Chowder's Dark Ride

Chowder's Dark Ride is a dark ride based on the Cartoon Network animated series Chowder. It is located at Cartoon Network Universe: A FusionFall Adventure, a section of Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. The attraction opened to the public on October 14, 2010 and closed permanently along with all other attractions within CNU:FFA on June 30th 2019

Attraction Summary:
Chowder's Dark Ride is a dark ride based on the Cartoon Network animated series Chowder. It is located at Cartoon Network Universe: A FusionFall Adventure, a section of Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. The attraction opened to the public on October 14, 2010 and closed permanently along with all other attractions within CNU:FFA on June 30th 2019

Queue and Pre-show
Guests enter through an entrance modeled after Mung Daal's Catering Company from the show. The queue winds through the kitchen of Mung Daal's Catering Company, where guests can see Chowder and Shnitzel preparing food for a party. Guests then enter into an outdoor area with tables set up for the party, which is being catered by Mung Daal's company.

The ride
After entering their vehicles (which are modeled after soup bowls), guests travel through various scenes from the series while listening to narration by Chowder himself as he tells his story. The ride begins with Chowder and Shnitzel preparing food for a party, but when they run out of ingredients, the two must travel to various locations in Marzipan City to find more.

The first scene is at Gazpacho's fruit stand where guests see Panini trying to get Chowder's attention by throwing tomatoes at him (which are actually animatronic). Guests then enter into Endive's kitchen where she tries to steal Mung Daal's recipe for "Chowder's Dark Ride". The next scene is at Gorgonzola's house where he tries to steal the recipe as well. Guests then enter into a forest where they see Panini trying to get Chowder's attention again by throwing tomatoes (which are actually animatronic).

The final scene takes place in Mung Daal's kitchen, which has been destroyed by Endive and Gorgonzola. After seeing this, guests exit their vehicles and return back through the queue.

Trivia
The ride is the first dark ride to be based on a Cartoon Network series, and the second attraction at Mall of America to be based on an animated television show (the first being SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge).

The attraction was originally scheduled to open in 2009, but it was delayed until 2010 due to technical difficulties with animatronics. It opened along with Ben 10 Ultimate Mission Coaster and Generator Rex Robot Rampage as part of a major expansion to the park.

The ride is similar in style and theme to The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios Florida, which opened a year earlier. Both rides are based on animated television series that air on cable networks (Fox for The Simpsons and Cartoon Network for Chowder), both take place inside of kitchens, both feature animatronic characters throwing food items at guests (tomatoes in Chowder's Dark Ride and pies in The Simpsons Ride), both have scenes where guests travel through forests with trees made out of food, and both have scenes where guests travel through kitchens that are destroyed by the main antagonist.

The ride is also similar to The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera at Universal Studios Florida (which closed in 2002), which featured a scene with animatronic characters throwing pies at guests.

Chowder's Dark Ride was one of three attractions within Cartoon Network Universe: A FusionFall Adventure to close permanently on June 30th 2019 along with Ben 10 Ultimate Mission Coaster and Generator Rex Robot Rampage.

Chowder's Dark Ride was the only attraction within Cartoon Network Universe: A FusionFall Adventure to be based on a single show, as Ben 10 Ultimate Mission Coaster and Generator Rex Robot Rampage were both based on multiple shows from Cartoon Network.