Park Shutting Down Aquatic Show : Recreation: Magic Mountain will replace dolphins and sea lions with movie-based exhibits. Educators mourn loss of 14-year-old program.

After 14 years of offering dolphin and sea lion shows to schoolchildren, Six Flags Magic Mountain is shutting down its aquatic program--and replacing it with a stunt show meant to promote Warner Bros. films.

The studio and park have the same parent company--Time Warner Inc.

“Since Six Flags has been purchased by Time Warner, they’ve been steadily revamping its shows,” said Bonnie Rabjohn, public relations officer for the Valencia park. “It’s part of the overall Six Flags, movie-based programs.”

Rabjohn said the aquatic program will close at the end of this month, to be replaced next spring with a stunt show based on Warner Bros. “Police Academy” movie series. Another attraction, based on the “Batman” films, is also scheduled to open next spring.

The changes at the Valencia facility are in keeping with moves by Time Warner at all Magic Mountain parks, Rabjohn said, where shows and attractions now feature stronger tie-ins with Warner Bros. movies. The media giant bought the parks for $70 million in a nearly two-year process that was completed in September.

Educators mourned the loss of the aquatic program, which has been offered since 1979.

“It’s been a great opportunity for the children,” said Beverly Knutson, principal of Castaic Elementary School, which has participated in the program for four years. “The purpose of field trips is to enhance what the students are learning. This particular program fit so beautifully with our science curriculum.”

The elementary school, a 10-mile drive from the amusement park, sends about 120 second-graders a year to learn first-hand about whales, dolphins and other undersea life.

“I think it’s very sad,” said Castaic teacher Donna Heffner, who took her second-grade class on a field trip to the show. “It was absolutely fabulous. The education part was excellent. I think it would encourage a child to get into oceanography, to treat the ocean better.”

Kim Terrell, assistant curator of Marine Animal Productions, the Gulfport, Miss.-based organization that provides animals for the program, said the Magic Mountain program was one of the best of its kind in Southern California. The program used three dolphins and five sea lions.

“Seeing them up close and personal makes a big difference in a child’s mind,” Terrell said. She said the dolphins and sea lions would be sent to other shows sponsored by the company.

Park officials say the aquatic program is only one segment of its efforts to work with schools.

“We do a lot of educational things,” said Rabjohn. “To compensate for that program not being there, we’re expanding other programs.”

Those include an animal education series that Six Flags brings to about 145 school campuses annually and has sponsored since 1971, a Read to Succeed literacy program and a bike safety program that is being boosted from 600,000 students to reach 1 million children nationwide.

“We have a lot of great entertainment for families here to enjoy,” said Rabjohn. “The shows are one part of that.”

No definite starting date has been announced for the opening of the Police Academy program on the existing Aqua Theater site or the Batman exhibit, which will include a roller coaster.