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

[Gusey]

For anybody wondering, Finding Nemo - The Musical is now listed as being in Theater of the Wild, no longer Dinoland but also not part of Asia in case if it was getting encompassed with that land

 

[Gremlin Gus]

Rumored? I thought they confirmed that.

It's not been confirmed/denied by Disney themselves yet, but given the permits we've gotten so far, there doesn't seem to be any animal closures that we can see or tell of.

Glad to hear its already written in stone the new rides will be all screens and break.

It won't be all screens my dude, there'll be animatronics in both rides as well if the concept art for either Indiana Jones or Encanto wasn't telling enough

 

[Gringrinngghost]

Hearing the Dinoland sign is currently being removed.

CC: @wdwmagic

 

[DCBaker]

Here's a look at the new Disney's Animal Kingdom Guide Map:

 

[Movielover]

At the very least there will still be the dinosaur sculptures in the Tree of Life, so dinosaurs won't be 100 percent gone from the park. But it's still sad to see them mostly extinct.

 

[JohnD]

For anybody wondering, Finding Nemo - The Musical is now listed as being in Theater of the Wild, no longer Dinoland but also not part of Asia in case if it was getting encompassed with that land
View attachment 906092

I think it will remain its own thing. Let's be honest: the average guest just went to a theater to see the Finding Nemo show. It never had any ties to Dinoland anyway despite being shown that way on the map.

 

[Casper Gutman]

When you add attractions instead of constantly replacing them you don’t need to present guests with half a park or less constantly.

 

[Mike S]

The worst thing Dino-Rama did was that it's going to act as cover for whatever Disney does.

No matter how this thing turns out that's going to be the response. "There used to be a carnival here and I didn't like the carnival." We've already seen this with the constant defense of Disney's poorly fitting choice for what to put there; they could literally do anything there, but Rama means the only standard you're supposed to have is "not Rama".

If the ride is another one with only screens and no animatronics, the screens break immediately, and it also catches fire opening day, we'll still have to hear about "...but I didn't like the carnival".

It’s as if they believe it was either total replacement or nothing. A new area that’s still based on dinosaurs to replace the carnival? Crazy talk. People hate dinosaurs.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Here's a look at the new Disney's Animal Kingdom Guide Map:

Sorry…53 things in DAK? Are they counting palm trees?

 

[Brer Panther]

Also, gift shop was out of the new merchandise line from the get-go, plus carnotaurouses, though it still has a few of the carno puppets, and a good number of the other puppets, Dinoland dinosaur toys, and the time rovers.

Have they already started selling Indiana Jones and Mirabel dolls in there?

Zoos across the country have been getting increasingly more immersive and naturalistic and were on that path even before Animal Kingdom opened and are less expensive to visit. That's why extinct animals and imaginary creatures were on the table for the park to distinguish themselves as Nahtazu, but even those are being caught up to with all the animatronics traveling the country to different zoos each summer.

Maybe Disney's Animal Kingdom would see more visitors if they put Moana t-shirts on all the animals.

I don’t get why Tropical Americas is a bad fit.

Because it's just an excuse to shoehorn two IPs that focus on humans, not animals, into the park. It's like if they tore out Maharaja Jungle Trek to put in a Mulan ride.

If the Encanto attraction actaully focuses on Antonio (a minor character) and his animal pals, I'll eat my Monsters University hat.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Sorry…53 things in DAK? Are they counting palm trees?

They use dining and shops. If you count total attractions it would be about 16.

 

[Gusey]

Here's a look at the new Disney's Animal Kingdom Guide Map:

Is this the first look at the new land's logo too?

 

[wdwmagic]

Is this the first look at the new land's logo too?

We've seen that in quite a few places so far

 

[gerarar]

Pictures I took this morning just now (2/2). Sacrificed the FoP early entry for this!
The entrance/exit sign to Dinoland has been covered up with tarps.

The walkway to Dinosaur & Restaurantosaurus has rolling planters blocking that path. Nothing currently happening if you peak through the bushes.

 

[Brer Panther]

So what do we expect 'em to do with the dinosaur animatronics? Trash 'em all like the ones from Universe of Energy?

 

[Coaster Lover]

The future is truly in the past...

 

[WorldExplorer]

I think the mass of Seekers got last ride. What a fitting send off

I hate to be a buzzkill (believe me I wish this happened), but this didn't happen. They came back in from the exit area calmly, then a couple of minutes later a different group came through and the applause happened, followed by the "please leave".

Besides it coming at the expense of prehistory and extinction representation in the park, I feel like the biggest driver of skepticism towards the project is the lack of a live animal exhibit component. Like there'd be a lot less "Is Encanto actually going to focus on Antonio's animal buddies or are they just a cover for Disney to program robots to sing the Bruno meme song everybody forgot already?" questions if they had a capybara enclosure somewhere outside.

My biggest source of skepticism is pattern recognition.

Guardians of the Galaxy is not about the Big Bang.

Frozen Ever After is not about Norway. Remy's is not about France.

Zootopia is not about biomes.

And that's just the ones that get the "maybe they can make it work" label, not counting the ones where they just threw up their hands and said "yeah whatever we're just going to write some crap about how words have new meanings now" because there's no way to even pretend it'll be made to work like Cars in Frontierland.

The one instance people have of it supposedly being done is Pandora (and even then...); that's not a good track record. Disney clearly doesn't have any interest in anything outside of superficial token gestures towards pretending to care.

Even some of the biggest proponents of this change openly don't think this is going to happen and instead just argue we shouldn't care.

It’s as if they believe it was either total replacement or nothing. A new area that’s still based on dinosaurs to replace the carnival? Crazy talk. People hate dinosaurs.

Have they already started selling Indiana Jones and Mirabel dolls in there?

There are a few things I want to point out really quick:

- Someone at Disney felt it was worthwhile to go through the time and effort to design and order the new dinosaur toys for the Fossil Fun Games, which are clearly better quality and cost the company more than the old ones (complete with ticket price increase).

- The Dinosaur gift shop removed conventional Dinosaur merchandise like shirts and pins for a while...but it never stopped selling dinosaurs.

- After carving Dinoland up so badly you can't even tell what it is from the outside, suddenly a merchandise cart selling dinosaur toys appeared outside of the walls.

Not even Disney believes the "dinosaurs don't sell/aren't popular anymore" thing.

 

[bmr1591]

I’m sorry I’ll be more diplomatic.

Two posters in the last pages said they are done with Animal Kingdom and thinks that Dinoland USA was the last integral part of Animal Kingdom. I don’t get why Tropical Americas is a bad fit.

When everything is sacred, nothing is. Two years ago, people on this very site were critical of Dinosaur, said it was too dark, that it wasn’t enjoyed like Indy at Land and that work needed to be done to fix it. The moment it was announced to be leaving, oh gosh is it a gem. How dare they gut the VERY SOUL of the park?! The absolute rewriting of history with dino-rimmed glasses is eye-roll worthy.

All that said, most are responding in this way for a few reasons:

1. They lack faith in current Imagineering to do anything well, so they’re afraid Tropical Americas will simply be another Better Zoogether. (Side note: I’m not sure why people here were critical of Chapek saying he didn’t trust Imagineers to build the marvel e-ticket when y’all clearly feel the same way about anything they touch.)

2. Nostalgia of what once was. It’s not always about the success of an attraction on the books, but the memories of past trips with loved ones (some of whom are now gone) when you rode said attraction.

3. People just hating any semblance of change. We’ve got plenty of land, so let (in this case) an e-ticket attraction rot with 10 minute waits in a park with seven attractions.


Dinoland is gone for a variety of good reasons. I do have sympathy for those with great nostalgia for the land, but let’s not cloud the reality of what we’ve lost.

 

[Casper Gutman]

What’s mind-boggling is not just how much of three of the resort’s four parks is currently closed, it’s that out of all those massive projects this is the only remotely interesting one and the only one likely to meaningfully improve a park.

 

[The Leader of the Club]

What’s mind-boggling is not just how much of three of the resort’s four parks is currently closed, it’s that out of all those massive projects this is the only remotely interesting one and the only one likely to meaningfully improve a park.

I think DHS is moving in the right direction as well. Animation Studios will be much more popular than launch bay, and Monstropolis will finally funnel guests into that courtyard. I would have much preferred to see a family attraction than ANOTHER coaster, but it’s still better than just a parking lot.