DreamWorks North Pole Adventure delights visitors at Ridge Hill

Westchester’s Ridge Hill shopping center in Yonkers, New York has an innovative attraction for the holidays. It’s known as the North Pole Adventure created by DreamWorks courtesy of CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and the animators who came all the way from California on November 6 for the initial launch and celebration. They chose Ridge Hill as one of the first of eight locations to host the holiday attraction. The display features Shrek and all the characters from the movie of the same title. The festive miniature house is located on Market Street across from Lord and Taylor. The outside of the house features animations of Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and the gang holiday decorations, lights, and images of blowing and drifting snow and by the steps are statues of Shrek, Fiona, and their three kids, all were provided generously by DreamWorks.

As visitors enter the house, they are greeted with a host that reveals Santa’s chair behind the curtain but Santa is noticeably missing. The visitors enter a room with computer screens that invite them to “build a sleigh” and then they take ride with the images created by DreamWorks to the North Pole. The host interacts with virtual images of Shrek as if they are having a direct conversation. Santa is actually at the end of the tour waiting to greet visitors to take photos with him in his room. My favorite part of the exhibit was the virtual sleigh ride and the interactive computers creating the sleigh. That was really cool!

Meghann Miraglia, the Vice President of Marketing and Retail Development for Forest City Ratner Companies based in Brooklyn, said that the popular attraction is the first step toward increasing visitors to the outdoor shopping mall.

“We wanted to bring our guests this exciting and innovative holiday experience and the decision was on the part of Ridge Hill to participate in the program. The initial discussions about the project began in the Spring of this year and the house itself took about 3 weeks to construct here on the property prior to opening on November 6,” Miraglia explained. “DreamWorks actually came to us through our corporate office Forest City Ratner/Enterprises; they were looking to work with developers throughout the country to bring their Shrek characters and this unique visit to Santa to life. She added, “DreamWorks were very ‘attentive to detail’ from the animated experience movie taking a sleigh ride to the North Pole to visit Santa right down to the detail inside of Santa’s room. All of the details, the desk, the letters, the shelves, everything is hand-picked and very specific. We plan to have it for the next several years here at Ridge Hill and DreamWorks has promised that they are going to integrate a lot of different movie franchises. This year it’s Shrek and next year it may be another of their movie franchises.”

The other seven locations in addition to Ridge Hill were:

Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Glendale Galleria in Glendale, CA
Fashion Show in Las Vegas, NV
Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, NJ,
Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, IL
North Point Mall in Alpharetta, GA
The Parks at Arlington in Arlington, TX

She also stated that DreamWorks is on board for implementing the experience other times of the year besides the holidays.

“Right now, it’s just the holiday experience but we hope to grow it in the future.” “We’re thrilled at the success that we’ve seen here the people that have come out it’s just been a great experience and we’ve heard so many wonderful things from people on their way out of the exhibit how truly magical the whole experience was.”