Real, Ancient, and Imagined: An Armchair Imagineered Blue-Sky Build-Out of Disney’s Animal Kingdom

THE OASIS

Background

It’s sort of interesting to consider the conundrum Imagineers must’ve found themselves in when challenged to develop the opening act of a park like Animal Kingdom. Post-Disneyland, you’d be hard pressed to find a theme park that doesn’t begin with a “Main Street” packed with requisite entry infrastructure (i.e. guest services, lost and found, stroller rental, ticket purchase, entry turnstiles) and the expected amenities (reliable places to eat, coffee, a retail “Emporium” of merchandise).

So how do you do all that in a park that’s meant to not just elevate but center animals and nature? Animal Kingdom’s solution is to basically break the punch list of Main Street must-haves in two, with the former batch organized into the Oasis, and the latter set held off for later on. So to focus on that first half – the literal entry necessities…

We know that at some point in the park’s development, one concept for the entry may have been called “Genesis Gardens.” On paper, it’s an exceptionally interesting idea that Animal Kingdom’s opening could begin with the widely-known Bible story of the Garden of Eden and culminate in Noah’s ark – two connected parables whose purpose is to explain the origin of life and Man’s role in preserving and protecting it.

Moreover, it’s kind of a compelling (if mythological) prologue to the continents setup that follows, offering an interesting frame story for the place from which life on Earth diverged and flourished to produce the food webs we’ll find in Africa, Asia, Dinoland, et al.

It makes sense that any religious connection would be unlikely to make it far into development, but the Oasis we know today certainly demonstrates a sort of “Garden of Eden” quality captured in Bryan Jowers’ artwork above. It’s of this Earth, but otherworldly. Unlike the lands that follow, the Oasis isn’t geographic; it can’t be pinned on a map. Even the animals on display in its collection are chosen for their variety rather than for a geographic connection – a living collection of the oddities that arise through adaptation.

We know through concept art that other possibilities for this land included a double-decker “Oasis Carousel.” It’s probably for the best that that never materialized. The kinetic energy here comes from waterfalls, rustling leaves, and animals – not from mechanical rides. Ambling pathways intersect and diverge; While guests make a bee-line to the end of Main Street toward that looming “weenie” of Cinderella Castle, the Oasis does just the opposite; it invites you to slow down; to get lost; to set aside your touring plan and just… be. Imagine a “Main Street” that says, “There is no shop; instead, reflect.”

Build-out

It shouldn’t surprise you that I have no interest in changing the Oasis. There is no intervention for me to make here – even in a “Blue Sky” mindset – because it’s not about rides or retail or IP. If there’s any adjustment to consider, it’s for the component of the park that’s probably the most odd: the Rainforest Café. It’s a leftover of a weird “out-of-the-box” concept Eisner’s Disney pursued in the ’90s to build standalone restaurants just outside of Disney World’s theme parks, theoretically catering to exiting guests and serving as standalone attractions in their own right.

Though it makes sense on paper, it’s sort of hard to square that Animal Kingdom (a seriously beautiful, thoughtful, meaningful park) has at its entrance the Rainforest Café (a famously kitschy, high-cost, low-quality eatery whose rickety-animatronic-packed eateries are inextricably tied to tourist destinations and mega-malls). Animal Kingdom’s version is at least tucked away and concealed behind a once-glorious waterfall facade, but it’s still weird.

For the sake of a Blue Sky reimagining, I guess we could pretend we’d gut this restaurant and turn it into “Cascades: A Nature-Fusion Bistro” or something… But if I remove my ego, it occurs to me that Rainforest Café has closed about half of its locations since its height in the early 2000s (down from 45 locations to 23) and Animal Kingdom’s ain’t one of ’em. In other words, I think this restaurant does succeed at capturing exiting families, and I’m not sure a less-playful table service arrangement would. So if the people crave a little family-friendly levity, robotic gorillas, and good ole American comfort food on their way out, who am I to pretend some upscale sit-down restaurant better fits the bill? So in a brave, bold, and ground-breaking start to this reimagining, I am making no changes to the Oasis. What a start!

DISCOVERY ISLAND

Background

The rest of the mandated “Main Street” experiences (the retail locations, restaurants, coffee shops, park icon, etc.) have been postponed to the park’s second land – basically, a giant hub from which bridges diverge to the rest of Animal Kingdom’s spaces. When the park opened, this land was called “Safari Village.” After two years of guests wandering around the place and not being able to find the safari – the park’s then-headlining ride – the name was changed to “Discovery Island.” (The river encircling the island was already called the Discovery River, so the name change made sense.)

Combining the “Hub” and the necessities of Main Street was its own stroke of genius, because it positions Discovery Island as a place you’ll return to again and again anyway just by nature of navigating the park – narratively, our comfortable, warm “home base” to restore and replenish before heading back out. So placing the park’s high capacity eateries here makes great sense. Likewise, Imagineers have devised a beautifully clever wrap: the island is something of a Technicolor village of craftsman structures with countless animals embedded through carvings, signage, murals, and more. This is Animal Kingdom’s equivalent of Islands of Adventure’s Port of Entry – “unreal” by any measure, but our point of departure and return in a way that feels exploratory, adventurous, and empowering.

Naturally, all of these structures are built around the iconic TREE OF LIFE – as fitting a park icon as could ever be imagined for the park. The Tree of Life is natural, yet wondrous. And thanks to the hundreds of carved animals around its trunk, branches, and roots, it subtly teaches a truism of artistic naturalism: close observation yields reward. Beyond the Oasis, the park’s first major animal habitats exist in the tree’s roots – again continuing the big picture idea that the laws of our natural world yield beauty, diversity, and tools of survival.

Build-Out

It’s absolutely absurd to be this many words into a park-wide Build-Out and be like, “No changes here, either!” But genuinely, there’s little worth messing with when it comes to Animal Kingdom’s opening act. I did have three small ideas for strengthening this area that wouldn’t necessarily be reflected on the map above…

1. ELEMENTAL ORGANIZATION. I think there’s a subtle underlying organizing principle to the park’s lands. Rohde has spoken at length about the importance of the bridges that diverge from Discovery Island, and the literal and metaphorical importance of a bridge in passing from one space to another. But while working through this build-out, I sort of began to envision that there was an unspoken elemental connection here – that Pandora embodies air; Africa, fire; Asia, water, and Dinoland, earth. Maybe that’s just me trying to reverse engineer something that’s not really there, but I thought it would be fun to play with when it comes to the naming of some retail and food establishments on Discovery Island.

2. ADDING HUMANS. I think this is a space that would be beautifully “plussed” by having the “People of Discovery Island” as walk-around “streetmosphere,” akin to Hollywood Studios’ Citizens of Hollywood or California Adventure’s Citizens of Buena Vista Street. This actually happens during the holidays when puppeteers take to the streets of the island with beautifully-crafted winter animal puppets, but I think it should happen all year round. Discovery Island is so textured and so habitable, so I’d love to see the people who inhabit it and the ways they use their craftsmanship to demonstrate the intrinsic value of nature.

3. RESTORING BOAT SERVICE. Probably unsurprisingly, I have revived the park’s water taxis. It’s well known that Animal Kingdom opened with a fleet of passenger boats that carried guests between Discovery Island and Asia – and with clever scenes along the waterway serving as “previews” of what each land contained. Especially in a park as large as Animal Kingdom, an in-park transportation system made great sense. As the story goes, though, Animal Kingdom was so short on rides (it opened with just five, including two that were just for transportation) that guests queued for the “Discovery River Boats” expecting a Jungle Cruise equivalent – not just a shuttle across the park.

In trying to communicate the attraction’s purpose, they were renamed the “Discovery River Taxi.” When that still didn’t satisfy, the ride became the “Radio Disney River Cruise.” But within 18 months of the park’s opening, the intra-park transit boats were retired entirely. My build-out brings it back as the DISCOVERY RIVER FERRY – a name meant to communicate its transportation focus, which will be especially important given the expansions we’re soon to address, which will ultimately yield four stops on this increasingly-needed park-wide transit system.

Finally, you’ll notice that the TREE OF LIFE THEATER no longer has “It’s Tough to be a Bug,” but I haven’t listed anything new either. The reason is because these 3D theaters are really built just for 3D movies. Their capacity is too small to make anything with live actors worthwhile. So I guess if anything, this could be a space to showcase rotating 3D National Geographic films developed for science centers and such, but is that worth your time in a Disney Park? I don’t know. Maybe a custom film narrated by an Audio-Animatronic Joe Rohde allowing us to see through the eyes of animals as they explore their habitats. Haha!

For now, onto the park’s existing lands for some expansion and reimagining…