Work Moving Ahead On Tropical Americas Area For Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Disney has just shared several exciting new details about multiple projects, including a new glimpse of the animatronics in Tiana's Bayou Adventure, news on cute new droids coming to Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland during Season of the Force, and now new details on the reimagining of Dinoland into an area inspired by the tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom.
Recently, we saw that progress was being made on this project when we saw that Walt Disney Imagineering had filed a permit that included plans for a trailer compound near Kali River Rapids that is likely for the area's construction. Now, Disney has shared new details on the Tropical Americas area as well as a look at Walt Disney Imagineering's research trip for Animal Kingdom.
Keep reading for the new details that have been shared about the upcoming reimagining!
New Details Shared for Tropical Americas Area at Animal Kingdom
Disney has shared that concept and design work is underway for both the Tropical Americas area at Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom expansion.
Disney also showed us concept artwork that appears to represent a carousel addition for this new area. That lines up with the previous concept artwork that you can see below that has a circular structure that some believed to be a carousel. This area was not confirmed to be Coco during the presentation, but the designs aligned with the possibility.
Disney previously announced at Destination D23 that Dinoland U.S.A. would be reimagined into a land inspired by the tropical Americas, and this has been one of the several announced Disney projects without opening dates that we have been waiting for more details on. The area will not be themed to a specific intellectual property but will be generally themed, which blends nicely with Animal Kingdom overall.
It was teased at Destination D23 that this new area could feature favorite stories like Encanto and Indiana Jones, but they did not confirm that this was definitely happening. We anticipate that the changes could entail DINOSAUR turning into Indiana Jones Adventure, a favorite ride featured at Disneyland Park in California and Tokyo DisneySea that utilizes the same ride system. This seems pretty likely especially considering the popularity of the Indiana Jones Adventure attraction. In fact, the teaser that Walt Disney Imagineering posted on their Instagram included an Indiana Jones reference with the clip ending with, “I've got a really good feeling about this.”
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Neal Emergy, Principal Landscape Designer at Walt Disney Imagineering, shared that Imagineers recently took a trip to Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula to study “art, culture, and the archeology of the Maya.” Imagineers build 3d models to help them visualize the stories they want to tell in the Disney Parks and this clip included a sneak peak of some of these design concepts for the Tropical Americas.
In fact, the clip included a shot of a 3D model that looks remarkably like the Casita house from Encanto. The clip shared that Imagineers aim to “bring the fantastical and magical to life” which aligns nicely with the storytelling of Encanto and the magic of the Madrigal family.
Dinoland U.S.A. Updates Long Overdue
Animal Kingdom is in desperate need of a change in the area that Dinoland U.S.A. currently occupies. While the DINOSAUR attraction is beloved by many Disney fans, the atmosphere in the area does not match the quality of other areas in the park especially since the closure of Primeval Whirl in 2021.
DINO-RAMA, the area adjacent to DINOSAUR, has the atmosphere of a carnival in a parking lot and one that absolutely does not meet the quality of the other lands in Animal Kingdom.
While we may miss the nostalgia of DINOSAUR, it's hard to deny that a change is long overdue to this area of the park. We look forward to hearing more updates from Walt Disney Imagineering as these plans continue to move forward.
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