Animal Kingdom is as educational as it is entertaining, adding a conservation message to virtually everything it provides. Yet the lessons do not feel forced, as they are carefully woven into the storylines of the attractions. Animal Kingdom provides a venue to stroll nature trails that lead to animal exhibits, or follow the main pathways to high-tech thrill rides. This ability to create one’s own adventures makes the park appealing to guests of every age group and interest, following Walt’s mission of creating parks where the entire family could have fun together.
Yet Animal Kingdom, like all Disney parks, is not without its own share of rocky history. The original park concept called for lands dedicated to animals past, present, and mythical. While past and present are represented liberally, the only mythical creature in the current version of Animal Kingdom is the Yeti, featured prominently in the new Expedition Everest attraction.
As the story goes, Beastly Kingdom was to have been a separate land within Animal Kingdom, celebrating the creatures of myth from unicorns to dragons. However, budgetary restrictions in the belt-tightening Eisner years left Imagineers without the money to develop the additional land. Beastly Kingdom was postponed, perhaps forever.
Imagineers argued that without that land, Animal Kingdom would be only a half day park, not worth the full price of admission. Eisner’s solution was to slap together Camp Minnie-Mickey, in the same style and with the same lack of planning as Mickey’s Birthdayland, now Mickey’s Toontown Fair, in the Magic Kingdom. The Festival of the Lion King, housed in Camp Minnie-Mickey, is now one of the top rated attractions in Animal Kingdom. Besides the show, however, there is not much there other than character greetings. The Imagineers were, however, promised that Beastly Kingdom would replace Camp Minnie-Mickey the following year.
Animal Kingdom struggled immensely in its first year of operation. Guests got lost on the twisting, winding pathways. The searing Florida heat was a real problem, with guests developing heat exhaustion on a far too frequent basis. As predicted, guests were angry at the lack of attractions, feeling that their money had been wasted. The park was unable to offer a nighttime fireworks show, as is standard in other Disney parks, due to the stress that loud noises and lights would put on the animals. Consequently, guests refused to stay past 4 pm, when the animals wound down for the day.
Animal Kingdom siphoned away a significant number of guests from the other parks, without recouping those numbers by being its own major draw. This is common in the first year of a new park’s operations and, if left alone, the numbers eventually work themselves out. But in the bottom-line conscious Eisner years, this was unacceptable. The money that was earmarked for the Beastly Kingdom project the following year was instead distributed to the other parks for new attractions to bolster their attendance. Beastly Kingdom was indefinitely postponed.
In an interesting twist of fate, the Imagineers from the Beastly Kingdom project got fed up, and many left the company. It just so happened that Universal was in the design phase of their newest gated park, Islands of Adventure, and wanted to design a mythical land known as the Lost Continent. Beastly Kingdom is alive and well there, with a different name and similar though not identical attractions.
Despite the problems that have plagued Animal Kingdom, efforts have been made to expand the park, making it worthy of a full day’s admission price. And now, with Eisner’s successor Bob Iger at the helm, a new Disney Renaissance has begun. Iger has promised a new era of returning to Disney’s core values, freeing up the money to make things right. Although shareholders and long time fans remain guarded, all indications are that Iger is a man of his word. In the meantime, enjoy Animal Kingdom for what it is, a living tribute to one of Walt Disney’s greatest dreams.