Beastly Kingdom
One Disney park that has really gained some popularity over the last year and a half is Disney’s Animal Kingdom. With the excitement of the new land Pandora — World of AVATAR that boasted gorgeous theming and amazing attractions, it’s no wonder that this park is getting some extra love!
Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the largest theme park on the Walt Disney World property at 580 acres. Construction of Disney’s fourth Orlando theme park began in 1990, only one year after the opening of Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios). Animal Kingdom opened 8 years later on Earth Day, April 22, 1998.
The park was dedicated by then CEO Michael Eisner with the following quote:
“Welcome to a kingdom of animals… real, ancient and imagined: a kingdom ruled by lions, dinosaurs and dragons; a kingdom of balance, harmony and survival; a kingdom we enter to share in the wonder, gaze at the beauty, thrill at the drama, and learn.”
—Michael D. Eisner, April 22, 1998
The keyword in this dedication is “imagined” — Why you may ask? It takes us a little deeper into what was originally planned for the area that is now occupied by Pandora.
Let’s start with Animal Kingdom’s logo — there is one animal that is not quite like the rest. You may not even notice him at first, but he is the symbol of a land that was lost in the plans known as Beastly Kingdom.
Image: disneylovezone
Beastly Kingdom was to be a major anchor for Phase II of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The idea was held off from the original park opening in hopes to bring something new and exciting to the park after Animal Kingdom got established and they started to earn back some of their funds from their initial massive budget!
For the time being, the area was known as Camp Minnie-Mickey — a temporary area dedicated to character meet and greets and a few shows. As the idea of Beastly Kingdom because less and less likely, Camp Minnie-Mickey stuck around. So what happened to Beastly Kingdom?
Image: wdwmagic.com
Beastly Kingdom was one of the most imaginative Disney lands that never came to be. Imagineers were excited to create this impressive land of mythical creatures! Original plans for the land included attractions featuring mythical creatures both good and evil, like unicorns and dragons.
Image: themouselets.com
One E-Ticket attraction planning for this land was a dark, thrill ride called Dragon Tower. (Think Expedition Everest, but instead of a Yeti you get a Dragon and instead of a mountain you’ve got a castle.) Guests ride through bat-filled corridors and past the dragon’s den on an exciting adventure. Early artwork shows how truly intense and imaginative their rollercoaster was meant to be!
Image: themouselets.com
Another planned attraction was a beautifully themed dark-ride. This attraction was inspired by Disney’s Fantasia, featuring aspects of the Dance of the Hour segment of the film. The last attraction for this area was a walk through attraction featuring a hedge maze called Quest for the Unicorn. The quest required guests to travel through the maze to collect pieces of a code to unlock the beautiful plant castle towards the end of the maze. Inside they would find a gorgeous Unicorn in an underground grotto.
Image: themouselets.com
After the not-so-successful opening of Disneyland Paris in 1992, Disney CEO Michael Eisner began to hold back from large-scale projects and investments. Beastly Kingdom’s plans proved to be too grand and expensive, so they idea was pushed off.
Imagineers that were angered by this decision left Disney to move on in hopes of making these plans a reality elsewhere. Little did Disney know some of these ideas would become a reality right down the street — at Universal Studios Orlando!
Image: orlando-florida.net
When Eisner had a chance to tour Universal’s Islands of Adventure after it opened in 1999, he was surprised to find an area of the park featuring a mythological theme that seemed all too familiar.
This area of Islands of Adventure was called The Lost Continent and inside had a section called Merlinwood. Merlinwood featured mythological themed attractions including a dragon-themed rollercoaster named Dueling Dragons and a family rollercoaster named The Flying Unicorn. (Dragons and Unicorns you say? Very original, Universal!)
Image: themeparkreview.com
It was clear at that point that Disney would not be able to make Beastly Kingdom a reality without it seeming like they were copying Universal.
Merlinwood would eventually be reimagined into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Transforming Dueling Dragons into Dragon Challenge and The Flying Unicorn into Flight of the Hippogriff.
In September of 2011, the announcement was made that Disney’s Animal Kingdom would be getting a new themed area in the Camp Minnie-Mickey space after all. They area would be entirely devoted to Avatar and would cost an estimated $400 million.
Construction for this land began in January 2014, and this immersive land eventually opened on May 24, 2017. Since it’s opening, Pandora – World of AVATAR has been a huge hit continuing to bring record-breaking traffic to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, a previously slower Disney park. According to TEA/AECOM 2017 Global Attractions Attendance Report for 2017, Disney’s Animal Kingdom hosted around 12.5 million guests. Such attendance ranked Animal Kingdom as the third-most-visited theme park in North America, and sixth-most-visited in the world!
Although the imaginative Beastly Kingdom never came to be, remnants of the land can still be found around Disney’s Animal Kingdom. From the iconic dragon at the entrance to the theme park to the Unicorn parking area, aspects of the land that never was still exist for now.
Beastly Kingdom was truly proof of what magic Disney’s Imagineers are capable of. Despite financial hardships and other initial obstacles, an area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom dedicated to impressive theming and creatures of imagination did eventually come to be with the creation of Pandora. And who knows? Maybe some other aspects of Beastly Kingdom will make their way onto the Disney property in time!
Which would you prefer? Beastly Kingdom or Pandora?