There are very few people whove ever gotten close to the feeling of flying on a dragon, but Mason Thames, star of the upcoming live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon, is one of them. So when he tells The Hollywood Reporter that the new coaster Hiccups Wing Gliders at Universal Epic Universes Isle of Berk felt more real than filming, its a rousing endorsement of Universal Orlando Resorts newest park and its technologically groundbreaking collaboration with DreamWorks Animation.

Mason spent more time than any of us on the dragon and as soon as we got off [the coaster], he was like, That felt really similar to what it felt like to being on the Gimbal unit, which was our dragon, said actress Nico Parker, who portrays Astrid in the live-action film. Added Thames, It actually felt more real because it wasnt green screens and leaf blowers in my face. The idea behind Hiccups is that youre new Vikings and you dont have a dragon yet, so in preparation, Hiccup has designed something that is going to feel like riding one, explained Katy Pacitti, senior director and executive producer of Universal Creative. We were lucky enough to be able to work with [composer] John Powell on Berks background music. He also scored the ride for us, and what he did made the coaster experience 10 times more enjoyable. It hits you that much more right here [in the heart].

For DreamWorks president Margie Cohn, the Isle of Berks ability to give fans the closest experience they can to actual dragon riding alongside co-directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders deeply relatable and aspirational four-quadrant story about an unlikely hero, or somebody who you might look at and maybe dismiss are some of the biggest reasons why the How to Train Your Dragon franchise made the most sense to adapt for Epic Universe of all the studios IP. I think the technology caught up to what they do. [The dragons] feel so life-like, and what our movie did was try, in an animated world, to deliver that fantasy through film. Now the live-action film is delivering it with technology that didnt exist to make it feel real and so is the world, she told THR.

Designed as an 8th-century Viking village, the world features attractions based on the franchises leading kid characters; immersive dining in the pub-like atmosphere of Mead Hall; and retail spaces like Tootheless Treasures, where you can perform an egg-hatching adoption ceremony, and How to Treat Your Dragon, based on a shop seen in a background of the films. There are also experiences with characters like Astrid and Stormfly, and twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut, all of whom are ready for interactions not just with guests but among each other. We always wanted Berk to be lived in and to be active, so from the very beginning, it was very important to have characters who could walk around and talk to guests, Pacitti said.

This kind of immersion across the Isle, which Pacitti calls the Berkmosphere, left the How to Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell as impressed by the world as the upcoming live-action movie and its animated predecessors. The [animated] movie was the nearest I thought you would get to feeling like youre flying on the back of a dragon, but the live-action makes you think that even more. It gives you that real feeling that you could be Hiccup, she told THR. Its just extraordinary to see the Isle of Berk realized, and its wonderful to think you might have been part of creating something that is going to give so much happiness. Theres a whole generation of children who are going to grow up meeting Toothless and feeling that dragons are real, like I did back on that little island in Scotland.

Like the live-action film, which feels like a love letter to the original according to star Thames, the Isle of Berk faithfully delivers on the franchises promise that we have dragons by way of animatronics, puppetry, and static sculpted and hand-drawn depictions. At the beginning, when we were talking with market research, one of the things that they said to us was, if youre going to build a land about dragons, you better have dragons. But, full disclosure, theyre expensive, so you have to make decisions on the must-haves that can deliver that wow factor, Pacitti told THR. We also wanted a nice even distribution, so we make sure that you can see a dragon wherever you look.

Those dragons including Berks largest animatronic unsurprisingly make an appearance in the mixed media, high-flying live show The Untrainable Dragon, which like the rest of the world serves as an ode to the human creativity and tech that drive both the animation and theme park industries. Theres a foundational statement we use, and it defines all artistry and technology: what was once only imagined we create, and in doing so, we ignite the thrill of being alive, said Robinson. That can be done in the figure animation around the park or the first time you meet Toothless [babies] the Nighlights, [animatronics] who walk up untethered with 30 different emotional expressions. Or when you come into the show where you have immersive storytelling and animation that goes from sketch to fully CG, paying homage to the artistry of what DreamWorks has done and the heritage of animation.

That ode to DreamWorks Animation is also present at Universal Helios Grand, Universal Orlando Resorts first-ever in-park hotel, where How to Train Your Dragon-themed kid suites bring the design elements of the Viking village indoors and feature stunning wall art depicting Toothless and Light Fury. The advantage of doing the Helios Grand Hotel at the exact same time we were doing Epic was that we had a whole team dedicated to building [Isle of Berk], said Russ Dagon, senior vp of resort development at Universal Creative. We were able to tap into the team that was already building the whole land, who came in and worked with us, saying heres how we would do this and heres how we would interpret this.

While there are countless opportunities to fly with dragons across Universal Epic Universe, the Isle of Berks most popular experience remains a grounded one: the Hiccup and Toothless meet-and-greet. We knew the moment where Hiccup connects his hand to Toothless nose is the most emotionally powerful moment in the entire trilogy of that film, and we had to use everything possible to make that real, said Robinson. We talk about this all the time with our engineers: Tell us what you want to feel, and we will design and find the technology that brings that forth.

Mason Thames meeting Hiccup and Toothless at the park. Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Universal Pictures All of these elements help the Univeral Creative team evoke a similar spectrum of emotions as the DreamWorks films. The range fear, love, belonging that is why this brand exists, and it expresses itself in film, in television, says Robinson. So when you come into our parks, it cannot be one emotion. You have got to develop the full range, in one experience itself or a total park experience, that takes you on a journey.

That journey was an emotional one for voice star Justin Rupple, who took on the role of Tuffnut in the animated franchises third film. On the Epic Universe blue carpet, the actor told THR he was honored to be a part of and celebrate How to Train Your Dragons 15th anniversary, but having his voice immortalized within the worlds Fyre Drill water attraction was also the coolest thing Ive ever been a part of.

When I got to meet and put my hand on Toothless that moment, thats worth everything. I shook from the texture of the skin, he continued. When you go into a theme park, youre hoping that the land feels sort of like what you see there, but you dont think you can walk into a scale version.

For Robinson and Cohn, their respective companies can deliver this kind of epic experience because they share much of the same ethos. [DreamWorks Animation also] believes in an idea called the audacity of creativity, which emotionally strikes any creative. Its boundless, and it invites so many people into the process because its vulnerable, its unbridled, and it produces ideas that you see here at the parks and around the world in their films. They complement that with highly emotional immersive design or storytelling that connects to the core of humanity. Hiccup is a kid growing up who feels different, and when the world tells him to be something else, hes courageous enough to be himself. That strikes, and you feel it in the land, Robinson told THR.

Epic Universes Isle of Berk couldnt have come at a better time for the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. In addition to its arrival coinciding with the 15th anniversary of the original animated movie (voice-led by Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera and Gerard Butler), the live-action adaptation hits theaters on June 13.

Cohn sees this convergence as incredibly important in bolstering the larger success of the franchise. If the live-action movie does well, there will be a series of movies, and we have also produced a ton of content in animation as far as episodic television. We can build out those worlds weve already started. There can be a lot more work in the future, she told THR. It feels like a beginning and not an ending.

The DreamWorks Animation president feels similarly about the potential with the studios other properties, which include Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Puss in Boots, Gabbys Dollhouse, Trolls, and two Jurassic World shows, Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory. Most already have presences in Universal Studios Floridas DreamWorks Land and in 2026, many will appear as part of UDXs Frisco, Texas kids park a place Cohn said she loves as parents can come and still enjoy it because our movies are entertaining for them, and the little kids can go deeper and deeper into the properties that speak to them.

Robinson calls this the symphony between Universal Destinations Experiences and IP partners, including those within the Comcast NBCUniversal family like DreamWorks Animation. Not only can we co-collaborate and design together, we can then take that idea and whether opening a new film or this park like were doing this month create the symphony of a much bigger idea. Its one the most unique aspects of what this is, Robinson explained. There is a sense that we are here to do one thing, and that is to ignite the feeling of being alive, whether you sit in the theater or you walk through that portal.

In this way, How to Train Your Dragon is not only bringing DreamWorks Animation into a new era but also helping kick off a new chapter for Universal Destinations Experiences one that capitalizes on the marketing and experiential momentum around Universal Pictures titles like Jurassic World: Rebirth, Wicked: For Good, and the final installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise releasing next year. All four have presences across three of Universal Orlando Resorts parks, as well as Universal Studios Hollywood, where a Mega Movie Summer event encourages seeing new and future releases at CityWalks Universal Cinema AMC before or after engaging in-park experiences. Among them: a life-like, six-foot, 730-pound sculpted dimensional version of Toothless.

It helps cement Universal Epic Universal and UDXs various parks as places that call back to our legacy, our old motto of Ride the Movies! said Patrick Braillard, senior show producer at Universal Creative.

I look at this as a continuum on how to bring people into movies that started back in 1964 with the studio tour. Then we kept building on that idea and ultimately moved east to Orlando and built parks that had prototypical attractions like Jaws, Back to the Future, and then T2 and King Kong, getting deeper and deeper into immersion, Woodbury said. Then we went into creating entire lands. Now its all about creating deep, immersive worlds, the most technologically advanced things that you can imagine that bring all those stories and characters to life.