August 13, 2017, after 14 years of entertaining guests, Shrek 4D has officially closed its doors at Universal Studios Hollywood.
On May 23, 2003, Shrek 4D opened for the general public to experience the continuing story of the Shrek and his friends. While the show building itself hasn’t changed much during its tenure, the queue had gone under major modifications over the years, with the most significant queue remodel in 2013 when construction began with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Shrek 4D was not the only closure over the weekend. The New York Street façade – including the Sweet Liberty candy shop – has also closed. New York Street has been a part of Universal Studios Hollywood since the late 1980’s when “Streets of the World” was introduced as a thematic element of the Entertainment Center (Upper Lot). With Universal’s recent transformation of the park, the once Panasonic Theater and the New York environment will be removed in favor of a more cohesive theme to match the rest of the Art Deco structures, including the new Animation Studio Store, of the main entrance plaza.
The removal of Shrek 4D has been inspired by the recent addition of the DreamWorks properties being acquired by Universal. Although Shrek is a popular franchise from DreamWorks, the aging relevance for modern audiences and the desire to maintain a newly opened attraction every consecutive year has pushed forward with this renovation. An all-new Kung Fu Panda show will be replacing the attraction in the newly themed DreamWorks Theater which is expected to open in 2018.
At the time of this publication, Shrek 4D still operates at Universal Studios Florida.
