the gift shop

Gentlemen is there anything you'd like to This is what I want to plug The ride Yeah go to VillainCon Minion Blast Oh yeah that's right Wow for the first time one and the same The plug and the topic I don't think that's

Well maybe to some extent it's happened before Or people are on plugging something This is perfect wow symmetry. Symmetry. Doubling up on anything else to throw at you. I feel like I'm throwing it to you, Van, because I feel like you've got like 20 things going on at any given time. I'm also pretty busy. No, I know. He's got like alternate realities happening at all times.

You know, or apps or whatever. Is there anything you need anybody to get in on? Just follow me on Instagram and Twitter at VanTheBrand. And you can find out what I'm up to and visit my website, van.link. Great. All right. Great. That's all.

Van.link. Okay. Well, I suppose that does it. Thank you, gentlemen. For us, you can find us on the socials at Podcast The Ride. Merch is available in our Tee Public Store. For three bonus episodes every month, check out Podcast The Ride The Second Gate or get one more bonus episode on our VIP tier, Club 3, all of that at patreon.com slash podcasttheride, where we will be airing all of the non-bleeped versions of everything that we've said, Susser's story included. We're just going to put it all as one big audio file.

So for exclusive illegal intel, go to our Patreon. Great. Forever Dog. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner,

Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts, please visit foreverdogpodcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram at Forever Dog Team and liking our page on Facebook.