Ride / Futuroscope

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The Parc du Futuroscope is a Theme Park located in Southwestern France, near the city of Poitiers. Its construction started in 1984, and it was opened to the public in 1987.

The Futuroscope is mainly dedicated to technology, science and science fiction, with cinematographic and audio-visual attractions. It has several 3D or 4D cinemas, along with other kind of shows, some of which you'll find nowhere else in the world.

The Futuroscope was the brainchild of René Monory, at the time president of the general council of Vienne. It is surrounded by a technopole involving many enterprises, research labs, highschools and universities, a convention center, etc.

Although focused on no particular franchise, some of the attractions are based on popular French fictions, notably Arthur and the Invisibles, The Little Prince, Code Lyoko, or more recently the Raving Rabbids and World Rally Championship legend Sébastien Loeb.

Can also be found in the park: Children's World (outdoor games for kids), Cyber Avenue (an amusement arcade), the Eco-Aware House, the Gyrotour (an observation tower), the Energy Gardens (an interactive course), and water fountains that serves as setting for the evening lightshow. Plus, naturally, many restaurants and souvenir shops.

Futuroscope rides provide examples of:

• Atlantis: The park acquired the ride Race for Atlantis, the very first IMAX 3D ride ever conceived, in 2000. It originally came from the Caesars Palace Omnimax Theater of Las Vegas. It was replaced by Arthur, the 4D Adventure in 2009.
• Augmented Reality: The older attraction Les animaux du futur used augmented reality goggles to surround you with the animals from The Future is Wild, including some crawling over the ride carriage itself.
• Clockwork Creature: Many in The Little Prince, on the planet of the Timemaster. Notably, a clockwork dragon/snake, whose Breath Weapon you can feel thanks to the physical effects (blast of air and bright lights timed to the movie).
• The Darkness Gazes Back: In Journey into the Dark, the only thing you'll ever see in the darkness is the glowing eyes of the Yeti at the end of the walkthrough.
• "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: The Virus Attack dynamic movie brings you inside a patient's body in a mission to kill the nasty virus.
• It Will Never Catch On: Said a lot about the Futuroscope in its early years. It was even nicknamed "Monory's Madness" ("La Folie Monory", from the name of its main instigator, René Monory). But although it has known some difficult times, it is now more than 30 years old, and one of the most visited amusement parks in France (after Disneyland Paris, and along the Parc Asterix and Le Puy du Fou).
• Magic Carpet: Invoked with Le Tapis magique, a theatre were the movie is not only projected in front of you, but also beneath your feet, for a vertigo-inducing flying effect.
• Ray Gun: The 8th Continent game involves destroying a sea of garbage with laser guns.
• Rollercoaster Mine: Part of Arthur, the 4D Adventure involves rolling on mine tracks. The rest of the time, this simulator ride invokes flying instead.
• Spider Swarm: In Arthur, the 4D Adventure, Betameche flies you straight into a spiderweb, bothering a whole colony of spiders. These wouldn't count as Giant Spiders, except for the fact that you're reduced to Minimoy size...
• Spiritual Antithesis: For French theme parks, the Futuroscope can be considered the opposite to the nearby Puy du Fou, which is focused on the past and historical reconstitution, while the Futuroscope is firmly oriented toward the future. Both are very popular and quite complementary anyway.

The Time Machine provides examples of:

• American Gothic Couple: In the queue area, you have a Raving Rabbids version of this painting, along with many other artwork parodies.
• Historical In-Joke: Plenty of them; the Rabbids are responsible for the Lascaux paintings, the Venus of Milo losing her arms, the invention of the Olympic games, Beethoven's composition of the Fifth Symphony, etc.
• Parody of Evolution: The entrance to The Time Machine features the evolution of the Raving Rabbid.
• Time Machine: The Raving Rabbids' also doubles as a washing machine, as in the game Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time.
• Time Travel: Alongside the Raving Rabbids, you visit prehistoric times, Ancient Greece, 1600s' America, and several other time periods in a row when the machine start malfunctioning.
• Toilet Humour: Lots, unsurprisingly, since the Raving Rabbids are your hosts.
  • Notably, the seats of the ride are shaped like toilet seats.
  • In the prehistoric scene, one Rabbid land in a big pile of mammoth dung and the caveman discovers fire by making another Rabbid fart.

Étincelle: The Curse of the Black Opal provides examples of:

In Paris, a new museum dedicated to French superheroes (such as Fantax, L'Oiselle, Félifax, Irma Vep or Monsieur Rien) is about to open. The hired guide, Alice, unfortunately knows little about superheroes, but thankfully her friend, comic-book nerd Teddy, can help her. He explains to the public that until the July 16, 1949 censorship law, several French superheroes were competing with American comics. Then Teddy reminds Alice she promised to go with him to a cosplay contest, which she completely forgot about. In desperation, Alice snatches a costume in display at the museum, that of superheroine Étincelle; little did she know that the costume can grant her actual superpowers. Right after this, the villain Ténèbre escapes from a sealed vault inside the museum and starts rampaging in search of the Black Opal.

• All Part of the Show: Ténèbre, a 10-foot-tall Humanoid Abomination in animated form, showing up at a cosplay convention causes no panic whatsoever, only a few comments about his "very good costume". Other people just ignore him because they're engrossed in their cell phones. The dismayed villain concludes that humanity has just gotten worse over the last few decades.
• Angry Collar Grab: Teddy first refuses to reveals the location of the Black Opal to Ténèbre, thus the supervillain grabs him by his lapel and lifts him from the ground, which works quite well as an intimidation method.
• Bad Vibrations: The hulking Ténèbre approaching makes the floor tremble — which the audience do feel under their feet thanks to the physical effects.
• Clingy MacGuffin: After her Refusal of the Call, Alice finds out she cannot remove the Étincelle costume. Teddy tells her that's because she's the Chosen One and must first accept that she needs to save the day.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Just putting on the Étincelle costume gives Alice various superpowers, although she discovers them accidentally at first and needs to experiment a bit before mastering them.
• Cosplay Otaku Girl: Teddy is a Cosplay Otaku Guy. While Alice isn't, what starts the plot (and her need for a costume) is that she promised Teddy they'd go to a cosplay (and dance) contest together. We later see Ténèbre running into the various cosplayers in superhero costumes, who think he's All Part of the Show, and in the end said contest provides a Dance Party Ending.
• Dance Party Ending: The contest Teddy had planned to go with Alice is a cosplay and dance contest (hence why they need to be a couple). In the end, they are seen participating and dancing to a rap song among other cosplayers.
• Dark Is Evil: The villain is called Ténèbre ("Darkness"), and he's a hulk-sized humanoid that is Red and Black and Evil All Over.
• Embarrassing Slide: Teddy, showing some comic-book covers to the museum-goers through his phone, accidentally displays a couple pictures of him dancing in his underwear.
• Faint in Shock: Upon seeing Alice knocking at his window (on top of a building, thanks to Wall Crawling), Teddy faints like a sissy. Alice has to slap him awake.
• Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Alice is wearing protective gear while rollerskating, including a helmet.
• Flight: One of Étincelle's superpowers, although the hardest to master for Alice. Her first attempt results in a Face Plant. Later on, though, after the world turns animated, the power quick-starts instinctively when Alice is falling from the Eiffel Tower. She then enthusiastically flies over Paris during her fight against Ténèbre.
• Floor Fakeout: After Alice, rollerskating while her powers are manifesting randomly, slams against a wall, the fact that her helmet immediately falls "horizontally" behind her when she takes it off is the first hint that she's Wall Crawling (the picture being otherwise slanted to trick the audience into thinking she just fell on the ground, until it starts rotating).
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Teddy mentions that the original Étincelle was the granddaughter of Gustave Eiffel. That's why she chose the Eiffel Tower to hide the Black Opal.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Alice has lots of trouble controlling the Étincelle suit's superpowers, some starting instinctively (like the Wall Crawl). Her and Teddy later try a training session, with variable results. Lifting a car with Super-Strength (early Superman-style) leads nowhere, and an attempt at flying results in a Face Plant. She does manage to unlock Étincelle's Shock and Awe powers after a few tries, though.
• I'm Okay!: After an attempt at flying leads to an Offscreen Crash, Alice gives a thumb up from behind a sofa to reassure Teddy.
  Alice: Ça va !
• Kirby Dots: Heavily used as a reference to the comic-book medium. The Pillar of Light rising from the Eiffel Tower causes a vortex of Kirby Dots in the sky, and then the same dots rolls over the whole city, turning it from live-action to shaded 3D animation.
• Legacy Character: The original Étincelle is described as a comic-book character from the late 1940s; "the most stylish French superheroine" according to Teddy. Alice unwittingly putting on the costume turns her into the new Étincelle of the 21st century.
• Lovable Coward: Confronted by Ténèbre, Teddy starts saying he won't ever reveal the location of the Black Opal... but upon being grabbed by the lapel, he quickly confesses it's on top of the Eiffel Tower (which he know thanks to his encyclopedic comic-book knowledge). On the other hand, Ténèbre does leave him and Alice live for the moment thanks to this...
• Medium Blending: The 4D movie starts in live-action, but the supervillain Ténèbre is an animated character. His evil plan is to turn the whole world into a dark comic book that he'd control, thanks to the Black Opal, which he succeeds in toward the climax. The final battle between him and Étincelle is entirely animated.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The eponymous Black Opal, a fist-sized magic gem, is what the villain Ténèbre is after. The original Étincelle hid it on top of the Eiffel Tower 70 years ago. The gem would allows Ténèbre to turn the real world into a comic book that he'd reign over.
• Paddleball Shot: A few shots abuse the 3D format, notably Alice dropping her phone toward the screen, the bottles flying from Étincelle testing her electric powers, or the Black Opal being thrown all over the place during the final fight, several times.
• Pillar of Light: What superhero movie could go without one? A stream of energy rises toward the sky from the Black Opal as Ténèbre uses it to turn the real world into animation.
• Pop-Up Texting: The pre-show prologue in the museum (displayed while the audience is gathering in the anteroom before the main show) has Alice texting to her friends and family about her new job, with the text dialogues flashing on the screen. When Alice denies having ever promised to Teddy she'd be his partner at the cosplay contest, he recalls the exchange on his phone and it's shown this way too.
• Refugee from TV Land: Ténèbre is specifically described as having escaped from a superhero comic book. Close-ups even show him having a texture evocative of the grain from early comics (as in the Spider-Man: Spider-Verse series).
• Refusal of the Call: Alice, at first, insists to Teddy that she's no superheroine and that fighting a monstrous supervillain isn't her job. But then, she discovers she can't take off the costume and has to accept the fact that she's the new Étincelle.
• Rollerblade Good: The 4D movie part starts with Alice frantically rollerskating in Parisian streets to join Teddy. To complicate things, however, she has the museum's security guard in hot pursuit, and the Étincelle costume she's wearing is starting to shoot off superpowers randomly, making her rollerskating quite haphazard.
• Schlubby, Scummy Security Guard: The museum's security guard is overzealous and seems to believe he's protecting a high-security place. He chases after Alice in the streets when she absconds with Étincelle's suit, but is demonstrated to be a clumsy oaf trying too hard to act like an action hero.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Ténèbre was sealed for 70 years inside a vault of the French Superheroes Museum. He escapes at the end of the prologue, starting the 4D part of the movie.
• Shock and Awe: The superheroine Étincelle ("Spark") owes her name to her electric powers. The lightning she can shoot from her fingers on-screen is often enhanced by the laser and light show in the 4D theatre.
• Shout-Out:
  • The musical theme used in the waiting room and during the movie is (fittingly) very evocative of the Marvel logo tune from the MCU.
  • When asked by Teddy to give three superheroes' name, Alice mentions Superman, Batman and Griezmann.
  • Alice remembers that Teddy was "disguised as a banana" for last year's cosplay contest. Teddy protests that it was a Pikachu costume.
  • Alice "walking" upward a wall with an old lady by a window saying hello is reminiscent of a Running Gag in the '60s Batman series, where Batman and Robin are climbing up a wall with a rope, often with some cameo by a window.
  • During the How Do I Shot Web? montage, an Étincelle comic book shows her lifting a car, homageing the famous Action Comics #1 cover featuring Superman.
• Traintop Battle: The climactic fight between Étincelle and Ténèbre happens atop an aerial Parisian metro. The physical effects are reproducing the shaking of the train and the wind for the audience's benefit.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: While pursuing Alice, the security guard tries rolling through a parked van with opened side doors, in an effort to look action-hero-y. He isn't terribly graceful.
• Wall Crawl: Another of Étincelle's powers, which Alice finds out accidentally after uncontrollably skating into a wall. She groggily stands up, realizing that her feet are sticking to the wall only when nearly horizontal, and starts flailing wildly. Then she awkwardly climbs up the building while phoning Teddy, saying "Hi!" to an old lady behind her window in passing, before reaching the window of Teddy's room.
• Written Sound Effect: Fitting with the comic-book inspiration, there are some screams or sounds rendered with text on-screen, even before the world turn into animation.