FANTASTIC WORLDS: A Land-by-Land Tour of Park Lore’s Blue Sky, Built-Out, Armchair Imagineered Disney Park

TE FITI

Pitch

In the beginning, there was only ocean… until the Mother Island emerged: Te Fiti. Her heart held the greatest power ever known: it could create life itself, and Te Fiti shared it with the world… But in time, some begin to seek Te Fiti’s heart until one day, it was stolen. Without her heart, Te Fiti began to crumble, giving birth to a terrible darkness.

For a thousand years, that darkness spread, draining life from island after island… Until, as foretold, an innocent warrior arose to journey beyond her island’s reef, to find the demigod Maui, to deliver him across the great ocean, and to restore Te Fiti’s heart – she was Moana. And now, with her legend still sung across the seas, her people have built a new village on Te Fiti; a harbor for travelers from across the horizon.

That brings us to Te Fiti – a lush, tropical paradise nestled into the flowering peaks of the Mother Island’s sleeping form. It’s a colorful, joyful, sun-drenched land of palm trees, coconuts, fluttering sails, and flowers, and a departure point for voyagers from across the ocean.

Inspiration & Concept

I told you that I wanted Fantastic Worlds to sort of defy your expectations… or at least, to defy the reality of what a real Disney Park following this model would be. For example, if Disney really built a 21st century “Islands” style park of IP-based lands, San Fransokyo would drop out in round one of the plan, likely replaced by Zootopia or Monstropolis.

Te Fiti would doubtlessly suffer the same fate, its spot taken by the highly-franchised Frozen. And yeah, I guess it’s true that Arendelle would work in this spot just as well and would be just as “nautical,” and that it would’ve been easier to copy-and-paste since it exists in “Living Land” form in Hong Kong (and soon, Paris).

But like Tangled and The Princess and the Frog before it, Moana deserves more, and is arguably more perfect for the parks than any Disney Animated Feature in a very long time. (Full disclosure, I took some time trying to figure out how I could squeeze a Princess and the Frog-themed New Orleans land into the park with a Te Fiti, but ten lands is… a lot.)

So ultimately, I chose Moana because it’s not just underrepresented, but so vibrantly perfect for a theme park. The idea here is simple. After Moana restored the heart of Te Fiti and saved the oceans, the people of Motunui took the seas. Voyagers once more, they set a course to find brand new islands, establishing new villages across the sea. But the grandest of them all is here – on the island of Te Fiti herself – whose pulsing heart protects the land and its people, serving as a source of life and celebration for the village.

Granted, my Te Fiti is small; a village on the shore of the island, enveloped in the mountainous silhouette of the sleeping goddess… It’s got an incredibly simple layout – an arching main pathway, and arterial paths along the water. But this land – a single presence of the Disney Princess franchise in this park – is no less mighty than any other.

Experience

As guests cross onto Te Fiti from Lost Coast or Galaxy’s Edge, they’d find themselves at the water’s edge – the waves of the Sea of Stars lapping as the voyagers’ boats bob in the surf.

I wanted the center of Te Fiti to be a communal place; a village gathering space and open air theater that serves as home of MAMAINA TOA: LEGEND OF MOANA. In the spirit and style of Animal Kingdom’s “Festival of the Lion King,” “Legend of Moana” would be a vibrant, cultural showcase of dancing, singing, acrobatics, and traditional Māori karetao puppetry.

“Legend of Moana” would be a showstopping musical celebration, all presented “in universe” as the people of Te Fiti tell the story of the voyager who restored Te Fiti’s heart. The back of the theater looking the sea would actually provide open views across the water. This would be the land’s spot for hearing songs from the film and being absorbed into the “book report” retelling of Moana. Elsewhere, new adventures await…

The south end of the island would feature a number of exciting attractions for the whole family. First up, I created HEARTSPRINGS – a splashpad, water playground, and family rest area that forms that shape of the Heart of Te Fiti. This shaded playful spot would include a number of watery interactives (I particularly like the idea of a few waterfalls that – via motion sensors – would part to allow guests to walk behind them.)

As guests proceed south along the water, I thought it would be a neat Imagineering challenge to have a meet-and-greet with… the Ocean!

I would genuinely love to see what designers could come up with to create the appearance of a living, emotive, transluscent wave rising from the water, even perhaps giving guests a chance to walk into the parted sea to “meet” it (which could actually make the illusion more believable). There’s something so playful and clever about this character, and I feel like this would be one of the more memorable “meet-and-greets” in Disney Parks, perhaps even including some playful drips or sprays during photo ops. I mean, I’d walk down to the water’s edge for that…!

Anyway, a bridge across a tranquil inlet would lead to a shallow bay – home to MAUI’S SPLASH COURSE. Mack Rides’ interactive boat rides (often called “Splash Battles”) are – admittedly – hit or miss. There was a wave of them that spread across regional parks in the 2000s, and some closed in very short order. But I like the idea of Maui settling in on Te Fiti and creating a “crash splash course” to train the next generation of voyagers.

The setup of these rides is often simple. They’re slow-moving, eight-person boats where riders have to turn a crank to power adjustable sprayers at their seats. The water spray can either activate interactive targets around the ride, soak onlookers, or both. Many installations also allow onlookers around the ride to return fire, with their own crank-powered cannons.

For Maui’s Splash Course, I included a brief dark ride opening scene recalling Moana’s discovery of her ancestors’ fleet of hidden ships. With torches blazing, pounding drums, and the chorus of “We Know the Way,” projections on sails might recall the glory days of the voyagers, with an Audio-Animatronic Maui joining in. That would lead to the outdoor course, with riders spraying practice targets and onlookers and Maui’s animal forms in a simple but sweet C-Ticket for the family.

I didn’t feel that a Moana-themed land could be complete without the WAYFINDER CATAMARANS – a true guest-powered ride equivalent to Disneyland’s Explorer Canoes. I wanted these Catamarans (navigated by Cast Members) to actually set out into the Sea of Stars, paddling around the waterfront spires of Batuu, then under the Rainbow Bridge, along the shores of Lost Coast, and back.

I wanted the TAGALOA TERRACE to offer some sort of signature snack for the land. Trust me, I love them enough to write an entire in-depth history of the Modern Marvel: The Dole Whip, but I do think this would be a great opportunity to create a legitimately-unique, signature treat for the park. Maybe Dole Soft Serve Coconut? After all, “Each part of the coconut, that’s all we need…”

The final ride for the park – and the anchoring E-Ticket of Te Fiti is MOANA: QUEST FOR TANGAROA. Stepping into the island’s Ceremonial House, guests would be part of a welcome party as Moana returns to the island. There’s just one problem. She would bring with her a dire warning: Tangaroa – god of the seas – has gone missing. Without Tangaroa’s calming influence on the ocean, Moana’s people may never be able to voyage again.

There’s just one hope: brave adventurers must board boats and join Moana and Maui on their most dangerous journey yet: into the depts of the ocean to discover the truth behind Tangaroa’s disappearance and to bring the god back.

I wanted this ride to use the ride system developed for Shanghai Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean – a unique boat-based attraction with boats that can drift forward, backward, and even sideways in relation to their direction of travel, merging immense physical sets and incredibly huge projection screens. A visually stunning attraction, Quest for Tangaroa would truly be a defining ride for Fantastic Worlds.

Finale

And so, my friends… there it is. If you’re still here 15,000 words(!) later, I can only say how truly touched I am by your interest in this project, and your kindness in seeing it through. Disney Fantastic Worlds could never be real. This fully built-out, super-charged park would contain 30 rides, which would give it the second most rides of any Disney Park and (using our metric) the third most dark rides of any Disney Park. In other words, Fantastic Worlds – as described – would rival what took Disneyland 65 years to assemble. This is a $10 billion park, far exceeding anything that would ever come to be in stats alone.

That’s to say nothing it’s contents. Sure, this is a Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Star Wars park, custom made for the modern Walt Disney Company… but it’s hard to imagine any multiverse where Disney would opt for Big Hero 6 over Zootopia; Moana over Frozen; Vulcania over Toy Story; TRON over Pirates of the Caribbean. Try as you might, it’s impossible to square worlds like Hallow Vale and Explorers Landing – as “real” as they feel to me – with Disney’s current M.O., which hasn’t seen an IP-free anchor attraction in the United States in well over a decade.

I started this project by deciding that I would take a park that lived in my head and make it so that you could see it, too. I hope you can, in some way. But the greatest compliments I’ve been given on this project on Twitter were from those who told me that it inspired them to return to the drawing board and sketch out a plan they’d held in their heads. In this park’s dedication, I called for it to be dedicated to the spark of creativity that lives in all of us, and “to the hopes that when it ignites in you, a new fantastic world will be ours.”

So if my little armchair Imagineering project lit that spark for you, do me a favor and make it real. I can’t wait to see it.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this special nighttime view of Disney Fantastic Worlds, and if you’re a super nerd who’s been along for every minute of this project, you can follow along with how I drew and assembled it via timelapse video.