originally posted on 3/10/2025
Flight of the Wicked Witch.
Photo: courtesy Vekoma. View full-sized image.
Mere days before the world was hanging up 2025 calendars, Warner Bros. Movie World (Queensland, Australia) debuted an entirely new land (which the park calls a “precinct”). Themed to the classic 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” the new area features not one but two new roller coasters.
To reach them, guests must enter the Royal Palace of Oz within the Emerald City. Once inside, they can enjoy thematic elements and then make the decision to take a ride on Flight of the Wicked Witch or Kansas Twister. Each entrance is located in the presence of Oz, the Great and Powerful.
Kansas Twister.
Photo: courtesy Vekoma. View full-sized image.
Both attractions are supplied by Vekoma.
Those opting for Flight of the Wicked Witch will find a suspended family coaster. The smoothness and fun of this layout was introduced in 2013 with Orkanen at Fårup Sommerland (Blokhus, Denmark). The ride proved so successful that the design has been repeated a dozen times since. The example most commonly known to ACEers is Dragonflier at Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee). Black supports and purple track fly 20 passengers around and through the Wicked Witch’s castle. If there is a quibble to be had, it’s the color on the train — it’s blue. Hello? Shouldn’t it obviously be green?
“The layout of Flight of the Wicked Witch is proven, with successful and popular installations all over the world, given its fun elements, smoothness and family-thrill orientation,” said Ricardo Tonding Etges, sales, Vekoma. “When looking at the available site for the new precinct, the park realized that the layout could not only perfectly fit in the area but also be integrated to another family thrill ride, creating two coasters in one precinct and high capacity.”
Getting to the station is a bit of fun. Visitors enter the spell room on an elevated platform and are surrounded by red poppies before entering a darker, haunted forest.
Warner Bros. Movie World is the recipient of two new Vekoma roller coasters — or three, depending on how one counts them.
Photos: Luke Sciacchitano. View full-sized image.
The other coaster is actually two. Kansas Twister features a side-by-side configuration of two family boomerangs. Riders will see friends and family twist and wind together through a curving layout as they race and duel.
This isn’t the first time Vekoma has snarled two of its family boomerangs together. Tweestryd opened at Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (The Netherlands) in 2018. The layout is duplicated at Warner Bros. Movie World, although the theme is not. The twin shuttle sports a tractor motif. One side is a red tractor on orange track; the other is a green tractor on yellow track. Both trains seat 16.
“We only had one model of the family boomerang racer in operation in the Netherlands, and we always wanted to replicate that successful ride experience elsewhere,” Tonding Etges told ACE News. “The dueling element is fun for families who can split up to race (and try to beat) other family members. It creates near-miss effects and a different ride experience on each track, not to mention the increased capacity with the two trains.”
Once again, the queue is also fun. Inside Dorothy’s house, tilted floors and projection mapping out the windows simulating a spinning tornado should elicit smiles, if not giggles. The trains rush through farmland on their twisted journey.
To make room for the yellow-brick road, Emerald City and all things Wizard-esque, the park retired Arkham Asylum – Shock Therapy, an early Vekoma suspended looping coaster that was introduced as Lethal Weapon – The Ride in 1995. That ride closed at the end of 2019 but was not removed until the new Oz project started construction in 2022.
Other interactive elements and photo ops are in place within the themed land. In a time when all things “Wicked” are exceptionally popular, Warner Bros. Movie World seems to have made a wickedly clever decision.
— Tim Baldwin, ACE News
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