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

[gorillaball]

I would say it’s in the wrong park, as it was originally proposed as part of the “Beyond Big Thunder” project that was scrapped in favor of Piston Peak.

And Indiana Jones is also being put in the wrong park, as an Indy ride should have replaced the neutered stunt show at DHS.

My question was not real. The person I was responding to has made very clear why he doesn’t think it belongs.

 

[Ayla]

I wouldn't be surprised if Dinosaur cost more than cloning Indy would have.

Either way, a clone of Disneyland's Indy would have made no sense at all in Animal Kingdom.

And still doesn't.

 

[Rhinocerous]

Adding a new nighttime show in the old RoL stadium would be a great complement to Tropical Americas, keeping that area of the park vital at night and taking pressure off of the animal exhibit areas. (They could even hold something fun in the Nemo theater, like a nighttime-exclusive show or meet and greet.)

I know they can't use fireworks because of the animals, but they could easily use drones to do something like the water pageant, suggest fireworks, animals, any number of cool things. Combine that with the fire and water effects from RoL and they could create something very compelling.

Heck, make it an unofficial part of Tropical Americas. The carousel suggests that Disney stories are part of that area's culture. Make the night show a local storyteller's grand tale of animal-based Disney stories, with elements of Lion King, Fantasmic, and HEA. They would eat that IP stuff right up.

 

[Ayla]

Adding a new nighttime show in the old RoL stadium would be a great complement to Tropical Americas, keeping that area of the park vital at night and taking pressure off of the animal exhibit areas. (They could even hold something fun in the Nemo theater, like a nighttime-exclusive show or meet and greet.)

I know they can't use fireworks because of the animals, but they could easily use drones to do something like the water pageant, suggest fireworks, animals, any number of cool things. Combine that with the fire and water effects from RoL and they could create something very compelling.

Heck, make it an unofficial part of Tropical Americas. The carousel suggests that Disney stories are part of that area's culture. Make the night show a local storyteller's grand tale of animal-based Disney stories, with elements of Lion King, Fantasmic, and HEA. They would eat that IP stuff right up.

One drone by itself is obnoxiously loud, I can't imagine hundreds of them and how noisy it would be.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I only want one thing out of both Encanto and the Villains dark ride - AA figures arranged in depth to form a scene. I don’t need bleeding edge figures. Movement can be limited. But I want them DOING something - dancing or arguing with each other, making potions, playing with animals. I don’t want them staring at me and flailing.

I’m preparing for disappointment.

 

[Nickm2022]

I only want one thing out of both Encanto and the Villains dark ride - AA figures arranged in depth to form a scene. I don’t need bleeding edge figures. Movement can be limited. But I want them DOING something - dancing or arguing with each other, making potions, playing with animals. I don’t want them staring at me and flailing.

I’m preparing for disappointment.

I'd be surprised if Indy has many AA's but I do think Encanto and Villains will have a good amount of AA's. At least more than Tiana's and hopefully these one's actually work. Personally I am more curious if they're gonna used that new projection mapping face they teased on the imagineering video they posted recently as I could see that being used for indy

 

[davis_unoxx]

Adding a new nighttime show in the old RoL stadium would be a great complement to Tropical Americas, keeping that area of the park vital at night and taking pressure off of the animal exhibit areas. (They could even hold something fun in the Nemo theater, like a nighttime-exclusive show or meet and greet.)

I know they can't use fireworks because of the animals, but they could easily use drones to do something like the water pageant, suggest fireworks, animals, any number of cool things. Combine that with the fire and water effects from RoL and they could create something very compelling.

Heck, make it an unofficial part of Tropical Americas. The carousel suggests that Disney stories are part of that area's culture. Make the night show a local storyteller's grand tale of animal-based Disney stories, with elements of Lion King, Fantasmic, and HEA. They would eat that IP stuff right up.

Hopefully announced at D23...

 

[Gusey]

One drone by itself is obnoxiously loud, I can't imagine hundreds of them and how noisy it would be.

It'll be interesting to see how the water drones at Disney Adventure World look/sound. Could be something they could use with the Rivers of Light screen

 

[mattpeto]

Not an expert here...

I was trying to figure out if maybe the AK ampitheater is just too small of a lagoon to shoot off drones and provide a limited safe crash zone (water). At least according to AI for sizes, it appears that's not the case as it does somewhat mimic Adventure Bay in terms of acreage.

• Adventure Bay: ~7.5 acres
• EPCOT lagoon: ~40 acres (~5× bigger)
• Animal Kingdom Rivers of Light lagoon: roughly the same scale

They would still have to figure out a way to get the drones to the middle of area and make sure there was no way it could fall onguests. AK ampitheater is not a perfect circle obviously so maybe it's harder to find a safe spot to launch them from the middle.

Probably a tougher sell with risk management is my gut.

 

[Haymarket2008]

I only want one thing out of both Encanto and the Villains dark ride - AA figures arranged in depth to form a scene. I don’t need bleeding edge figures. Movement can be limited. But I want them DOING something - dancing or arguing with each other, making potions, playing with animals. I don’t want them staring at me and flailing.

I’m preparing for disappointment.

This. Not a singular AA at the end of a hallway leading to another AA in between a transitional space, etc

 

[Touchdown]

Not an expert here...

I was trying to figure out if maybe the AK ampitheater is just too small of a lagoon to shoot off drones and provide a limited safe crash zone (water). At least according to AI for sizes, it appears that's not the case as it does somewhat mimic Adventure Bay in terms of acreage.

• Adventure Bay: ~7.5 acres
• EPCOT lagoon: ~40 acres (~5× bigger)
• Animal Kingdom Rivers of Light lagoon: roughly the same scale

They would still have to figure out a way to get the drones to the middle of area and make sure there was no way it could fall onguests. AK ampitheater is not a perfect circle obviously so maybe it's harder to find a safe spot to launch them from the middle.

Probably a tougher sell with risk management is my gut.

Floating dock by FT BBQ, drones are set up nightly by technicians, they never actually leave the Lagoon or transverse guest areas.

 

[James Alucobond]

I only want one thing out of both Encanto and the Villains dark ride - AA figures arranged in depth to form a scene. I don’t need bleeding edge figures. Movement can be limited. But I want them DOING something - dancing or arguing with each other, making potions, playing with animals. I don’t want them staring at me and flailing.

I’m preparing for disappointment.

Thing is, that has literally never been the design of attractions re-telling events from one of their tentpole films. Scary Adventure, Peter Pan, Alice, Pooh, Frozen, Tangled, etc. are always going to be bouncing between (relatively) few animatronics because there are few core characters and the vast majority of the scenes they want to depict involve maybe 2-4 characters unless it’s the opening or finale. The best you might get in some of these scenarios are lots of background non-human characters (e.g. Mermaid, Splash).

The whole notion of the cocktail party only ever played out meaningfully for attractions that didn’t have a specific film narrative they were trying to reproduce (e.g. Pirates, Mansion, etc.).

So, depending on what Villains is, perhaps something to that effect could materialize, but I’d lean toward no. Encanto, no way. Unless you just mean not having them address you directly at all, in which case maybe.

 

[CoastalElite64]

I only want one thing out of both Encanto and the Villains dark ride - AA figures arranged in depth to form a scene. I don’t need bleeding edge figures. Movement can be limited. But I want them DOING something - dancing or arguing with each other, making potions, playing with animals. I don’t want them staring at me and flailing.

I’m preparing for disappointment.

I kinda picture us getting a tour of the house and them looking and singing at us.

Maybe in the attraction we take the role of the villagers from the movie? At least theres a reference for it from the movie.

 

[britain]

I'd be surprised if Indy has many AA's but I do think Encanto and Villains will have a good amount of AA's. At least more than Tiana's and hopefully these one's actually work. Personally I am more curious if they're gonna used that new projection mapping face they teased on the imagineering video they posted recently as I could see that being used for indy

I still don't really understand what that projection mapped face is good for. "Hey, a tear can now trickle down the face of the figure, or a scrape can appear when it wasn't there before!" Unless you are either up REALLY close or you are in a very contrived story where you are required to focus your attention on the figure's cheek, this doesn't seem to be worth it. I think rubber head Harrison Ford works just fine.

 

[britain]

The whole notion of the cocktail party only ever played out meaningfully for attractions that didn’t have a specific film narrative they were trying to reproduce (e.g. Pirates, Mansion, etc.).

Wizard of Oz segment at The Great Movie Ride disagrees.

But besides that, I concede your point: Most IP based attractions don't immerse guests in crowds of animatronics.

Really the whole concept of 'cocktail party' is rooted in the technical limitation of continuous looping action. As soon as the tech became sophisticated enough to move guests into a room where something can happen and then guests leave and the figures reset before the next vehicle of guests, the cocktail party was thrown out.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Agreed - please fill out the show scenes, don't give us scarcely populated and decorated rooms with one fancy animatronic flailing at us.

Another issue with the approach they took on Tiana is that if that ONE key animatronic goes down, that is a very big stretch of the ride track that is lifeless. Also having the very advanced animatronics means they are more prone to breaking down in the first place.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Thing is, that has literally never been the design of attractions re-telling events from one of their tentpole films. Scary Adventure, Peter Pan, Alice, Pooh, Frozen, Tangled, etc. are always going to be bouncing between (relatively) few animatronics because there are few core characters and the vast majority of the scenes they want to depict involve maybe 2-4 characters unless it’s the opening or finale. The best you might get in some of these scenarios are lots of background non-human characters (e.g. Mermaid, Splash).

The whole notion of the cocktail party only ever played out meaningfully for attractions that didn’t have a specific film narrative they were trying to reproduce (e.g. Pirates, Mansion, etc.).

So, depending on what Villains is, perhaps something to that effect could materialize, but I’d lean toward no. Encanto, no way. Unless you just mean not having them address you directly at all, in which case maybe.

There is a distinction between the older IP and non-IP rides, but I’d argue you’re overstating it. Pan has the boat fight, for instance, Scary has the dance scene and dwarf chase finale, Pooh has the windy day and rainy day. There aren’t as many characters as in Pirates or Mansion, but they’re formed into scenes and are interacting with one another. None of the rides you mentioned except Frozen and Mermaid have the figures directly addressing the riders. Frozen is really the prime example of how not to do a dark ride.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Another issue with the approach they took on Tiana

It’s an even bigger issue in Frozen and Pandora River. At least Tiana has a few scenes with smaller AA’s to fill out the scene.

 

[James Alucobond]

There is a distinction between the older IP and non-IP rides, but I’d argue you’re overstating it. Pan has the boat fight, for instance, Scary has the dance scene and dwarf chase finale, Pooh has the windy day and rainy day. There aren’t as many characters as in Pirates or Mansion, but they’re formed into scenes and are interacting with one another. None of the rides you mentioned except Frozen and Mermaid have the figures directly addressing the riders. Frozen is really the prime example of how not to do a dark ride.

Right ... I guess I'm misunderstanding your point a bit. I thought you wanted a ton of visual gags or incidental things happening in the background when that's not typically been the case for the film-based rides. As for being addressed directly by the characters in the ride, this generally only happens when they're either establishing a framing device (e.g. Scuttle in Mermaid) or inventing some novel extrafilmic narrative in which you as the rider are supposed to be involved in the events of the ride (e.g. Frozen Ever After, Tiana's Bayou Adventure). Encanto is actually kind of unique in that the narrative being recounted actually favorably meshes with you being part of the ride since the entire village is invited into Casa Madrigal for Antonio's gift ceremony.

 

[Incomudro]

I only want one thing out of both Encanto and the Villains dark ride - AA figures arranged in depth to form a scene. I don’t need bleeding edge figures. Movement can be limited. But I want them DOING something - dancing or arguing with each other, making potions, playing with animals. I don’t want them staring at me and flailing.

I’m preparing for disappointment.

For sure.
I want each scene to look like a scene.
To work even if the figures are not moving, and the dialog is down.
Like how Splash worked and Tiana's doesn't.