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| Image copyright Disney |
On this day, in 1998, the fourth theme park in the Walt Disney World
Resort, Disney's Animal Kingdom, began welcoming guests into the wilds of
Africa. Partly because of the
success of the Tru-Life Adventure
films, Walt Disney had wanted to incorporate live animals into his theme park
for years. When plans were being made for the Jungle Cruise attraction, he
wanted to populate it with real animals. His staff convinced him that it would be
too hard to control the guest experience (i.e. keeping the animals awake and
visible to guests during the heat of the day would be almost impossible) so
mechanical facsimiles were used instead. But the dream carried on and didn’t
even die with Walt.
In 1974, Treasure Island opened for
business in the middle of Bay Lake at Walt Disney World. Eventually renamed
Discovery Island, the 11.5 acre park hosted a variety of birds, alligators,
lemurs, tortoises and capuchin monkeys for guests to observe and interact with.
It was a start, but not quite what Walt had envisioned. It would be two and a
half more decades before that happened.
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| Image copyright Disney |
Almost as soon as the gates of the
Disney-MGM Studios were opened in the spring of 1989, plans were started on a
fourth theme park for the Florida Project. Senior Imagineer Joe Rohde (who, if
you ever get a glimpse of him out in the parks, is instantly recognizable for
the large, exotic earring he frequently wears in his left ear) was the major
brains behind making the new park themed around the animal world. He was so
enthusiastic about it, he brought a Bengal tiger to his first meeting with then
CEO Michael Eisner. And who can say no to a 400 pound predator.
Plans proceeded on what was tentatively called
Disney’s Wild Animal Kingdom. 580 acres was set aside in the south western
quadrant of Walt Disney World, making the new venture the largest theme park in
the world. Albeit with one important distinction from other parks: there would
be more area allotted to the animals than there would be for guests. To put
that in perspective, Animal Kingdom has only about two thirds of the guest capacity
of the Magic Kingdom but covers about four times the area. The park’s location
also isolates it from the rest of the resort, shielding the animals from most
of the noise and light pollution the other parks and hotels tend to generate.
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| Image copyright Disney |
In July 1996, construction began on holding facilities
for the animals and the African savanna portion of the park. Over 4 million
cubic yards of dirt were added to the area, 40,000 mature trees were planted
and seeds from 37 countries representing hundreds of kinds of plants and
grasses were cultivated. By the fall of 1997, nearly all the animals had been
rounded up and were held in a quarantine facility in northern Florida in
anticipation of moving to their new homes, being watched over by staff from 69
different zoos from around the country. As the calendar rolled into 1998, the
animals began migrating to their quarters in the Animal Kingdom to begin the
acclimation process.
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| Image copyright Disney |
Finally, on April 22, 1998, Earth Day of course,
Disney’s Animal Kingdom (the Wild had been dropped pretty early in the
construction phase) welcomed its first guests. The park was only about two-thirds
open at that point. Africa, Camp Minnie-Mickey (a character meet and greet
area), Safari Village (an area similar to the Magic Kingdom’s Hub; it’s where
the parks icon, the Tree of Life, is and was renamed Discovery Island when the
other park closed in 1999), Rafiki’s Planet Watch and Dinoland USA were all
opening day areas. Two areas were slated to open at later dates: Asia and the
Beastly Kingdom. Asia opened in 1999, bringing with it tigers and Expedition:
Everest, but what about this Beastly area? To talk about that, I’ll need to
step up on this soapbox.
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| Image copyright Disney |
Look carefully at the original logo for Animal
Kingdom at the top of this post. There are five animals in silhouette marching
along that represent the three pronged vision for the park. Animal kingdom was to present guests with
lions, elephants and antelope, in other words, species that exist today. Then
there would be an element of dinosaurs, or species that have gone extinct. Both
of those prongs exist nicely. However. What do we see in the middle? What sort
of animal is basically the focal point of the whole logo? That’s right, it’s a
dragon, representing animals of our imagination. Do you see dragons anywhere in
Animal Kingdom? Or unicorns? Or sea monsters or hippos in tutus? YOU DO NOT! We
were promised epic adventures chasing fire breathing dragons and hunting for
glimpses of elusive unicorns, but did we get them? WE DID NOT! And that promise
remained in the center of every logo splashed on every product in the park for
years before just quietly disappearing. Now you can try to argue that it was
quickly decided that fantasy creatures wouldn’t fit in with the rest of the
park and its focus on the fates of real animals and taking care of the planet. But
then how do you explain Pandora, the newest land about fantasy creatures? I
know, I know, Avatar is all about ‘living
with the land’ and ‘greed is bad’ but it is a terrible movie (I said it and I’ll
stand by it, just try to fight me on this). There are far better movies that
could have been utilized to make the same point (like Disney’s own Pocahontas, which Avatar is a bad retread of). Anybody heard of Tru-Life Adventures
or the DisneyNature series? Just because James Cameron was able to pony up a few
dump trucks full of his own money for the thing doesn’t mean the rest of us
should be deprived of our dragons (especially since the Pandora attractions don’t
inspire real world conservation any more than a unicorn roller coaster would).
Stepping back down now.
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| Image copyright Disney |
All (semi) kidding aside, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is
one of my favorite parks. I love the Kilimanjaro Safari ride (although don’t
get me started on the removal of the elephant poachers) simply because of all
the majestic animals you see, sometimes even poking their heads right into your
safari vehicles (beware of ostriches looking for snacks). I can spend hours
watching the gorillas or tigers on the walking trails. And, yes, I even like
the Flight of the Avatar ride (which doesn’t make the movie it’s based on any
better; I’d probably like it more if it was DRAGON themed). It’s hard to
believe that it’s already been 21 years since that opening Earth Day, but time
flies when you’re having fun. Speaking of fun, who wants to go ride Everest so
we can share our impersonations of Disco Yeti?
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