DAK 'Encanto' and 'Indiana Jones'-themed experiences at Animal Kingdom

[celluloid]

The IP mandate is, what, a decade old by now?

The die is cast.

For weal or woe, (almost) all new attractions will be IP based. Current attractions without a Disney IP will always be 'in danger' of being rethemed to a Disney IP.

What's surprising is that some people are still surprised by this.

Sure, it's OK to not like it. But, if you want new attractions, especially in a park that's in need of new attractions, you're going to get one of Disney's top ten IPs.

I trust attempts will be made to make it 'fit' the park/land. How successful that will be is yet to be seen. And each attraction will have its own success rate.

And until one knows the actual 'story' of a new attraction, one won't know how successful it will be. But if one wants to yell at a cloud or a black box... knock yourselves out.

an IP installation does not equate to automatic bad fits.

What it does is under current management, it runs more the risk.

Declining by degrees.

One can be ok with 1920s-30s New Orleans in Frontierland. One also can't be surprised why the world's most famous theme park would be seen as bending on that one.

Which means one can't be surprised to see the doubt that Indiana Jones can be trusted to keep the property integrity while keeping integrity of the theme park when they have shown integrity is already expendable for cinema and tv IP.

 

[celluloid]

I am just glad they are spending money on the parks. It was looking bad there for awhile, with no new announcements just blue sky dreams.

The night is young.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

Any chance we could get a thread for people to discuss their thoughts and feelings on the re-theme and a separate thread for news/updates about the re-theme? This thread has become far more about the former and far less about the latter, and I would prefer news and updates as opposed to Armchair Imagineering.

 

[KDM31091]

I can understand that. There haven’t been any official updates or statements by Disney other than that vague instagram clip showing the model of the land, without specifying any attractions. I’m guessing they are still finalizing quite a bit of it and any type of final confirmation and closing date is probably not very soon. If I had to guess, Dinoland survives for this year and work begins next year. Of course I have no insider knowledge and could be wrong. I just can’t see them announcing it at D23 and taking a large chunk of the park offline right ahead of the holiday season.

 

[SamusAranX]

Not all IPs have staying power though, which is why the timeless attractions stand the test of time, and some IP attractions feel dated or irrelevant. As time moves on fewer children have seen or heard of the characters unless it was truly a top 10 movie.

I’m not saying you’re wrong. Disney doesn’t really seem to care and this is the direction they’re going. But it doesn’t mean it’s a permanent or irreversible decision. If they get enough backlash, maybe someday, they will reconsider.

Basically, if Disney isn’t careful, it will become Universal. Needing to cycle out / refurb attractions because they went with the flavor of the day IP

 

[danlb_2000]

Any chance we could get a thread for people to discuss their thoughts and feelings on the re-theme and a separate thread for news/updates about the re-theme? This thread has become far more about the former and far less about the latter, and I would prefer news and updates as opposed to Armchair Imagineering.

That would depend on whether the mods want to handle the almost impossible task of keeping the topics separate.

 

[Ghost93]

Not all IPs have staying power though, which is why the timeless attractions stand the test of time, and some IP attractions feel dated or irrelevant. As time moves on fewer children have seen or heard of the characters unless it was truly a top 10 movie.

That's probably why it's a good idea to wait a few years to see if an IP remains popular before committing to a ride on it.

I think Moana and Encanto will stand the test of time, but I feel Zootopia feels more and more dated each year that passes and I say this as someone who vastly preferred Zootopia to Moana in 2016.

 

[James Alucobond]

That's probably why it's a good idea to wait a few years to see if an IP remains popular before committing to a ride on it.

Peter Pan isn’t exactly hot IP, but the ride itself is pretty evergreen because the concept and execution are great. I think it more comes down to whether a ride is entertaining on its own merits or if it relies too heavily on attachment to and familiarity with the source material. Unless you’re a member of the princess pantheon, your days are potentially numbered.

 

[Ghost93]

Peter Pan isn’t exactly hot IP, but the ride itself is pretty evergreen because the concept and execution are great. I think it more comes down to whether a ride is entertaining on its own merits or if it relies too heavily on attachment to and familiarity with the source material. Unless you’re a member of the princess pantheon, your days are potentially numbered.

Peter Pan is one of Disney's most iconic movies (even if I think it's one of the worst of the Walt-era).

But you do have a point that rides being entertaining on their own merits is important. Avatar doesn't have many die-hard fans, but the look of Pandora and the experience of riding Flight of Passage are entertaining enough on their own that one doesn't need to even see the movies to appreciate them.

 

[UNCgolf]

Peter Pan isn’t exactly hot IP, but the ride itself is pretty evergreen because the concept and execution are great. I think it more comes down to whether a ride is entertaining on its own merits or if it relies too heavily on attachment to and familiarity with the source material. Unless you’re a member of the princess pantheon, your days are potentially numbered.

This is exactly it.

It's why cloning Frozen Ever After around the world was so confusing. It's not a well executed attraction; it gets by solely due to the popularity of Frozen as an IP. If no one cares about Frozen in 15 years (which seems unlikely, but for the sake of argument) those rides will see a big drop in utilization.

Compare it to NRJ/FoP -- regardless of any personal feelings about their quality, the Avatar IP is essentially irrelevant to the enjoyment of either ride. A person doesn't even need to be familiar with the IP for those attractions to work. I can personally vouch for that because I've never seen Avatar and really like both.

 

[James Alucobond]

It's why cloning Frozen Ever After around the world was so confusing -- it's not a well executed attraction; it gets by solely due to the popularity of Frozen as an IP. If no one cares about Frozen in 15 years (which seems unlikely, but for the sake of argument) those rides will see a big drop in utilization.

I think Snow White and other enduring "book report" attractions have shown that the princesses can skate by pretty much indefinitely with decentish numbers even if they do ultimately see a drop in popularity. Honestly, for the scale and capacity of Frozen Ever After, it would be kind of nice to see a bit of a drop in demand. The Norway pavilion was more pleasant before it became the FEA queue.

 

[UNCgolf]

I think Snow White and other enduring "book report" attractions have shown that the princesses can skate by pretty much indefinitely with decentish numbers even if they do ultimately see a drop in popularity. Honestly, for the scale and capacity of Frozen Ever After, it would be kind of nice to see a bit of a drop in demand. The Norway pavilion was more pleasant before it became the FEA queue.

I agree, which is why I included my parenthetical that it was just for the sake of argument. There are probably better examples, but FEA just came to mind first since it's poorly designed and they keep cloning it.

FEA is also a low capacity attraction, which is part of the problem.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

I personally would prefer Indy go to DHS - but the attraction they're designing for AK is meant for AK, and what I've seen looks damn good.

I wouldn't call it simply a tweaked version of the existing Indiana Jones Adventure attractions, and it certainly won't be cheap.

I'll say this - I've spent years arguing that Indy isn't a good fit for Animal Kingdom. Then a few weeks ago I saw some *stuff*, and now I'm excited for it to happen.

I still think the property overall is a better fit for Studios, and would prefer Dinosaur! be updated rather than removed, but what they're planning for Indy is better than people are expecting. In multiple ways.

It will easily be the best version.

These posts have given me great hope. @Henry Mystic that is a very bold statement. It's awfully hard to top the OG Indy in DL. I almost don't know what they could do to improve it except include animatronics, which leads me to my next question...
@yensidtlaw1969 Will there be any reuse or reskinning of dinosaur animatronics on this ride or not? Or even a number of new animatronics?

 

[Marc Davis Fan]

Should we expect this to be completed in stages - with the Dinosaur reskin opening before Encanto, for example - or will the entire land be closed to visitors until it reopens? I sure hope it's the latter, but considering Disney's intent to do things at AK as quickly as possible...

 

[Brer Panther]

Basically, if Disney isn’t careful, it will become Universal. Needing to cycle out / refurb attractions because they went with the flavor of the day IP

Yeah, I doubt Mickey's Runaway Railway, for example, is gonna age well. Especially since they stopped production on those shorts.

There's a reason why they shut down American Idol Experience.

 

[britain]

Yeah, I doubt Mickey's Runaway Railway, for example, is gonna age well. Especially since they stopped production on those shorts.

There's a reason why they shut down American Idol Experience.

Alice at DL has aged just fine and they haven’t “kept up production on that franchise.”

 

[britain]

It will easily be the best version.

Restore the illusion of going through a left, center, and right door and now you’re talking!

 

[Brer Panther]

Alice at DL has aged just fine and they haven’t “kept up production on that franchise.”

Alice in Wonderland is a movie, not a TV series. And it's generally regarded as a classic Disney movie. A better comparison would be if they decided to build an attraction based on that Alice's Wonderland Bakery show on Disney Junior.

 

[KDM31091]

Should we expect this to be completed in stages - with the Dinosaur reskin opening before Encanto, for example - or will the entire land be closed to visitors until it reopens? I sure hope it's the latter, but considering Disney's intent to do things at AK as quickly as possible...

I'm inclined to think it would be done in stages since the area is spread out and there is no real need to close it all at once since each project will take time. Plus, the park is so light on attractions, losing several at once is more painful than losing just Dinosaur or just the carnival area, for example.

It also depends on how much intricate structural work is being done throughout the land, I imagine, but again with recent track record, I'd think it will be done on a budget and existing buildings will be reused and just rethemed.

 

[britain]

Alice in Wonderland is a movie, not a TV series. And it's generally regarded as a classic Disney movie. A better comparison would be if they decided to build an attraction based on that Alice's Wonderland Bakery show on Disney Junior.

Alice was a box office failure. Walt even conceded that nobody really liked Alice. As opposed to the popular modern Mickey cartoons.