Rumor Is Indiana Jones Planning an Adventure to Disney's Animal Kingdom?

[BenJacobs]

My initial reaction is, DHS would be so much better for this. But then again, Disney made a lot of effort to explain how Pandora fit into Animal Kingdom and their reasoning had a lot to do with the conservation/harmony with the land message. And imo it actually works and Pandora is my new favorite Disney hangout. I don't know how but maybe they can somehow make this fit too??? Maybe the land will be populated with lots and lots of snakes... Anyway, dinorama needs to go, but I would prefer they just upgraded the land and kept it dinosaur themed and put Indy in DHS.

But it's easy to see how Avatar could fit into Animal Kingdom(it's lifelike, the themes are about conservation of nature, etc), Indy just has no connection no lifelike nature, or conservative, or any other theme that could work at Animal Kingdom.

 

[ryguy]

The track layout is the same, but the experience is completely different, completely different storylines and theming.

Dinosaur is one of my favourite rides at WDW, I would hate for it to go, it's still very popular, there's no need to cahnge it to a ride of similar popularity.

Your right not the same ride, I was talking about the track layout and ride system is the same.You can see why the bean counters would push for the easy/less expensive thing to do.

 

[Spike-in-Berlin]

An Indy based redo of Dinoland is one option on the table, and it is probably in the top two as of now. One thing to remember is that IJA in Disneyland may be in a Southern Asian temple, but a few, small tweaks resulted in Tokyo's version being based in South America.

If we would get IJA I would always prefer the TDS South America version to the DL version but please minus those crystal skulls, perhaps the South America Chachapoyan temple from the Raiders prologue works better although it was actually Kauai, they didn't even fit good into movie.

 

[BenJacobs]

Did Disney start making non-fiction blockbusters?

Lands don't need to be IP based, and I think that non-IP based lands work better in Animal Kingdom, with few exceptions(Avatar, the Lion King). Look at Dinoland, Asia, Africa and the Oasis Exhibits, they aren't IP based, they include a lot of non-fiction, and they are amazing.

 

[Glasgow]

IJA is my favorite Disney ride, bar none, so I wouldn't mind seeing it over in AK. The level of immersion is beyond anything else, save for the classics like HM and POTC. I also think Dinoland has been a long time blight on such a beautiful park, regardless of it fitting it's original theme and purpose. CTX/Dinosaur is the only saving grace over there except for the boneyard, which is a pretty solid kid-sized offering. However, CTX and IJA have identical layouts and the boneyard is already basically an archaeological dig, so you could see how WDI could easily convert the theme. Although IJ should still really be over in DHS, it would provide nice balance in AK and allow them to fill the 4 corners of the park with major rides/lands to finalize the crowd distribution.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I never liked the idea of Pandora, but it always fit AK's theme - Avatar has about as hamhanded a message of conservation as you can get. WDW dropped the ball a bit by not including more alien animals, but that's a problem of design, not concept.

I love Indy, and I REALLY want an Indy land. But I don't want it here and I don't want it to replace existing attractions in a park that needs more capacity (though not as badly as the others). I REALLY don't want the loss of a unique ride and its replacement by a ride that exists at several other parks.

And the loss of all the dinosaurs - what's the logic here? If WDW is ostensibly changing things to breed a whole new generation of fans (they're not), are we to believe a 40-year-old film franchise has more kid appeal then dinos?

I think it's relevant to start asking a question: Is today's WDW, which is bent on replacing every beloved ride, eliminating uniqueness for standardization, and ignoring thematic unity, actually preferable to Disney of the last decade, which just let the parks rot? Which approach is less-worse (they're connected of course, but I'm distinguishing for this question)?

 

[drizgirl]

Lands don't need to be IP based, and I think that non-IP based lands work better in Animal Kingdom, with few exceptions(Avatar, the Lion King). Look at Dinoland, Asia, Africa and the Oasis Exhibits, they aren't IP based, they include a lot of non-fiction, and they are amazing.

You might not think they need to be IP based. And I might not think they need to be IP based. But I have a hunch Bob Chapek does.

 

[BenJacobs]

IJA is my favorite Disney ride, bar none, so I wouldn't mind seeing it over in AK. The level of immersion is beyond anything else, save for the classics like HM and POTC. I also think Dinoland has been a long time blight on such a beautiful park, regardless of it fitting it's original theme and purpose. CTX/Dinosaur is the only saving grace over there except for the boneyard, which is a pretty solid kid-sized offering. However, CTX and IJA have identical layouts and the boneyard is already basically an archaeological dig, so you could see how WDI could easily convert the theme. Although IJ should still really be over in DHS, it would provide nice balance in AK and allow them to fill the 4 corners of the park with major rides/lands to finalize the crowd distribution.

Dino-rama could be changed with few people caring, but Dinosaur(the ride that is) is still very popular, just as popular as Indiana Jones would be if it were converted(so there would be no point in spending heaps to change it to a ride of similar popularity).

I think the best thing they could do to Dinoland is to replace Dino-rama with The Excavator, as they were going to do, it would make the land much better themed(without having to retheme the rest of the land), and it would provide a new, very popular, roller coaster.

 

[larryz]

I sure hope not. I'd love for Indy to have a greater presence at WDW, but AK is not the park for it.

I disagree -- animals and insects are huge plot devices in each one of Indy's adventures... snakes, tarantulas, rats, bats, giant beetles, ants...

 

[BenJacobs]

You might not think they need to be IP based. And I might not think they need to be IP based. But I have a hunch Bob Chapek does.

Unfortunately... IP lands are very good, but only if they fit in the park(Star Wars, Toy Story and Avatar lands are or will be great).

 

[BenJacobs]

I disagree -- animals and insects play are huge part in each one of Indy's adventures... snakes, tarantulas, rats, bats, ants...

So does a magic box that melts people's faces, but does that fit in Animal Kingdom?

 

[larryz]

So does a magic box that melts people's faces, but does that fit in Animal Kingdom?

No, that particular prop is a better fit for The Holy Land Experience. But the animals in Indiana Jones movies are key to the plots; one can't summarily dismiss that viable connection vis-a-vis the Animal Kingdom.

 

[Glasgow]

Dino-rama could be changed with few people caring, but Dinosaur(the ride that is) is still very popular, just as popular as Indiana Jones would be if it were converted(so there would be no point in spending heaps to change it to a ride of similar popularity).

I think the best thing they could do to Dinoland is to replace Dino-rama with The Excavator, as they were going to do, it would make the land much better themed(without having to retheme the rest of the land), and it would provide a new, very popular, roller coaster.

All true, but from a marketing/accounting perspective, a full on land/theme change would likely be better for business (at least from the accounting dept's perspective) - particularly if the change doesn't require major infrastructure changes (read: lower capital expenditure). Most everything they have done lately has been intended to make a splash, so I could I could see a major IP announcement for AK once Pandora's newness wears off a bit. All personal conjecture based on recent trends, of course.

 

[BenJacobs]

No, that particular prop is a better fit for The Holy Land Experience. But the animals in Indiana Jones movies are key to the plots; one can't summarily dismiss that viable connection vis-a-vis the Animal Kingdom.

Of course, Indiana Jones fits better into Animal Kingdom than other IPs, but there is still a massive emphasis on the paranormal, so imagining all of the jungle life that could be in exhibits is great, but when they lead up to a ride about an evil statue that you angered by looking into it's eye, the land stops working.

 

[Casper Gutman]

No, that particular prop is a better fit for The Holy Land Experience. But the animals in Indiana Jones movies are key to the plots; one can't summarily dismiss that viable connection vis-a-vis the Animal Kingdom.

Yeah, I think its fine to dismiss that connection because its shaky as heck. Unpleasant animals get about one scene per movie and are in no way related to the central themes of the film (and are largely incidental to the plot). By this logic, Back to the Future would be a better fit for AK because its got a dog who gets a lot more screentime then any animal in Indy.

 

[larryz]

Of course, Indiana Jones fits better into Animal Kingdom than other IPs, but there is still a massive emphasis on the paranormal, so imagining all of the jungle life that could be in exhibits is great, but when they lead up to a ride about an evil statue that you angered by looking into it's eye, the land stops working.

A little paranormal is perfectly in keeping with science fiction (Pandora) and mythical creature (Yeti).

 

[BenJacobs]

All true, but from a marketing/accounting perspective, a full on land/theme change would likely be better for business (at least from the accounting dept's perspective) - particularly if the change doesn't require major infrastructure changes (read: lower capital expenditure). Most everything they have done lately has been intended to make a splash, so I could I could see a major IP announcement for AK once Pandora's newness wears off a bit. All personal conjecture based on recent trends, of course.

I feel the new land would be no better the current one, it would have one very good ride(that doesn't fit at all), but so does the current land, and probably the looping coaster form Paris, but the current land already has just some random coaster. It would end up being about the same popularity, but wouldn't fit.

 

[Jae99]

I would have no problem with IJA inside of a South American themed land. If Joe Rhode is involved, I would hope that he would insist that everything within the land fits with the overall vision of AK.

 

[Spike-in-Berlin]

, and probably whatever that looping ride is called in Paris, which is basically on par with Primeval Whirl) - so they have no reason to change it.

It's called Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril and it is one of the worst rollercoasters in a Disney park IMHO, a makeshift solution from the 90ies, basically an of-the shelf rollercoaster from swiss Intamin which was surrounded by a less than convincing theming (at least for WDI standards), I definitely grew on DLP in the last years but I still cannot get over the fact that this mediocre substitute replaced the originally planned Indy E-Ticket ride, even if it was the first RC in a Disney park with an inversion.I am actually VERY surprised that this rather lame ride made it to such a top-notch park like TDS as Raging Spirits.

 

[BenJacobs]

A little paranormal is perfectly in keeping with science fiction (Pandora) and mythical creature (Yeti).

Both those sci-fi examples work in Animal Kingdom though, they both have themes that relate to conservation or lifelike animals(and the theme of the park is animals of the past(Dinoland), present(Asia, Africa, Oasis), and of the mythical variety(Pandora, the Yeti, but the sci-fi in Indy isn't nature related).