Real, Ancient, and Imagined
Camp Minnie-Mickey was a placeholder, never meant to stick around at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. As for what was supposed to go there…? Well… Look no further than the official dedication set forth by Michael Eisner at Animal Kingdom’s 1998 opening:
“Welcome to a kingdom of animals… real, ancient and imagined: a kingdom ruled by lions, dinosaurs and dragons; a kingdom of balance, harmony and survival; a kingdom we enter to share in the wonder, gaze at the beauty, thrill at the drama, and learn.”
As well intentioned as Eisner’s dedication might’ve been, it was also a lie. Looking high and low, you wouldn’t find any “imagined” animals in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Unless, of course, you count the carved dragonhead above the park’s ticket booths, the “Unicorn” parking lot, or the dragon prominently featured in its official logo. Oh, and one more place…
Disney left few clues to the supposed original intention of Camp Minnie-Mickey’s real estate scattered about, but the most famous was visible only via the otherwise infamous Discovery River Boats. This short-lived opening day attraction at Animal Kingdom was a simple transportation ride (not unlike the Friendship Boats at Epcot’s World Showcase) meant to shuttle guests from the park’s entrance to Africa.
The leisurely cruise would carry guests around the park’s central icon, the Tree of Life, and, along the way, provide a sort of “preview” of the adventures that waited within each land branching out from the hub. Like passing dioramas on board the Walt Disney World railroad, the idea was that the Discovery River Cruise could get you from point A to point B while providing a little entertainment and introducing guests to this new, gargantuan park.
So for example, a hot springs and geysers outside of Africa would bubble and erupt, with a waterside goat exhibit on Harambe’s shore…
…and in a secluded grove in the waters along the edge of Dinoland, the boat would pass by a towering, playful animatronic Iguanodon – the very one riders aboard the Lost Legend: Countdown to Extinction had brought back from the Cretaceous (and accidentally set loose in the Dino Institute)…
…and outside of the placid waters of Camp Minnie-Mickey, the boats would sail past gnarled, twisted, jagged volcanic rocks and a dark cavern where a plume of flames and a guttural, echoing roar would signal something sinister inside…
…Wait a minute…
The Discovery River Boats didn’t last long. When Animal Kingdom opened, it offered just four rides – two of which were merely transportation systems! As a result, guests piled into hour-long queues for the Discovery River Cruise expecting a Jungle-Cruise-style experience. When their wait resulted in merely being shuttled across the park and passing waterside dioramas, complaints quickly mounted.
The ride was hastily renamed the Discovery River Taxi (to emphasize its role as in-park transportation) before being oddly repurposed as the Radio Disney River Cruise for a short second life. By August 1999 – 16 months into the park’s existence – Animal Kingdom’s boat ride was docked for good.
That also spelled the end for the unusual and cryptic flame throwing display. Obviously, it wasn’t meant to act as a preview of Camp Minnie-Mickey. In fact, it was supposed to be a sign of things to come…
Beastlie Kingdomme
From the earliest concepts of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, executives and designers had agreed on one very important thing: if Disney hoped to charge Disney Park prices, it had to be abundantly clear to visitors that this new addition to Walt Disney World was much, much more than your typical, everyday, neighborhood zoo.
So Disney’s coup for making Animal Kingdom a clear theme park experience infused with Disney storytelling was two-fold: as the park’s dedication noted, it would include more than real animals… it could have ancient and imagined ones, too.
For the latter, you’d have to look no further than Beastly Kingdom, an entire themed land dedicated to creatures that inspire legend, story, song, and myth. Crossing the bridge over the Discovery River, guests would enter into a fantasy world rules by good and evil. A forking path in a dense wood would lead to two opposing realms.
To the right, a fanciful path would lead into a beautiful marble oasis of fountains, arches, columns, and dancing water. This peaceful kingdom would feature two standout attractions. First, a family dark ride (the park’s first) would be a leisurely boat ride through the ornate gardens featured in the “Dance of the Hours” segment from the 1940 classic Fantasia, including encounter the film’s dancing hippos, ostriches, and crocodiles.
But one of the land’s most peculiar and spectacular attractions would’ve been unlike anything Disney had done before. Quest for the Unicorn would be an intricate, puzzle-based walkthrough attraction wherein guests would be set loose in a boundless hedge maze.
Working together, guests would need to solve puzzles, uncover secrets, and answer riddles to locate and awaken four ancient golden statues hidden throughout (like the Griffin, in the Passholder-exclusive rare artwork, above.
Only those who solved the riddles of these four guardians would gain the knowledge they needed to reach the attraction’s grand finale: access to the crystal grottos and caverns hidden beneath a Medieval castle, where an almost-transcendental encounter with an Audio-Animatronic unicorn would await…
But of course, this mythological land was one of extremes; a land of balance. So even if the melodic realm of hippos, crocodiles, griffins, and dragons would be a world-class experience in and of itself, it was only half of the story. In fact, if you’d chosen the other path back at the land’s entry, you would’ve found yourself in a very different world…
It would weave and twist, leading to a desolate medieval village of torch-lit stone pubs with the deteriorating ruins of a long-abandoned castle on the hill overhead. This half of the land would be a scorched battlefield where anxious peasants would be in constant fear of the malicious dragon, roosting in the castle’s vaults.
Guests would gather before this crumbling fortress to see hints of the mysterious dragon that bartenders at the local pub and inn spoke of. And like clockwork, the dragon would remind gathered guests of his presence by appearing, masked in shadow, with massive claws gripping the castle’s edge. With a bellowing breath of fire, the barely-seen figure would set a waterfall aflame, sending scorching plumes reining down the castle’s facade.
And therein would reside the land’s headliner, and a new anchor for the entire park: Dragon Tower, a dark ride / coaster combo through the heart of the castle for a one-on-one encounter with the towering dragon himself.
Beastly Kingdom would be the next evolution in Disney’s storytelling. This incredible land would take the photorealism of Animal Kingdom’s Africa and Asia and infuse it with fantasy, creating a living, habitable world that just happened to include unthinkable creatures and unimaginable adventures. In one fell swoop, Beastly Kingdom would double Animal Kingdom’s attraction lineup and provide it with both a high-capacity family dark ride, a thrill ride beyond anything Disney had created before, and a new mythology that could grow and evolve. Larger than life, the land would be emotional, moving, and quite literally legendary.
And just like that, it was cancelled.
Canned
Early on in the development of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the gargantuan cost for the cutting edge park ballooned. Executives had underestimated the price for behind-the-scenes zoological ammenities, fencing, exhibit design, and animal acquisition and care (all things the average park goer wouldn’t notice, mind you) making the already-skittish Eisner rethink the park’s grand scale.
According to insiders, the blown budget and the financial instability of Disneyland Paris put Eisner in a bind. He was faced with the nearly impossible choice between having Beastly Kingdom or Dinoland approved for the park’s opening. Both of the would-be lands would serve to elevate Animal Kingdom beyond what could be found in a typical zoo, but only one could be financed.
As we know, the team designing the park’s Dinoland was given the go ahead. It made a great deal of sense to all involved for a number of reasons:
- The merchandising potential behind dinosaurs was enormous, especially in the wake of Universal’s own Jurassic Park that had reintegrated dinosaurs into pop culture;
- Eisner’s gut feelings (wrong as they had been in the past) and his laser-like focus on pet projects told him that the 2000 film DINOSAUR would forever reshape animation and filmography. Dinoland would be the perfect companion to prime audiences for the big screen iguanodon family adventure, and later to accompany it;
- The team designing the park’s Dinoland made an unbeatable concession: they could combine the high-speed roller coaster planned for the land with the tranquil family dark ride through the age of dinosaurs into one attraction. Better yet, that Lost Legend: Countdown to Extinction would re-use the technology and even track layout developed for Disneyland’s brand-new Indiana Jones Adventure, saving big bucks on research and development.
At the time, it made good financial and synergistic sense for Dinoland to make it to the finish line while the elaborate and expensive Beastly Kingdom was put on hold… Did it ever come to life? It depends who you ask… Read on…