DISNEY'S ANIMAL KINGDOM

Disney's Animal Kingdom opened in 1998. The park is 500 acres in size and it contains a number of unique attractions as well as 600 species of trees, 350 different species of grass, 1800 different mosses, vines and shrubs as well as around 1000 animals. It is masterpiece of theme and imagination yet also a strangely natural environment. The park is an amazing creation, merging theme park thrills, with a great safari park experience as well as providing a focus for Disney's conservation projects.

Park Geography

The Animal Kingdom follows a similar format to the Magic Kingdom; at the centre of the park is Discovery Island and the Tree of Life. Surrounding the island, accessible by bridges, are the various lands: Africa, Asia, DinoLand U.S.A and Camp Minnie-Mickey. There is also Rafiki's Planet Watch accessible via the train from Africa. Africa and Asia are Disney reflections of those regions of the world complete with geography, imagineered buildings, structures and ruins along with animals and rides. DinoLand U.S.A is a strange mixture of fairground and dinosaur themed attractions. Camp Minnie-Mickey is primarily a place to meet the characters. Rafiki's Planet Watch is interesting as it is designed to educate on conservation, as well as allowing interaction with animals. The train ride to Planet Watch is also interesting as you get to see a bit of how the park works behind the scenes.

The centre piece of the park is the Tree of Life, which is very impressive. It is essentially a large, imagineered tree, which looks beautiful, but the true genius of it only comes apparent when you get closer to it. The tree has various creatures carved into its body, 325 to be exact, and you can see a lot of these from a distance, and you also get to see a lot of them up close through the queuing system for A Bug's Life. It's worth walking through the queuing system for that attraction just to see the base of the Tree of Life up close (and some of the posters for the bug acts in A Bug's Life). While the Tree of Life is the park's Cinderalla's Castle, it does get eclipsed a bit by the park's second impressive icon: Everest Mountain from Expedition Everest.

The intention was to have an additional island, Beastly Kingdom, based on mythical creatures like unicorns and dragons, but this never seemed to appear. There are constant rumours that Disney will complete this part of the park, but they remain just rumours.

Kilimanjaro Safaris

The big attraction of Animal Kingdom is without a doubt the Kilimanjaro Safaris. The amount of effort and attention to detail that has been put into this attraction has to be seen to be believed. The concept behind the attraction is that you are taking a safari through the African savannah, supposedly a two week one, but sort of compressed into around fifteen minutes. You get on the jeep and you are taken through rough terrain, open savannah, and you stand a chance of seeing animals in fantastic environments, potentially very close up.

There are basically two elements to the attraction's success: the Imagineering on display and the animals themselves. The Imagineering works, because even though your mind knows it's in Florida, and youre on an attraction, you do get carried along by the experience. You know that all the tyre tracks in the dirt road you are following are faked. You know that some of the specifically African environmental elements are potentially also fake. It doesn't matter though, as the whole thing pulls you in. It's particularly impressive when you come out onto the 'open savannah' and you see the various animals walking around just like on a nature documentary.

The animals are the stars of the show though, as you may get to see all a variety of animals natural to Africa, too many to mention. What you get to see depends a lot on the luck of the draw, though you can maximise your chances by going on the safari early in the morning or later in the evening. While Disney does its best to maximise your chances due to placement of watering holes or food, the animals are free to roam, and do tend to try and avoid the sun. Take the ride at the right time and you will get to see fantastic sights like giraffes so close you can touch them, and rhinoceroses a bit too up close for comfort.

The Kilimanjaro Safari does have an inherent beauty about it that makes paying a visit to the park worthwhile on its own.

It's Tough To Be A Bug

While one of the main purposes of the Tree of Life is to look big and impressive and be an icon for the park, it also serves another purpose in that a theatre is inside. The theatre plays host to the 3-D attraction It's Tough To Be A Bug. It's Tough To Be A Bug is a brilliant experience, and used to be the best animated 3-D experience in Disney until Mickey's Philamagic went live. It's still great though, and has a much different theme, mood and content, allowing it to be quirky, funny and darker than Philamagic. Basically, you are taken into the depths of the tree; where a show is put on to educate you about bugs. You are introduced to a number of different bugs and their acts and the 3-D show interacts with physical effects. It can be very scary for young children, and it will make you jump in shock if you've not experienced it before. It's very entertaining.

Trails and Treks

Two of the most unique attractions at the Animal Kingdom are the two walkthrough trails: Maharajah Jungle Trek and Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. The two attractions are similar in execution; you walk along a trail, getting to see various animals along the route. The Imagineering is excellent, and the view you get of the animals is nothing more than staggering. I suspect many people give these two walkthrough attractions a miss, which would be a mistake.

As you explore the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail you will encounter a variety of birds and fish, and even get to see hippos. The best bit about the hippos is you get to see them underwater, though this has gotten less spectacular over the years. In the year Animal Kingdom opened, the view of the underwater hippos was one of the most memorable sights, now the water has taken on a more natural tinge and it can be harder to see them. The main attraction of the Exploration Trail are the gorillas, which you get to see from numerous angles as you walk around their very natural habitat and they get on with their daily business. They look great, the environment and the animals are awe inspiring, and you seem to have a high chance of seeing something amazing.

The Maharaja Jungle Trek takes you into the Anandapur Forest of South East Asia where you can see all sorts of brilliantly imagineered architecture and ruins, Komodo Dragons, Tapirs, Giant Bats and a whole host of other animals. If you are incredibly lucky you will come eye to eye with tigers wandering the ancient ruins. You have to be incredibly lucky though, if there was a league table of the most elusive animals in Animal Kingdom it would be the tigers along the Maharaja Jungle Trek. They do exist, but more often than not you don't catch sight of them. They are very impressive when they are seen walking around, and if you're really lucky they'll come very close, but be prepared for empty ruins. If you are really unlucky, you'll encounter the mad cast member along the route, spotted near the tigers. He's probably been driven mad due to having to explain why the tigers are never present. While dressed in normal Disney cast member safari gear, he does a good 'impression' of a man sent deranged by the jungle.

Yetis, Time Travel and River Rapids

The newest ride in Animal Kingdom is Expedition Everest; as a result it is generally Asia the majority of people head for when the rope drops, with the rest going to Africa for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Expedition Everest sums up the Disney experience in many ways, as the ride is both a work of genius, and also slightly disappointing. Basically, Disney tends to concentrate on the experience, not just the sheer adrenaline pounding thrill of the ride, the only exception to this being the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster in MGM and it remains the sole ride of its type within Disney World: a pure coaster. As an experience, Expedition Everest is a work of art, as the mountain itself creates a new Disney landmark, easily competing with the Tree of Life, possibly even beating it, as the visual icon of the Animal Kingdom Park. In typical Disney fashion, even the ride's positioning has been carefully considered to give amazing views of the mountain from a myriad of locations as you walk around the park.

It's not just the overall spectacle of the mountain though; even the queuing system is beautiful. It's not something you want to be stuck in for hours, as no matter how well executed, you are still in a queue, but taking some time to look at what is on the shelves, and the pictures showing the expedition will easily demonstrate the amount of effort that has gone into fostering the experience. The Imagineering continues with the train itself, which is battered and old, and looks like it's held together with old rivets and rather shoddy welding. The broken rail track and the moving shadow of the Yeti ripping up the tracks later in the ride is also well done. As an artificial environment it gets full marks. The only slight negative is when you finally encounter the Yeti; it's a bit disappointing, and almost laughable.

The trouble is the ride itself is relatively pedestrian, as despite the cool advertising and the great work done on the whole theme of the ride, the ride itself is actually just a relatively normal runaway mine train style ride that is available in a whole host of theme parks, including Disney's own in the form of Big Thunder Mountain. In fact, both Big Thunder Mountain and Expedition Everest have a train running out of control through and around a mountain, and in many ways you can't help but interpret Expedition Everest as Big Thunder Mountain MK II. This isn't a bad thing if you're a fan of Big Thunder Mountain, or really get into the detail they've put into the environment, but the ride itself is good, but nothing outstanding. It represents Disney perfectly because the ride is positioned to appeal to all age groups, and as a result the whole family can ride it.

The Dinosaur ride is an example of how Disney branding can have an adverse effect on an attraction. When Animal Kingdom opened there was a great ride called Countdown to Extinction. It was both an exciting ride experience, and a grand triumph of Imagineering. The scale of the thing is so impressive it's like walking onto your own big, Hollywood action movie set. Then the movie Dinosaur was released and the ride Countdown to Extinction became Dinosaur, and while the impressive Imagineering remained, the ride was never the same.

The whole premise of the ride is that you are entering a Scientific Institute that has created the Time Rover, a vehicle that can travel back in time, roaming about and returning. It all starts out official enough, but you're soon pulled into an un-authorised mission for one of the scientific team to snatch a dinosaur from the past just as the meteor is about to hit the Earth that results in the extinction of the dinosaurs. All this is great, and even better is the massive underground chamber from which the Time Rovers are launched. It's basically the loading area for the ride, but it is visually stunning, and truly does feel like you've entered a big action movie, due to the scale of it, the attention to detail, etc. In fact, walking into the underground bunker and being launched back in time is one of the best bits of the ride.

Once back in time it's a mad dash through the lush forests as the first fragments of the meteor enter the atmosphere to find the dinosaur and get back to the future. The trouble is, when the ride was Countdown to Extinction it was fast and intense, and you rarely had time to take in the detail of the fake environment and the puppet dinosaurs. You sort of got carried along with the chaos of it all. This was good. Now, it's not exactly slow, but it has been toned down enough that it feels just a bit more like a tourist ride, and in some ways you get too long to linger on the artificial environment. Dinosaur is a good ride, but Countdown to Extinction was a fantastic ride.

The Kali River Rapids is exactly what the name of the ride suggests: a river rapids ride. The theme behind the ride is that you're floating through the rainforests in India, and it takes a dramatic turn when your 'raft' comes across illegal loggers who have destroyed the landscape and filled the river with debris. The scenery of the ride is gorgeous, or it is until you encounter the loggers, and even then it's impressive. You get to sail under a burning wood and drop off a small waterfall. You may get wet. The main fault of the ride it's very short, and it's quite possible you'll come off the ride dry, which sort of defeats the point. The biggest chance of getting wet is the drop off the small waterfall, and being on the 'side' of the raft that hits the water.

Live Entertainment In The Jungle

The best show at Animal Kingdom is Finding Nemo - The Musical, as it is literally that: a Broadway quality musical that represents an abridged version of the Finding Nemo film. Having seen both Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King in the West End, it's quite clear to see that the quality of this show is pretty spectacular. How do they do a musical in which the characters are fish, you might ask? Well, they don't go the way of The Lion King musical, which had the actors in stylised costumes representing the animals, etc. Instead, the actors have puppets, so you have the surreal situation of the puppet performing, as well as the actor, and the actor being plain to see talking and singing. It sounds a bit mad, but it works perfectly, as you happily accept both the actor and the puppet as part of an overall performance. If you see one show in Animal Kingdom, see Finding Nemo - The Musical, you'll come out wishing there was a full length version of it on Broadway with millions of dollars lavished on special effects to make it even better than it already is.

If you've got time for a second musical show, then see the Festival of the Lion King. It's different to Finding Nemo - The Musical, in that it doesn't present itself as an abridged Broadway musical, instead its more of a concert of the brilliant songs from the Lion King, along with various circus-style acts. It has all the classic songs, along with puppets, various people in costumes, characters, along with gymnasts on trampolines (as monkeys), a fire act and a few others. There is a lot going on and it is a visual spectacle, all packaged up with the songs being sung by some great singers. If you're the sort of person to get swept along by the epic grandeur of the Lion King, then it will hit all the right buttons.

Last, and actually least, unless you have very small children, is Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends. There is nothing wrong with it, but it is designed to appeal more to children rather than that 'family bracket' that Disney usually aims for which captures multiple generations. Basically, the small stage plays host to a short narrative featuring Pocahontas trying to save her forest, and a number of animals feature. Actually live animals. It works quite well, and the small children love the interaction with the animals. It doesn't have so much for adults, and it doesn't help that apart from one song the music is pretty uninspiring as well. It's a bit like the film Pocahontas; you sort of forget it existed.

The Animals Do 9 till 5

One of the more interesting facts about the park is the animals don't stay in their various locations when the park shuts. While this could possibly be surmised for the various animals dotted around the park, it possibly doesn't occur to some people to think that the animals on the savannah don't stay there. In fact, they are brought off the savannah every night, and put out on the savannah every morning. When they are not on the savannah they are held in more traditional zoo-like pens and enclosures. The animals are so used to this they sometimes even queue to get off the savannah because they know clocking off time is approaching. This obviously conjures up Creature Comforts style images of the animals being at a place of work and clocking in and out of the savannah, and ridiculing the guests on the jeeps.

This is the reason Animal Kingdom shuts much earlier than the other Disney Parks, they have to ensure all the animals are safely in their off hours abodes.

It Is A Zoo!

A while back, the adverts for Animal Kingdom focused on pitching the park as not being a zoo. The adverts even used a completely made up African sounding word: nahtazu (pro: nat-a-zu). Apparently the idea that it was 'just a zoo' was putting people off attending the park. In truth though, while Animal Kingdom is much more than just a zoo, it is actually a zoo, well a sort of unique zoo and safari park hybrid anyway, and a spectacular one at that. It should be proud of that. The various animal orientated attractions are the draw of the park, and the various rides and shows round out what is a brilliant experience. Since a core of brilliant Disney films feature animals it makes perfect sense.

Is it perfect? No, but nothing is.The main flaw with the Animal Kingdom is the DinoLand U.S.A section as it sticks out as being a bit crass, rather than fitting in perfectly like Asia and Africa. It is essentially a garish fairground to entertain the kids, which doesn't really fit well with the excellent natural environment of the rest of the park. They could have done something much better with the dinosaur section, such as something similar in tone to the Jurassic Park section of Islands of Adventure. Despite this, you have to go to DinoLand U.S.A if only to see the excellent imagineering of Dinosaur.

In a busy, and possibly short (if you're American), Disney holiday it's very easy to give Animal Kingdom a miss with so many other parks and attractions clamouring for your attention. Try not to, give it a day, you can cover most of it if you're organised, and it will be well worth it.

Ian O'Rourke, as well as being the man behind Fandomlife.net, is also a fan of anything that engages his imagination, be it a book, comic, TV show, theme park, an IT Project or business change.