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

[RSoxNo1]

FWIW, in pretty recent history, WDI was challenged to develop a new, large-scale project to present to the big wigs. Time was apparently of the essence. I’ve been unable to uncover more. Very tight-lipped.

In theory this is great to hear.

A single large-scale project probably isn't what's needed though. More accurately, each park needs additions or updates.

MK - While the park needs capacity, it could also stand to see some classics get some updates (Space, Peter Pan). I've long voiced my opinion on stuff that should be relocated or removed (it's a small world, Carousel of Progress and the Speedway), but I believe the easiest / least intrusive area to add capacity would be Adventureland unless someone else has another idea.

EPCOT - Desperately needs ride updates. It's received a couple of additions in recent years. Imagination has neededan update for 20 years at this point, nearly everything else in that park outside of Cosmic Rewind, The Land Pavilion, Ratatouille and Frozen need updates. Editor's Note: Don't view this as an endorsement of Frozen in EPCOT.

DHS - The park needs ride capacity. It also wouldn't hurt if every show in the park outside of Fantasmic was updated or replaced.

DAK - The park also needs significant ride capacity.

Epic Universe is expected to have a dozen+ rides. There's no reason Disney can't build or replace 2-3 attractions per park over the next 5 years. They won't, but they need to.

 

[MrPromey]

I have always said WDW needs more out of place Princess Flume themed rides in the place. Disney is so dang creative these days.

 

[MrPromey]

We can hope for expansions and overhauls, but we won’t know anything until it’s “confirmed” by one of the insiders on here or until Disney randomly drops an announcement to combat something Universal May announce or wait until Destination D.

Yeah, it's important to keep in mind that this was one of the weakest announcements ever made by Disney regarding the parks.

This (all of it) has less of a chance of happening than the Spaceship Earth redo, the Play Pavilion, The Main Street Theater, etc.

Just a reminder, those were all announced as actually coming.

These other things, announced as Blue Sky concepts, were things that didn't exist other than a few pieces of concept art. It's safe to assume anything not shown in that art, including the majority of that boat ride, doesn't exist as plans for size, spacing, show scenes, etc.

It can take years to actually design the attractions and spaces/lands that they are supposed to go into and then you have to think about Disney's construction timeline and that's all after they get approved, which, as far as we know, hasn't happened.

But even if green-lit, it really means nothing until we start seeing work done... and even then, if recent history is any tell, work starting doesn't necessarily mean anything, either.

They started on Play, right?

These D23 announcements were made specifically because they didn't have anything to announce.

It was a way of making nothing look like something.

 

[cjkeating]

Define tempmorary

10 years.

 

[cjkeating]

I don't think I'm going to be popular on here but I've just looked on Vekoma's website and I think either of these would be a perfect fit for a temporary Dinoland USA coaster.

I'd personally go with the Family Boomerang Racer because it'd be a) cheaper b) higher capacity c) quicker and easier to build but the Suspended Family Coaster is a bit more substantial although Vekoma would need to make this a 2 train model for capacity reasons.

The height restriction of these would be 38 inches vs 48 for Primeval Whirl which would fill a really important demographic gap in DAK. It wouldn't surprise me if they could get the boomerang down to a 35 inch (Barnstormer) height restriction either. Add in some trees and a kiddie playground around either of the coasters as well. I'm basically making Chester and Hesters a Storybook Circus area now I think of it. Spinner + junior coaster.

I know it's a bit rough and ready but if Disney went to Vekoma today either of these could be built in less than a year and they would be cheap. An educated guess would put this at 10% the cost of Tron or Guardians for the similar park capacity with Dinoland more efficiently utilised than it currently is.

 

[MrPromey]

10 years+

FTFY

 

[Chupaca Bruh]

I'd pay them money to keep Zootopia out of all of the parks.

 

[FigmentFan82]

What part of any of the blue sky concepts were like EUs?

Moana had a spinner, a Flume ride, and another flat ride?

Zootopia had no insights, just the rumor of a retheme of Dinosaur.

Coco/Encanto also had no insights, just the rumor of a Coco - FOP style ride.

Not trying to attack you, Disney doesn’t want to or need to copy Universal.

Similar in that Epic is very much built around the idea of mini IP lands instead of a general theme that then has an IP that fits in there.

Generally WDW has broader themed areas an put IP within them. The Blue Sky stuff shown was very much Moana mini land, Zootopia mini land, etc, just like how Epic was pitched

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Can we correct “Zootopia” in the title or is it too late?

 

[FigmentFan82]

Can we correct “Zootopia” in the title or is it too late?

We've gone too far

 

[ppete1975]

Guys, do I have to repeat what I recently said on this thread? The Moana/Zootopia at AK presentation was just to come up with potentials for replacing DinoLand. It's an idea for an opportunity, but don't expect them to green light what was in the concept art. It may drastically change.

I dont want zootopia in any park (decent movie but I wasnt wowed, and outside of some diehards on here, I never hear anyone mention it), my point was that I dont care what IP is used, that it needs to have a message about conservation that actually works.

 

[ppete1975]

Can we correct “Zootopia” in the title or is it too late?

All of this time I never noticed that, I guess my brains autocorrect is still working.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Maybe I'm cynical, but I feel like the chance of AK adding a significant attraction to Pandora is directly proportional to the chance of them adding a new Pandora land to Paris or Tokyo or Shanghai. Recently, I feel like Disney is unwilling to invest in major new attractions for the U.S. parks unless they can share the development costs and clone the ride elsewhere (Galaxy's Edge, Runaway Railway, Spiderman, Tiana, Mine Train, Frozen Ever After). Maybe cloning the attraction wasn't planned when originally built (like FEA), but the strong possibility needs to be there. If one of the foreign Disney parks were to add Pandora with a FOP clone, than the possibility for them to include a second ride (that could be cloned in Orlando) either as an opening day attraction or as a phase 2 attraction would increase the likelihood of the ride being developed in the first place. And given the mediocre response to NRJ, it would make sense to potentially not clone it in future iterations of Pandora (making the need for a second attraction for any new Pandora lands that much more necessary). I feel with the success of WoW, adding more Pandora lands makes sense, but unless another park commits to a Pandora of their own, I just don't see them developing a unique third attraction for Orlando that can't be easily cloned elsewhere (unless it's just a walk through attraction). Hopefully I'm wrong...

Walt Disney Studios Paris needs something to replace the scaled-down Galaxy's Edge that was axed from their expansion plans, and an Avatar attraction would actually be a good fit for that park. Can't see them building an entire Pandora land, but it would make some sense to replace the scaled-down Star Wars area built around RotR with a smaller Avatar area based around a big e-ticket.

 

[2bornot2be]

These D23 announcements were made specifically because they didn't have anything to announce.

It was a way of making nothing look like something.

I agree 100%.

The whole Blue Sky Concept is just what they were thinking. We may not see nothing and hear nothing more of it or it could become a project in the future. Bottom line here they made nothing seem like something.

 

[MrPromey]

I agree 100%.

The whole Blue Sky Concept is just what they were thinking. We may not see nothing and hear nothing more of it or it could become a project in the future. Bottom line here they made nothing seem like something.

Sad part is, it worked.

 

[celluloid]

I agree 100%.

The whole Blue Sky Concept is just what they were thinking. We may not see nothing and hear nothing more of it or it could become a project in the future. Bottom line here they made nothing seem like something.

All of this, which is why going back to my post in this thread a bit ago.

It is wild to me that all I can look forward to at WDW for rides in the next ten years opening after Tron and Tiana is possibly Zootopia/Moana at AK and Encanto/Coco at MK. No In house IP, and not the best variety nor fits.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

All of this, which is why going back to my post in this thread a bit ago.

It is wild to me that all I can look forward to at WDW for rides in the next ten years opening after Tron and Tiana is possibly Zootopia/Moana at AK and Encanto/Coco at MK. No In house IP, and not the best variety nor fits.

How do you know? In 2017 nobody knew Epcot would have Gotg, Ratatouille, etc Or DHS would have MMRR

 

[MagicHappens1971]

How do you know? In 2017 nobody knew Epcot would have Gotg, Ratatouille, etc Or DHS would have MMRR

I believe all of those things were announced at D23 in 2017. Just Semantics but figured I’d put that out there

 

[lazyboy97o]

How do you know? In 2017 nobody knew Epcot would have Gotg, Ratatouille, etc Or DHS would have MMRR

Those things were all announced in 2017…

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Those things were all announced in 2017…

My bad either way it was 4 years before it opened so we don’t know what may be announced in the coming years