Perhaps the most famous example of a theme conversion for a major theme park land has been Universal Orlando's switch of the old Merlinwood section of its Lost Continent land into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade. That worked for Universal because the old-England look of the area fit well within the aesthetic of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and movies. Yes, the company ended up spending those hundreds of millions of dollars to build Hogwarts castle and the various shops on the village's High Street, but Universal saved many millions by retheming a couple of roller coasters and reskinning the old Enchanted Oak Tavern into The Three Broomsticks instead of having to build everything from the ground up, as it did when it razed Amity at Universal Studios Florida to build Diagon Alley.
Disneyland is getting ready to install a much less ambitious conversion of its own, changing Paradise Pier at Disney California Adventure into Pixar Pier. Fans shouldn't expect much actual construction for this "new" land, but rather just an expansion of Pixar characters and decoration throughout, to go with the existing Toy Story Midway Mania and King Triton's Carousel. Still, Disney seems committed to this as a long-term change for the area, as opposed to the quickie overlays it has put up in the past, ranging from Tomorrowland's Star Wars Season of the Force to the long-ago Disney Afternoon Avenue in Fantasyland.
But some fans have conjured a much more ambitious conversion plan for Disney's Imagineers. It seems audacious, but when you look closer at the concept, this might be the easiest major land conversion imaginable right now.
Here's the idea: converting Dinoland at Disney's Animal Kingdom to an Indiana Jones land.
Why would this be worth considering? Indiana Jones remains a popular franchise and with a fifth (no, fourth, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull never happened, I tell ya!) movie in development, Disney could drive more business with an expanded presence for Indy than by keeping its relatively generic dinos around. (Do you remember Disney's 2000 Dinosaur movie? Don't beat yourself up if you don't.)
The switch could be relatively easy because the land's top attraction — the uncreatively named Dinosaur — is structurally a clone of Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure. The track layout, ride system and vehicles are the same. Yes, Disney would have to redecorate and reprogram the whole thing, but that's way cheaper than building a motion base dark ride from scratch.
What about the rest of the land? You can keep the Boneyard play area with a light rethemed to an archeology dig. Then tear down the spinner and the coaster to build another clone of the Indiana Jones and the Temple or Peril coaster from Disneyland Paris and Tokyo DisneySea (where it is called Raging Spirits). Copy some of the area decor from DisneySea's Lost River Delta land, and you're good to go. Heck, maybe Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar can move over from Disney Springs, too.
Of course, this would mean the end of dinosaurs at Disney World, following the resort's closure this weekend of Ellen's Energy Adventure — and its dino scenes — in favor of a new Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster.
But swapping dinosaurs for Indiana Jones is not the craziest idea ever. So let's play. What other lands — at Disney, Universal, or other theme parks — would make strong candidates to conversion to more popular IPs?
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- I'd love to see a re-theming of Test Track into Cars Land. It could house a huge darkride part and a nicely themed exterior.
- The Circus tent store in MK could be rethemed as an actual circus where the fab 5 perform a fun show.
- Muppet 4D could become the actual Muppet theater where you can see the real muppets and not a movie. Eatable pizzas at the rat place would be a plus.
- The Osborne Family christmas lights could get a new life at Disney Springs (no more street of mediocre trees please).
- The tiki birds could become part of the adventurers club expansion when the Sinbad spinner and that whole area gets Mystic Manor.
- The Mexican pavilion could be replaced with Russia changing the temple into the Pokrov cathedral. The boatride could retell the love story between Trump and Poetin.
- Tower of Terror should get a Frozen makeover. The lifts are now sleds and you slide up and down. (I know, bad idea). And I probably shouldn't mention my idea to change the castle into a inflatable pie for their next anniversary either because that didn't go well the last time.
The rest of Lost Continent needs to be absorbed into Wizarding World. I'm not against removing Dragon Challenge; the coasters are eyesores in the otherwise perfectly designed land, the queue is a thousand miles long, and the coasters lost most of their appeal when they stopped dueling. But wouldn't it have been preferable to keep the Dragons and build the new attraction in the current Lost Continent area, which is devoid of anything interesting and serves merely to add steps to your day.
I'd like to see USF add some thematic cohesion, too, but I'm not really sure what they could do. Transformers is an incredible attraction but the building sticks out like a sore thumb, and the "movie set" theme is pretty incoherent at this point. Any ideas?
I whole heartedly second the removal of the Atlantis at IOA. It is bad and taking up space.
Since Disney will not do a fifth gate in Orlando, I say they fix the people mover in Tomorrowland in DL and the TTA in MK with an actual positive futuristic journey through spaceports with projections and other imaging. Then rip out Stitch and make a Mission to the Moon or something similar. Since they are going all in on Star Wars (for which I can't wait), why not bring back the positive dream f tomorrow as a counterpoint to the futuristic space combat (and, yes, technically Star Wars is in the past).
Back to Universal, the Toon area in IOA seems out of date. Seems like they could use some real estate for better things, but ripping out a significant chunk. I know people like Dudley Do Right and Popeye, but those are in just about every theme park everywhere, and do kids nowadays even know who they are?
OT, I like your idea of Russia land, but I picture the main ride being a Pinocchio theme. Putin is the puppet master pulling the Strings Of The orange ego monster, who then decides that he's going to be his own boy, and subsequently goes around lying to everyone.
Honestly, a conversion of a single attraction to a new IP works well, but if a full land is desired it really needs to be built mostly from scratch in order to feel right. Changing the decoration is fine, but it's impossible to go for something immersive when you're essentially doing a permanent overlay.
Animal Kingdom is supposed to be "A kingdom of animals; Real, ancient and imagined."
Yes, both archaeology and paleontology can require digging to obtain evidence for analysis, but that's as far as the comparison goes. Their fields of study are literally over 60 million years apart.
If you thought Arendelle in Norway was incongruous at World Showcase, that's nothing compared to putting Indiana Jones into Animal Kingdom. And I say this with Raiders of the Lost Ark being, hands down, my favorite movie of all time.
The problem with Dinoland USA is that it was actually a little too successful in its design: Disney went out of its way to create a replica of a seedy little carnival, set up in a parking lot, in a dirty little town. What they ended up with was a seedy little carnival, set up in a parking lot, in a dirty little town - Yay?
If they want to redevelop Dinoland, they need to raze Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama roadside carnival, keep the boneyard, and expand the Dino institute with quality educational entertainment - they're dinosaurs! You can learn AND have fun with them. They are literally giant monsters from earth's past. That's AWSOME.
Lets stop the dumbing down of Disney entertainment.
Indiana Jones does not fit at Animal Kingdom. They made a stretch with Pandora, but they made it work. You actually learn something of Animal worth on Flights of Passage.
- At Hollywood Studios, when the dust has settled from Star Wars, eliminate and restart the whole Echo Lake section. Remove what's there, and make a land/tribute to the history of Disney's Live Action I.P., much the way the Great Movie Ride was; 20,000 Leagues, Absent Minded Professor, Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Herbie, Pete's Dragon, Black Hole, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Return to Oz, Tron, Rocketeer, all the way up to National Treasure, Alice in Wonderland and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. There's a rich history there, that would be wonderful to ride through and see if done right with modern sets and audio-anamatronics. And no need to borrow anybody else's IP.
I think it's smart to figure out a way to re-imagine Dinosaur to take advantage of the motion base ride system, but simply copying California's attraction is not the way to go. People have always hated the tacky Dinoland USA, but it serves its purpose as a place for the little ones to hang out and kill a couple of hours. Any replacement would need to include multiple attractions (more than 2), and not just a reskin of Dinosaur and one new D/E ticket. The park needs to have more flat rides, not less, and simply dumping Primeval Whirl and Dino-Dumbo in favor of another coaster won't make things any better.
I'm more inclined to keep the dinosaur themes, but strip away the tackiness in favor of a more serious tone. The only issue would be trying not to step into Jurassic Park territory while still making it exciting and authentic.
"Remove what's there, and make a land/tribute to the history of Disney's Live Action I.P."
Talk about stale. Sure, such an application would bring back some nostalgia, but there's not enough there worthy of mentioning, let along basing a ride on. If Great Movie Ride wasn't pulling them in, then what makes you think a similar ride featuring old movies that have long since left the public consciousness will? Why don't they just make an entire ride around The Cat From Outer Space while they're at it.
I tried to get my son to sit down and watch Black Hole, and he lasted about 15 minutes before "I'm bored" started ringing through the house. There's just not a lot of material in the catalog that has lasting power.
Yet the Yeti is based on a human myth and the Dragons are similarly based on human mythology and nothing to do with actual creatures. The connection between Indiana Jones and Dinosaurs are quite loose, but it can be made to fit regardless. It's just a dig site where dinosaurs were discovered by accident when Indiana was looking for ancient artifacts. It's a 2 for 1 deal. Maybe 3 for 1 since Indiana Jones hates snakes so they can bulk up the snakes, reptiles, and spiders exhibits.
The Yeti is not real, and is not an animal??? Don't tell me that Leonard Nimoy lied to me for all those years of my childhood!
I would have bigger doubts whether Guardians of the Galaxy, which depends more on video screens and also depends on the familiarity of 1980s songs and pop culture, will stay relevant to future generations.
The question of whether Indiana Jones fits in AK is another thing. Temple of the Forbidden Eye has a Hindu-like god which fits in an Asia or India themed area. If the god were changed to South America, like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it could be in a new South America area. If they had one or two more additional attractions themed to South American animals, it might work. Maybe a South American rainforest ride, although it might be similar to Navi River Journey. But I'm sure the Imagineers could come up with something great and different.
I don't see how carnival type flat rides would fit in any immersively themed land. Dumbo and Tea Cups might have been ok for 1950s Fantasyland, but they wouldn't fly in 2000s Hogsmeade or Star Wars Land.
I also don't see how Zootopia, which takes place largely in a big city, would fit in AK. People think Zootopia equals animals, but I think they forget that the animals are basically people types living in a big city. You might as well put Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in AK and call them animal themed.
It's supposed to look cheesy since it's representing prehistoric times, and we didn't have technology back then, so things needed to look simple.
I've been to T-Rex Cafe at what is now Disney Springs 8x and it's a magical cafe that immerses you in prehistoric times, and I had the idea that, like the Rainforest Cafe, there should be an addition in Animal Kingdom, and that Dinoland would be the place.
As good as Indiana Jones is for California, Animal Kingdom isn't a good place for it, and besides, Disney is just making new attractions from corporate movies as a form of marketing so they would make more money, which is why they're closing great attractions down, like they did with The Great Movie Ride at Hollywood Studios and Ellen's Energy Adventure, and it's the same reason why they closed down DisneyQuest and might even think about closing down Tower of Terror and even Space Mountain, after the high demand of the new Tron ride.
If they keep closing stuff like this down, I might never go to Disney again.
The Song of the South is actually a perfect example that, even though the movie might be forgotten (even intentionally so), if done properly it can be the base of a great ride. Splash Mountain continues to be one of Disney's most popular attractions. Nostalgia doesn't have to be stale.
And, my understanding is that WDW's attendance continues to grow each year. I am unaware of any decline.
And lastly, being the owners of Star Wars, Pixar, ABC, ESPN, Marvel, not to mention all things specifically Disney, the only way Disney could be any more relevant in today's society, is if we all were assigned a six-foot-tall mouse to sit in our living rooms.
I never understood why Disney never incorporated a Lion King ride or land into their parks? The Lion King is one of the highest grossing films of all time. It's been successful on Broadway as well. I know the Disney parks have had shows based on the Lion King. However, I just never understood why they never built a land, or had some sort of dark ride? It would fit perfectly in Animal Kingdom. Disney is also in the process of making a live action Lion King movie. Which is supposed to come out sometime in 2019. It's one of Disney's movie successful movies, along with Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White.
Another idea is a Frozen land. Frozen was a huge success for Disney. Frozen 2 is expected to be released in 2019. Although Disney does have a Frozen ride in Epcot. I'm surprised they have no plans to build a Frozen land? Especially with Frozen 2 coming out in the near future. The same could be said for Disneyland. I know Frozen is present at Disneyland, including the Frozen show, at California Adventure, which I enjoyed. I just hope they build a Frozen land, maybe a min-land, with some sort of dark ride.
The Jungle Book could be an interesting idea as well. It makes sense to have a Jungle Book land in Animal Kingdom. Especially since the live action movie was popular, along with the original movie. They could have a dark ride based on the Jungle Book. As well as a land, or even a mini-land.
The original idea, though, was to remove everything in the Echo Lake area and expand the land there. But that was before Toy Story, the world's cheapest land. Similarly, the idea was to just plop an Indiana Jones clone in here, which would mean two exactly-the-same rides, just with different theming, so getting rid of Dinosaur is actually a better idea. So the next step is, what happens to Echo Lake? Frozen? There are plans out there for mini-Frozen lands in at least two different parks. A new Star Wars galaxy? (They better not overdo this.) Whatever the idea, they better start getting to work on it, because BOTH of these parks will still be half-day parks, as Star Wars and Toy Story only add four new attractions, which is still less than the number they have closed.
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