Beastly Kingdom vs Pandora

[BlakeW39]

I mean, Beastly Kingdom is blue sky concept art from before DAK was even built. We don't know what that looks like, and most people who built it up in their heads to be whatever they want it to be. Pandora on the other hand is a realized place, subject to budget cuts, etc. So it's not a fair comparison.

That said, I'd still probably take Beastly Kingdom over Pandora, because thematically, DAK always promised to explore the relationship between man and mythological animals -- as part of the park's core theme of the relationship between man and nature, in all its forms (extant, extinct, and imaginary) -- and to me that requires things like dragons, unicorns, YETIS, and other mythological creatures that have huge influence on human culture. So Beastly Kingdom is, in my opinion, an important piece of the puzzle that is missing in DAK. Maybe not BK specifically, but something like it that explores the same general subject matter, i.e. imaginary creatures that have a profound effect on human culture. Pandora just doesn't do that, good as it may be; it explores the effects a fictional society has had on fictional ecosystems, as an allegory for the real world, it does not explore how fictional animals have had an effect on our real world or society, which is what Beastly Kingdom would do. The two are not thematic proxies.

 

[Ghost93]

I mean, Beastly Kingdom is blue sky concept art from before DAK was even built. We don't know what that looks like, and most people who built it up in their heads to be whatever they want it to be. Pandora on the other hand is a realized place, subject to budget cuts, etc. So it's not a fair comparison.

That said, I'd still probably take Beastly Kingdom over Pandora, because thematically, DAK always promised to explore the relationship between man and mythological animals -- as part of the park's core theme of the relationship between man and nature, in all its forms (extant, extinct, and imaginary) -- and to me that requires things like dragons, unicorns, YETIS, and other mythological creatures that have huge influence on human culture. So Beastly Kingdom is, in my opinion, an important piece of the puzzle that is missing in DAK. Maybe not BK specifically, but something like it that explores the same general subject matter, i.e. imaginary creatures that have a profound effect on human culture. Pandora just doesn't do that, good as it may be; it explores the effects a fictional society has had on fictional ecosystems, as an allegory for the real world, it does not explore how fictional animals have had an effect on our real world or society, which is what Beastly Kingdom would do. The two are not thematic proxies.

I think if Beastly Kingdom was given a billion-dollar budget (in the 1990s) it would have been incredible, but I think it would have likely been subject to budget cuts.

I don't think "Beastly Kingdom" will ever be made at this point, but I don't see why ride ideas can't be incorporated into the Parks somehow. We SHOULD have a Fantasia ride. Maybe not in Animal Kingdom, but in the Magic Kingdom. And you can easily do put the "Dragon Tower" ride in Asia, just change the look of the tower to better resemble something from Asia than something from Medieval Europe. I think the existence of the Yeti in Expedition Everest sort of symbolized a shift away from giving mythological creatures their own land to mythological creatures being represented in the existing lands.