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

[Disnutz311]

I'm really glad they're not doing the Moana/Zootopia Dinoland replacement. I don't like the idea of removing dinosaurs from the park entirely (did Disney look at everyone complaining about Dino-Rama and come to the conclusion that people don't like dinosaurs anymore?), but I do like the idea of Animal Kingdom getting a South America land... just not at the expense of Dinoland.

I have the following conditions...

1) Have the Indiana Jones ride focus on Indy encountering dinosaurs, allowing you to retain as many of the dinosaur animatronics from Dinosaur as possible (as others have suggested, especially since the Carnotaurus apparently lived in Argentina).

2) Keep the focus of the land on animals and the natural world. I don't want Encanto and Indiana Jones Land, neither IP really fits in Animal Kingdom at all what with them not being about animals (yes, I know Antonio exists, but Disney's likely to have the Encanto attraction focus on Mirabel over him since she's the lead character). I think Up and Rio would be more fitting IPs to have here than either of them.

3) Don't make the Encanto attraction another trackless dark ride. The novelty of those has worn off. I want to go back to busbar dark rides that don't just spin around in enormous spread-out rooms or park the riders in front of a screen.

Is it too much to hope that Disney reconsiders the idea? Maybe do a Dinoland refresh that actually involves DINOSAURS and other prehistoric animals? Disney owns Ice Age now, that Buck movie on Disney Plus shows that they're still willing to milk the franchise...


Considering how long it took them to build Runaway Railway, Tron, and Guardians of the Galaxy? I don't know.

This IS the same company that assumed The Princess and the Frog underperformed because it was hand-drawn and stopped doing theatrical Muppet movies because Muppets Most Wanted flopped. Fifty-percent chance they don't learn from their mistakes and just assume that people don't care about Indiana Jones anymore.

1) No. Just No. The Land is Tropical Americas. A real place just like Asia and Africa. Where are there real dinosaurs today? No time travel for Indy either. Pretty simple it writes itself. Deep in the jungle of South America Indy discovers an ancient ruin with an artifact. The adventure begins with us and calamity ensues and then we are saved. Done.

2)Again, Tropical Americas is the Land. Encanto and Indy are residents and a visitor. Think of the land first. Hopefully they will do it right with authentic style and animal enclosure/paths (which has been backed by others here that talks are happening to animal experts/zoologists).

3)Yeah, that is a strong no again. I think you might be in the complete majority of people wanting a busbar over tech and trackless. I do agree that they need to show more than giant rooms and spinning around.

Dinoland is dead. I don't like it either and Dinos do belong in this park. Let's all cry for about a month and then move on. Disney does not want to keep with Universal's Jurassic Park which for most tourist is superior.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

They shared nothing about the attraction ideas beyond that the placement of the Indy area implied overlaying Dinosaur and there appeared to be some sort of covered flat ride in the Encanto area (could be repurposing TriceratopSpin or something new)

Having ridden Mystic Manor it would be a great fit for a ride set in the Madrigal house, but just speculation

 

[FettFan]

This is such b.s. They're deliberately killing Animal Kingdom just as they killed Epcot.

 

[Eric M Blake]

I'm really glad they're not doing the Moana/Zootopia Dinoland replacement. I don't like the idea of removing dinosaurs from the park entirely (did Disney look at everyone complaining about Dino-Rama and come to the conclusion that people don't like dinosaurs anymore?), but I do like the idea of Animal Kingdom getting a South America land... just not at the expense of Dinoland.

I have the following conditions...

1) Have the Indiana Jones ride focus on Indy encountering dinosaurs, allowing you to retain as many of the dinosaur animatronics from Dinosaur as possible (as others have suggested, especially since the Carnotaurus apparently lived in Argentina).

Plus a relatively small sauropod (long-neck) lived in the Amazon. Not an Iguanadon, sadly...but still.

No time travel for Indy either. Pretty simple it writes itself. Deep in the jungle of South America Indy discovers an ancient ruin with an artifact. The adventure begins with us and calamity ensues and then we are saved. Done.

Keep in mind, *Animal* Kingdom.

BTW, it's not time travel we're getting at, but a legendary "lost world" a la Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

 

[Mike S]

1) No. Just No. The Land is Tropical Americas. A real place just like Asia and Africa. Where are there real dinosaurs today? No time travel for Indy either. Pretty simple it writes itself. Deep in the jungle of South America Indy discovers an ancient ruin with an artifact. The adventure begins with us and calamity ensues and then we are saved. Done.

2)Again, Tropical Americas is the Land. Encanto and Indy are residents and a visitor. Think of the land first. Hopefully they will do it right with authentic style and animal enclosure/paths (which has been backed by others here that talks are happening to animal experts/zoologists).

3)Yeah, that is a strong no again. I think you might be in the complete majority of people wanting a busbar over tech and trackless. I do agree that they need to show more than giant rooms and spinning around.

Dinoland is dead. I don't like it either and Dinos do belong in this park. Let's all cry for about a month and then move on. Disney does not want to keep with Universal's Jurassic Park which for most tourist is superior.

Jurassic Park is only superior because Disney allows it to be. I have no doubt Disney has the capability to run circles around the River Adventure and even the new ride in Beijing. They just don’t want to and would prefer a simpler route.

 

[doctornick]

Jurassic Park is only superior because Disney allows it to be. I have no doubt Disney has the capability to run circles around the River Adventure and even the new ride in Baijing. They just don’t want to and would prefer a simpler route.

Jurassic Park is pretty lousy for people who want to experience dinosaurs in their majesty and glory. That land treats them as monsters/threats. There's absolutely a market in theme parks to experience seeing and learning about dinosaurs as a part of nature which is not filled by Uni.

 

[Disnutz311]

Jurassic Park is only superior because Disney allows it to be. I have no doubt Disney has the capability to run circles around the River Adventure and even the new ride in Baijing. They just don’t want to and would prefer a simpler route.

Completely agree. But I don't think we need two lands about Dinosaurs within a 15 minute drive and Universal has clearly one with the mass tourist. Disney should have some with the gusto on day one, but budget cuts got the best of them.

 

[celluloid]

Completely agree. But I don't think we need two lands about Dinosaurs within a 15 minute drive and Universal has clearly one with the mass tourist. Disney should have some with the gusto on day one, but budget cuts got the best of them.

They used to have them in two of their own parks.
There is nothing inherently wrong with different takes on dinos if all are done well. Disney let theirs rot.

 

[RobbinsDad]

This is the honestly the best news of a meh news day. Tropical Americas is a much better fit for AK than Zooana ever was, even if it means shoehorning other hot IP into the park. As long as they make it as immersive as Anandapur and Harambe. Considering Encanto is set in an actual village, this should be easy to do.

 

[SirLink]

I guess it's not at all surprising, but it's a little disappointing to see all the sites reporting this as an "announcement", when they made it clear that this is still blue sky planning and may or may not actually happen.

Or misinterpret concept art to state another IP is being added aka Coco rather than just the town from Encanto. Or people thinking Zootopia in ITTBAB is 100% finalised or that they are putting a Pirate restaurant in MK rather than the bar that they are actually doing.

On that note these D23 events in September are so dumb ... I know why they do them in September but at least at the end of October you would have had the board approved funding for projects and make Disney look more competent. However, like I said I understand why they do these D23 events in September for essentially for focus group testing.

 

[Thepuma]

This is such b.s. They're deliberately killing Animal Kingdom just as they killed Epcot.

How so?....since Epcot got Guardians and Remy, its gone from being my least favorite park (by a country mile) to my second favourite behind HS.

AK is in desperate need of more attractions. Dinoland is the perfect place to do this - they have a dated, baron, mainly deleted part of the park and a poor old Dinosaur ride. If AK could build another major ride in Dinoland...akin to Tron,Guardians or a Remy type ride then the park would hugely benefit.

 

[FettFan]

Jurassic Park is only superior because Disney allows it to be. I have no doubt Disney has the capability to run circles around the River Adventure and even the new ride in Baijing. They just don’t want to and would prefer a simpler route.

They even have an IP to work with!

 

[haveyoumetmark]

The meltdowns that will ensue when casita turns out to be a meet and greet. I am concerned but cautiously optimistic.

 

[RobbinsDad]

How so?....since Epcot got Guardians and Remy, its gone from being my least favorite park (by a country mile) to my second favourite behind HS.

AK is in desperate need of more attractions. Dinoland is the perfect place to do this - they have a dated, baron, mainly deleted part of the park and a poor old Dinosaur ride. If AK could build another major ride in Dinoland...akin to Tron,Guardians or a Remy type ride then the park would hugely benefit

The problem is AK isn't getting any more attractions. It's actually ok because Dinosaur and ITTBAB needed refreshing, and the Encanto Manor ride could be awesome, worth more than Primeval Whirl and Tri-ceratop Spin combined. Adding a tropical animals walk-through would equal the attractions AK had pre-covid. The hope is that in the VERY distant future, AK can finally start to focus on adding attractions - a 3rd Pandora attraction would be the perfect start.

 

[FettFan]

How so?....since Epcot got Guardians and Remy, its gone from being my least favorite park (by a country mile) to my second favourite behind HS.

AK is in desperate need of more attractions. Dinoland is the perfect place to do this - they have a dated, baron, mainly deleted part of the park and a poor old Dinosaur ride. If AK could build another major ride in Dinoland...akin to Tron,Guardians or a Remy type ride then the park would hugely benefit.

1. Guardians doesn't belong in Epcot. It never belonged in Epcot, and they had to rename Future World in a lame attempt to justify their bad decision.

2. Animal Kingdom's entire thesis is wildlife conservation. Coco doesn't deal with wildlife conservation, neither does Encanto.
The only thing Indiana Jones has to do with animals is he's afraid of snakes.

And there was a Nazi monkey.

And Zootopia isn't actually about animals; it's a hamfisted metaphor for race relations (an issue that is unique to humans only) that makes no damn sense because animals are naturally either "predator" or "prey" depending on the circumstances.


Avatar actually made sense for DAK, as the entire point of the movie was "don't mess up the environment with strip mining". And Avatar 2 was "don't mess up the environment by eating whale brains".

 

[Disnutz311]

The meltdowns that will ensue when casita turns out to be a meet and greet. I am concerned but cautiously optimistic.

LOL. True but I don't think that will be the case. Encanto is the new ride and Indy is the overlay. Carousel at a high level is off the shelf just modified. Disney Budget Brass likes the sound of 1 and 1/2 new rides and a spinner, better than three completely new ones.

 

[SirLink]

1. Guardians doesn't belong in Epcot. It never belonged in Epcot, and they had to rename Future World in a lame attempt to justify their bad decision.

2. Animal Kingdom's entire thesis is wildlife conservation. Coco doesn't deal with wildlife conservation, neither does Encanto.
The only thing Indiana Jones has to do with animals is he's afraid of snakes.

And there was a Nazi monkey.

And Zootopia isn't actually about animals; it's a hamfisted metaphor for race relations (an issue that is unique to humans only) that makes no damn sense because animals are naturally either "predator" or "prey" depending on the circumstances.


Avatar actually made sense for DAK, as the entire point of the movie was "don't mess up the environment with strip mining". And Avatar 2 was "don't mess up the environment by eating whale brains".

Someone never read the Indy books from the 90s he saves the last living Triceratops

 

[Thepuma]

1. Guardians doesn't belong in Epcot. It never belonged in Epcot, and they had to rename Future World in a lame attempt to justify their bad decision.

2. Animal Kingdom's entire thesis is wildlife conservation. Coco doesn't deal with wildlife conservation, neither does Encanto.
The only thing Indiana Jones has to do with animals is he's afraid of snakes.

And there was a Nazi monkey.

And Zootopia isn't actually about animals; it's a hamfisted metaphor for race relations (an issue that is unique to humans only) that makes no damn sense because animals are naturally either "predator" or "prey" depending on the circumstances.


Avatar actually made sense for DAK, as the entire point of the movie was "don't mess up the environment with strip mining". And Avatar 2 was "don't mess up the environment by eating whale brains".

Guardians is a space theme film - How would that not fit in Space themed Epcot?

 

[FettFan]

Also, why would they even kill Dinoland for these anyway?

There's a MASSIVE expansion area between Asia and Rafiki's Planet Watch.

 

[FettFan]

Someone never read the Indy books from the 90s he saves the last living Triceratops

I read Indiana Jones and the Interior World and it was terrible.

TLDR: Indy goes on a Journey to the Center of the Earth style adventure, but when he gets back, Marcus Brody convinces him he was actually on drugs the whole time and the adventure was a hallucination.