DisneyEarth
Not directly related to the film Earth, but hey, gotta improvise
Either an option for the rumored third gate at Disneyland Resort Paris or the second gate at the Shanghai Disney Resort, this celebration of the planet we inhabit takes tonal and design cues from EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Tokyo DisneySea. Laid out in the vein of the aforementioned EPCOT, DisneyEarth opens a Gateway to the World to a dozen countries worldwide and takes guests to six different ecosystems, ranging from the big blue ocean to the frigid, snowy tundra, in Expedition Nature. State-of-the-art attractions, live animal encounters, and meticulous attention to detail are aplenty to help paint a stunning picture of what makes the Earth beautiful.
Bonus
The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” provides a loose connection to one of DisneyEarth’s features: strawberries are among the fruits grown within the park.
Love this concept! I’d love to hear more about your ideas for this park! Is it something you’ve been thinking of for a while, or did you come up with it for this competition?
I’ve been working on a very similar concept with the same name, which is exactly what you said, a combination of EPCOT’s World Showcase and Animal Kingdom.
In my concept, the park would be divided into sections based on the continents, each subdivided into smaller areas based on individual countries or areas in the continents, and all located around a central lagoon.
You’d start in Europe, with the entrance branching into multiple streets toward the lagoon, each themed to a different European country.
Then you’d travel around the lagoon toward Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
There would be large scale animal rides in Africa (Kilimanjaro Safari), Oceania (Outback Expedition), and the Americas (Amazon River Journey). There would be other smaller animal exhibits throughout the other lands. You could fit in several mountain coasters, similar to Everest, Matterhorn, or the never built Mt Fuji coaster. Add in other non-ip rides such as a Canadian Rockies Rapids raft ride, the Rhine River Cruise, or a Japan Bullet Train simulator. IP usage would be limited to IPs that can directly relate to and showcase the real-life culture of the area where they take place. I’m thinking things like Coco, Mulan, and Hunchback of Notre Dame. Possibly Jungle Book or Lion King done in the style of Festival of the Lion King, where it’s the local people presenting the story. Each area would also feature exhibit space like the World Showcase pavilions do, with content that rotates in and out periodically.
And the final section of the park would be World Plaza, an entire land done in the style of the its a small world facade, with lots of simple forms and a color palette of white and gold. The land would feature its a small world (obviously), Soaring Over the World, and a kids play area with an ornate double decker carousel, splash pad, and some other spinner. It could also host an animal care exhibit and petting zoo, similar to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.
The park icon would be a giant spinning globe in World Plaza, right at the lagoon’s edge, which would feature in the park’s nighttime spectacular, a lagoon show called IllumiNations: Our Shared Story.
