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

[FutureCEO]

These boards are full of people who are passionate about Disney parks that only ever existed in their minds, but hate the Disney parks that actually were and actually are today.

When I was a kid as I'm sure many kids do, I cried during the Haunted Mansion and it's one of my favorite rides.

Can you imagine the furor if Disney ever reimagined the Haunted Mansion?

 

[Dizknee_Phreek]

On the Oceania comments prior, this is what this section of the park could look like at Animal Kingdom using the Polynesian Cultural Center as an example. This tourist attraction is about an hours drive from Aulani and is considered Hawaii's Epcot attraction not owned by Disney:



It has a night time show as well:



They could do a night show like this at the lagoon and it would be popular. This could then lead to Australia being built on the open property next to Africa. Hawaii was used for inspiration for Finding Nemo that has ties to Hawaii and Australia.

I just visited Oahu/Aulani for the first time last week. While on a tour we drove past the Cultural Center but didn't stop. This makes me wish we had.
And I agree they could easily do a Polynesian cultural stage show here...or even smaller scale entertainment throughout the day. Especially since they destroyed the luau at the Polynesian.

 

[DCLcruiser]

When I was a kid as I'm sure many kids do, I cried during the Haunted Mansion and it's one of my favorite rides.

Can you imagine the furor if Disney ever reimagined the Haunted Mansion?

Can you imagine how great it would be! A ride that doesn't stop every 30 seconds completely ruining the atmosphere.


PS, I don't think I rode HM until college. I have no interest in scary...yet I now realize it's a pretty good ride on a hot day (just stop stopping so often...yes I know why it does).

 

[erasure fan1]

Ratatouille was also a net gain, but yeah. A lot of work at WDW ends up just replacing when they need to add.

No it wasn't. We lost body wars so it doesn't net us anything unfortunately.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

So, I’ve been talking awhile about Dinoland being the next area of work at DAK. The map I saw showed a Moana ride taking over Primeval Whirl (and then some) which we now know is the water ride. The spinner gets rethemed, which we see. The rest of Dinoland is rethemed. I believe a Zootopia e-ticket replaces Dinosaur. This is FAR less blue sky than the MK project. I would expect full details on the DAK land at Destination D23 next fall.

Moana can fit in Animal Kingdom if done right. I'd like to see that area turned into a land for sea creatures (real and imaginary). A Moana ride can fit an area like that.

 

[DCLcruiser]

No it wasn't. We lost body wars so it doesn't net us anything unfortunately.

Unless there is some crazy backstory, those two rides have nothing to do with eachother.

Rat is an add, because France didn't have a ride before. So we gained.

Body Wars, Cranium Command and the rest of the pavilion are unrelated. (Yes, I want them, or a new version back).

 

[Epcot82Guy]

Moana can fit in Animal Kingdom if done right. I'd like to see that area turned into a land for sea creatures (real and imaginary). A Moana ride can fit an area like that.

I would tweak that into real sea creatures, but focused on traditional presentations of them from Oceania. The culture of the islands is very tied to nature, water and the creatures that live there. It's a very natural blend of reality and mythology - that also could fit the way DAK has approached Africa, Asia and even Pandora. It also could lend itself to a more aquarium-focused area, which could easily integrate into the caves and designs seen in the concept art. I just hope it's not a Moana miniland with some random animals thrown in. To your point, Moana should be a part of this or maybe inspiration - not the focus. The water and its nature should be the focus.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Moana can fit in Animal Kingdom if done right. I'd like to see that area turned into a land for sea creatures (real and imaginary). A Moana ride can fit an area like that.

Honestly the Moana idea seems less lazy than the Zootopia one. Zootopia is “it has animals, so…” whereas Moana actually fits into the conservation piece like Pandora was extremely successful with. I would argue conservation is the theme of the whole park, honestly. Dinoland adds less to that overall theme than the other lands, so I don’t really mind it leaving but they can do better than Zootopia. Have the whole land become Oceania and Australia and I’d be a happy camper.

And then build Indy at DHS. Finally.

I know. Pipe dream.

 

[_caleb]

Full of them? I can only think of a handful of posters who could conceivably fit into this category.

Otherwise this sounds like a blanket dismissal of anyone who has a different opinion than you as delusional.

I mean, I’ve not done a comprehensive study or anything. But you’ve been on all the D23 threads. Shall I provide a list of folks who are negative about pretty much everything they‘ve announced? Have you visited the Disneyland boards?

And I don’t think people who disagree with me are delusional. I just wonder what they’re fans of.

 

[SirLink]

I am not sure why people are expending so much brain power over what "fits" and what doesn't, Disney management surely isn't.

If we don't know one will. Plus we know people from D-Towers themselves read these forums. We need to fight the good fight...

 

[Dizknee_Phreek]

Put Moana in the Adventureland expansion pad. Outrageous to put her in DAK and Epcot. Hoping this doesn't happen.

Better yet, change the Aladdin area to Moana in Adventureland. Reskin that spinner to the one in the Blue Sky and voila! It fits the Adventureland theming better than Aladdin anyway, and you get an updated attraction based on a more up-to-date IP. And it frees up Dinoland for a different IP (NOT Zootopia, please!). It's a win-win. And they'd still have the option to expand Adventureland if they wanted to.

 

[Bocabear]

Moana can fit in Animal Kingdom if done right. I'd like to see that area turned into a land for sea creatures (real and imaginary). A Moana ride can fit an area like that.

Unfortunately they just blew the budget and opportunity for a Moana/Oceana theme land by building "Journey Of Water" in EPCOT. That ridiculous placement will most likely kill any thought of expanding the franchise at WDW... Imagine what could have been done at Animal Kingdom Replacing Chester and Hester up to the Big Blue theater... It could have had a couple rides (Disco Crab Spinner Please), The Journey Of Water walk through, Tidal pools to explore with real animals...It could have been epic...rather than a misplaced water walk through in the wrong park...

 

[erasure fan1]

Unless there is some crazy backstory, those two rides have nothing to do with eachother.

Rat is an add, because France didn't have a ride before. So we gained.

Body Wars, Cranium Command and the rest of the pavilion are unrelated. (Yes, I want them, or a new version back).

When we talk about a net add, it's about total attractions. Sure rat is a gain for the showcase, but there is no gain for the park as a whole. And that is the big problem with Disneys "expansions".

 

[SirLink]

Honestly the Moana idea seems less lazy than the Zootopia one. Zootopia is “it has animals, so…” whereas Moana actually fits into the conservation piece like Pandora was extremely successful with. I would argue conservation is the theme of the whole park, honestly. Dinoland adds less to that overall theme than the other lands, so I don’t really mind it leaving but they can do better than Zootopia. Have the whole land become Oceania and Australia and I’d be a happy camper.

And then build Indy at DHS. Finally.

I know. Pipe dream.

Moana fits conservation theme like the Ghostbusters fit refuge collection. From briefly watching it many aeroplane flights ago the story is about returning a stolen mystic gem to an enraged god. That isn't a conservation message...

 

[ToTBellHop]

Moana fits conservation theme like the Ghostbusters fit refuge collection. From briefly watching it many aeroplane flights ago the story is about returning a stolen mystic gem to an enraged god. That isn't a conservation message...

Why is she returning it?

Should watch again. And be sure to consider the coconut.

 

[SirLink]

I still vote for Moana/Encanto as part of the AK expansion, including Oceania wildlife and stories with South American ones. Not mine but read elsewhere online: “This would of been a nice spot for Encanto. Isabella’s flower garden, Antonio’s animals, Julieta’s healing food, Augustine’s bee hives, Dolores’s sounds of nature.”

Encanto and Moana don't fit... mythic animals and dinosaurs do. Hence they could use plans they put on the shelf many moons ago.

 

[DCLcruiser]

When we talk about a net add, it's about total attractions. Sure rat is a gain for the showcase, but there is no gain for the park as a whole. And that is the big problem with Disneys "expansions".

I get what you meant, but the time periods are so far apart. It's not like they green lit Rat, and paid for it by closing WoLife, or used its pad (like M:S). We were down multiple attractions for ~14 years. Now we get Rat.

 

[SirLink]

Why is she returning it?

Should watch again. And be sure to consider the coconut.

A ,MacGuffin for Lin Manuel Miranda songs

 

[UNCgolf]

I mean, I’ve not done a comprehensive study or anything. But you’ve been on all the D23 threads. Shall I provide a list of folks who are negative about pretty much everything they‘ve announced? Have you visited the Disneyland boards?

And I don’t think people who disagree with me are delusional. I just wonder what they’re fans of.

Well, I think a lot of them became fans of Disney parks in the 80s and 90s (like me), and the current parks are very, very different in many ways.

That obviously doesn't mean they're objectively worse, but if you were a fan because of A, B, and C, and all of those things are gone or changed significantly (and I don't solely mean attractions), it's understandable you'd no longer love the current version even if it's better (or equally great) for others. I suppose you could then argue why are they still on the forums, which is understandable, but it's still interesting to keep up with what's going on.

For this particular set of announcements, though, number of people who are negative about them but have been generally positive up to this point is very high. The negative reaction seems pretty widespread.

Regardless, I'd agree that the people who just immediately bash everything are tiresome.

 

[erasure fan1]

I get what you meant, but the time periods are so far apart. It's not like they green lit Rat, and paid for it by closing WoLife, or used its pad (like M:S). We were down multiple attractions for ~14 years. Now we get Rat.

That is actually my point in all this. Disney closes things down and leaves it sit for years, see 20k in magic kingdom, then when they open something new they claim they're adding. But when all is said and done, we are no better off capacity wise than 15 or more years ago.