"I know, M. AV, I probably deserve a little blast for needing a little excitement with my 'education'. Short attention spans and all that blah."
No good education is entertaining without having to resort to tricks. The audience shouldn't feel bad because the creators failed.
Wasn't Animal Kingdom supposed to be a park that taught about the wonders of the natural world not a cornball yuck fest?
The park was sold on the contention that
real animals could be as interesting and exciting as make-believe stories. So why does the "realist" attraction at Animal Kingdom need a "chessy" phony element to reinforce its already trite message? Why laugh at something so silly when one can be thrilled by some truly amazing.
The "educational" quantity of the entire Safari is about the same as a five second commercial bumper on 'The Crocodile Hunter'. There is no attempt at all to make the animals themselves interesting; they're simply props to be looked at as we drive past. The fact that they had to "jazz it up" with phony gimmick elements like the fake bridge, the fake radio calls and the fake "guide" with the fake gun standing by the fake jeeps with the fake elephant after the fake chase through the fake countryside after the fake poachers shows that they were unable (and unwilling) to come up with anything interesting that was real.
Here's a little blurb that you won't hear on the safari the latest research from now shows that elephants call each other by
name. They have extremely complex vocalizations (most of which at a frequency lower than what humans can perceive) which travels for miles in open spaces. Those calls are far more complex than just "danger" or "come here", but may express concepts and emotions. It's even long been realized that elephants have a concept of life and death, of the passage of time, and immensely strong family bond. Let the implications of that roll about your head for a moment.
So what's more interesting: bouncing along in a phony jeep over concrete shaped to look like cliffs pretending to be chasing a rubber mechanical elephant, or knowing that there is a real elephant with a real conscious, self-aware mind looking back at you? And that maybe all the stories we tell about elephants are matched by the stories they tell each other - about us.
Sure, getting that point across is hard. And one that Disney no longer seems capable of making. So we get acres of concrete for carnival games, spin-and-puke rides, steel coasters and every other stomach churning idea that can be bought from another park with the hopes of making a quick buck. The shame is that with all the resources, all the imagination, all the skills and all the experience that Disney could bring to this to make it better than a
National Geographic special that they've made it so boring and trite.
P.S. " Well, I've seen tons of kids get a huge kick out of the chase element." Actually most times I've been on the ride the kids have always been more thrilled when an elephant pees. Just because "the kiddies like it" doesn't mean it's worthwhile having. Or should
that feature be added to the animatronics as well?
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