Harry Potter Theme Park Opens in Florida

By David 

hp.jpgOver at the Guardian, Georgia Brown got an advance look at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a new theme park in Univeral’s Isands of Adventure space.

The park (pictured, via) took six years and $200 million to open. How does it look? Here’s Brown, on the scene: “At the entrance to The Wizarding World … visitors are welcomed through a stone arch into Hogsmeade village by a steam-blowing Hogswarts Express train. Before them stretches a scene straight out of the movies: crooked-chimneyed Olde English shops crowd along a winding street, their snow-capped roofs glistening in the Florida sunshine.

The main attraction in the park is the Forbidden Journey ride, wherein guests sit on a magical bench that “drops, spins and twists in time with the on-screen action.” Wired.com has numerous pictures of the new park; the Guardian has a few more. We gotta admit, Harry Potter lends itself pretty well to the theme park treatment. Are there any other books that could pull this off?