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 bare 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 parabolic) prologue to the continents setup that follows. Even religious scholars tend to agree that the “Garden of Eden” wasn’t a real, literal place on a map, so our journey beginning in an ethereal, elysian non-place would’ve provided an interesting framing for life on Earth, and how it diverged and flourished to produce the systems of life we’ll find later on in Africa, Asia, Dinoland, et al.
Frankly, I don’t even think this overtly-Christian framing would’ve been considered that controversial or exclusionary in the ’90s. But I think we’re better off that the concept evolved. 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 untouched by man. 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 another possibility 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 “big box” 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 (as of 2025, down from 45 locations to 22) 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 major one of the park’s two actual rides – 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 color-washed, artisan 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 port of eternal 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: careful 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 four, including two that were just for transportation) that guests endured lengthy waits for the “Discovery River Boats” expecting a Jungle Cruise equivalent – not just a shuttle that dropped them off a 4 minute walk from where they’d started.
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!
DISCOVERY ISLAND
RIDES
- NEW! Discovery River Ferry (intra-park transportation boat system)
ATTRACTIONS
- Tree of Life Theater (430-seat 3D theater)
- Discovery Island Trails (walking trails through the Tree of Life’s root system)
- Adventurers Outpost (meet-and-greet)
- Animal Viewing Locations (otters, flamingos, birds, lemurs, vultures, tamarinds)
RESTAURANTS
- Breezeway Café (QS) (formerly Pizzafari)
- Flame Tree Roastery (Coffee) (formerly Creature Comforts)
- Tiffins (TS) and Nomad Lounge (Bar)
- Sprig & Spring Restaurant (formerly Flame Tree Barbecue)
- Brewed Bean (Coffee) (formerly Isle of Java)
For now, onto the park’s existing lands for some expansion and reimagining…
Having recently watched Hoppers, one of the first things I thought coming out of it is how incredible a fit it is for Animal Kingdom! Unlike movies such as Zootopia, it really fits the themes of the park, with our connection with animals and nature being one of its main themes. I think a Hoppers show would be perfect in the Tree Of Life theater, much better than the awful Zootopia show that’s in the theater now. The story for the attraction can be set up so easily as well, as it could be about Mabel and the scientists she’s working with showcasing a new Hoppers program to guests that gets them up and close with the animals! Putting Hoppers here could even work for Disney as a brand builder, since the movie is looking to be a genuine box office success! It is insane how perfect Hoppers and Animal Kingdom fit together, it almost feel purposeful!
I just wanna say I love this Animal Kingdom build-out, especially the Gravity Falls area. Including it was a brilliant idea! I’m just bummed there’s a lack of extinct animals in your version of the park.
I totally agree! When I sketched out the first ideas that would evolve into this Build-Out more than a decade ago, I thought Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur (which wasn’t out yet) might be a good way to do that. That tells you how long these ideas sort of lingered before I had Park Lore to put them down on paper. In retrospect, even if The Good Dinosaur had been a success, putting it here would’ve done the thing we try to avoid with Animal Kingdom, which is assuming that just because a movie has animals, it’s about animals.
The other obvious problem is that Universal owns Jurassic Park and leverages it heavily in their parks right up the road. Jurassic Park brings dinosaurs to our world in a way that’s very smart and perfect for a theme park. Sure it was meant to be a sort of dystopian sci-fi story about the hubris of man, but ultimately the setting of a theme park filled with dinosaurs still lets us adore and revere them as animals. It works really well. It gives Universal de facto “ownership” over the T. rex, and the Velociraptor, and “dinosaurs getting loose.” And it puts Disney on its back foot. Sort of like if Universal decided they wanted to start a line of animated Princesses. Like, sure, I guess you can try… but you’re never, ever going to supplant the pop culture image of that genre that’s held by your competitor.
If Jurassic Park brings dinosaurs to our world, then the logical inverse is that we visit theirs. The “problem” there has always been “theme-park-ability” – like, but where are the restrooms? The restaurants? How do you sell retail in a world that exists 65 million years before humans? I think you could do it by embracing the Dino Institute frame story… Perhaps you enter the land through a Chronotech portal that bridges us back in time to a dino-reserve operated by the Dino Institute. That would give us our needed infrastructure – restroom pods, and a futurustic pop-up canteen for Dino Institute researchers, and the frame story we need to have “rides” and “laboratories.” The problem is that even though that’s the inverse of Jurassic Park, I’m not sure it would read much different. It would still fundamentally be a dinosaur theme park.
Which is why it’s so brilliant that Dinoland U.S.A. avoided the trope altogether and found another way to explore how we as humans adore and revere dinosaurs, you know? Animal Kingdom is ultimately a park about us. That’s why it was such a smart idea to have a Dinoland so uniquely about something grounded (the absurdity of giant reptiles once being the dominant life on Earth, and now being plush animals and pajama sets and cartoons)… So even if that was lost on a lot of people (which, don’t get me wrong, is ultimately the fault of storytellers whose theme was obviously not conveyed or not connected to audiences), it was such a good idea that it’s hard to decide how else Disney can “own” dinosaurs with Jurassic Park a few miles away at Universal.
Thanks for checking this out!
The original concept for The Good Dinosaur posited that the creatures never went extinct, and lived alongside humans in a more egalitarian society.
That could be an interesting approach to bring prehistoric creatures to the park.
It’s an interesting idea! My only “worry” about that is the “dinosaurs & humans coexisting” thing, specifically as it relates to Animal Kingdom. Joe Rohde has talked about how when you visit Animal Kingdom, you are in a story, but not a fantasy. Even Pandora uses the fantastic to examine the real, with messages about biodiversity, indigenous people, keystone species, etc. So while I think there’s a compelling case for The Good Dinosaur’s sort of multiversal setup of “What if the meteor didn’t hit?”, I think there’s also a delicacy in putting that sort of thing in a park people do associate with real information. A YouGov poll a decade ago found that more than 40% of Americans think dinosaurs and humans coexisted (and unfortunately I’d wager that number has increased since! 🙃). Does Disney have a moral obligation to use its pop culture powers to develop a scientifically literate society? Probably, no… but it’s still something that’s probably worth considering specifically in Animal Kingdom! haha.
Brilliant, but I really do think that prehistoric animals deserve some real representation in a park like Animal Kingdom, though I wouldn’t change anything about this fantastic build-out.
Is there nowhere you could ‘squeeze in’ an expansion land for some of the most beloved creatures of all-time?
These are all fantastic and so well-crafted! Any plans for an Epcot one? Excited to see what you would concoct up
Hi Matt! Thanks for checking this out! An EPCOT build-out is probably my most-requested on social media! I have avoided it because I don’t think an EPCOT build-out meshes with my style, which is basically an overhead map. The “pavilion” situation makes it hard to do EPCOT that way, because the physical buildings maybe wouldn’t change? So it would just be the existing park but labeled differently? I don’t know…
I have been quietly working on something else, which is a sort of new age, next generation, what-if-a-park-like-EPCOT-were-built-today concept… so keep an eye out for that! Until then, thank you so much for reading!
I love these arm-chair imagineering posts, but I have what might possibly be a dumb question: How do you make the custom maps you have here? And do you have any tips and tricks for making your own? I’ve always wanted to design my own theme park like this but I don’t really know where to start!
Not a dumb question at all. I hand-drawn these on an iPad using the Procreate program and an Apple Pencil. I usually start by drawing on top of the existing park. I then do a lot of work to make sure things are at least reasonably scaled by looking back and forth at existing parks or showbuildings and using a 1:1 scale. And of course, contextualizing all of that in new layouts and pathways and backstage access. None of it is scientific or real (this isn’t actually my day job and I don’t know what I’m doing!) but it’s fun and, again, at least “reasonable” in terms of access roads, cast infrastructure, etc. It takes weeks to make one, but you can see an example of the process in this video here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qub3MDdxvao&t=1848s
Hey Brian, I have a suggestion. Can you please do another version of Animal Kingdom Armchair Imagineering, this time with a Lion King land and Dinosaur staying, and also an original park for Walt Disney World with lands based on Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Great Mouse Detective, Zootopia, Beauty and The Beast, Moana and Emperor’s New Groove / Atlantis The Lost Empire please?
Also, I love this idea you’ve done!!! It is brilliant!!!
Thanks for checking this out, and for these suggestions! For me, I wouldn’t probably come up with another version of Animal Kingdom for a few reasons. One is that I want to basically have one build-out of each park as my sort of definitive “version.” I just wouldn’t want to have two or three or four versions of each park. And I wouldn’t include a Lion King land in Animal Kingdom if I were given creative control because ultimately, Lion King has the same problem as Zootopia – it has animals, but it’s not about animals. It’s a parable for human experiences that’s no more about animals than Frozen would be if Anna and Elsa were designed as arctic foxes instead of humans. To my thinking, Lion King is used perfectly in the park as it is in Africa… as an excuse to celebrate African arts and storytelling. It becomes diegetic in that the people of Harambe are celebrating the story of the Lion King, which makes sense in the context of Animal Kingdom whereas a land of cartoon animals would not.
Your ideas for a new park sound really cool, and very specific! I did come up with a concept park I called Disney’s Fantastic Worlds you might enjoy. As for this specific arrangement of IP, I totally encourage you to sketch it out and see what you can come up with! Hope you do, and share it if you do!
I think if the pandora improvements, the Bugs land, and the riverboats/nighttime show happened, it would already be “complete” even before the fantasia gardens or other more blue sky stuff. Chester and Hester sought to “add capacity” but did so in a cheap way. Bugs land, if in right context, could be lower cost and add a ton of children’s capacity. Animal Kingdom doesn’t have a shortage of E tickets. It has a shortage of smaller, low-to-no wait experiences.
Can you next one be universal?
Amazing gravity falls but you should have added bill in the park
He’s there on the map, just like other creatures. 😉 He can visited in stone down a little discrete wooded trail.
I noticed that the rides for your buildout of Tropical America are the same as the rides you made for your build-out of Hollywood Studios. I think you should replace the ones in your build-out in Hollywood Studios with a Monsters, Inc. land instead.
Yep, you’re right! I designed that build-out of Hollywood Studios long before these changes to Animal Kingdom were greenlit, so it’s sort of wild that I got the mix of Indiana Jones and Encanto “right” – just at the wrong park. Haha! I think you’ll see me sweep back through that Hollywood Studios build-out eventually and do some reorganizing. I was never 100% happy with the flow that inserted an Incredibles land right between a 1930s Hollywood and a 1930s Walt Disney Studios… something seemed off about that flow, so maybe this is a chance to fix it.
Once again, you absolutely blew this out of the water! I love the Mythica, Gravity Falls, and Bugs Land combo, and the map is inspiring as always. A bit funny of a recurring joke though, is it just me or has every single buildout you’ve made (except HS) specifically include an Aquatopia-inspired ride, with the word “Skimmers” in it? Definitely enamored with the word lol
Additionally, aside from Ideal Buildout you might want to check out a few other amazing armchair Imagineering projects/blogs on the web for inspiration (if you haven’t already!) – this includes Imagineerland, DisneySky (Complete and Restored), and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Season 8: Magic Journeys (one of many armchair Imagineering competitions). They’re all worth checking out!
I would recommend a Lion King land for Animal Kingdom. In my opinion, it really fits the theme
I think Lion King is present in Animal Kingdom in the best way it could be – drawing on its music that draws upon the “Circle of Life,” wrapped in a show that’s “decorated” with the artistry and culture of African artisans. Otherwise, I think the high bar to entry that “guards” Animal Kingdom would prevent Lion King from being included as a land or a dark ride.
Lion King is obviously a fantastic film, but I think it’s really not so different than Zootopia in that is has animals, but is not about animals. The characters could just as easily have been designed to look like humans, telling a “coming of age” story about a young boy who loses his family and is set loose in the world to find his way. The fact that its characters are stylized as lions adds a lot to the film, but it doesn’t actually make it have anything to do Animal Kingdom’s big idea – “the untradeable value of nature.” Joe Rohde’s thinking is that the park’s Africa is primarily concerned with resources – how the people of Harambe think industriously to make the most of what they have, and that they have decided to value the rhino over the horn. That’s big, deep stuff that’s dealing with human’s relationship with nature. Even though there are animals in it, The Lion King isn’t about that.
Thanks for checking this out!
As a huge theme park fan and a massive Gravity Falls fan, I adore the Gravity Falls land you made for the park! However, there are a few lore notes that I have to give about Strange Dimensions ride. Firstly, the strange creatures didn’t come from the portal. They were always in Gravity Falls, even before the portal was built, and were all at Gravity Falls because of the Law Of Weirdness Magnetism. Secondly, the portal was first built in order to get Bill Cipher and his pals to our dimension so he can start Weirdmageddon. So basically, if we reopen the portal in this ride, if this ride follows canon we should be starting the apocalypse!
THANK YOU! Like I said, this is not an IP I’m super familiar with! I have changed around the description into something more generic… but please feel free to let me know what the ride’s story should be and I’ll update it! Hahaha!
I asked the Gravity Falls subreddit on what a potential story for a Gravity Falls ride could be and they mainly said either a tour of the shack or a ride based on Weirdmageddon. Honestly, I don’t love either of those ideas. A simple tour of the shack is too quaint and small scaled for the type of E-Ticket you’re proposing here. I have always thought that a tour of the shack could be the queue of the ride, as you see the fake creatures made as the shack’s attractions while on the line, with an animatronic Stan or Soos (similar to the animatronic Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story Mania) presenting the the shack’s “wonders.” As for the idea for a ride that takes place during Weirdmageddon, I find it hard to make it work as part of the land’s timeline. There was no fair at all when Weirdmageddon started and Dipper and Mabel canonically don’t return to the shack until three days after Weirdmageddon started. Plus, we have to spoil the ending of the Weirdmageddon arc in order for the ride to have a satisfying ending. (To be fair, we pretty much have to spoil the existence of a certain character that the show keeps as a mystery for most of the show anyways, since I kinda feel like the land should take place in the summer after Dipper and Mabel’s original summer, and you can’t really do that without having that character appear.) However, I have come up with an idea that I think can work. In the Gravity Falls graphic novel Lost Legends, it is revealed that there are rifts that have opened in Gravity Falls after Weirdmageddon ended, rifts that can travel to other dimensions when someone goes inside of it. While we see the Pines fix and close one of these rifts in the graphic novel, it has not been confirmed that they closed all of the rifts, or that rifts have stopped appearing, so we can work with that. The Pines family can introduce themselves to the guests in the pre-show, and then in that pre-show we can have a character (probably Soos or Waddles) get sucked into a rift. Now we have to join the Pines and go into the rift and through the multiverse in order to save them. When it comes to what universes we go to however, I’m kinda stumped. I feel like the universes they go to have to be both relevant to the show and relevant to the themes of Animal Kingdom. I assume that most of these universes will be made just for the attraction, as the actual show never really goes dimension hopping itself, instead bringing characters from other dimensions such as Bill into our world. And even dimensions mentioned in supplemental material like the books are more sci-fi like worlds that don’t fit in Animal Kingdom at all. I had the idea of maybe crossing over with the shows Amphibia and The Owl House, shows that have basically acted as Gravity Falls’ spiritual successors, traveling to their dimensions Jimmy Neutron: Nicktoon Blast style, since I feel like those worlds fit Animal Kingdom quite well, but those shows are even more niche than Gravity Falls, making it kind of a hard sell. However, I do know that I want the last dimension they enter to be a parallel universe where the Pines family lost against Bill into Weirdmageddon. The new Gravity Falls book called The Book Of Bill confirmed that there are parallel universes that exist where the Pines family lost, so it’s a way we can have the incredibly popular and iconic Bill Cipher in the ride and go through Weirdmageddon without breaking canon! Of course, we end the ride with them barely escaping Bill, returning to their home dimension, closing the rift, and congratulating us on a job well done! My ride idea isn’t perfect, and we still need to figure out what will be the other dimensions that the characters will go through, but I feel like I have found a way to preserve your idea of traveling the multiverse with the Gravity Falls cast, without breaking the lore and canon this time!
By the way, if you want to see what other people answered on my post about what a Gravity Falls ride should be like, here’s the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/gravityfalls/comments/1gi5341/if_gravity_falls_had_a_land_in_disney_world_how/
My personal idea for a Gravity Falls ride is a “Mystery Tour” similar to the one stated in the post above with a new E-ticket focus. The idea is that Stan is testing out a new automated golf-cart mystery tour (so he doesn’t have to drive people around/pay anyone to drive people around) that will go through setup portions of the surrounding forest with cheap attractions and replicas. Soos is remotely controlling the test carts that you ride on (after going through the queue that is the Mystery Shack itself) and you load up “outside” at night for the tour. The tour goes pretty well and is “boring” until Dipper and Mabel appear over the radio and tell Soos that the tour doesn’t show anything real and to let the passengers go to some real interesting (yet safe) areas where we can find things. Unfortunately, one monster from the show (you can probably pick which one but maybe something like the Gobblewonker or bring back the dinosaurs) is a lot more dangerous than expected as you go on a high speed chase through the forest before outmaneuvering with Soos’s help allowing you to get back to the Shack.