The year prior, Family Entertainment Centers was dissolved, making Taft the sole owner of Kings Dominion.
Through the years, these parks have largely removed or re-branded the areas into other children's sections (under the Nickelodeon brand and the Paramount Parks-created name "KidZVille").
He set out to make the company an entertainment conglomerate to rival Disney, by utilizing its existing core characters.
Created to be one of Universal Studios Florida's original attractions,[2] The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera cost between $13 and $14 million, and opened June 7, 1990.
[1] The attraction operated for 12 years, until it was closed October 20, 2002, to make room for Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast (now Despicable Me Minion Mayhem) Hanna-Barbera Land was a theme park based on the cartoons of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio.
Despite increased attendance in 1985, a bad regional economy and minimal spending in the park on concessions, gift shop purchases and souvenirs meant a death knell for the attraction.
[citation needed] Hanna-Barbera Land was sold to private investors and SplashTown USA was built in its place, then again to Bryant Morris, then to Six Flags, who purchased the park in 1999.
Along with five new rides for KidZVille, "The Busy Little Town" was launched and it included the characters from Nickelodeon's Rugrats series.
[3] The Playhouse Theatre still had a Hanna-Barbera themed show, Scooby Doo's Scary School Daze.
Smurf Island was eventually closed and later demolished to make space for the BORG Assimilator, a Star Trek-themed flying roller coaster.
The rides were themed to Hanna-Barbera properties that aired in reruns on Cartoon Network at the time rather than original Cartoon Network programming (despite characters such as Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, and Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, appearing on the sign).
[5] In 2008, the area was renamed to simply Camp Cartoon, and the original CN characters were removed from the sign.
When Kings Island opened in 1972, one of its original themed areas was The Happy Land of Hanna Barbera.
[6] Original attractions included: Additionally, the parking lot featured a combination of a Hanna-Barbera character and a number to help guests remember their location at the end of the day.
[8] The new attractions were:[8] The Enchanted Voyage ride was closed in 1983, to be retrofitted to the upcoming Smurfs television series.
People would ride in a boat around the world of the Smurfs celebrating the seasons of winter, fall, summer and spring.
In 1998, Scooby's Ghoster Coaster (their second Scooby-Doo-themed coaster), Yogi's Skytours[10] and Atom Ant's Airways were added to the park; Scooby Zoom was renamed Top Cat's Taxi Jam and Flintstone Flybots turned into Jetson's Jet Orbiters.
[11] The area was removed at the end of the 2005 season, to make way for Nickelodeon Universe, featuring 18 "new" rides.
Paying homage to The Beast after its successful launch in 1979, a tunnel was added to the bottom of the first drop for the 1980 season, and the Kings Island version was renamed "the Beastie".
[citation needed] When those two parks were under the ownership of Viacom, they started to add areas themed to the Nickelodeon television channel.
In 2005, during the process of re-branding of the roller coaster as the Fairly Odd Coaster, the wooden superstructure was painted indigo and the cars repainted to mimic the characters Cosmo and Wanda from The Fairly OddParents; one train pink and the other green, with the fairies' faces on the front of the cars.
To depict these characters as roller coaster trains is accurate to the television show because on screen, the fairies can change their shape at will, though their faces always remain visible on whatever they become.
[citation needed] Located in the South Pie section of Hanna-Barbera Land, these were simple handcars on a track.
It was later relocated to Hanna-Barbera Land for the 1986 season (about where Flying Ace Aerial Chase is today) and renamed McScrappy's Slide.
Rumors said that the Alley Cat 500 was the predecessor to the Swiper's Sweepers, which closed permanently in 2010 when Cedar Fair decided to remove all remaining Hanna-Barbera and Nickelodeon themes in time for the start of the 2010 season.
Attractions themed to The Flintstones also appear in Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi[13] and South Africa's Gold Reef City.