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

[marni1971]

Universal will never top Magic Kingdom, but thats not what they're gunning for. They know the other parks are vulnerable...

Worth repeating.

 

[doctornick]

i would put dinoland way ahead of figment lol. Much bigger space and its in a park that doesnt have many attractions.

But that’s the point. DAK needs more attractions not replacing what is already fine there. Epcot needs to have better attractions and current Figment is the bottom rung and easy to improve upon. It would also help to get people to that corner of former FW - if Imagination was a draw, it would probably help to utilize the theater more, get more into whatever Imageworks version exists or M&G is in the area.

Replacing Dinosaur (and Dinoland USA in general) with Zootopia is idiotic on so many levels. You want to put Zootopia in DAK? Sigh, go ahead but put it in a new expansion area.

 

[SpectreJordan]

Oh I completely agree and think you have misunderstood my intended point. I was just saying Dinosaur is the least popular of the three attractions because it isn't the parks statement attraction (Kilimanjaro) or a family thrill coaster (Everest) so will naturally have a lower demand as a high capacity intense/scary ride.

Losing Dinosaurs at DAK would be a huge loss for the park, I'm a huge Dinosaur fan (and prefer it to Indiana Jones Adventure by quite a margin, I know...) and would much rather they expanded the 'Dino Institute' aesthetic into Chester and Hesters if they don't want to replace/refurbish Chester and Hesters following the loss of Primeval Whirl.

Ooooh gotcha, sorry! I feel at the very least, they should keep Dinosaurs (with some major renovations). They can retheme the Dino Institute into being a branch that's in the Pacific Islands, South America, Australia, whatever they rethem the Carnival to.

I recently found a Twitter thread that talked about all of the Expansion space each park has. Animal Kingdom apparently has A LOT of expansion space. Is it just cheaper to replace Dinoland instead of building out? That's insanely annoying if so.

 

[UNCgolf]

I can see why people like it, but it just falls flat for me. It's basically just scene after scene of spinning around in a gigantic room to songs from the movie.

It's definitely that, which is why it's not a masterpiece. It could be much better. It's certainly not on the level of attractions like Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Spaceship Earth, etc. -- it's just that it still looks better than anything in TSL, anything in New Fantasyland, anything they've added to EPCOT, and everything they've built at DHS except Rise.

It's absolutely propped up by BatB being a fantastic movie (which is part of the reason they're all about forcing IP into everything; it can make a mediocre ride seem much better in comparison).

It's not really about thinking BatB looks like an amazing ride; it's more about how disappointing most of what they've built at WDW is (Ratatouille, MMRR, and Cosmic Rewind all seem fine, but I do think BatB looks better than any of the three, although obviously if you really want physical thrill you're going to prefer Cosmic Rewind).

 

[cjkeating]

It's definitely that, which is why it's not a masterpiece. It could be much better. It's certainly not on the level of attractions like Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Spaceship Earth, etc. -- it's just that it still looks better than anything in TSL, anything in New Fantasyland, anything they've added to EPCOT, and everything they've built at DHS except Rise.

It's absolutely propped up by BatB being a fantastic movie (which is part of the reason they're all about forcing IP into everything; it can make a mediocre ride seem much better in comparison).

It's not really about thinking BatB looks like an amazing ride; it's more about how disappointing most of what they've built at WDW is (Ratatouille and MMRR are both fine, but I do think BatB looks better than either).

Somewhere I saw BATB at Tokyo described as a 'Beauty and the Beast Musical Revue' and when I think about it like that I would certainly be happier with a few of those as people eating attractions as opposed to the 'retelling the story after the movie' WDI are obsessed with nowadays.

 

[Brer Panther]

Now I wish they would have just rethemed Splash to Moana so they could do something else here, but that's an even tougher sell in Frontierland than PaTF.

Honestly, I think retheming Splash Mountain to Moana would've been even worse than retheming it to The Princess and the Frog. It probably stems from the fact that I actually like The Princess and the Frog.

Is it just cheaper to replace Dinoland instead of building out?

...probably? Most of Disney's new additions since... I dunno, 1992 (which is when the cost-cutting started thanks to Disneyland Paris' failure) have been replacements rather than expansions. Even the "Fantasyland Expansion" replaced things like Mickey's Toontown Fair and the original Ariel's Grotto.

Somewhere I saw BATB at Tokyo described as a 'Beauty and the Beast Musical Revue' and when I think about it like that I would certainly be happier with a few of those as people eating attractions as opposed to the 'retelling the story after the movie' WDI are obsessed with nowadays.

Isn't that essentially what the Little Mermaid ride is? A bunch of songs from the movie strung together?

 

[TarzanRocked99-]

Now I wish they would have just rethemed Splash to Moana so they could do something else here, but that's an even tougher sell in Frontierland than PaTF.

Not if they just expanded Adventureland to the north

 

[UNCgolf]

Isn't that essentially what the Little Mermaid ride is? A bunch of songs from the movie strung together?

More or less, except the general quality of everything in the Beauty and the Beast attraction is at such a higher level that they aren't really comparable. Little Mermaid looks incredibly cheap in places.

Beauty and the Beast is basically a mid-level attraction plussed up with a massive budget, but you can at least see where they money went (compared to something like Guardians). It's not amazing, but it's preferable to what they've been doing at WDW for the most part.

 

[_caleb]

More or less, except the general quality of everything in the Beauty and the Beast attraction is at such a higher level that they aren't really comparable. Little Mermaid looks incredibly cheap in places.

There is nothing cheap about gluing plastic fish to a wall!

 

[UNCgolf]

There is nothing cheap about gluing plastic fish to a wall!

View attachment 676015

It's one of those places where screens/projections would be a huge improvement. Use them like in NRJ to put some animated fish moving around within the set instead of just static plastic ones.

Except that would really require overhauling the entire scene; I don't think they'd fit in well anywhere in the existing space.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Now I wish they would have just rethemed Splash to Moana so they could do something else here, but that's an even tougher sell in Frontierland than PaTF.

I'm no engineer, but in theory I bet they could have moved the entrance to the West side of the attraction and redrawn the borders between Frontierland and Adventureland.

 

[_caleb]

It's one of those places where screens/projections would be a huge improvement. Use them like in NRJ to put some animated fish moving around within the set instead of just static plastic ones.

Except that would really require overhauling the entire scene; I don't think they'd fit in well anywhere in the existing space.

I agree! Wouldn’t something like this from The Seas w/Nemo fit well there? (Little Mermaid fish instead of Bruce, obviously.)

 

[lazyboy97o]

I agree! Wouldn’t something like this from The Seas w/Nemo fit well there? (Little Mermaid fish instead of Bruce, obviously.)

View attachment 676135

Remember that Under the Sea was originally designed to be under white light. It was a very bright scene when the attraction first opened at Disney’s California Adventure. Changing it into a dark scene was one of the expensive modifications made after opening.

 

[pdude81]

I'm no engineer, but in theory I bet they could have moved the entrance to the West side of the attraction and redrawn the borders between Frontierland and Adventureland.

I agree with this idea, but I assume it would be pretty costly to find a way to enter from the south/west and get to the normal queue area without an open passage over the boats. I'd assume Chapek would rather just rezone the railroad station into Adventureland too

 

[FigmentFan82]

Remember that Under the Sea was originally designed to be under white light. It was a very bright scene when the attraction first opened at Disney’s California Adventure. Changing it into a dark scene was one of the expensive modifications made after opening.

WDI tryin to make light rides instead of dark rides now?? lol

 

[Bocabear]

Moana could take the carnival area around the the theater. Add a whole new show, and change the Carnival into Moana's village. Add a good attraction and some sea life exhibits and a volcano overlooking the whole space. Re-theme to spinner to the Coconut Pirates or the Shiny Crab, Open the views up to the lake making it feel more connected to the water....and I think it would be meaningful and a perfect addition for the Animal Kingdom...and Dinosaur can remain... The Carnival area is mostly vacant anyway

 

[doctornick]

Moana could take the carnival area around the the theater. Add a whole new show, and change the Carnival into Moana's village. Add a good attraction and some sea life exhibits and a volcano overlooking the whole space. Re-theme to spinner to the Coconut Pirates or the Shiny Crab, Open the views up to the lake making it feel more connected to the water....and I think it would be meaningful and a perfect addition for the Animal Kingdom...and Dinosaur can remain... The Carnival area is mostly vacant anyway

That seems to be the plan apparently. @ToTBellHop even mentioned that some animal exhibits are part of the thinking - though I suspect they will be terrestrial animals and the new land will be deemed Oceana or something similar. Maybe have some animals from Australia/New Zealand.

 

[Brer Panther]

That seems to be the plan apparently. @ToTBellHop even mentioned that some animal exhibits are part of the thinking - though I suspect they will be terrestrial animals and the new land will be deemed Oceana or something similar. Maybe have some animals from Australia/New Zealand.

Moana doesn't even take place in Australia or New Zealand.

 

[MadderAdder]

Moana doesn't even take place in Australia or New Zealand.

Oceania works.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It would be really nice if Moana at AK was something significant (along the size of Splash Mountain) but I fear the ride will likely be more of a "we know this ride will be really popular just because of its IP, so there is no need to make this big" situation and we'll have the Seven Dwarves Mine Train situation all over again and we'll just get something along the size of Frozen Ever After.

You realize there is no “there” there, right?

This was a PR stunt. No rides are coming unless they get into some sort of attendance trouble they can’t twist out of?