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

[Goofyernmost]

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”

So everything that isn't a live animal belong there? Is any depiction of what exists as a live animal fitting? Does the Yeti actually exist in real life? Does the Lion King actually represent living Lions?

Is everything that's in the Magic Kingdom that is not a fantasy considered appropriate?

Is everything in Disney Hollywood Studios that isn't a form of a staged movie (i.e. Twilight Zone or the upcoming Muppet themed RcRC (or even the old one for that matter) out of place?

Is everything in whatever the hell Epcot is trying to be, close and how do we decide what is allowed?

 

[monothingie]

I’m not defending current WDI here. The new show along with some other recent projects is awful. There are systemic issues within WDI and a lot of immature “talent” through the ranks. But let’s not mislead. Your post may have included numerous “details” but what use are they if they are untrue or misleading?

I’ll bite though… define gutted?

So you’re saying nothing. Got it.

How many talented people did WDI lose over the past 5-8 years - when the whole relocation fiasco occurred? How many defected to the competition?

The number is not insignificant, especially considering what was lost.

How much work was subbed out to subs? Work that had previously been done in the house? Again not an insignificant amount.

So that’s what I mean by “gutted”.

 

[FettFan]

So everything that isn't a live animal belong there? Is any depiction of what exists as a live animal fitting? Does the Yeti actually exist in real life? Does the Lion King actually represent living Lions?

Two key points of contention here:

a. The Yeti is meant to be a guardian of the forbidden mountain, and when combined with the logging truck and oil fires of Kali River the overall theme of Asia is too much human encroachment into wild spaces is bad.

b. FotLK is meant to be representative of the Circle of Life narrative from the movie.

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

Oof. This 3D attraction is a disaster. The storyline makes no sense, there are countless continuity errors, recycled gags and the pacing and direction are all over the place. Some of that might be forgivable if the experience was even remotely enjoyable, but it's just flat-out boring. Another underwhelming, lifeless offering from the "creatives" at Disney.

Dang it Disney! This isn't even worthy of being preserved on Disney+ much less being an anchor attraction inside the Tree of Life. In a word: Incoherent.

3/10.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Isn't that like querying why women wear towels around their heads following a shower but then nothing on their heads after their hair dries?

I do get the point though

I think it’s more “why do you drive on the parkway and park on the driveway?”

Or

“The Holy Roman Empire was neither Roman nor holy”

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The amount of discussion so far just proves it sucks…that’s the takeaway and always confirms “consensus”

This is going on like a price increase thread

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I’m not defending current WDI here. The new show along with some other recent projects is awful. There are systemic issues within WDI and a lot of immature “talent” through the ranks. But let’s not mislead. Your post may have included numerous “details” but what use are they if they are untrue or misleading?

I’ll bite though… define gutted?

Sounds like you’re actually agreeing with him…

 

[Brer Panther]

I don't even get the "For legal reasons, I cannot sing" joke with Gazelle.

It's amazing to think weak efforts like Monsters Inc Laugh Floor were dramatically better than this.

I unironically like Laugh Floor. It expands on the movie without rehashing it, it's interactive, and it's genuinely funny. If the Monsters Inc. show replacing Muppets is at least as good as Laugh Floor, I'll be satisfied. But I'm sure I'd be in the minority.

With the approach they took with this show it would honestly fit better... slightly... at Epcot. It's very frustrating how often they use an IP and with some effort could still make it fit thematically, but of course instead you just get a rehash of what was in the films.

Frozen Ever After - use Frozen characters to talk about Nordic and Viking stuff? Nah, just recap the movie.
The Seas with Nemo - use Nemo characters to talk about the ocean and coral reefs? Nah, just recap the movie.
Cosmic Rewind - Put an emphasis on the big bang, energy sources, etc? Nah, just have a big bad guy do big bad guy stuff.
Ratatouille - have Remy take you on a daring tour through Paris and show you French cuisine? Nah, just have the bad guy chase you around.

This could have and should have talked about their different biomes or something. Instead the only, and literally only thing that ties it to DAK is the fact that they are animals.

Frozen Ever After could be a voyage through Norway with the Frozen characters.
The Seas with Nemo and Friends could be a field trip with Mr. Ray through coral reefs.
Ratatouille could have us frantically trailing behind Remy as he scurries through Paris.

This is EXACTLY why I don't buy the claims of so many posters on here that the Indiana Jones retheme of Dinosaur and the Encanto ride will focus on animals.

 

[monothingie]

Oof. This 3D attraction is a disaster. The storyline makes no sense, there are countless continuity errors, recycled gags and the pacing and direction are all over the place. Some of that might be forgivable if the experience was even remotely enjoyable, but it's just flat-out boring. Another underwhelming, lifeless offering from the "creatives" at Disney.

Dang it Disney! This isn't even worthy of being preserved on Disney+ much less being an anchor attraction inside the Tree of Life. In a word: Incoherent.

3/10.

If it was a limited time thing to promote the upcoming Zootopia movie and lasted around a year, then it would be bearable. (no pun). But this steaming pile is going to be around for at least a decade or more. It will be more dated than the flip phone in RNR.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Except it’s not. WDI has been gutted. Most important engineering and design functions are subbed out. Remember Gensler? WDI is more construction management now than anything if it even does that in any fashion.

All that’s left is the public facing portion that needs to look appropriate.

All you have to do is look at their social media, you tell me what you see there.

Disney not serving as their own architect or engineer of record goes back to the 1950s.

Same for ride system manufacturing, going all the way back to Arrow and all the stuff they built at Disneyland. Or companies like Martin Marietta being involved in building the Mark IV Monorail. Or the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror involving Otis and evolving out of a concept to use an Intamin ride.

Gensler did have a bunch of people poached and get a lot of work beyond their base level of competency from an operator’s internal creative design firm, but that wasn’t Disney.

But sure, all we have to do is look, because your real issue isn’t the specifics of project delivery. That’s what matters and the specifics of the criticism don’t really matter because they don’t look right.

 

[Ayla]

Everything must make full real world sense at all time … except in most other attractions where we don’t care.

It doesn't have to make real world sense at all times. I wouldn't have fallen in love with disney if I was unable to suspend belief ~ but it has to be somewhat coherent and able to be followed.

 

[EagleScout610]

Side note - While talking to some of my Disney friends last night, we had an interesting theory:

Could this be cloned over to DCA to rotate with or flat out replace Philharmagic? Now, we don't think it'll happen any time soon, but we realized it'd be a relatively easy overlay. Slap Clawhauser where the penguins were, reskin Donald's butt to be the sheep's, print some new flyers for the queue and bam.

 

[peter11435]

So you’re saying nothing. Got it.

How many talented people did WDI lose over the past 5-8 years - when the whole relocation fiasco occurred? How many defected to the competition?

The number is not insignificant, especially considering what was lost.

How much work was subbed out to subs? Work that had previously been done in the house? Again not an insignificant amount.

So that’s what I mean by “gutted”.

WDI has absolutely lost a lot of valuable talent in recent years. There’s no question there.

The division still employees thousands. In fact WDI currently employs more people than at any other time in its history.

They still employ and actively utilize in house designers, engineers, and architects but various components of projects including significant aspects of architecture and engineering have always been outsourced to outside firms. This has been the case since the very beginning.

 

[osian]

So everything that isn't a live animal belong there? Is any depiction of what exists as a live animal fitting? Does the Yeti actually exist in real life? Does the Lion King actually represent living Lions?

The Yeti is imaginary. AK is a kingdom of animals, whether real, ancient or imaginary. The Yeti represents itself in the ride. Imaginary and fictional are different concepts. Characters existing in Disney movies such as the Lion King and Zootopia are fictional. You can argue that the Lion King show illustrates a specific point of the natural world, like it's tough to be bug, those characters represent their real-life counterparts.

 

[Ayla]

Exactly which is why it doesn’t fit. It fits only on the most surface level. WDW used to be better than that. Now they don’t care.

As far as politics I’m already seeing debates on X about this being a woke show or something… honestly don’t think that’s the issue but I do kind of see why Disney makes everything so bland and boring now. They want to avoid any risk of even possibly offending anyone in any possible way. But this has failed because people will always complain no matter what they do. So better to just take risks and make interesting attractions rather than this slop.

Sometimes, people need to be offended.

 

[KDM31091]

Side note - While talking to some of my Disney friends last night, we had an interesting theory:

Could this be cloned over to DCA to rotate with or flat out replace Philharmagic? Now, we don't think it'll happen any time soon, but we realized it'd be a relatively easy overlay. Slap Clawhauser where the penguins were, reskin Donald's butt to be the sheep's, print some new flyers for the queue and bam.

View attachment 890973

They wouldn't do a rotation. Too much effort for modern day Disney. And also why in the world would anyone want that? I think this show is far weaker than Philharmagic.

 

[Ayla]

I don't even get the "For legal reasons, I cannot sing" joke with Gazelle.

I unironically like Laugh Floor. It expands on the movie without rehashing it, it's interactive, and it's genuinely funny. If the Monsters Inc. show replacing Muppets is at least as good as Laugh Floor, I'll be satisfied. But I'm sure I'd be in the minority.


This is EXACTLY why I don't buy the claims of so many posters on here that the Indiana Jones retheme of Dinosaur and the Encanto ride will focus on animals.

I love the MK Monster's Inc show. It's corny, fun and different every time you do it.

 

[monothingie]

WDI has absolutely lost a lot of valuable talent in recent years. There’s no question there.

The division still employees thousands. In fact WDI currently employs more people than at any other time in its history.

They still employ and actively utilize in house designers, engineers, and architects but various components of projects including significant aspects of architecture and engineering have always been outsourced to outside firms. This has been the case since the very beginning.

You're just making my point.

The importance of WDI is fading. The past head of WDI came from and went back to Gensler and relied on significant resources and talent from Gensler that actively hurt the WDI brand. All the real work has been moved external. New Epcot and the atrocious sterile and unimaginative hotel renovations and designs show there's nothing left inside. Even legends like Tony Baxter and Joe Rhode have had their issues with what has been done.

They may have people there doing things, but the creativity and talent of the past is gone. It's gutted.

 

[peter11435]

They wouldn't do a rotation. Too much effort for modern day Disney. And also why in the world would anyone want that? I think this show is far weaker than Philharmagic.

The Main Street Opera House disagrees with you.

That said I don’t think Zootopia will ever come to Disneyland

 

[FettFan]

View attachment 890816

This doesn't sit right with me. Animals DON'T coexist like in Zootopia. They are ruled by the forces of nature, which another poster states "we evolved beyond." This is an extremely problematic statement to make in a park dedicated to showcasing the forces of nature.

Yeah, that’s why I didn’t particularly care for the movie: it’s foolish to try teaching a simple concept like “prejudice is bad” by applying it to an infinitely complex system like the animal kingdom.

Take Mr. Big for example. Shrews are known to kill and eat smaller rodents like mice and voles, while at the same time they are food for cats, foxes, and assorted members of the weasel family including stoats, ermines, and ferrets.


The only way Zootopia would make any sense from a natural perspective is if they have some kind of Soylent Green operation going on so that the predators would be able to procure the animal proteins they need to survive.

Which….we never saw any cemeteries in Zootopia, did we?