More signage and other themed details have been added to the façades of Minion Café and other locations in Universal Studios Florida’s upcoming Minion Land.
Illumination Theater
“Illumination” is now atop the theater marquee in the alley between Minion Café and Villain-Con Minion Blast.
The large letters are filled with lightbulbs, indicating they will light up at night.
Universal Studios Florida hasn’t announced a theater attraction, so this could just be a façade for Minion Café and Bake My Day. A near-identical marquee exists in a far larger size on the Illumination Theaters at Universal Studios Beijing and Japan.
Crews are still working on the theater façade. Square holes are in the marquee but will likely be covered by more signage.
“Illumination” has also been installed on the other side of the marquee, visible from near Transformers: The Ride 3D.
On this side, a strip of white tarp covers the edge of the marquee.
Bake My Day
The giant pink cupcake atop Bake My Day recently sustained some damage but has been repaired.
Bake My Day has a pink façade decorated with cupcakes. “Bake My Day” signs are on both sides of the corner building.
Freeze Ray Pops
Next to Bake My Day is the unfinished façade for Freeze Ray Pops. Crew members were working on the façade.
The steel pillars at the corners of the façade have yet to be painted.
It’s a mostly blue and white building, with a colorful striped awning.
The block of fake buildings is meant to resemble a cartoon city street right out of the “Despicable Me” and “Minions” movies.
Bank of Evil
This façade has been transformed into the Bank of Evil since our last construction update.
The bottom part of the building is red with gold accents and marble white pillars. The top of the building is green with silver vault doors.
Dollar signs are on red plaques at the tops of the pillars.
Minion Café Lights & Trees
Above the currently unthemed “Café” letterings, lights were installed between windows along the top of the building.
The lights were on this morning.
The letters of “Café” are wrapped in protective plastic and blue painter’s tape.
The overhang is being painted with purple and yellow paint.
The underside is clearly bright yellow.
There is yellow and purple paint on the overhang around “Café.”
Trees have been planted between Minion Café and the Pop-A-Nana popcorn stand. The Pop-A-Nana popcorn stand is identical to the one in Minion Park at Universal Studios Japan.
Illumination’s Minion Land
Illumination’s Minion Land at Universal Orlando Resort will be opening this summer with a variety of new attractions and eateries for guests.
The land will take over Production Central, transforming it into Illumination Avenue with a new Minion Café (replacing the former Universal Studios’ Classic Monsters Cafe) and “other surprises inspired by popular characters from Illumination’s blockbuster franchises.”
The back of the Transformers: The Ride show building has been painted teal blue to match the new land. As seen in the above concept art, “Illumination” will be added to the wall.
The main restaurant will be Minion Café. Preview the Minion Café menu, including Despica-bowls, Bob’s Teddy Bear Chocolate Cream Puff, and more.
In addition to Minion Café, food and beverage locations will include Freeze Ray Pops, Bake My Day, and Pop-A-Nana. At Pop-A-Nana, guests will be able to get banana-flavored popcorn and Minion-inspired popcorn buckets.
Bake My Day — which has a giant pink cupcake on its roof — will serve cupcakes, macarons, and s’mores. This venue will also feature a selection of Minion-inspired merchandise, including apparel, plush, drinkware, accessories, keychains, and more. Freeze Ray Pops will have a variety of colorful popsicles inspired by Gru, the Minions, and Vector.
The attractions will be the pre-existing Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and brand new Villain-Con Minion Blast. The façade of Despicable Me Minion Mayhem was recently refurbished.
Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast
Belle Bottom, Jean Clawed, and the other members of the Vicious 6 will join guests aboard Illumination’s Minions at Villain-Con. Visitors are invited to “blast their way to supervillain stardom.”
Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast is set to be a moving walkway stand-through shooting attraction. The attraction was developed in partnership between Universal’s award-winning creative team and the filmmakers from Illumination. This interactive blaster game experience invites guests to compete against each other in hopes to join the franchise’s most dastardly supervillains.
Villain-Con Minion Blast will use screen technology, gaming interactivity and physical sets to create a unique, game-based adventure. Guests will put their villainous skills to the test in these immersive environments, where they’ll spot nefarious evil-doers and mischievous Minions from Illumination’s films. The attraction promises to allow guests to interact with these characters in a whole new way.
The story behind the attraction is that guests are transported to Villain-Con: the biggest criminal convention on the planet. Here, they are instructed to take part in a competition to see if they have what it takes to become the newest members of The Vicious 6. Guests will then grab an interactive blaster and step onto a motion-based pathway to start blasting.
They’ll move through several scenes where they earn points by shooting at a variety of items and causing as much destruction as possible.
Construction walls recently came down from Villain-Con Minion Blast and the Evil Stuff gift shop opened.
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