Special Effects Stage

My kids and I enjoyed this show. We especially liked how it ended (no spoilers here!).
The only thing is that the benches are super uncomfortable.

My Husband and I went with our family to the Special Effects Stage show today. We live in Hollywood and our family came in from out of town. The show was really good, but what made our experience Awesome was a gal who worked with show named Gretel P. She took Exceptional care of us! Gretel is excellent with customer service and how she conducts business! Her welcoming energy and professional demeanor is a great asset not only to this show, but to Universal Studios Hollywood! Thank you again Gretel! You added much enjoyment to our day! :D pamelahill net

My family and I really liked this show. We only wished it was longer and had more content. The knife cutting into the arm effect had our kids jaws on the floor!
When we first came in, we opted to sit in the front-​left where no one was sitting. We had our backs up to the handicapped section so no one could sit behind us. These turned out to be great seats because on a hot 90+ degree day, the last thing you want to be is surrounded by other hot, sweaty tourists and their screaming kids ;)
We even grabbed a beer on the way in and no one seemed to have an issue with that… so if its a hot day, partake in a cold brewski and enjoy the show!

This review is for the newer version of the Special Effects Stage show. The older version was actually located next to Backdraft. (They got rid of Backdraft and the old Special Effects Stage show 2 years ago and transformed it into the new Transformer 3D ride.)
This new Special Effects Stage show is now located in the Upper lot in sound stage 56, (which was The Creature from the Black Lagoon show before a few years back.)
The old version of this show wasn’t actually on a timed schedule before it would run continually throughout the day every 20 minutes or so. The show would be divided into 3 rooms (the movie stage room, the sound stage room and the monster factory), so after showing a different type of movie magic in each room you would then move to the next room allowing the next group of audiences in to watch that particular bit if the show.
I would have rated the old show a 3.5 stars because it was creative, funny and somewhat entertaining.
The new version of this show has about 7 – 9 showings of this show a day depending on what time of the year you choose to visit.
The new show also runs about 25 minutes. But, I particularly didn’t enjoy the new show because it lack many of the elements that I enjoyed from the previous show. In the new show they did not show as many movie magic techniques and replaced many of the interesting facts and techniques of shooting behind a green scene with a annoy and obnoxious crew member named Jerry that keeps messing up the speaker presentation of creating movie magic.
Pros:
They show you the ideas and movie animations be hide Despicable Me which was awesome. (I’m a big Despicable Me fan!)
Cons:
The show no longer runs continuously throughout the day and now you have to wait for the 7 – 9 show times throughout the day.
They showed less tips and techniques of movie magic be hide Universal’s amazing movie and animation crew.
Overall, you should go see it once to see how Universal’s shoots some of their movie magic but, not a really fun show to watch more than once.