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

[Bleed0range]

Exactly. And now we come full circle to my original point.

It's cool and all that everyone gets excited or whatever, but yall should honestly keep your expectations in check. Everytime some new announcements come around, everyone here has to shove their fingers in their ears and act like we haven't been through this before.

It's definitely possible that Encanto is an E-ticket, but that would also go against what we know Disney usually does. Assuming it's gonna be this world class E-ticket on the level of Mystic Manor is just silly. Not because it can't happen but because in situations similar to this, it consistently doesn't.

I think it will be exactly that kind of E ticket precisely because Indy will be a retheme not an entirely new ride (even though it kind of is) and Lin-Manuel Miranda was pushing hard for them to make an Encanto ride and I think they actually will listen to him in some capacity.

 

[Quietmouse]

Usually I would agree with your logic, but does that mean Mulan would fit in Asia at DAK? I think Encanto can and will fit into the park, but there is a slippery slope here for sure.

At this point I wouldn’t mind. Theme it around the mythical animals of China (Chinese dragon as an example).

You can make things fit even if the ip isn’t directly linked to animals.

Also, I desperately want Mulan to get the respect it deserves and get a proper attraction.

 

[Ghost93]

I bet when the Encanto ride opens and it does indeed focus on Antonio and animals like everyone is claiming, we're gonna have a lot of people going "Where's Bruno? Why isn't Bruno in the Encanto ride?", like how everybody's complaining about Dr. Facilier not being in Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

The complaints about Dr. Facillier being absent on TBA have more to do with the ride's story being very boring and feeling like he would add much needed excitement.

I think it's possible to have a fun Encanto ride without Bruno.

 

[Ghost93]

Yes, and Raya, and Turning Red as well.

Raya could definitely fit in Animal Kingdom if the focus was on the dragons (a dragon remains at the center of the animal kingdom logo!). Turning Red, not so much, as the Pandas are really just humans.

 

[Loose Pebble]

Turning Red in DAK would be far, far worse than even a Zootopia land there.

But Turning Red has a panda so it’s animal themed. So it’s a perfect fit.

 

[wdrive]

Yes, and Raya, and Turning Red as well.

Where would Mulan fit in Anandapur?

 

[Loose Pebble]

Where would Mulan fit in Anandapur?

I thought that post was being sarcastic as Mulan wouldn’t fit at all

 

[Quietmouse]

So today I went to the Columbus zoo and they had a dinosaur boat ride (part of their temporary dinosaur exhibit) with hundreds of dinosaur animatronics. It was all themed pretty well (partially due to it taking place in the area of the zoo that already had natural jungle foliage).

It made ponder upon the dinosaur land at animal kingdom and made me realize that they honestly never did enough with it.

Obviously the dark ride is great, but they truly should have added some accompanying rides to go with it.

I think if they actually had a budget for dinosaur land it would still be here today…and mine you, I think it’s a concept that should come back at some point.

But they never did the land the true justice it deserved.

 

[JoeCamel]

So today I went to the Columbus zoo and they had a dinosaur boat ride (part of their temporary dinosaur exhibit) with hundreds of dinosaur animatronics. It was all themed pretty well (partially due to it taking place in the area of the zoo that already had natural jungle foliage).

It made ponder upon the dinosaur land at animal kingdom and made me realize that they honestly never did enough with it.

Obviously the dark ride is great, but they truly should have added some accompanying rides to go with it.

I think if they actually had a budget for dinosaur land it would still be here today…and mine you, I think it’s a concept that should come back at some point.

But they never did the land the true justice it deserved.

You just explained the parking lot

 

[Loose Pebble]

It's sad that they never added the Excavator coaster. They seemed to just give up against Universal IOA's Jurassic Park land . Ironically that land needs more TLC as well. I definitely think if Disney had invested in the land more, they could have beaten Jurassic Park land in quality.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

It's sad that they never added the Excavator coaster. They seemed to just give up against Universal IOA's Jurassic Park land . Ironically that land needs more TLC as well. I definitely think if Disney had invested in the land more, they could have beaten Jurassic Park land in quality.

The thing Disney realized is they won't ever beat the IP. They would always be playing "second fiddle" in peoples mind compared to Jurassic Park because Disney has the "generic dinosaur land" vs the empire that is Jurassic Park. River Adventure is in a terrible state right now in my opinion but Velocicoaster is one of the top coasters in Florida so JP has a huge range of meh to great.

 

[MisterPenguin]

It's sad that they never added the Excavator coaster. They seemed to just give up against Universal IOA's Jurassic Park land . Ironically that land needs more TLC as well. I definitely think if Disney had invested in the land more, they could have beaten Jurassic Park land in quality.

Disney twice failed to make a popular dinosaur movie (and Fox didn't do much better). While Universal ran away with that genre.

So... under the IP mandate.... no dinosaur rides or lands. They did indeed give up. Probably for the best.

 

[Loose Pebble]

I agree with you both that it doesn’t make business sense and we weren’t getting non-IP stuff. I just wish that we could have seen what WDI could have done with dinosaurs without massive budget cuts forcing them to do a parking lot fair.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

I agree with you both that it doesn’t make business sense and we weren’t getting non-IP stuff. I just wish that we could have seen what WDI could have done with dinosaurs without massive budget cuts forcing them to do a parking lot fair.

Well there was a world where we instead got a half-baked Beastly Kingdom so... atleast we kinda got the good ending with Beastly Kingdom inspo seemingly going elsewhere. In a different world, Disney would have figured out the Dino thing and we could have gotten a killer dinosaur land. This reality isn't too bad imo. Dinosaurs should still have some representation in Animal Kingdom but maybe a whole land wasn't ever really going to work out.

 

[Ayla]

We had similar fears about Avatar being a war movie and the land fits seamlessly into the park. The story treatments they've publicly stated give me quite a bit of confidence in this land.

The WDI of a decade ago is not the same as it is today.

 

[Bleed0range]

The WDI of a decade ago is not the same as it is today.

I don’t think this one will be hard to get right. The land itself fits in with other lands of AK and it is really only the IPs from the rides that don’t. But I think that’ll be hidden mostly by the facade with Indy. With Encanto it might be a little less so.

 

[JD80]

The WDI of a decade ago is not the same as it is today.

Are you saying they are less creative and able? I will have to disagree with you on that.

 

[KDM31091]

So today I went to the Columbus zoo and they had a dinosaur boat ride (part of their temporary dinosaur exhibit) with hundreds of dinosaur animatronics. It was all themed pretty well (partially due to it taking place in the area of the zoo that already had natural jungle foliage).

It made ponder upon the dinosaur land at animal kingdom and made me realize that they honestly never did enough with it.

Obviously the dark ride is great, but they truly should have added some accompanying rides to go with it.

I think if they actually had a budget for dinosaur land it would still be here today…and mine you, I think it’s a concept that should come back at some point.

But they never did the land the true justice it deserved.

Exactly. It screams missed potential. Dinosaurs are an ever popular theme, not to mention melding well into AK. If Dinoland were simply plussed rather than eliminated, it would be great.

I am glad the new Tropical Americas area is at least a broad theme in and of itself and not a land strictly for one IP, but that's about where my praise ends so far. We will see how it comes out. I am hopeful they'll throw us a couple dinosaur easter eggs.

 

[KDM31091]

I don’t think this one will be hard to get right. The land itself fits in with other lands of AK and it is really only the IPs from the rides that don’t. But I think that’ll be hidden mostly by the facade with Indy. With Encanto it might be a little less so.

I'm concerned about the Encanto house, not going to lie. I just struggle to see how it will really fit into the park. But, people say the same thing about the existing carnival games, so I guess you can't please everyone.

 

[co10064]

Are you saying they are less creative and able? I will have to disagree with you on that.

I would have been in your same boat, but IMO there’s no denying that WDI has had a mixed bag of successes and failures lately.

Recent WDI failures:
• reliability issues with TBA, ROTR, and the EPCOT hub lighting package (to me these are undeniable)
• TBA and Cosmic Rewind storylines (I’ll admit this one is a bit subjective and perhaps could be blamed on executives and creatives outside of WDI)
• poor use of space and shade in Toy Story Land

That being said, I will praise WDI in particular for Pandora as a whole (probably my favorite thing they’ve done post-Everest) and Guardians’ innovative ride-system (the most fun I’ve ever had on a roller coaster). To me, WDW is so much better than it was a decade ago.