News Zootopia and Moana Blue Sky concepts for Disney's Animal Kingdom

[RSoxNo1]

As I mentioned before, Byron Howard, director of Zootopia, and the writers disagree with Rohde's description of the movie.

I assume "no pants" is a joke.

Fixed autocorrect.

They could use the familiarity of Zootopia characters to tell a different, more relevant story in DAK. That being said, the themes of Zootopia are a much bigger stretch for DAK than Moana's themes.

I do have a thought on how to treat Zootopia in the parks that's a bit unique, but I'm saving it for an upcoming podcast.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I believe @ToTBellHop implied that the Moana blue sky from D23, which some here have hypothesized to be part of a Oceania themed land alongside Nemo, will include some live animals.



Um... well while you are right that there is some thematic overlap between EPCOT and Animal Kingdom, you couldn't just pick up World Nature and plop it in the middle of DAK. There is more to Animal Kingdom than just nature/envionmentalism, as I have mentioned here before. For one, there is one key difference in the way Animal Kingdom and EPCOT approach their themes. EPCOT expects its guests to learn directly through edutainment— such as what we see in the land pavillion. Animal Kingdom however expects experiencing an adventure to change its guests' philosophies. This is one of the core tenets of Disney's Animal Kingdom, referred to by Joe Rohde as "psychological transformation through adventure." So, an EPCOT attraction would not feel at place in DAK. Even if said attraction happened to be about nature.

It's also worth noting that Animal Kingdom is more focused on animals themselves than World Nature is. I mean, sure, DAK definitely is about more than just animals, but the primary focus of the park by far is the animal kingdom— hence the parks name, its mission statement, and Joe Rohde's various instagram posts explaining the origins of the parks themes' as being derived from the basic concept of a wildlife theme park.

Living with the land is EPCOT edutainment. It wouldn't fit the theme of "transformation through adventure" in DAK.

Very well said. However, I do think some EPCOT items would work better as direct lifts. Something like Turtle Talk would work, as would Living with the Land citing DAK's Personal Call to Action theme.

 

[Advisable Joseph]

... as would Living with the Land citing DAK's Personal Call to Action theme.

Remember the implied zeroeth rule: Animal Kingdom is about animals.

Of course, if the park was still named Wild Animal Kingdom, or was named Wilderness World, we may not be having some the problems that we're having. Certain ideas might not come up.

 

[BrianLo]

Does anybody think that they will ever build another land with actual animal exhibits? (Even if it's a walk-through attraction).
I'm just thinking of how much backstage room is required for the animals...

Probably not to the extreme scale of the original exhibits or the major walk throughs. But I have some vague optimism Oasis-lite or Discovery island like exhibits could come in the future.

For example I sort of expect a Manta Ray feature if Moana were to come.

 

[BlakeW39]

Joe Rhode is gone.
and No Dinoland doesn't, your opinion may be valid for you, but not for me. We can agree to disagree, but Joe isn't there anymore unfortunately, cause if he was we wouldn't even discuss Zootopia in AK.

Um... uh huh. Moving on...

Does anybody think that they will ever build another land with actual animal exhibits? (Even if it's a walk-through attraction).
I'm just thinking of how much backstage room is required for the animals...

I don't think so...but definitely update existing exhibits...

Probably not to the extreme scale of the original exhibits or the major walk throughs. But I have some vague optimism Oasis-lite or Discovery island like exhibits could come in the future.

For example I sort of expect a Manta Ray feature if Moana were to come.

Insiders have said in the past that the Moana blue sky from D23 will include some live animal exhibits. From what I remember they were supposed to be small though, more like the ones found in the Oasis or Discovery Island, and not anything real big like the exhibits found in Africa or Asia.

I'd imagine birds, reptiles, maybe small mammals and perhaps some aquatic species like tropical fish, rays, or smaller sharks are possible. Nothing huge however and I wouldn't imagine they'd build any big aquariums with the larger aquatic species.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Um... uh huh. Moving on...





Insiders have said in the past that the Moana blue sky from D23 will include some live animal exhibits. From what I remember they were supposed to be small though, more like the ones found in the Oasis or Discovery Island, and not anything real big like the exhibits found in Africa or Asia.

I'd imagine birds, reptiles, maybe small mammals and perhaps some aquatic species like tropical fish, rays, or smaller sharks are possible. Nothing huge however and I wouldn't imagine they'd build any big aquariums with the larger aquatic species.

How about an exhibit with a dumb chicken that keeps falling over? Oh wait, they've already named one of the Epcot parking lots after him (which makes total sense of course).

 

[BlakeW39]

How about an exhibit with a dumb chicken that keeps falling over? Oh wait, they've already named one of the Epcot parking lots after him (which makes total sense of course).

heheh, you're preachin to the choir pal, that stupid little bird makes me want Chick-Fil-A lmao.

 

[flyerjab]

It could, depending on how it is placed. I am not saying it should be done, just saying that it could fit if properly placed. Oh, and why does Epcot have to own the only edutainment?

Epcot isn’t the only park with edutainment. DAK is loaded with it. Look at the field notes on the animal walking paths. Speak to the cast members on those same paths. The information on the safari is educational. There is edutainment in Dinoland. There is edutainment at Rafiki’s. I have always noticed this thought that Epcot is the only park with edutainment and it isn’t true at all. Now, is it concerning physical sciences, futurism, etc.? Nope. But it is loaded with discovery regarding the natural sciences. They did a great job with this in this park.

 

[doctornick]

Does anybody think that they will ever build another land with actual animal exhibits? (Even if it's a walk-through attraction).
I'm just thinking of how much backstage room is required for the animals...

I don't think they would build another long trail a la Gorilla Falls or Maharajah Trek but I wouldn't be surprised to see an individual enclosure or two or three added along a path or within a land. Like how Dinoland USA has Crocodiles.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

I’m sure Bruce Vaughn will come up with something good and appropriate for Animal Kingdom, since he has been with Disney since the 1990s.

 

[Phicinfan]

Epcot isn’t the only park with edutainment. DAK is loaded with it. Look at the field notes on the animal walking paths. Speak to the cast members on those same paths. The information on the safari is educational. There is edutainment in Dinoland. There is edutainment at Rafiki’s. I have always noticed this thought that Epcot is the only park with edutainment and it isn’t true at all. Now, is it concerning physical sciences, futurism, etc.? Nope. But it is loaded with discovery regarding the natural sciences. They did a great job with this in this park.

I actually agree with you, was pointing that out to the other person I was replying to

 

[Phicinfan]

How about an exhibit with a dumb chicken that keeps falling over? Oh wait, they've already named one of the Epcot parking lots after him (which makes total sense of course).

Don't forget the pig, Pua has to be involved as well

 

[Phicinfan]

According to the park's designer?

I don't know what to tell you if you can't see how Dinoland demonstrates the intrinsic value of nature, psychological transformation through adventure, and a personal call to action. It's literally all there.

First off, I don't recall the designer saying that, so my mistake. That being said, this was a last minute change and I doubt they would come out and admit it doesn't fit. But that could be the pessimist in me.

But no, and of course I am NOT an expert on design in any way, Dinoland does not cover psychological transformation through adventure when its a mock of a county fair. Dinosaur the ride yes, the land no. I also don't see Dinoland as a personal call to action - its a fair.

Either way, it doesn't matter, as pointed above Disney will do what Disney will do, and the original designer sadly has left the building

 

[Dinoman96]

Yeah as much as I hate to say it, Joe Rohde is gone, and thus what Animal Kingdom had originally stood for is gone with him. The inmates have taken over the Aslyum and it won't be too long before AK is transformed into yet another brainless IP dump park.

 

[BlakeW39]

Epcot isn’t the only park with edutainment. DAK is loaded with it. Look at the field notes on the animal walking paths. Speak to the cast members on those same paths. The information on the safari is educational. There is edutainment in Dinoland. There is edutainment at Rafiki’s. I have always noticed this thought that Epcot is the only park with edutainment and it isn’t true at all. Now, is it concerning physical sciences, futurism, etc.? Nope. But it is loaded with discovery regarding the natural sciences. They did a great job with this in this park.

I actually agree with you, was pointing that out to the other person I was replying to

DAK has edutainment but it accomplishes it differently from EPCOT. That's why I called LWTL 'EPCOT edutainment.' In LWTL, you are told information directly as if you are a passive member of an audience. In DAK, you learn by being an active participant in your own adventures, which change you and teach you things. That's why you can't just take an EPCOT pavillion and plop it into DAK. The two parks approach their subject matters very differently.

 

[SpectreJordan]

One of the weirdest parts of the Zootopia stuff is that it seems like just a ride & maybe a mini-themed area. Why not just put that in Magic or Hollywood then?

I actually think Zootopia could support a full land; the worldbuilding in that movie was fantastic. But they should wait to see how the sequel does before they think about doing a land...but not in AK lol

 

[Bocabear]

Hollywood Studios would work...it is unfortunate that they hemmed that park in... vision was too small and left little room for expansion.

 

[BlakeW39]

If I had to choose, I guess I would put Zootopia in Hollywood Studios. Moana could support a ride in Adventureland for sure. In my perfect world neither would touch DAK. But Moana at least wouldn't completely ruin DAK as a park.

 

[Phicinfan]

One of the weirdest parts of the Zootopia stuff is that it seems like just a ride & maybe a mini-themed area. Why not just put that in Magic or Hollywood then?

I actually think Zootopia could support a full land; the worldbuilding in that movie was fantastic. But they should wait to see how the sequel does before they think about doing a land...but not in AK lol

In the right park Zootopia could be a great mini-land. DHS could really use this in animation courtyard

 

[Phicinfan]

If I had to choose, I guess I would put Zootopia in Hollywood Studios. Moana could support a ride in Adventureland for sure. In my perfect world neither would touch DAK. But Moana at least wouldn't completely ruin DAK as a park.

Would love to see a Moana dark ride in Adventure land, that would be awesome