WDW Animal Kingdom: General Discussion

[Funcone]

Edit: sorry, I misread your post Rob. I thought you said, 'What event is that?'

That's not an event, it's a permant show in the Rivers of Light Theatre called KiteTails. Disney have been doing quite a bit of cost cutting recently, particularly in light of the Covid pandemic. It's not entirely surprising. There were a lot of cutbacks in the early 2000s after the Twin Towers attacks. Presumably the thinking here is twofold. This is clearly a cheaper show than Rivers of Light, and it's also a daytime show, so they don't need to open the park until later in the evening when it's got dark.

 

[jon81uk]

Disney have announced what’s coming up, although there are no timescales so as it’s Disney this may not even happen! But they are planning to change Dinoland to a South American land with a combination of Encanto and Indiana Jones. It’s tough to be a Bug will change to a Zootopia film as well.

Disney Teases 'Encanto' and 'Indiana Jones'-themed experiences for Animal Kingdom's big refresh

Disney Teases 'Encanto' and 'Indiana Jones'-themed experiences for Animal Kingdom's big refresh

www.wdwmagic.com

New Zootopia show is coming to Tree of Life theater at Disney's Animal Kingdom

New Zootopia show is coming to Tree of Life theater at Disney's Animal Kingdom

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[tayspru]

I much prefer this plan to last years proposal of Moana / Zootopia. The rest of the park (Pandora excluded) is themed around parts of the world, so a new area grounded in a geographical reality is a good move, and the IP intervention looks sympathetic to that vision. I really hope they include new animal enclosures

 

[Tim]

My initial reaction to hearing this was that it's no better then the previous announcement as it's still am attempt to shoehorn IPs into a park that (Pandora aside) does very well out of telling original stories.
However seeing them both tied to a South America land, without the IPs being front and center is far better than before.
+ Enchanto is one of my favorite films and it's going to be in one of my favourite parks.
+ Up is set in South America, which gives that film a proper home in the park as well.

Edit: forgot to mention Zootopia. Not as keen on that, as it makes no sense inside the Tree of Life.
Long term I could see it as an offshoot area of Animal Kingdom, maybe as a replacement for Rafiki's Planet Watch. But I'm glad it's not part of the strange half and half land anymore.

 

[Davezilla]

Be a real shame to see Dinosaur go, such a brilliant dark ride. Missed it on my recent trip and with me not likely to return for another 5+ years, I'm regretting not getting a last ride in now (assuming all of the above happens).

 

[jon81uk]

Edit: forgot to mention Zootopia. Not as keen on that, as it makes no sense inside the Tree of Life.
Long term I could see it as an offshoot area of Animal Kingdom, maybe as a replacement for Rafiki's Planet Watch. But I'm glad it's not part of the strange half and half land anymore.

At least Zootopia as a film in the tree means it’s a film starring talking animals replacing a film starring talking bugs. Yes Zootopia is set in a different universe really but this feels a pretty reasonable way to replace an aging attraction with something newer.

 

[Tim]

As a stop gap attraction I get it. But Zootopia is an entire city for all sizes of animals. The tree of life theatre is very specifically the roots of a giant tree.
If it's a minor film change with a few different animatronics I'd be happy with that. But like Hyperspace Mountain in Paris I'd like it to leave enough of the original intact that A full refurbishment one day is still an option.

Really this should be the parks signiture mission statement ride as it's at the very centre. Even Tough to be a Bug wasn't a great execution of this.
Consider The Great Movie Ride (Or now Mickeys) at the heart of Hollywood Studios, or Spaceship Earth at the entrance to EPCOT. Neither are the headline rides of the park but the ones that best captured the feel of the park.

 

[jon81uk]

s a stop gap attraction I get it. But Zootopia is an entire city for all sizes of animals. The tree of life theatre is very specifically the roots of a giant tree.

But it’s just the tree of life theatre, I don’t think the venue was really designed with Bugs Life in mind really.

 

[John_P]

Are Disney the only company that don't realise how much little kids love dinosaurs?

Though I did watch the film Dinosaur last week (good old disniversity podcast) and thought it was abysmal.

 

[jon81uk]

Are Disney the only company that don't realise how much little kids love dinosaurs?

Though I did watch the film Dinosaur last week (good old disniversity podcast) and thought it was abysmal.

Have you ridden the ride at Animal Kingdom? Is definitely not for little kids!

 

[Rob]

Losing Dinosaur will be a real shame, it is such a good dark ride! The ride system will almost certainly be retained, I wonder if that might be turned in to an Indiana Jones ride with Encanto being used for a new attraction.