With all the Australians here, I though you might get a chuckle out of this:

One of the local amusement parks here is owned by Paramount movie studios and they try to use their movies as themes throughout the park. They added a water park section last year and since Paramount made the Crocodile Dundee movies, they used an Australian Outback theme and named the water park Crocodile Dundee's Boomerang Bay. Can you get anymore artificial Australian than that? :)

They even got Paul Hogan to do TV and radio commercials for the park (who looks like he's in really good shape for someone in his 60's now). I recently noticed they put a couple of the TV commercials up on their web site, so I thought you might get a laugh out of it. The commercials play in the center window automatically as soon as they load. Just click this link and wait a few moments:

www.pgathrills.com

I think it's kind of interesting to see what elements they pick up for use in themes when they bring something over from another country like this. Here, medieval Europe, Mexico, Japan, and Australia are popular themes for amusement parks to use. I'll tell you, I was actually surprised when I visited amusement parks in Europe and found they had American themed areas. I guess I was naive, but I thought with the centuries of history and culture in Europe that they'd have so much to draw on for themes that they wouldn't need to look elsewhere. Plus I didn't think Europeans were all that interested in American culture and history. But I guess it's a case of "the grass is always greener" and people want to experience something different when they go to an amusement park. So where things like the Australian Outback and Crocodile Dundee fascinates Americans, Europeans I found are fascinated by the American Wild West period of the 1800's. The majority of the parks I've been to in Europe have a Wild West themed section or at least one ride with some sort of American theme. The most frequently reproduced icon I saw was the Statue of Liberty along with the White House and US Capital building.

It's kind of funny really. I love going to amusement parks and I really wanted to see what the parks were like in Europe, and here I end up walking around in a Wild West themed area with all the signage in English, hamburgers on the menu in the food places and watching a live saloon show. :) If it wasn't for the fact that the saloon show was in Dutch at this particular park (though spoken with a Texas accent if you can believe that), I would hardly know I had left home.

It sounds interesting, Furox. I like the sound of it.

Oh, that seems fun!

Hooray for stereotypes!

Funny how this thread suddenly got popular after 2 1/2 years. :)

Note that Paramount sold the park to Cedar Fair, and because of that they're dropping all the movie references in the park. So Paul Hogan's likeness and Crocodile Dundee character has been removed from the water park and it's now just Boomerang Bay. It still retains the exaggerated Australian theme though. :)

I'll tell you what's funny: Walking into an Australian-themed restraunt.

Random Waiter: (In bad accent, sounds strained) G'day mates! What'll it be?
Me: ...you don't need to do that, I'm an actual aussie.
RW: (Changes to American accent) Oh thank god. Do you really talk like that?
Me: I call everyone mate and I do say G'day, but in the right contexts.

We talked for about twenty minutes about Aussie slang. The Waiter thought it was hilarious that I did use the word 'Bugger' in everyday life. My speach is kind of a cross between Australian and English, so I tought him a few new words. (He didn't know that Bollocks was a cuss word!)

It's always fun to see the stereo-types of other countries, don't you think?

That sounds fun.... I wish I could go there, but I live in Canada. Oh well, I still have Wonderland 10 minutes on a car from my house. :)

sounds like a fun place!
ah, i wish i could go there...

True. I've had that happen