DAK “Zootopia” is being created for the Tree of Life theater

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Oh yeah, btw, notice how the original character created for this attraction, Heidi Howler, that they made a point to highlight in marketing was “an original character”, that I guess infact isn’t, is the twist villain here?? ‘Really’??? You’re really gonna villainize the creativity at WDI or treat ‘that’ as a nuisance, rather than the unneccesary uncreative Film IP tie ins you’re forcing in where they don’t belong thematically that make no sense?? Did no one learn anything from the original Star Tours and why that worked and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure didn’t in comparison, for instance? Aii yaii yaii. Funny how I was just talking about how the 02-current iteration of “Journey Into Imagination With Figment” seemingly does this exact same thing. Treating the example of creativity as an interference, to what’s supposed to be a Journey Into Imagination but has now Infact been a Honey I Shrunk themed ride since ‘99 that makes no sense. Besides that, insisting in keeping the unfitting film IP theming in 02-currently that no one wanted there as a replacement to begin with, which is just asinine. Seems like nothing was learned from that debacle 23 years later or is being fixed… a clear example why these sorts of things aren’t a good idea. wild

 

[KDM31091]

I swear I'm not trying to just automatically crap on every new thing Disney does, but so many recent additions and changes have been misses, and from the video, this is another one. Normally I would wait and not spoil a new attraction for myself before seeing it in person, but I didn't care at all about spoiling this.

Its bad enough that Zootopia. Does. Not. Belong. In. DAK. Those who say it does have never thought about the parks beyond the absolute surface level. "Animal theme park... animal... movie?" was the extent of that thought process. The existence of this IP in the park basically mocks the entire thesis statement of the park, which, as a refresher, is about real animals, their real lives, and their coexistence with humans - both good and bad aspects.

Did ITTBAB fit? Yes! Absolutely! Yes, they talked, but they were "real bugs" showing you their real life. They talk about why they are important. They had a reason to be in the tree. The show was presented as being entirely on stage in front of you and never cut away from that, adding to the effect of the theater being a "real" setting. Through all of this, it also did a fun theme park thing that you can't experience on Disney+. "What if we used a bunch of special effects to make people experience gross and scary bug stuff!!!" That's fun! It has edge! It's a reason for it to be a theme park attraction, and it's something that makes the attraction fun for all ages (except some very young ones haha).

This is an extremely crammed, obnoxious, and hyper Disney+ short that has been shoe-horned into the Tree of Life because... uh.. that was the easiest and lowest effort way to get Zootopia IP somewhere in WDW. That's it. That's why this exists. It doesn't make sense to be in the Tree of Life. It doesn't make sense to be in a park celebrating real animals and their real lives. Shockingly, it doesn't even really have the anti-stereotyping message of the film and just reprises the villain from the film doing a sabotage... again.

All of that ranting aside, it could have still been a good attraction in its own merits, the way Cosmic Rewind is extremely fun while also being a very poor fit for Epcot. But this is... well, it does not come off like a project that was approached with any true inspiration.

It really does bum me out how much they are killing WDW. This low effort slop just isn’t good enough. I’m really worried about all of the future projects honestly. Zootopia fits only on a surface level. As you said. Where the bugs made sense and were tied into the theme of the park much better.

They’re also shoving Encanto in when literally the only link they can come up with is that one character talks to animals.

I’m trying to accept that today’s Disney doesn’t care and just wants to throw a hodgepodge of IP everywhere but I can’t believe how far they’re starting to fall. I am starting to have the mindset of, well at least I can go enjoy the things they haven’t destroyed yet. And that sucks.

 

[Brer Panther]

Y'know, the fact that the plot of the attraction is the characters having a livestreaming/watch party (I'm sure THAT'S not gonna date the attraction at all!) was already a red flag. I don't hate it, most of that probably stems from my being in the minority of not liking It's Tough to Be a Bug, but I'm not super-impressed. It feels like they thought they were making a simulator, not a 3D show... they also clearly forgot about the "we're watching footage from a drone" thing...

Could I just say that I hate the "Zootopia versions of actual Disney movies" gag? Both in the movie and in the show? I know Cars did something like that too, but A) at least that was just in the end credits and B) there was an actual punchline (John Ratzenberger's character complains about how they use John Ratzenberger in every movie) so it wasn't just "Y'ALL KNOW THESE OTHER MOVIES WE MADE?!". How does The Emperor's New Groove even work in a world of anthropomorphic animals? An animal gets turned into another animal? (And of course Wish gets a reference. Bob Iger must REALLY love that movie)

The Clawhauser animatronic looks good, I'll give it that. Nick's "I admire your confidence, sir!" line was pretty funny. Aside from that.... did we really have to do the "Bellwether's back for revenge!" thing AGAIN? The security in Zootopia prison must suck if she's able to escape so easily TWICE.

Oh, and since this really has nothing to do with the statement of the park, as others have pointed out, I have very little if any confidence that the Indiana Jones and Encanto attractions will have much if anything to do with it, or animals, either.

The hunchback show?

To be fair, is that on ANYBODY's "best attractions" list? I mean, I never saw it, maybe it was great, I don't know, but you don't see people talk about it much...

Why feature Gazelle if she's not going to sing?

The entire purpose of the character is so Disney can go "LOOK! WE HAVE SHAKIRA IN OUR MOVIE! ISN'T THAT COOL?!". Of course she's going to be in the attraction (was that even Shakira doing the voice here?).

Attractions can promote IP and also not be low effort slop.

Exactly.

 

[danlb_2000]

Y'know, the fact that the plot of the attraction is the characters having a livestreaming/watch party (I'm sure THAT'S not gonna date the attraction at all!) was already a red flag.

No reason to be concerned about the attraction becoming dated since we were assured it will soon switch back to Tough to be a Bug.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

.

To be fair, is that on ANYBODY's "best attractions" list? I mean, I never saw it, maybe it was great, I don't know, but you don't see people talk about it much...

Actually it was quite good. And wasn’t all that long ago…for those that constantly lecture about branding and nostalgia…but can’t remember what blockbuster video was

 

[Biff215]

Actually it was quite good. And wasn’t all that long ago…for those that constantly lecture about branding and nostalgia…but can’t remember what blockbuster video was

Agreed, Hunchback was among the best live shows WDW produced. It’s unfortunate that its theater was eliminated as I’d prefer it over BatB, although neither should exist today if Disney actually cared about updating its shows.

 

[Comped]

(was that even Shakira doing the voice here?).

Did she return for Hot Pursuit in the first place?

 

[Brer Panther]

Oh yeah, btw, notice how the original character created for this attraction, Heidi Howler, that they made a point to highlight in marketing was “an original character”, that I guess infact isn’t, is the twist villain here?? ‘Really’??? You’re really gonna villainize the creativity at WDI or treat ‘that’ as a nuisance, rather than the unneccesary uncreative Film IP tie ins you’re forcing in where they don’t belong thematically that make no sense?? Did no one learn anything from the original Star Tours and why that worked and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure didn’t in comparison, for instance?

Honestly, I doubt that was the intention. They probably just couldn't think of a way to add conflict to the attraction other than "Bellwether returns again" and thought it'd be HILARIOUS having a sheep in wolf's clothing instead of a wolf in sheep's clothing (and it honestly might have been a LITTLE funny if they didn't have Nick explain the joke).

Did she return for Hot Pursuit in the first place?

According to this video of the ride, her singing is in English (probably just recycled audio from the soundtrack) but she does have a few lines in Chinese. So, probably not.

 

[Ayla]

I really think Disney sending the Imagineers who worked on the project to do PR videos is a horrible idea because if the attraction is bad, The people who don't like it now have a face and name to attach their ire too and it's been happening way too often. The way people have crapped on the reputation of various Imagineers who really only did what the idiots in management made them do should not be put in the line of fire by the company like that.

Agreed. Management is making them the public fall guys and that may not always be the case. Way to throw your employees under the bus, disney.

 

[Ayla]

I’m glad you can figure out the story. The whole thing is hard to follow with the frantic pacing.

I honestly had zero idea of what was happening the entire show.

 

[Biff215]

I honestly had zero idea of what was happening the entire show.

I’ve watched it twice now and still can’t seem to follow it. I’ll give it a chance in person on our next trip but that might be it.

 

[GhostHost1000]

It’s nice to see so many seeing things for what they really are instead of so many cheerleading everything they do no matter the result.

The trend sadly is Disney is making so many bad decisions and I hope they can see that one day how many of us are now

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

So what haven’t you liked? Horizons? World of motion? If you had wings? The backlot tour? The hunchback show? Cranium command?

Just trying to see what constitutes a “miss”

I’m not old enough to have went to most of those attractions. Misses for me include: Mission Space, BatB sing along, dumbo/flying carpets rides, Journey of Little Mermaid in its current state, Nemo, Speedway, and I’m not a super big fan of Jungle Cruise anymore as I feel like it would work much better with improv instead of the same jokes over and over

 

[Goofyernmost]

Any time WDI uses the same formula over and over and over again, It gets tiresome.

One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing!

Eisner’s mid 80’s decree to avoid bankrolling new Disney attractions unless they were liberally slathered in ‘story’ (See ‘The Myth of Story...

imagineerebirth.blogspot.com

Know what else gets tiresome? The constant harping on IP's. Everything is somebody's IP. The original Disneyland was probably 90% connected with a Disney IP, most of the ideas for them were someone else's IP the were just spun in the Disney manner. An attraction based on a cartoon was the prominent agenda in the early days. The original idea didn't really come out much until EPCOT was built and now that is showing how it didn't have the ability to last because everyone of those were based on technology which isn't timeless. There were a few, of course, like Small World, PotC and CoP but the ones that lasted the longest were either only subtle in the educational vane or didn't have any at all short of a moral lesson. All of them like Pinocchio, Snow White, Cinderella, Toad, Peter Pan and even some live action like 20K leagues under the Sea and Mary Poppins were a Disney interpretation of someone else's IP. It is a non-issue issue!

 

[Tom Morrow]

Yes, it's mainly a cover to talk about the impacts of systematic racism in an kid-friendly format, but I think Zootopia 2 is probably going to explore further beyond stereotypes, as it highlights on the differences between reptiles, mammals and more.

I suppose the movie kind of covers this but its all in service of the anti-stereotyping and racism message more than anything else. There isn't really any of that present in the attraction.

And the way you explain it is basically just how Bug's Life and any anthropomorphic movie works- it's a story centered around more human actions and values rather than real life concepts- that being on overthrowing oppression and unity.

True, but in A Bug's Life, they are actual bugs and live like them. In Zootopia they are humanoid animals living like humans. ITTBAB was entirely about issues bugs face.

There obviously could be a way that the Zootopia integrated a newer message like ITTBAB did, creating a new idea from the source material, but it's moreso on execution rather than the IP itself.

Possibly. I'm not sure if there's any way they could have incorporated the Zootopia IP into DAK that would make it work for me. But then again I did say that about Pandora and ended up feeling like they mostly made it fit. On the flipside, there's Cosmic Rewind, where I do not feel like it fits, but it's a good enough attraction that I don't mind.

Slop sure, but not low effort. A ton of work and dedication was still put into this but the audience isn't for the parks fans, it's for traveling visitors who will be drawn to the park more with recognizable IP and help increase AK's attendance. Slop to us isn't slop to them.

Yeah. I don't want to downplay the amount of actual work and artistry that goes into making any attraction, good or bad, happen. There's just a difference between those who are creating things because that's what is demanded of them, and those who pitch the idea and greenlight it.

I also want to be clear to everyone reading this that I'm not of the opinion that ITTBAB was an amazing attraction and I'm just bitter that it's gone. I don't really miss it, but feel that it was clearly a better attraction and a better fit.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Know what else gets tiresome? The constant harping on IP's. Everything is somebody's IP. The original Disneyland was probably 90% connected with a Disney IP, most of the ideas for them were someone else's IP the were just spun in the Disney manner. An attraction based on a cartoon was the prominent agenda in the early days. The original idea didn't really come out much until EPCOT was built and now that is showing how it didn't have the ability to last because everyone of those were based on technology which isn't timeless. There were a few, of course, like Small World, PotC and CoP but the ones that lasted the longest were either only subtle in the educational vane or didn't have any at all short of a moral lesson. All of them like Pinocchio, Snow White, Cinderella, Toad, Peter Pan and even some live action like 20K leagues under the Sea and Mary Poppins were a Disney interpretation of someone else's IP. It is a non-issue issue!

1. The original IP implementation had the properties fit thematically.

2 Disneyland may have opened with 90% IP but WDW, for the vast majority of its lifespan, has always been an even mix of IP and non-IP and it worked.

3 A large portion of the most famous Disney attractions were original concepts (yes we know that an original concept is also technically Disney "IP", but we are specifically talking about attractions that are a tie-in to a pre-existing media).

 

[Animaniac93-98]

2 Disneyland may have opened with 90% IP but WDW, for the vast majority of its lifespan, has always been an even mix of IP and non-IP and it worked.

I want to repeat this for people who keep regurgitating this talking point as a defense of all things IP

Many of the IP, quickly slapped together attractions of 1950s Disneyland, were gone by the time Walt died.

The 20,000 Leagues movie set exhibit? Replaced by an original ride, Adventure Thru Inner Space

The Davy Crockett Museum? Didn't last long.

The empty Opera House had sets from Babes in Toyland to fill space in the early 60s. By '65, Lincoln had moved in.

As budgets increased and technology improved, WED developed original attractions for Disneyland that took advantage of the new medium they themselves had invented. They weren't interested in building The Absent-Minded Professor 3D

Most attractions added to Disneyland in the 60s were not IP, with only minor stuff like the Swiss Family Treehouse built.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Know what else gets tiresome? The constant harping on IP's.

IP’s are great when they are a natural fit. But you wouldn’t plop dumbo in the middle of DAK and say it fits cause “it’s an animal”

 

[MisterPenguin]

But what we're seeing on the screen is through cameras that are at the scenes... or something? Then Judy and Nick look directly at what's his name as if they're in the room with him. It doesn't make sense and it immediately throws out the established internal logic. Judy and Nick should be looking at the camera. But then shortly after that the attraction also largely throws out the "live feed" aspect anyway so... whatever I guess. I've probably already put more thought into this than the people that conceived it.

I find your lack of faith in Carrot Vision disturbing.

 

[EagleScout610]

I find your lack of faith in Carrot Vision disturbing.

After all, it is just a series of cheep 3D ticks