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

KDM31091

KDM31091

Well-Known Member
Quietmouse said:
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.
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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

KDM31091

Well-Known Member
Bleed0range said:
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.
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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

co10064

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
JD80 said:
Are you saying they are less creative and able? I will have to disagree with you on that.
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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.
 
Brer Panther

Brer Panther

Well-Known Member
KDM31091 said:
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.
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They're clearly just doing this because they don't have any popular dinosaur-related IPs. Of course, the most recent Indiana Jones movie flopped, so I don't see why The Good Dinosaur's underperforming should prevent them from doing anything with THAT.
co10064 said:
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
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I'd argue that the Ratatouille ride and Mickey's Slow-Moving Railway suck too. Oh, and who can forget the Beauty and the Beast sing-along and its weird "Lefou was orchestrating everything" subplot?
 
TrainsOfDisney

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
Brer Panther said:
I'd argue that the Ratatouille ride and Mickey's Slow-Moving Railway suck too.
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Oh I don’t think either suck. I’ve only ridden each of them once but I liked Ratatouille better than Cosmic Rewind!

Runaway Railway is fun for what it is - feels like a classic Disney dark ride.

What I don’t understand about the trackless rides is why they must operate in large warehouses that feel like….. large warehouses - are they using some type of overhead cameras to track them?
 
October82

October82

Well-Known Member
TrainsOfDisney said:
Oh I don’t think either suck. I’ve only ridden each of them once but I liked Ratatouille better than Cosmic Rewind!

Runaway Railway is fun for what it is - feels like a classic Disney dark ride.

What I don’t understand about the trackless rides is why they must operate in large warehouses that feel like….. large warehouses - are they using some type of overhead cameras to track them?
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I suspect it’s to minimize the possibility of a ride vehicle impacting a fixed object.

Since that is pretty intrinsic to the ride system, IMO, the best use of the technology is for attractions like Tokyo’s Beauty and the Beast where the point is for the ride vehicles to interact.
 
C

celluloid

Well-Known Member
TrainsOfDisney said:
Oh I don’t think either suck. I’ve only ridden each of them once but I liked Ratatouille better than Cosmic Rewind!

Runaway Railway is fun for what it is - feels like a classic Disney dark ride.

What I don’t understand about the trackless rides is why they must operate in large warehouses that feel like….. large warehouses - are they using some type of overhead cameras to track them?
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Ride envelopes and the gimmick of changing the vehicle order. Mystic Manor does this all much better.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
TrainsOfDisney said:
Oh I don’t think either suck. I’ve only ridden each of them once but I liked Ratatouille better than Cosmic Rewind!

Runaway Railway is fun for what it is - feels like a classic Disney dark ride.

What I don’t understand about the trackless rides is why they must operate in large warehouses that feel like….. large warehouses - are they using some type of overhead cameras to track them?
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There’s the safety aspect of allowing room for the vehicles to overrun their preprogrammed course. It also allows futzing with the ride path. It also lets people see that there is no track.
 
A

AidenRodriguez731

Active Member
co10064 said:
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.
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If we highlight failures like that we could definitely make most eras of WDI look mixed. Errors happen in even the best imagineers due to up above etc. Also I feel like the story of Cosmic Rewind isn't a failure at all but you did say it was subjective. TBA is... I like the ride, think the story could have been better if it more followed the OG movie. Shade I defo agree, I would have added a lot more shade + some more flat rides to give a decent boost to Hollywood Studios ride count.
 
Q

Quietmouse

Well-Known Member
my personal thoughts are that the failures of imagineering is beyond hyperbolic.

Looking back at the past 15 years….

Avatar is great, easily one of the best themed lands imagineering has designed in decades.

Toy Story land at dhs is a great and solid addition. It’s also extremely popular with guests.

Epcot is maybe a bit controversial with the design elements from the reboot, but i think frozen is a very solid and popular attraction, ratatouille is solid , and cosmic rewind is one of my favorites.

Magic kingdom - new fantasyland expansion is popular and a fine addition. I think the mine train roller coaster is fun (kind of miss the dark ride though) and the Ariel dark ride is fine and popular with the crowd it was designed and intended for.

Tron is amazing design wise, but I wish it was longer…

I think I might be missing a few (?) but as a whole I feel like imagineering has generally had way more positive hits and additions than misses.

I think Tiana looks beautiful, but the story definitely has misses, and as a whole it feels like it was rushed and transitioned for political motives against the song of the south.

Not opening that can of worms, but as a whole I’m happy with what imagineering has accomplished and achieved.

I think while there have been the occasional misstep, this board dogs on them wayyyyy too hard.
 

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