Newsletter: In the Loop: ‘Walking Dead’ to swarm Universal Studios Hollywood in year-round maze

Welcome to another edition of In the Loop, the Los Angeles Times’ theme park newsletter. I’m Funland theme park blogger Brady MacDonald, and this week, we run screaming from the new Walking Dead attraction, say hello to Joy and Sadness from “Inside Out,” crack open a Haunted Mansion comic book and take a test ride on the Storm Chaser coaster.

‘The Walking Dead’

Universal Studios Hollywood plans to turn the “Walking Dead” haunted maze, which has proved wildly popular during the theme park’s past four Halloween Horror Nights, into a year-round attraction.

SeaWorld

Tilikum, the killer whale that became infamous for battering and drowning a SeaWorld Orlando trainer, has an apparent lung infection that could kill him, theme park officials say.

Shanghai Disneyland

Disney CEO Bob Iger says the $5.5-billion Shanghai Disney resort is more than 90% complete and will open on schedule June 16: “It makes a loud statement. We have done things big there.”

Walt Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Iger, shown in December, is seen in December 2015.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Kentucky Kingdom

Kentucky Kingdom plans to convert the Twisted Twins wood-steel hybrid dueling coaster into the Storm Chaser out-and-back steel coaster in time for the April opening of the Louisville park.

Disneyland Resort

The new five-issue “Haunted Mansion” comic book series from Marvel is slightly more dangerous than Disney aficionados might expect, writes The Times’ Todd Martens.

Martens also writes about the music in Cars Land: “This is a place where country outlaw Johnny Cash and blues renegade Little Walter are as welcome as a tow truck named Mater and a race car dubbed Lightning McQueen.”

A Las Vegas couple has developed a mobile app called Pass It Forward that allows Disneyland visitors to give away unused FastPasses. The free app is available for iPhones and Androids.

Disneyland has begun draining and recycling water from the Rivers of America in preparation for construction of Star Wars Land.

Walibi Belgium

Set to debut this spring, the $9-million Pulsar at Walibi Belgium theme park outside Brussels will be the first Power Splash water ride built by German-based Mack Rides.

‘Inside Out’

Joy and Sadness from the Disney-Pixar film “Inside Out” will join the character meet-and-greet lineup in April at Epcot in Florida.

Still need more theme park news? Check out the Los Angeles Times Funland theme park blog on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram. Also feel free to email me with any feedback on the newsletter.

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