May 12, 2018

Countdown to Extinction for Dinosaur

Love Disney's Animal Kingdom?  Me, too!  With Pandora, nighttime safaris, and the Rivers of Light nighttime show, it's should be just the beginning of more great things to come. But there's also the potential of a huge loss as this park is gaining in popularity. 

Is the Dinosaur attraction facing extinction? Rumor has it, this great "E Ticket" attraction could be giving way to a famous explorer by the name of Indiana Jones. Check out the thread on WDWMagic, the site that first brought this to light as a possibility.

As an opening day headliner that drew guests to the park along with the iconic Kilimanjaro Safaris, Countdown to Extinction - with its this reused track layout from Indy's Adventure- anchored the dinosaur themed land long before Chester and Hester's Disaster made its debut. Perhaps this is the disadvantage of creatively saving money by duplicating a ride system and just changing out the showpieces and adding different effects: When the suits in charge decide to bring in the latest intellectual property, they can just reuse what's there vs. creatively thinking how to best tell a new story and building around that. It's comparatively cheap to do a layover (See Mission: Breakout), but it's lazy and short changes the guest experience. 

Oh well. Disney's going to do what they want.

Here's some rare concept art by the Disney Imagineers. Notice a  slightly different opening sequence than the final result. The terrifying Carnotaurus greets time travelers right at the beginning of the journey. Too late for those with second thoughts to change their minds. If they do decide to override Dinosaur with Indy, we will eventually get over it.

It's all just part of the evolution of Animal Kingdom. Check out this series of articles on the changes over the last 20 years! History of the park, rare concept art, trip report and more!


(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

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