Before Animal Kingdom played host to one of today’s most technologically advanced and awe-inspiring theme park attractions, before it debuted the most fearsome Audio-Animatronic in Disney Parks history, before it opened its exquisitely-crafted, naturally-sourced habitats to over 2,000 exotic animals, it was little more than a glorified dirt pit and fireworks testing grounds. According to Disney Legend Marty Sklar (as interviewed by Chuck Schmidt for Disney’s Animal Kingdom: An Unofficial History), the patch of land located at the southwesternmost tip of the Walt Disney World property was so remote and so barren that Imagineers could borrow shovelfuls of dirt to fill in empty areas around Epcot, without once thinking that the land would eventually be repurposed as Disney’s fourth theme park.
Of course, you’d never know that by looking at the park today. After its controversial opening on Earth Day 1998, Disney’s Animal Kingdom has become one of the most beloved and celebrated parks across any of the company’s six properties, noted for its lush, colorful landscape, captivating wildlife, and superlative thrill rides. As with each of Disney’s previous projects, however, the company hit a fair number of bumps in the road before they got to their final destination.
Let’s go back in time—not quite to the age of the dinosaurs, but close—and look at some of the crazy circumstances that shaped the Animal Kingdom we know and love today…
Disney executives weren’t convinced the park needed animals until they came face-to-face with a tiger.
Image: Mathias Appel, Flickr (license)
Disney’s Animal Kingdom just wouldn’t be the same without the thousands of birds, elephants, cheetahs, lions, rhinos, giraffes, crocodiles, flamingos, and assorted other animals that call it home. In the park’s formative years, though, some had difficulty grasping the vision for a park that would cater to wildlife above its human visitors. Then-CEO Michael Eisner and president Frank Wells counted themselves among the skeptics who had trouble believing that guests would be drawn to a theme park that placed a greater emphasis on peaceful wildlife than thrill rides and live entertainment.
Would Disney’s guests “get” the point of a park where animals dozed during the day instead of turning tricks, the way the animatronic elephants and hippos did in Disneyland and Magic Kingdom’s Jungle Cruise? Would they be entranced by exhibits that didn’t follow a clear storyline, the way the structured queues of Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion did? And more importantly, would they pay good money for such an experience?
Imagineer and executive designer Joe Rohde didn’t have all the answers to Eisner and Wells’ questions, but he did make a compelling argument in favor of an animal-based park. Per Sklar’s recollection, Rohde took a meeting with the company’s top brass, tasked with finding a creative way to convince the executives that Disney had finally keyed into the right vision for the new theme park.
“We know there are concerns about whether animals are, in and of themselves, dramatic,” he deadpanned, then watched the tension in the air become practically palpable as a trainer led a 400-lb. female tiger into the room. As Eisner and Wells sweated in their chairs, Rohde explained the appeal of up-close-and-personal encounters with the animals—aptly and convincingly pointing out that the drama the animals provided hinged on the fear they also evoked within their viewers.
That demonstration may not have been singlehandedly responsible for persuading the pair to take a chance on Animal Kingdom, but it wasn’t long before they gave an unequivocal green light for Imagineers to finish constructing the park.
Jane Goodall inspired one of the carvings on the Tree of Life.
Image: HarshLight, Flickr (license)
Unlike the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom wasn’t built on a foundation of existing narratives, fairy tales, celebrated films, or historical events. Imagineers had no intention of casting wild animals in live-action reenactments of Disney’s celebrated animal-focused films; rather, as Eisner put it during the opening ceremony for the park, they wanted the animals to play a key component in an ongoing story between nature and humankind.
Equally important to Disney’s team were the legacies and contributions of those who sought to uphold the dignity and splendor of the Earth: a cast that included naturalists, zoologists, scientists, conservationists, and environmentalists, to name a few. Primatologist Jane Goodall served as a consultant for the park, and it was she who suggested an important modification to Animal Kingdom’s soon-to-be iconic centerpiece.
As the story goes, the 145-foot baobab sculpture was approaching completion when Director of Animal Programs Rick Barongi decided to give Goodall a tour of the construction site. The two were admiring the intricately-carved animals on the trunk of the tree when Goodall observed that a carving of a chimpanzee had yet to be added to the 300+ animal register.
“This is wonderful, Rick, this is amazing,” said Goodall, “but there’s no chimp.” When Barongi pressed, she added, “I’ve been looking and there’s no chimp.”
Image: Michael Gray, Flickr (license)
Barongi wouldn’t rest until the situation was remedied. He brought the issue to production manager and chief sculptor Zsolt Hormay and, with it, a photograph of Goodall’s favorite chimpanzee: the silver-whiskered David Greybeard. Decades earlier, David Greybeard played a pivotal role in Goodall’s research as the first chimp to exhibit signs of trust in her and one whose behaviors of tool-making and meat consumption opened new paths and theories in primate research.
When Animal Kingdom officially opened its gates to the public, both Barongi and Hormay had a surprise for Goodall. Not only had they added Greybeard to the Tree of Life—larger than life, emerging from the roots of the tree as he peacefully ushered guests to and from the Tree of Life Theater—but they had commissioned a special plaque in her honor, which was positioned just over Greybeard’s shoulder and commemorated her groundbreaking work with primates.
Disney wanted to install another safari ride in Asia.
Image: Jennifer Lynn, Flickr (license)
Ask any Animal Kingdom aficionado to point you in the direction of the best attraction in the park, and you can bet you’ll find yourself stepping aboard the rugged outfit of a 32-passenger safari vehicle in Africa, home to pools of carousing hippopotamuses and crocodiles, savannahs teeming with long-tongued giraffes and bulky African elephants, and rocky promontories decorated with dozing lions and cheetahs.
Kilimanjaro Safaris is a spectacle that has to be experienced in order to be fully appreciated, so it’s no wonder that Imagineers once dreamed up a similar crowd-pleaser for Asia. Though the idea eventually morphed into the river rapids attraction and conservation cautionary tale Tiger Rapids Run (now Kali River Rapids), the first iteration of the ride would have taken guests on a winding boat expedition through the Himalayas, Indonesia, and India.
Image: Simon, Flickr (license)
The altered mode of transportation wasn’t the only significant difference between the Africa and Asia safari concepts. Where Kilimanjaro Safaris was focused on animal care and conservation efforts, the unrealized ‘river safari’ ride would have hewed closer to a Jungle Cruise-like layout. While onboard, guests would glimpse tigers, rhinos, tapirs, and gibbons on the banks of the river, while Asian elephants would traipse over bridges that bisected the river. The attraction also would have placed a much greater emphasis on the dangers of poaching and deforestation, concluding with a thrilling splashdown in a rapids-like area.
The ride itself, mammoth in size and scope and impractical in execution (for one thing, it would have been too difficult to keep that variety of animals safe, calm, and happy on the riverbanks all day; for another, tigers can swim), was also intended to become part of a larger narrative. The surrounding area would have included a nature walk and an immersive dining experience wrapped up in the confines of a “flooded” village… perhaps not unlike the storm-wrecked concept that proved popular for Typhoon Lagoon in 1989. In the end, however, Imagineers felt it was more practical to scrap the animal-based portions of the ride. That left them with the thrill-based Kali River Rapids, which then became the precursor to Disney California Adventure’s Grizzly River Run.
It’s Tough to Be a Bug! was put into development well before Pixar released A Bug’s Life in theaters.
Image: Jeremy Thompson, Flickr (license)
By the time Pixar’s second feature-length computer-animated film, A Bug’s Life, crawled into theaters on November 25, 1998, It’s Tough to Be a Bug! was already seven months old. In fact, the theater show was one of Animal Kingdom’s opening day attractions, right up there with Countdown to Extinction, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Flights of Wonder, and the now-defunct Discovery River Boats. But how did Imagineers settle on the idea of a bug-themed 3-D experience in the first place? Was it installed as an early promotional tool for Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, or was there something more complicated going on behind the scenes?
Maybe it was a little of both. After all, the focus of most attractions within Animal Kingdom intentionally skewed toward “edutainment”—a winning combination of education and entertainment—with a special focus on sustaining the animal and plant life that naturally flourishes on Earth. With this in mind, Imagineer Kevin Rafferty got in front of Eisner and pitched the idea of an educational lecture about the animal kingdom. The idea died before it even reached the early stages of development. Rafferty’s big original for Disney’s newest and most unique park to date.
Rafferty went back to the drawing board and struck gold—or, in this case, beetle dung. On a recommendation from Eisner, he began talking to Pixar animators about their upcoming flick, A Bug’s Life, and gleaned further inspiration from a 20+ year-old Ward Kimball cartoon called “It’s Tough to Be a Bird!” While the live-action/animated short didn’t provide an exact blueprint for It’s Tough to Be a Bug!, it gave Imagineers an interesting framework to work with: What if bugs were portrayed as helpful rather than harmful? What did the world need to know about the importance and life-enriching impact of spiders, flies, ants, and grasshoppers?
Image: Ken Lund, Flickr (license)
Still, there were several problems to work through. Not only did Rafferty feel squeamish around bugs and insects, but Pixar’s team hadn’t yet rounded out their cast of lovable circus bugs. If Eisner intended to install his creepy-crawly show in the Tree of Life Theater by spring 1998 (several years after these initial conversations were held), he would only be able to showcase Flik and Hopper, the respective protagonist and antagonist of the film.
It was enough of a concession to fuel the rest of the project. Whatever Pixar couldn’t give Rafferty and his team, they found a way to invent, from original characters like Chili the tarantula and the Dung (Beetle) Brothers to the particular smell of a stinkbug and the squirm-inducing effects that were installed in each seat to give the audience a true 4-D experience. Rafferty, meanwhile, learned to squelch his distaste for the insect world as the team pieced together an eight-minute presentation, replete with special effects, incredibly complex “super-sized” insect animatronics, and as many film and Broadway puns as they could conjure up. And seven months later, when Flik and Hopper stepped onto other screens in front of other audiences, they proved just as big a hit as ever.
A key cast member became the face of Dr. Jackie Ogden in Pandora – The World of Avatar.
It’s no secret that the Disney Parks contain multitudes of hidden references, inside jokes, gags, and Hidden Mickeys. At this point, it’s practically expected that every new land, building, and attraction will be chock-full of tidbits and treasures just waiting for an observant guest to uncover.
Pandora – The World of Avatar is no exception to this trend. Under the majestic floating mountains and sparkling waterfalls, tucked into the dilapidated research facility that Alpha Centauri Expeditions now calls home, Dr. Jackie Ogden preps guests for their first experience in the avatar program—the main event in Pandora’s E ticket attraction, Flight of Passage.
Like the rest of Disney’s original attraction-based characters, you won’t find Dr. Ogden anywhere else in the park (or, in this case, within the source material for Pandora: James Cameron’s Avatar). But she isn’t fully fictional, either. In keeping with Disney’s goal of honoring pioneers in conservation efforts, they created the character of Dr. Ogden as a tribute to the real Dr. Jackie Ogden, an experimental psychologist and former curator of the Conservation Station and Vice President of Animals, Science and Environment at the park.
The real Dr. Ogden left a lasting impact on the design and purpose of Animal Kingdom. She was instrumental in the construction of the Conversation Station, since renamed Rafiki’s Planet Watch, where she helped create displays to highlight endangered species, installed exhibits designed to change public perception of animals like bats (as Rafferty did for insects, she also made the case that the bats are helpful rather than harmful or frightening), and allowed guests to both observe veterinarians in action and do some basic animal research of their own via interactive Animal Cams.
By the time she retired in 2015, Dr. Ogden had piloted numerous other programs and efforts under Disney’s umbrella, from coordinating with local wildlife rescue organizations to rehabilitate injured sea turtles to recognizing key members of conservation nonprofits. She embodied the very spirit of Animal Kingdom, described by Imagineer Diego Parras as a park “based on nature and all of its unpredictability”—and one that, unlike its three sister parks, still requires an extra measure of care as Disney continues to grow and nurture the animals it calls its “fascinating families” and “real live […] storytellers.”
The 30-second homage may seem like a rather insignificant Easter egg to those who enter the Flight of Passage queue unaware of Dr. Ogden’s legacy, but it had a much deeper impact when Imagineers unveiled it for the first time.
“When they took Jackie to Flight of Passage and walked her through the queue and she heard her name,” Dr. Terrell said during a press event in 2017, “she actually broke down and cried.”
