Animal Kingdom Part 4: Pandora

Over a year ago Disney announced that it would be adding a new land to Animal Kingdom based on James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar.

Since then, little has been shared in terms of details except for reassurances that the project is moving forward. There has been no shortage on controversy, however, as many argue whether Avatar belongs in Animal Kingdom. People question the long-term appeal of Avatar, its rather bland and generic plotline, and especially the fact that it is not a Disney-owned property. They see the lack of any construction or even concept art as a sign that Disney may not be going through with the plan. I, however, still firmly believe that this proposed Avatar-land for Animal Kingdom is coming and will here outline my vision as to what I would like to see be a part of this experience.

For all the naysayers who believe that Avatar has no place in Animal Kingdom because it is not a Disney-owned property I will counter that neither were Star Wars or Indiana Jones when they were added to Hollywood Studios, not to mention the Twilight Zone which serves as the backstory for one of Disney’s most popular attractions. People say they would like to see Disney create some entirely new land based on an original concept and design, such as the proposed Beastly Kingdom that would have originally been part of Animal Kingdom. To this I say that what I would do, and what I sincerely hope Disney does with Avatar-land, is use the environment of Pandora as the foundation and framework for the land rather than making it solely tied with the movie and plot of Avatar. This would allow Imagineers much more freedom and room for creativity and originality rather than being tied down to an existing storyline. Herein lays the main point in that Avatar may not be the best movie ever made, but it is by far one of the most visually stunning. In order for the land to be successful, Disney must capitalize on the setting of Avatar rather than its characters and plot.

It is in focusing on the environment of Pandora that makes this land such a logical fit for Animal Kingdom. At its core, Avatar is a movie whose core themes tie in very closely with those of Animal Kingdom, such as conservation and harmony with nature. Animal Kingdom is a park whose strength is creating highly immersive lands for its Guests to explore. When setting foot into Africa or Asia, Guests feel as though they have been transported to these faraway lands thanks to a tremendous attention to detail and theming. Here they are introduced to new cultures, architecture, artwork, in addition to native plant life and animals. Pandora would do all the same things. In fact, I truly believe that this new land of Pandora could be the most highly immersive theme park experience ever created. The possibilities are truly endless when you think about how expansive a world James Cameron actually created.

Many people do not know this, but a book entitled Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora was published before the movie was even released in theaters. This was a 224-page book in the form of a field guide that helped to introduce readers to the film's fictional setting of the planet of Pandora, its geology, flora, fauna, and the culture of the Na Vi people. It is this book, not the movie itself, that should serve as the inspiration for creating Pandora at Animal Kingdom because it treats Pandora as a real, living ecosystem rather than a movie setting.

This new land would be located in the area currently inhabited by Camp Minnie-Mickey and I have no doubt that Pandora will be the most visually stunning land ever seen in a theme park. Everything about its landscape, from its mountains, rivers, and waterfalls to its trees and flowers, is so unique and breathtaking. Guests walking through this land would experience an environment the likes of which they have never seen before.

It is an environment that is possibly even more beautiful at night than during the day and this new land would showcase that, replicating the bioluminescence of its plant life.

This video provides a good overview of the planet and showcases the beauty of Pandora:



While creating a completely immersive environment is very important to make this new land a success, it is also going to feature attractions that also capitalize on this beautiful environment. For those people who are not convinced that Avatar can be a major draw for Guests I counter that as long as you deliver state of the art, E-ticket attractions people are not going to care what they are themed after. My plan for this new land calls for three attractions of varying thrill levels in order to provide different experiences that everyone can enjoy.

For the first, and most thrilling, attraction I am envisioning something along the lines of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Spiderman at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. These attractions use a combination of huge projection screens, show sets, and animatronics to completely immerse Guests into their stories. The premise for the attraction would be that Guests are flying aboard a Banshee, a winged creature native to Pandora. The ride vehicle itself would be in the shape of a Banshee and sit up to four Guests.

The ride vehicle would be suspended from a track above to give the illusion of flight. As the vehicle makes its way through the various show scenes and past giant screens Guests would feel as if they were flying high above Pandora, with the ride vehicle capable of banking and turning, rising and falling. As an added thrill, Guests aboard their Banshee would also be chased by a Great Leonopteryx, one of the fiercest animals on Pandora.

The second attraction would be a little milder and would be like a next generation Soarin experience. Whereas Soarin just has the large projection screen in front of your ride vehicle, this new attraction would be built inside of a dome where the projections would be completely 360 degrees around and above you. In order to do this, the ride system itself would need to be altered from the current Soarin. Interestingly enough, Disney filed a patent last year for a ride vehicle that uses cable suspensions to simulate the illusion of flight.

This type of ride vehicle would allow for wider field of vision. It does pose the question as to the cables creating a visual intrusion, but they wouldn’t if they were hidden above something along the lines of helicopter rotors:

This type of ride vehicle would have a far greater range of motion than the current Soarin ride system and would be able to simulate the banked turns and the rising and falling in altitude of a helicopter high above Pandora. Guests would be able to witness the beauty of the planet below as they soar through Pandora’s infamous floating mountains and maybe even get caught up in the middle of an intense battle between humans in their helicopters and the Na Vi aboard their Banshees.

The final attraction would be the mildest of all and would be along the lines of the Jungle Cruise only instead Guests would be travelling along one of Pandora’s many rivers and seeing animals the likes of which they have never before witnessed. The boat ride would be narrated by Sigourney Weaver, who plays scientist Grace Augustine in the movie. Guests would be able to take in the beauty of the Pandoran landscape along with exotic animals such as the Direhorse, Hammerhead Titanothere, Hexapede, Prolemuris, Thanator, and Viperwolf.

Of course, this attraction would be far grander in scale than the Jungle Cruise and the animatronics more advanced. It would be an attraction that would be more family friendly but still as visually striking as the other two.

Thus this new land of Pandora would deliver three new attractions to Animal Kingdom along with a highly immersive world for Guests to explore. It would help to complete Animal Kingdom’s transformation into a full-day theme park while at the same time holding true to the park’s main themes of conservation and harmony with nature. One of the main arguments against Animal Kingdom has been that it needs more rides and Pandora would help provide this while still upholding the park’s legacy of tremendous theming and attention to detail.

Thus concludes my re-imagining of Animal Kingdom and all four of the Walt Disney World theme parks. Of course it is all just a dream, but you never know where a dream might lead. It should not be forgotten that it was Walt Disney himself who said “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

Animal Kingdom Part 3: South America and Australia

Area wise, Animal Kingdom is by far the largest of all the Disney parks; the acreage of Kilimanjaro Safaris alone is the size of Magic Kingdom. However, the park still has quite a bit of room to expand. In the area just behind Asia there is a massive plot of cleared land that is just begging for an expansion.

It is here that I would place two new highly detailed and immersive lands that would complement the existing areas of the park. Animal Kingdom already does a very effective job at transporting Guests to the faraway lands of Africa and Asia, introducing them not only to their animals but also their culture, art, and architecture. I would therefore use this expansion plot to transport Guests to two other continents: South America and Australia. These new areas of the park would also deliver several new attractions, which the park desperately needs.

The lush tropical rainforests of South America lend themselves perfectly to creating a highly immersive land. Guests would be able to walk through a dense jungle environment, filled with exotic flowers and plant life, past waterfalls and rivers.

They would also encounter a wide variety of animals, such as two-toed sloths, giant anteaters, spider monkeys, golden lion tamarins, toucans, macaws, and jaguars.

After winding their way through the trails of the rainforest Guests would encounter a riverside village made up of a series of thatch-roofed buildings.

Here, students from a local university have set-up camp to study the creatures and plant life of the rainforest as well as the negative effects of the logging companies that have been chopping down trees at an alarming rate. Thus the message of conservation is very strongly tied with the attractions in this area.

This village is the embarkation point for two attractions, both of which emphasize the natural beauty of the rainforest and the importance of protecting this environment. The first attraction would be the Amazon River Adventure, a river rapids attraction that replaces the current Kali River Rapids. This attraction would mark a major upgrade over Kali River Rapids in that not only would it be longer and far more immersive, but it would also feature live animals.

The back story for the attraction is that students from the local university have prepared a river rafting expedition to study a few of the more remote parts of the rainforest and have invited you along. The first half of the ride is very calm. As the raft passes through the dense jungle, Guests encounter other small fishing villages and a wide variety of birds, monkeys, and other exotic animals.

Guests then come upon the devastation of a logging camp, where hundreds of trees have been either chopped or burned to the ground. This scene presents a marked contrast to the natural beauty earlier in the ride.

From here the ride takes a tumultuous turn as the raft picks up speed and Guests encounter a series of violent rapids as they race past waterfalls, get spun around in whirlpools, and narrowly escape an attack by a school of piranhas before returning back to the village. The attraction would thus offer far more in the way of thrills than the current Kali River Rapids.

The second attraction would be a suspended roller coaster that would make you feel as though you were zip-lining through the canopy of the rainforest. The coaster would not be heavy on thrills in terms of loops or drops, but riders would whip narrowly around trees, through caves, and past water falls. The experience would be more of a family coaster, along the lines of a Big Thunder Mountain in terms of thrills. Believe it or not, a rollercoaster similar to this was actually planned for Epcot at one point and would have been a part of a completely re-imagined Land pavilion. I think this new South America section of Animal Kingdom would be the perfect home for it.

The other new land on this large expansion plot would be Australia. It would not be as extensive as the South American section, but it would still highlight some of the continent’s more unique animals as well as its Aboriginal culture and traditions. The land would be divided into two distinct areas. In one, Guests would be able to walk trails through the majestic Australian Outback.

Here, they would encounter a variety of animals such as emus, platypus, dingoes, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, Tasmanian devils, and koalas.

The other part of the land would be more whimsical and appeal more toward families with younger children. I have realized in my reimagining that Animal Kingdom is in need of more attractions that would appeal to a younger audience. Australia presents the perfect opportunity for this as it allows for the seamless integration of an immersive area based on Pixar’s Finding Nemo. However, rather than being out in the open, this sub-land would take a page out of the book of Tokyo Disney Sea. Here they have an area of the park known as Mermaid Lagoon, themed after The Little Mermaid, which is located entirely inside in order to give the illusion that you are under the sea.

Guests would be totally immersed in the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef as seen in the movie as they walk amongst larger-than-life coral.

Most the attractions here would be smaller and nothing really groundbreaking in terms of new technology, but they would be fun options for children. Taking inspiration from Tokyo Disney Sea this area would feature Jumping Jellyfish, a version of the classic parachute attraction.

There would also be a Blowfish Balloon Race, a gondola-style spinner attraction.

Finally, The Whirlpool, a variation on the teacups.

While these attractions may not be anything special, it is the highly immersive theming and detail of the area that would really be the main draw. In addition, this area would become the new home for the Finding Nemo Musical as well as meet-and-greet areas. The headliner attraction of this area, however, would be Crush’s Coaster. This attraction is one of the most popular at the Disney Studios in Paris and would provide some mild thrills along the lines of the current Primeval Whirl. Guests ride in a turtle shell through elaborate show scenes depicting different events from the movie before going on a high-speed spin through the EAC where the turtle shell itself starts to spin as it moves along the track. The attraction is very much like a more thrilling and more highly detailed version of the Seas with Nemo and Friends attraction currently at Epcot.

Thus, this Finding Nemo area would provide much needed attractions for younger Guests in addition to some mild thrills and its indoor location would make it a great escape from the Florida heat.

With the addition of the new lands of South America and Australia, Animal Kingdom would become a more complete park. Not only would Guests now get to experience the environments and witness exotic animals and plant life of nearly every continent, but these new lands would include the addition of a variety of much-needed attractions. In addition, these lands would continue the park’s legacy of creating highly immersive atmospheres that transport Guests to these faraway lands. However, my re-imagining of Animal Kingdom is not done yet. There remains one more area for expansion and it is an area that has generated much buzz and controversy since it was first announced. Stay tuned for my next entry as I describe my plans for creating the land of Pandora from James Cameron’s Avatar.

Animal Kingdom Part 2: Dinoland USA

I have always considered Dinoland USA to be a very underutilized area of Animal Kingdom. With the themes of paleontology and dinosaurs there are so many possibilities here and, while Dinosaur is a fantastic attraction, the rest of the land leaves much to be desired. Dinoland actually has a very interesting and detailed back story, but the problem is few Guests actually take note of what that story is. With this backstory an area like Chester and Hester’s actually makes sense, but without it looks like a cheap and junky carnival. My goal for Dinoland would thus be to solidify and clarify its theming, including the removal of Chester and Hester’s, while adding new experiences that maximize the potential of the land.

Dinosaur is the headline attraction of Dinoland and while the ride offers thrills, amazing animatronic figures, and a compelling storyline, the ride has fallen into an unfortunate state of disrepair. First off, the attraction’s name does not effectively describe the ride or its experience. However, the attraction’s original name, Countdown to Extinction, was far more enticing. As far as the ride itself, I would make sure that all the effects were restored to their original working condition. For example, Guests riding today might not know that the Pterodactyl originally swooped down at the Timer Rover and the Compsognathus leapt over the vehicle as it passed by. In addition, there are multiple lighting and smoke effects that were originally part of the ride that are no longer working.

I would also take the opportunity to “plus” Countdown to Extinction with enhanced show scenes to make the experience even more immersive. Dinosaur shares the same track layout as the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, but where the two differ is in the amount of detail featured on the ride. Whereas Indiana Jones has elaborately themed and detailed scenes, Dinosaur is very dark with lighting that mostly just highlights the large animatronic figures while paying little attention to their surroundings. I would seek to enhance the attraction by building up the environments around the animatronic figures. A good example of this comes from some of the original concept art for the attraction:

The overall theme of Dinoland would be divided into two parts: the institute and the excavation site. The institute section would be home to Countdown to Extinction and also feature a new sit down restaurant where Guests would dine in a museum setting among massive dinosaur skeletons, fossils, and other exhibits. Picture something along these lines only with tables scattered amongst the dinosaur bones:

The excavation site would have the look and feel of a working paleontological dig and would include the current Boneyard playground, which I would enhance with some sort of interactive scavenger hunt akin to Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom or the Agent P World Showcase Adventure, in addition to the existing Restaurantosaurus counter service restaurant. The area would become far more detailed and immersive than its current state with a tremendous amount of rockwork meant to resemble the Black Hills of South Dakota.

This part of Dinoland would expand, take the place of Chester and Hester’s Dinorama, and would be home to an attraction that was originally planned for the park known as The Excavator.

The Excavator would have fit in perfectly with the backstory of Dinoland. For those of you that don’t know the tale, Dinoland started out as the site of a sand and gravel company. One day, as workers were digging up sand to load into a waiting dump truck, they uncovered a massive dinosaur bone. Scientists were then called to the scene and discovered that, just below the surface, was the paleontological find of the century. A wealthy benefactor for a local college immediately swooped in and bought up the sand and gravel pit.

That same wealthy benefactor became obsessed with why it was that so many perfectly preserved dinosaur skeletons could be found in this one spot. The only way to solve this particular mystery was to travel back in time and then attempt to observe whatever it was that actually caused this massive dinosaur extinction. The wealthy benefactor thus poured billions into the creation of the Dino Institute, whose research resulted in the invention of the Time Rover.

In this original backstory, the Excavator was supposed to be a piece of equipment which was left over from the site's sand and gravel pit days, a series of ore cars that had once been used to haul materials up out of the heart of this pit to the area where the dump trucks got loaded up. Over time, due to over-digging and as the sand in the pit began to shift, the Excavator became unsafe to operate. The sand and gravel company then shut down the ore cars and the Excavator stood empty and abandoned for a few years, becoming even more rickety and unsafe.

Then, when the wealthy benefactor bought the sand and gravel pit, he sent in groups of college students to work on the site. These college students then decided to put this old and unsafe piece of mining equipment back to work again, allowing them to use the old, rusty ore cars to haul some of the larger dinosaur bones that they've discovered.

As Guests move through the queue for this attraction towards the load area, they would walk past dozens of "Condemned" signs in addition to all sorts of safety barriers that the sand and gravel pit's workmen had set up that the college students have recently pulled down. The ride itself would be a wooden roller coaster that takes Guests past antiquated pieces of mining equipment, dodging around massive dinosaur bones and fossils, and careening through unstable mine shafts that could collapse at any moment.

This wild and crazy ride would be similar to the experience of Big Thunder Mountain but “plussed” with new technology. In fact, I think the Grizzly Mountain Mine Cars from Hong Kong Disneyland provide an apt comparison:



With The Excavator, an improved Countdown to Extinction, and the removal of Chester and Hester’s Dinorama, Dinoland USA would become a much more cohesively-themed land. Dinosaurs are creatures that captivate people of all generations and I feel that Dinoland in its current incarnation does not satisfy our curiosity of these creatures. This new Dinoland would do more justice to the land’s dinosaur theme and offer Guests two exciting and thrilling attractions.