“Cas gave words to the idea and stayed searching for the essence of a successful concept. Especially in the pitch phase, Pandadroom would never have gone so well without Cas’s input.”
Hans Geels, project leader PandaDroom, WNF
Comments
“Cas said that when young he built castles in the air. Between 1999-2002 he helped the WWF to build an air-castle in actuality—to touch the hearts of millions of people with our message of protecting the natural world.
“That was our assignment.
“His contribution to the realisation of project ‘Pandadroom’ was unmistakably large. Cas gave words to the idea and stayed searching for the essence of a successful concept. Especially in the pitch phase, Pandadroom would never have gone so well without Cas’s input. Also, and not unimportant, Cas is a pleasure to work with. Cas, I learned a lot from you.”
Hans Geels, project leader PandaDroom, WNF
“Cas Verholt: A flexible thinker who quickly puts himself in the shoes of his clients. He stays happy while remaining critical and to work together with him on special concepts is first class. It has led to a unique attraction with a unique combination of fun and nature awareness.”
Erik van de Brand, director Project Development, Efteling
PandaDroom
Theme Park Attraction - 2002
Europe's first brand attraction
Pandadroom (Panda Dream) was a joint venture by the Dutch arm of the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and the Efteling theme park. The goal was to create a 3D movie experience with live theatre effects that would be fun for audiences and communicate a serious message.
The film delivers exactly that. The audience experiences three natural environments—the Pole, the Ocean and the Rainforest—and it enjoys the fun of the animals’ antics and gasps as each environment is destroyed. The final moment live in the theatre is a giant tree that crashes down overhead—both a thrilling effect and making a strong point. The audience are then led to a post-show area where they can explore the environments they’ve just seen and learn how they can make a difference to them.
Since opening in 2002 Pandadroom has regularly appeared in visitor surveys in the top two of favourite attractions in the Efteling.
PandaDroom in Park World magazine:/doc/PandaVision.pdf