Heroes, Villains and Looney Tunes

Question No 1: Where can you find Roller Coasters, Hollywood Stunt Driving, The Batmobile, Speedy Gonzales' Tijuana Taxis, Yosemite Sam's Railroad and the Batwing Spaceshot, all in less than one hour's drive from Brisbane? No, the answer's not “every day travelling southward on the M1 Freeway”, although some of the habits of fellow freeway drivers these days, along with some of the weird and whacky vehicles driven, has me wondering if they should be restricted to the confines of a theme park and surrounded by a safety fence. 

Question No 2: What do you do to entertain family members visiting from Melbourne and the Netherlands, both young and old, while having ready access to fast food and a toilet? No, the answer's not having a rummage through the Salvation Army's Op Shop, located next to Macca's. Perhaps I should mention that, here in Australia, we call a shop that sells second-hand goods for charitable fund-raising an ‘op shop’, short for opportunity shop. Furthermore, we call the McDonalds restaurant food chain, Macca's, which, in the Aussie tradition of shortening everything to two or three syllables, is also what we call anyone who's surname starts with Mc or Mac.

So, it was decided that we'd have a day out at Warner Brothers Movie World theme park, located on the Gold Coast. This, as it happens, meant travelling southwards on the M1 freeway, while steering clear of stunt drivers and other speedsters and also avoiding pit stops at op shops and Macca's along the way.

Once past the gates of Movie World, we were met by a trio of superheroes, who seemed intent on greeting us with a fist bump, rather than just shaking hands (post COVID health care no doubt).

Batman, who was much friendlier than his features suggest, then showed both my grandson and I how best to ascend the outside of buildings in Gotham City, although I personally would have been much happier taking the elevator.

Moving on down Main Street, we stumbled across Scooby-Doo and his mate, Shaggy, but Scooby seemed intent on hiding behind my grandson and playing peek-a-boo.

Then Catwomen appeared out of nowhere, to provide a purr-fect photo opportunity.  She looked safe enough, but I wasn't so sure about those claws … and that whip.

Then it was time for the Hollywood Stunt Driving show (see the title collage), which was dangerously fast and smokey, and also involved a lot of burning of rubber, all captured on film by resident staff.  I assume that they sent in the photographic evidence of all that environmental destruction to the local constabulary, afterwards.

We tried to ‘bum a lift’ (hitch a ride) on the Batmobile after the show, but both Batman and Robin appeared to have their minds on other things.

Being a little tired after walking around the theme park, we then queued up for a taxi, but Speedy Gonzales' Tijuana Taxis were only taking little ones.  They were also none too ‘speedy’.

Some of the others then decided to queue up for a faster trip round the park, while I decided to have a rest and take a few more photos.

I can't say that I felt I missed out on this last trip, as they appeared to only be going round in circles and they were going so fast that they didn't get much of a view of their surroundings.  Also, I couldn't work out who was driving.  Perhaps this was another sneaky AI intrusion?

The wife and I eventually found a couple of more sedate vehicles parked on Main Street, but neither of the owners were interested in letting me take the wheel.

Feeling a bit stressed after the freeway traffic, and then the antics on display at the Hollywood Stunt Driving, not to mention those roller coasters, I thought that I might book in a visit to Dr Harleen Quinzel (aka Harley Quinn) a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, but she seemed more intent on looking after The Joker, or at least in nailing his foot to the floor.

But he did manage to free himself for a photo opportunity with my young fella.

After lunch we stumbled across King Kong, who, unfortunately, looked as though he hadn't yet eaten.

I did suggest that perhaps he'd benefit from a visit to the dentist, but he was none too happy at my proposition.

Back in Main Street, the parade had started and who better to kick it off than a ‘quartet’ of superheroes?

I can tell that Robin's usually late to back-up Batman. Those green boots must take at least half an hour to lace up.  

Bugsy had the right idea. Having no walking boots, he travelled in the comfort of an open-topped limo.

Daffy duck also travelled in style on a custom VW Beetle.

Incidentally, I have it on good authority that Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd recently broke into a distillery.  Daffy reportedly turned to Elmer and asked, “Is this whiskey”, to which Elmer replied, “Yeth, but not as whiskey as wobbing a bank!!"  🤣😂🤣

Then there were a couple of good looking ladies; first Wonder Woman on a mobile balcony, reportedly upset that Spiderman had been ‘bugging’ her; 

then came a lady by the name of Marilyn, who is apparently a very close friend of a former president of the USA. 💋

“Some men have greatness thrust upon them, while others thrust upon greatness.”

Then it was time to leave, but not before the virtually mandatory visit to the ‘merch’ shops. Consequently, let me just close with a shot of this reversible jacket purchased by my wife.

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When not researching the weird or the wonderful, the comical or the cultured, the sinful or the serious, I chase my creative side, the results of which can be seen as selected photographs of my travels on my website at:

https://ken-boddie.squarespace.com 

The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a sometime poet and occasional writer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisure-travelling without his Canon, and loves to interact with other like-minded people with diverse interests.

Ken's work week (retired engineer), as a part-time or freelance English teacher to migrants, allows him to follow his photography interests, and to plan trips to an ever increasing list of countries and places of scenic beauty and cultural diversity.

#themeparks  #movieworld  #warnerbrothers #goldcoast #superheroes