One of the things they said at the Funko Pop store was that they are like a theme park without the rides. Universal Studios has rides and is a theme park, but started as a studio.
The day after going to Universal, we did a different studio tour, and had that for comparison as well.
Looking at them, for rides I would rather be at Disneyland, and for a studio I would rather be at Warner Bros. That's not to say that Universal is bad, but it has its issues.
One is the lack of space. This means that most of the rides are indoors, and as much as the chairs move and visual effects make the motion seem real, you aren't actually going anywhere.
That doesn't make the rides bad, but it's not my preference.
Part of my problem may be an issue of familiarity. I loved Springfield because I know the Simpsons and it feels familiar; I have never seen The Secret Life of Pets.
I have seen Despicable Me, but I keep forgetting about Super Silly Fun Land.
I have seen the first two Harry Potter movies, though it's been a long time.
I had debated not going into that land at all, because I do not want to support J.K. Rowling, but I decided as long as I was there I would walk through.
The perspective on the buildings seems a little off. It looks kind of similar, but small and cramped. It's probably a space issue again, but Disney does it better. (It can also be completely reasonable to not want to support Disney, I know.)
I guess that leaves a general sense of disappointment, but again, I loved Springfield! I do not regret seeing that; but I am not anxious to go back.
I had mentioned for the Halloween Horror Party that it ignored the classic monsters... the oldest movie history that got any inclusion was being able to take your picture with Norman Bates at the Psycho house.
There isn't quite the same sense of legacy. It's clearly not what they are going for, and there were plenty of people there, so it appears to be working, but not for me.
History can also be hard to hold onto, so here is some television trivia from me.
We recently watched The A-Team on video, and you get extra parts that you lose on the television airings.
In the premiere, Colonel Lynch is chasing the team through the Universal lot (it also shows up in the second season in "Steel"). The Red Sea parts for Hannibal, then closes on Lynch.
Anyway, at one point some MPs crash and you hear them say "I think we're in Quincy's living room."
We have also watched Quincy M.E.. Here's the funny part; he lived on a boat. When he married Emily he sold the boat, which was going to provide the down payment on a new place. That was late in the last season, and did not feature in many episodes. (That is not Quincy's boat.)
1983 was when Quincy ended and The A-Team started, so why not use the set that's going away to provide some demolition in the new series, but was there also some frustration at the new set being made for no good reason?
One other anecdote may illustrate something. I haven't seen Waterworld the movie, but I have seen the show at Universal.
It's okay. It's hard to keep the good guys and the bad guys straight, but I'm not sure it matters that much.
There are lots of pyrotechnics and falling bodies and things crashing.
After the show, they introduced the cast and said what television and film credits they had. I decided to look some of them up, and they were not billed. That means they were extras.
And yet, they are professional actors. Well, the show is more stunts, but still. Is that disappointing?
COVID: As most of the rides are indoors, there was more of a need to mask then you might find somewhere with more space. I will acknowledge that we didn't have terribly long waits for any rides.
Accessibility: For a lot of the rides it doesn't seem to be great, but this is from word of mouth. There is very little online information provided by the park. You should still be able to get into the Waterworld show, but you might be in the splash zone. It extends pretty far.
https://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/web/en/us
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