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

[mitchk]

He has done good work as a scriptwriter, SSE 86, Horizons (in which he also appeared) but his tenure as a creative Executive has been a bit questionable. It is very strange that he is the last second-gen Imagineer left standing in the company seeing as how Tony, Joe, Kevin, Kathy and virtually everyone else from that era are long gone.

I had said that in a previous post, I knew he was the original script writer for spaceship Earth, and he did work with horizons.. I guess he just lost his way somehow

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

Rather embarssingly Sword in the Stone is one of those Disney movies on my watch list that I never get around to.

"Higitus Figitus" alone is worth the price of admission. The movie is... weird but awesome. Worthy of watch for sure.

 

[mitchk]

It's tough to be a Bug wasn't the greatest show in the world either, and it was also weird that it was in the park's icon. Same is true for this show. Maybe one day something good will be down there.

The reason it’s tough to be a bug was the star of that icon is because that icon was supposed to be grown by a magical seed that was planted by an ant

 

[HMF]

I had said that in a previous post, I knew he was the original script writer for spaceship Earth, and he did work with horizons.. I guess he just lost his way somehow

He was the script writer for the Cronkite version. The original was done by Ray Bradbury.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I don’t know why you think it was weird to be the parks icon.

The attraction is located inside and under a giant tree. Bugs are exactly what you’d expect to find living inside and under a giant tree.

I think the point was it was still a single, modern IP inside the parks icon. In a perfect world there would be a non-Ip animal themed attraction.

But I agree it was a much better fit than zootopia in every way.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Me neither. What I don't like is waiting over an hour for a ride that's less than five minutes long.

... or in the case of TRON, under a whole minute of actual ride time.

See thats why I don't wait longer than that. I have never waited in a line at Disney for more than 45 minutes ever.

I LL'd Tron and/or went to it at one of the parties. Towards the end of the night, I kid you not, Tron was a walk-on somehow. Got right into the station and went right onto the ride.

 

[Biff215]

I think the point was it was still a single, modern IP inside the parks icon. In a perfect world there would be a non-Ip animal themed attraction.

But I agree it was a much better fit than zootopia in every way.

It was also a movie Eisner was eager to promote at the time. You can argue the same here with Zootopia, they just came up with a far inferior show.

To me it shows more about Imagineering than it does Zootopia. It’s not my favorite movie but there had to be better ideas than this, right???

 

[MrPromey]

See thats why I don't wait longer than that. I have never waited in a line at Disney for more than 45 minutes ever.

I LL'd Tron and/or went to it at one of the parties. Towards the end of the night, I kid you not, Tron was a walk-on somehow. Got right into the station and went right onto the ride.

Cool. That's not the experience for the vast majority of guests though and I'd argue that it's not worth the roughly $20 per person for ILL either, especially if you're having to shell out for more than just yourself.

For a family of four, that's about $80 for about a minute of entertainment. (and still at least a little bit of line)

 

[Comped]

Why he is now the only Imagineer his age who is still with the company is a mystery to me.

Most of his contemporaries who joined the company around that time (or were otherwise involved in Epcot's design and construction or similar projects) retired years ago (sometimes decades). Many are now dead.

It punched so far above it's weight. It was in a small outdoor theater and making creative use of traditional live theater techniques, was, in my opinion, far better than the movie it was based on.

Compared to the BATB show in it's giant space which feels like the hokey Disney on Ice hokey version of the far superior movie... without the ice, of course.

If they'd put half as much creative effort into the BATB live show that they did Hunchback, I wouldn't be so disappointing that it's still around.

Short reason why BATB still exists: the theatre effectively forbids much else due to how it's designed (no wing or fly space worth a darn). Plus by the time it should have been replaced, DLE was just coming in and MGM ops (who got control over entertainment spending as a result), didn't want to spend money to replace what was an old, but fine, show. And still don't 25 years later.
Long reason: How long do you have? My book chapter on this is literally over 3,000 words.

 

[HMF]

Most of his contemporaries who joined the company around that time (or were otherwise involved in Epcot's design and construction or similar projects) retired years ago (sometimes decades). Many are now dead.

Yes, I know that. I am just perplexed that Burbank hasn't forced him out yet with his contemporaries.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Cool. That's not the experience for the vast majority of guests though and I'd argue that it's not worth the roughly $20 per person for ILL either, especially if you're having to shell out for more than just yourself.

For a family of four, that's about $80 for about a minute of entertainment. (and still at least a little bit of line)

To me, the $20 is worth it because I love the ride a lot and value my time more than money while at the parks. Not the experience of everyone but it’s my personal experience. Most roller coasters are not going to be 5 minutes or more and attract long lines, that’s just the fact of roller coasters

 

[MrPromey]

To me, the $20 is worth it because I love the ride a lot and value my time more than money while at the parks. Not the experience of everyone but it’s my personal experience. Most roller coasters are not going to be 5 minutes or more and attract long lines, that’s just the fact of roller coasters

So to be clear, you don't have to buy for anyone but you when you make a choice like this?

 

[flynnibus]

Most roller coasters are not going to be 5 minutes or more and attract long lines, that’s just the fact of roller coasters

And yet in the world of roller coaters it is still rediculously short for a headline attraction

 

[MrPromey]

The message in its ITTBAB is also not even tangentially related to animals as well. Same thing with the actual message in Lion King. Ironically, the message that would fit the most in AK would be the ones in (parts of) Pocahontas, Avatar, or at times Jungle Book

Huh?

Are we now saying "bugs" aren't animals?

Or are you rejecting that "bugs" come in a wild variety of looks sizes and "talents" (true), that some do go after others (true), that they are essential to continued life on our planet through a variety of natural functions including waste disposal and as being food for other animals (true) and that in general, despite all this, people consider them at best pests or annoyances and at worst, monsters and want to exterminate them (true) is even in your words, tangentially related to animals?

Or did you see a different version of ITTBAB? If so, I'm curious what the message(s) was/were in that one.

 

[Tom Morrow]

View attachment 891023
Here are animals wearing clothes at AK from the beginning

I just wanted to say that Mickey and the gang, or any character you can meet in every park, act more as ambassadors of WDW, thus, they are different than having Zootopia characters in DAK.

But I also want to reiterate to everyone that, we long ago lamentably accepted that Zootopia was coming to DAK. I think for most of us, the current frustration is that the attraction just sucks. If they have to do things like this, they also need to make it good.

 

[MrPromey]

It was also a movie Eisner was eager to promote at the time. You can argue the same here with Zootopia, they just came up with a far inferior show.

To me it shows more about Imagineering than it does Zootopia. It’s not my favorite movie but there had to be better ideas than this, right???

To be fair, it's also the difference when you're dealing with the budget to design a full park vs. the budget to do a cheap overlay where the very attraction-specific theater barely gets touched and effects from the old show are recycled, apparently just because they're already there.

Heck, they didn't even pay to remove the dung ball, instead deciding it was cheaper to make some prints with acrylic paint and call it some sort of universal dirt ball like that's a real thing.

... That's not a real thing people do, is it?

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

I just wanted to say that Mickey and the gang, or any character you can meet in every park, act more as ambassadors of WDW, thus, they are different than having Zootopia characters in DAK.

But I also want to reiterate to everyone that, we long ago lamentably accepted that Zootopia was coming to DAK. I think for most of us, the current frustration is that the attraction just sucks. If they have to do things like this, they also need to make it good.

Festival of the Lion king also explicitly mentions Timon in his hula drag

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Huh?

Are we now saying "bugs" aren't animals?

Or are you rejecting that "bugs" come in a wild variety of looks sizes and "talents" (true), that some do go after others (true), that they are essential to continued life on our planet through a variety of natural functions including waste disposal and as being food for other animals (true) and that in general, despite all this, people consider them at best pests or annoyances and at worst, monsters and want to exterminate them (true) is not even tangentially related to animals?

Or did you see a different version of ITTBAB? If so, I'm curious what the message(s) was/were in that one.

I apologize, I meant the movie “A Bugs Life” I mixed up my acronyms. The movie has literally nothing to do with actual bugs and is a completely human story told through bugs

 

[MrPromey]

I apologize, I meant the movie “A Bugs Life” I mixed up my acronyms. The movie has literally nothing to do with actual bugs and is a completely human story told through bugs

That's true and a great point. In the attraction, a couple of the lead characters act as ambassadors of sorts to show off the insect/bug world in a cute and colorful way and teach a few basic things as they do. They could have done something similar with characters from Zootopia focusing on aspects of their native biomes in a similar way with funny/silly things happening as they do.

It would have fit if they'd done that. I'm guessing a large percentage of the people who experienced ITTBAB never even recognized the characters.

The new show if done in that way could have acted as a similar soft on-ramp of the IP to the millions of people who visit WDW but don't go to all the animated movies, too.

The reason I'm guessing they did NOT do that is had they gone to the expense of animating and producing a 3D short like that and built an in-theater animatronic like that for Animal Kingdom, they'd have been stuck with an attraction they couldn't carbon-copy to other parks later down the road.

The show they have, were it not so bad, could go into any other Disney park in the world, including into a new theater in Shanghai right there in their Zootopia land since it doesn't get into any of the themes that would have been important to make it specifically fit at AK.

I'm confident this is why we'll continue to see fewer and fewer gate-specific attractions going forward.

That new Encanto? I'm sure they already have an idea of where they want to clone it.

 

[DCBaker]

Here's a look at the new Zootopia: Better Zoogether! popcorn bucket: