Paramount Parks

**Paramount Parks** was a division of Viacom, through their ownership of the Paramount Pictures film studio. The company was formed when Paramount Pictures acquired four parks, including Kings Island, from Kings Entertainment Company (KECO) in 1992. KECO had previously acquired the parks from the founding company Taft Broadcasting, who were heavily responsible for the presence of Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters such as Scooby-Doo in the park for several decades until 2009. Two years later after the acquisition in 1994, Paramount Pictures and its subsidiaries were acquired by Viacom. As the owners of Nickelodeon, this paved the way for Nickelodeon characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants to make appearances in the park.

As a branch of a major film studio, Kings Island and other parks involved in the acquisition began to open attractions based on various films produced by Paramount Pictures, as well as the characters of various Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. shows. This included the former Hanna-Barbera area, save for *Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle*, being converted to Nickelodeon Universe, with rides either based on, or named after the films *Top Gun*, *Face/Off*, *Drop Zone*, and *Tomb Raider*, in addition to a live show based on *School of Rock*. The pre-existing water park originally named WaterWorks was also loosely rethemed to the *Crocodile Dundee* film series and renamed Crocodile Dundee's Boomerang Bay. The Halloween event, *FearFest*, also featured attractions based on pop culture horror figures, such as Dracula and Elvira, as well as horror films from Paramount's library of films like *Friday the 13th* and Tim Burton's *Sleepy Hollow*.

The Paramount Parks division was closed down shortly after Viacom split into Viacom and CBS Productions in 2005. All associated parks were later sold to the current owners Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, the operating company of various North American theme parks including Cedar Point, Geauga Lake, Michigan’s Adventure, Dorney Park, Worlds of Fun, Valleyfair, and Knott's Berry Farm. Though they were given a license to continue using Viacom's intellectual properties until 2017, Cedar Fair immediately began removing references to these. This resulted in the movie-themed rides having all film references and names removed, and changed to generic themes beginning in 2008. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon Universe would later become Planet Snoopy in 2010, retheming the land to the characters of the Charles Schulz' *Peanuts* comic strip, as is done at all of Cedar Fair's parks. Crocodile Dundee's Boomerang Bay would remain with any names referencing the films removed, simply being called Boomerang Bay until 2012, when it was expanded and renamed to Soak City, the name given to many of Cedar Fair's water parks. FearFest was also changed to Halloween Haunt, and scrapped all film and pop culture themes (though a maze based on the works of horror author R.L. Stine would be present for one year of the event), and instead focuses on various generic monster themes such as zombies, werewolves, and serial killers.

Elements of certain Paramount properties are still noticeable at Kings Island and other parks to this day. For instance, *The Italian Job: Stunt Track* (now known as *Backlot Stunt Coaster*) has simply repainted all of their ride cars to a single color to avoid legal issues of using the likeness of BMW's Mini Cooper cars that are featured in the film. Despite this, *Backlot Stunt Coaster* is arguably the least affected ride formerly based on a Paramount movie that did not have its overall ride experience affected negatively by the removal of the film's themes. Despite the character having a long history with the parks, *Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle* at all former Paramount Parks was revamped and renamed to *Boo Blasters on Boo Hill*, with all references to the *Scooby-Doo* franchise being removed, marking 2009 as the last year that the franchise was featured in the park since it first opened in 1972.