April 1, 2009

Six Flags Announces The Arrival of 'BIZARRO'

Six Flags announced today that BIZARRO has landed at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ and Six Flags New England in Agawam, MA. After a four month multimedia, interactive marketing experience that helped generate community engagement and build anticipation across multiple platforms, key thematic elements of the highly-anticipated Superman: Ride of Steel and Medusa coaster transformations were finally unveiled.

"This strategy represents the first time theme parks have utilized an alternative reality game (ARG) to market new attractions," said Angie Vieira Barocas, Six Flags Senior VP of Marketing and Entertainment. "This approach allows our guests to be immersed in the experience on a more personal and fundamental level than ever before."

Over 500,000 players have participated in the ARG thus far. Players were introduced to a newly-formed relationship between Six Flags and Clawshun Industries and quickly discovered that Clawshun was actually a subsidiary of LexCorp. A special edition of the Daily Planet newspaper, inserted into regional weeklies in New York, Philadelphia, Hartford and Boston, confirmed the relationship and invited players to participate in an eight-week investigation by the Planet's enterprising young journalist, Jimmy Olsen, via jimmystruth2power.com and Twitter. Speculation ran rampant as players worked together to discover the names and plans for the coaster transformations, designed by LexCorp CEO and Mastermind, Lex Luthor.

The DC Comics character, BIZARRO, is best known as a peculiar Superman-like creature from a parallel Earth known as Htrae where inhabitants believe in "doing the opposite of all Earthly things." He is also known for his clumsy and destructive attempts to emulate Superman though his efforts often turn out twisted and backwards. Although he has battled Superman before, he is said to be less of a villain but more of a "strange lost soul." Because he is the imperfect duplicate of Superman, his powers and abilities manifest themselves as opposites of Superman's powers including freeze vision, heat breath, spotlight vision and x-ray hearing. 

"What better way to represent such a twisted, exciting character like BIZARRO than with such a twisting, exciting roller coaster?" said Cheryl Rubin, DC Comics Senior Vice President - Brand Management, "We're looking forward to combining our iconic Superman characters with Six Flags' high quality coaster designs to create a new and thrilling experience for roller coaster and comic enthusiasts alike."

The BIZARRO experience begins the moment guests enter the ride queue lines through a custom-created comic designed specifically for these rides by DC Comics. Guests will quickly uncover the mysterious background of the BIZARRO character and his destructive take-over of the attraction before stepping onto the ride.

"This is not an April Fool's joke. Both of these coasters have a tremendous following and we wanted to enhance the ride experience and elevate it to another dimension," said John Odum, Six Flags Senior VP of Planning & Development. "Our company will continue to push the envelope, inventing and reinventing ways to engage, inspire and entertain our guests in the Six Flags experience."

Unlike traditional coasters, the Six Flags Great Adventure attraction is floorless, giving riders the sensation of flying as their feet dangle above the track. The 3½ minute thrill begins with a pulse-quickening 142 foot climb before plummeting 60 miles-per-hour through BIZARRO's freeze vision "cool zone." The rush continues as riders twist and turn through seven loops — including 114-foot vertical and 96-foot dive loops — blast past bursts of BIZARRO's fire breath and race by bizarre scenes and illusions. The mind-boggling 3,985-foot twisting journey of storytelling and high tech elements designed to assault the senses ends by sending riders head first into a spiked-shaped Auger of Doom, set inside interlocking corkscrews.

Six Flags New England is turning up the heat on the #1 rated steel coaster on the planet. The adventure will begin as guests climb aboard the newly-designed BIZARRO coaster cars which feature custom built audio in each headrest. After a menacing climb, riders plunge 221 feet into the first of two fog-filled tunnels that will launch guests into BIZARRO 's mysterious world. Throughout the 3½ minute journey, riders will fly 77 miles-per-hour through high bank twists and turns while soaring through bizarre building structures and sprinting through open-aired BIZARRO "S" shields. The thrills will continue as the train enters a spaghetti bowl of twists and turns that trigger fiery flame effects timed perfectly with the heart-pumping audio. The journey will cap off with a second plunge into a fog-filled tunnel before returning to the station house and back to Earth.  

Said Stephen Keaney, Six Flags VP Development, "Coaster fans nationwide will think that changing the Superman: Ride of Steel in any way is totally BIZARRO, but wait until they ride it."

Now that BIZARRO has been officially revealed, the next stage will extend into an even broader audience with "live" park events and user-generated content. Through BizarrosIsHere.com, Six Flags will reward participants with exclusive access to the grand openings of BIZARRO giving them the opportunity to be the first riders on these one-of-a-kind steel coaster experiences. For more details on BIZARRO sightings, players can contact Lois Lane at her blog, loislanereports.com.

Both rides will debut in late May. Guests can experience BIZARRO at Six Flags Great Adventure and
Six Flags New England with a 2009 Season Pass. For more information on all attractions, shows and to purchase tickets, visit sixflags.com.

Six Flags, Inc. is the world's largest regional theme park company with 20 parks across the
United States, Mexico and Canada, and soon will be expanding beyond North America with destinations in Dubai and Qatar. Since 1961, hundreds of millions of families have trusted Six Flags to combine friendly-clean-fast-safe service with affordable, value-packed thrills, record-shattering roller coasters and special events like the Summer Concert Series, Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park. Six Flags' wide array of entertainment options reaches all demographics — families, teens, tweens and thrill seekers alike — featuring themed attractions based on skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, the ultimate daredevil Evel Knievel, movie franchises The Dark Knight and The Mummy; as well as world-renowned, kid-friendly brands including Looney Tunes, the Justice League of America, The Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine.

Six Flags continues to develop new avenues for growth, acquiring ownership and management of
Dick Clark Productions, producer of such perennial television hits as the American Music Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and
So You Think You Can Dance. Six Flags, Inc. is a publicly-traded corporation (NYSE:SIX) headquartered in New York City.

About Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world.

About DC Comics
DC Comics, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is the largest English-language publisher of comics in the world and home to such iconic characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Sandman. These DC Super Heroes and others have starred in comic books, movies, television series (both animated and live-action) and cyberspace, thrilling audiences of all ages for generations.
DC Comics' Web site is located at www.dccomics.com.