D23 Zootopia Expansion?

[WDW_Ding]

But anthropomorphized big blue aliens do. I’m pretty sure the entirety of Its Tough to be a Bug is based in anthropomorphized bugs also.

Come on..

Also, Festival of the Lion King.

Also, Finding Nemo The Musical.

 

[jknezek]

Also, Festival of the Lion King.

Also, Finding Nemo The Musical.

Yeah. I'm going to go with these are talking animals doing animal things. Not talking animals doing human things. Hence Circle of Life and returning to the sea being the big themes as opposed to living in harmonious cities where predators aren't supposed to be predators and prey aren't supposed to be prey...

Anthropomorphism involves more than just talking, you have to actually think about the major theme.

 

[WDW_Ding]

Yeah. I'm going to go with these are talking animals doing animal things. Not talking animals doing human things. Hence Circle of Life and returning to the sea being the big themes as opposed to living in harmonious cities where predators aren't supposed to be predators and prey aren't supposed to be prey...

Anthropomorphism involves more than just talking, you have to actually think about the major theme.

I don't see many "tumble" monkeys putting on such shows in real life, but, then again, I don't live in a jungle. I also don't live under the sea, so maybe fish really do go to schools and have teachers who are sting rays.

 

[jknezek]

I don't see many "tumble" monkeys putting on such shows in real life, but, then again, I don't live in a jungle. I also don't live under the sea, so maybe fish really do go to schools and have teachers who are sting rays.

I guess it's perspective, but fish do live in schools in the ocean and prey on each other. They don't live in human cities, eat ice cream, carry briefcases, and fight against the natural order of predator and prey. As for monkeys, they do play and tumble quite a bit in the wild. It's pretty much the focus of any documentary you watch on them. Play and socialization...

 

[MeridaAnn]

I think if AK gets anything else, it should be either a South America section or some sort of Antarctica exhibit. Or an update for the Dinosaur area. But I also think AK is fine as it is for now. You can get everything done there without rushing, but it can still be a full day. A new area wouldn't hurt, but neither would leaving it as-is for a little while. I don't think Zootopia is the right tone for that park, though. For me, the beauty of the park is in the nature aspects and the calmness of it - Zootopia is a really fun movie, but calm and natural are not traits that could be used to describe it.

I think Epcot has enough already-announced things coming that it will be pretty good once it's all settled (although they need to rename the Future World area to something more along the lines of Discovery World). HS could still use one more themed area to round it out (and please goodness do something to improve the flow of the park all the way around), but it just got two new areas and SWGE will keep the park plenty busy for a long time, so HS will probably go down on the priority list for new updates, too.

If there is an announcement of a new big project, though, my hope would be an overhaul of Tomorrowland in MK - once all the other current construction plans are completed around WDW, that's the one area that stands out as being really subpar. It simply doesn't meet its theme anymore. Tron will be great, and Space Mountain is one of my favorites, but beyond that - Monster's Inc. is a cute show, but it isn't about the future at all; Autopia isn't remotely futuristic; Buzz Lightyear is showing its age badly (the guns barely ever work for me and the whole thing pales in comparison to the quality of TSMM at HS); and Carousel of Progress HAS to change that final scene (probably best to just take it back to the original version or something - still won't be futuristic, but at least it won't be an embarrassingly outdated version of the "future" now that we already actually have high-quality VR video games and voice-activated lights and stoves that function better than the ones in that scene). And MK has enough capacity and other attractions that as long as they keep access to Tron and Space Mountain open, they can easily absorb closing the rest of Tomorrowland for a while.

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

As much as I like Zootopia I would rather have

a)An expansion to Dinoland

b)A different area. South America was mentioned and Disney has one "official" animated property and a few recently acquired properties to take advantage of that setting.

c)My preference but least likely: A land involving medieval fantasy beasts as with the original concept of AK.

 

[rg35]

Just thinking from a love level, AK hasn't received any attention since Pandora and the rest of the parks have ongoing projects.

Since Pandora? It only opened two years ago...and FoP is considered by many to be the best ride at WDW and Navi is a fantastic dark ride with the most advanced animatronic Disney put in a U.S. park.

AK also got Rivers of Light and Tiffins is one of the best TS restaurants on property.

That seems like a pretty fair amount of love.

 

[maverik85]

I was curious, what do you feel would take the major expansion slot in AK if not Zootopia? The company is pushing IP hard and I would imagine they would never put in a ride from an original idea today.

I've mentioned it before but think for the major expansion area they could add a whole new land based around Australia. Could easily add in some Nemo IP to the area too if they wanted, move the show into a new theatre there and put in a new attraction around it. This opens up the space of the current theatre for a new show or expansion for a new attraction in that area. Think this woudl be a better fit for the park than Zootopia as well since it would fit in more. Also as others mentioned I think AK is great for its overall feel without being bombarded by IPs. They are utliized all over the park but it's not as in your face as the others.

 

[Dis Dragon]

Since Pandora? It only opened two years ago...and FoP is considered by many to be the best ride at WDW and Navi is a fantastic dark ride with the most advanced animatronic Disney put in a U.S. park.

AK also got Rivers of Light and Tiffins is one of the best TS restaurants on property.

That seems like a pretty fair amount of love.

Look at the changes coming to all the other parks, Epcot has 2 rides coming, a new land, new restaurants - HS has two new lands - MK has Tron coming but was already in a fantastic place. The only thing they're working towards future attractions right now is Club 33 and fixing Primeval Whirl.

Dinoland needs an overhaul, I really wish they would have chose the other path when they had the creative decision to follow the Dinosaur movie or go with Mythical Beasts.

Don't get me wrong, we love AK as a park and an idea.

 

[maverik85]

I don't think Beastly Kingdom would have turned out like all the concept art they show though. Given their overall popularity I think dinosaurs was teh right call, and at the time it was just a delay for Beastly and not a cancellation of it. But if you look at original plans for Dinoland there was a boneyard themed roller coaster that was supposed to go in, so if that got cut when they did pick dinos then stuff would have likely been cut from Beastly area as well. Instead of a light and dark area we probably would have gotten only 1 of them, or they would have only opened with the maze and boat ride with plans to build the coaster later that might not have come to fruition. So I don't think you can really compare what could have been to what we got.

However I do agree that Dinoland can use some love and sprucing up. I would love to see the overall area get a retheme especially the Dinorama section. I understand the theming but it still looks cheap and isn't as immersive as other areas. Think turning that whole area overall into a South America themed section would be great. There have been a lot of dinosaur fossils found there so could still keep the dinosaurs around but I would add in some more animal exhibits and retheme the Dinosaur ride. Could keep it very similar overall just a few minor changes int eh story and redo the exterior and queue. I would turn the other halff with Dinorama and the Nemo theatre into a Rainforest themed area. The triceratops ride could be reskinned to be macaws, and would put in a watercoaster ride that can have river themed flume portions and coaster elements to keep a thrill level up with the removal of Primeval Whirl.