by Jim Korkis
Due to their intelligence and curious nature, the birds looked for ways to jump from their tree perches to explore their surroundings. Unfortunately, some of the trees were close to where the guests would walk, so there was always the possibility that a bird might end up on an unsuspecting guest’s shoulder.
Macaws are the largest type of parrot and come from the tropical rainforests of Brazil and Central America. Both the military and hyacinth macaws are on the endangered species list. The military macaw got its nickname because it has an olive green body that resembles a sergeant’s uniform.
While the feathers on the hyacinth macaw can appear to be blue, there is no blue pigment in the feathers. It is just the structure of the feather that makes it appear blue.
The challenge faced by the Imagineers was to re-design the area so that the birds would have shelter during inclement weather and still provide interactive components to keep the inquistive nature of the birds satisfied. So the Imagineers came up with a faux tree with those specific elements, but still made it look naturalistic to the guests.
The birds dine on seeds, palm fruits, berries, and nuts. However, when the park first opened, Imagineer Joe Rohde on a walk-through discovered a guest trying to feed the birds French fries. Rohde tried to explain that all the animals in the park, including the birds, have specific diets and feeding them fries might negatively impact their health. He also pointed out that the bird’s beak was designed for cracking nuts with two hundred pounds of pressure per square inch and that the bird would see no difference between fingers and fries.
As an accredited member of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, Animal Kingdom is responsible for providing the best care for the animals, and that includes what they eat.
With all the animal habitat designs at the park, Imagineers had to take into account two important factors. The first was to design a habitat that has interesting elements to encourage natural behavior while also providing appropriate shelter. Second, the habitat needed to give guests an experience to see easily and clearly animals responding in their environment and demonstrating those natural behaviors.
Animal Kingdom
The Art of the Tree of Life
The Tree of Life, the centerpiece of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, was meant to be a work of art that would be a tribute to mankind’s respect for nature and life on earth.
Eleven sculptors were engaged to work together to bring the artificial icon to life. The team included a sculptor from France (Fabrice Kennel), another from Ireland (Vinnie Byrne), three Native Americans (Parker Boyiddle, Craig Goseyun, Arthur Rowlodge), five Floridians (Eric Kovach, Steve Hunke, Joe Welborn, Gary Bondurant, Jacob Eaddy) and one from Indianapolis, Indiana (Roger White).
The animal sculpting was supervised by WDI senior show production designer and art director Zsolt Hormay to keep it all consistent. Zsolt said:
It was really important that the look of the tree flows without any interruption. The sculptors met every morning, studying a pile of wood for reference. They would discuss what each branch should be: a banyan, an emerging oak, a touch of cedar.
That same pile of wood served as inspiration for the textures of the animals, like the stripes on the tiger being banyan bark and the octopus’ skin modeled on oak.
The intent was to carve more than 350 animals into the base and branches and the art was to feature a mixture of styles and with some animals blending in and others standing out with high detail.
Production designer Ron Esposito said:
People might look at the trunk and they might think, “It’s just brown bark,” but it’s more complicated than that. We used 50 to 60 color values to reveal the animals while maintaining naturalism. The tree has a dry side and a wet side, five different moss colors, multiple lichen colors, as well as brown tones, overtones, and shadow tones.
To achieve that effect, the artists had to sculpt the animals directly onto the tree, while wearing hard hats, working on scaffolding, and immersed in the distracting and loud sounds of a construction site.
Zsolt recalled:
In the beginning, it was a little difficult to get used to creating a sculpture every day and the fact that we just spray the cement on, you form it and by the time the sun goes down, it has to be done.
I feel that we achieved it successfully as far as trying to create a look where the animals were grown by the tree and not just stuck on the surface.
Each artist was able to sculpt an animal or two and dedicate it to family members. Zsolt’s daughter wanted him to sculpt a koala for her, and so he did. He also did a baboon for his wife and a scorpion for his son.
Zsolt and the other artists found the experience emotionally moving and it helped them to better understand the importance of the tree to communicate to guests the wonder of nature and animals.
He stated:
You can find a tree of life in various cultures, going back thousands of years. To me, it’s really uplifting that we can have a Tree of Life here at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and have it function as an important messenger to the people.
During the early work on the tree, famous wildlife researcher Jane Goodall walked the site and asked her guide, animal care expert Rick Barongi, where the chimpanzee would be placed.
There had been no plans to include a chimpanzee, but Zsolt found one of Goodall’s photographs of David Graybeard, the first chimp to accept Goodall into his society, opening the door for her groundbreaking research. Zsolt and Kennel sculpted the chimpanzee in three days, at the entrance to the attraction.
Animal Kingdom
The Boneyard
The Boneyard is the interactive playground area at the entrance to DinoLand USA that is meant to resemble a paleontological dig site, but is often just referred to as “the sandbox”. It is not real sand, but a tiny gravel material called Texas grit. The flooring is a spongy mat-like material.
Although primarily meant for younger children, the location provides insights and delights for guests of all ages. It is littered with not just some fun objects for children to explore, but clues as to how the dinosaurs lived and died as well as additional information about the battles between the irreverent intern students and their more stodgy professors who in their own way are “dinosaurs” when it comes to new ideas, according to the back story of DinoLand USA’s Dino Institute.
For children, there are the bones of prehistoric creatures like a Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops skulls, and a Columbian Wooly Mammoth waiting to be uncovered; a fossilized bone xylophone to play called the XyloBone; various debris spill chutes that can be used as slides; dinosaur footprints that emit a roar when stepped on; scaffolding, rope ladders, netting, and tunnels; a fossil-filled maze; and much more. Opening doors and lids provide an unexpected surprise as well.
The two sides of the Boneyard are linked by the OldenGate Bridge (a pun on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge), the gateway structure built out of the giant skeleton of a 50-foot-tall, 80-foot-long Brachiosaurus at the entrance to this land. A nearby plaque states: “This replica fossil is cast from the bones discovered in Colorado in 1900. The original is now in the Field Museum in Chicago.”
Before Animal Kingdom even opened, the Disney company and McDonald’s, the original sponsor of the DinoLand area, partnered with the Field Museum to offer the winning bid on what was at the time the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever unearthed. The cleaned and restored skeleton, dubbed “Sue,” is now on display at the museum. Two casts were also made from the original skeleton. One toured the world as part of a McDonald’s promotion and the other is in DinoLand USA.
The Boneyard sign is a replica of a Stegosaurus’ shoulder blade and also the outline of the original area of Animal Kingdom before Asia was added.
There is only one entrance/exit to the Boneyard so parents can keep better control of where their children are in the multi-storied enclosed half acre. Even the walls display different layers, or “strata,” of earth that over the centuries buried t
he remains of these prehistoric creatures.
The generational conflict between the academic-minded professors Dr. Bernard Dunn, Dr. Shirley Woo, Dr. Eugene McGee, and Dr. Tina Lee of the fictional Dino Institute with their traditional but often outdated information about dinosaurs, and the youthful graduate students including the newest interns Mark Rios, Jenny Weinstein, and Sam Gonzales with a sometimes more radical perspective based on recent research is in evidence all throughout the area.
Various handwritten corrections and responses are posted prominently on the various signage offering alternate possibilities for the different findings. Clearly, the knowledge about dinosaurs has always been incomplete and even today is constantly evolving.
There are other more visible signs of student rebellion including a wall of excavation tools where a pick has been deliberately hung in the space clearly identified for small spades.
To add to the reality of the area, casts were taken from real dinosaur bones found in places like Utah’s Dinosaur National Park and then reproduced using a plastic-cement material that looks and feels real.
Animal Kingdom
Festival of the Lion King
Due to the construction of Pandora, the Festival of the Lion King stage show was relocated from Camp Minnie-Mickey where it premiered April 22, 1998, to the new Harambe Theater in the Africa section of Animal Kingdom in June 2014.
This popular musical show is unique because, unlike most of the other Disney entertainment shows, it does not tell an abbreviated version of the famous animated feature’s plot. Instead, this theatrical experience is a tune-filled tribal celebration with audience participation and some unexpected surprises.
In order to accommodate the number of performances, there are three full casts, plus understudies, and all of them must be brought up to speed periodically with paid “pick-up” rehearsals during the year to keep the show sharp. In addition, there is the large behind-the-scenes technical staff handling costuming, lighting, props, sound, and other duties.
Like Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends, another stage show, The Festival of the Lion King was a last-minute placeholder for an area that itself was a last-minute addition when plans for a Beastly Kindgom section for the park were halted. Putting on a temporary show was cheaper than investing in building a ride attraction, quicker to create, and was also easier to change once a decision was made about exactly what the area should be.
Since its premiere in 1998, this joyous celebration has become the longest-running stage show in the park, with enthusiastic guests returning multiple times. The show was designed by Walt Disney World Creative Entertainment, but the performance venue was created by Walt Disney Imagineering.
The theater environment suggests an African savannah where an extraordinary group of humans and animals adorned in decorative feathers and ornate beads on 136 costumes have gathered to present a musical revue.
The action-packed Festival of the Lion King is hosted by four human performers with Swahili names attired as traditional African tribal leaders: Kiume (“masculine and strong”), Nakawa (“good-looking”), Kibibi (“princess”), and Zawadi (“the gift”). They instruct the guests on how to participate with the performers several times during the show.
It wouldn’t be a true party without some of the cast from the original film. A twelve-foot-high animated Simba stands on Pride Rock keeping time to the pounding rhythm with his feet while interacting with the audience.
Lovable Pumbaa claims his tiny feet keep him confined to the massive warthog float. However, his companion Timon gleefully struts to the center platform leading the audience in a vocal competition during the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Since the beginning of 2009, Timon has sported an articulated head that allows his mouth to move when he is talking and his eyes to blink.
The impressive floats that serve as intriguing set pieces were recycled from the Lion King celebration parade that ran at Disneyland from 1994–1997
Along with performers in African tribal robes and various animal costumes, the center stage spotlights several specialty acts, include a group of zany, bouncing acrobats, tribal stilt walkers precariously navigating the area, a death-defying fire juggler, and a breathtaking high-wire aerialist who soars high above the audience. Each increasingly amazing routine is choreographed to a memorable song from the classic movie.
A beloved audience favorite is the flexible gymnasts in yellow-orange skintight costumes called the Tumble Monkeys. These mischievous and energetic creatures wildly swing and flip on the overhead rings and bars as the hapless Timon tries to sing. Their extensive training includes not only the skillful and fast-moving routine itself, but insight into how to move and think like a monkey, including grooming audience members in the front row.
Animal Kingdom
Bringing Dinosaurs to Life
Disney has been bringing audio-animatronics dinosaurs to startling realistic life since the 1964–65 New York World’s Fair and the primeval world that Imagineers like Claude Coats created for the Ford Motor Skyway pavilion.
Those re-creations were so impressive that they were brought back to Disneyland and installed in 1966 as the finale of the Grand Canyon Diorama tunnel on the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad.
However, with new advances in technology, Imagineers wanted to experiment with pushing the boundaries.
While the Animal Kingdom attraction Countdown to Extinction (later renamed DINOSAUR) was loosely inspired by the Disney computer-animated feature Dinosaur (2000), then in development, the Imagineers had great leeway in creating the time-traveling experience and the twenty-one dinosaurs that guests would encounter.
WDI show producer Ann Malmlund said:
We cast it the way, we would cast a movie. You need a hero and you need a villain.
The villain was the same villain from the movie, a terrifying Carnotaurus which was thirty-three feet long when finally built. A complete skeleton of the prehistoric monster had recently been uncovered in Argentina giving show designer Paul Torrigino a good reference model. However, he was faced with the challenges of what the skin texture might be like or even the color of that skin.
He chose a dusty red, the color of clay, in order to make the animal seem more menacing as well as to contrast it with the lush green Cretaceous forest. A partial skin impression found with the fossil bones showed that the skin seemed to be a rough hide covered with bumps and knobs.
Torrigino made them bumpier and knobbier because he needed exaggerated features since the vehicles would be moving by so quickly that guests wouldn’t be able to discern any texture at all unless it was highly prominent. “We wanted to use science and art and drama to create a world our guests could believe in,” he said.
Imagineers consulted paleontologists and studied countless books to make sure the shapes, sizes, movement, and skin texture and coloration were as authentic, and dramatic, as possible. Even Imagineer Joe Rohde would drop by to offer his suggestions.
Tujunga’s Plastic shop in California developed a new combination of silicone and spandex that enhanced the lifelike look and movement of the dinosaurs for the attraction.
The new system of skin-on-plates, modeled on human ribs, made the dinosaur movement more fluid and believable. The industrial strength snaps on the skin hook onto bands of metal that are the foundational structure of the animal which included a new underlying armature. The heavy skin could weigh up to 500 pounds.
The Imagineers first mocked up the movement on computers. A small model raptor was then built to test these ideas and it contained powerful new chips to control a range of subtle movements.
These figures included some of the largest audio-animatronics figures ever produced. The heads of the Iguanodon and Saltasaurus were so huge that they scraped the tops of the ceiling of the cavernous warehouse in Tujunga, California, where they were built.
It took eight to ten hours of programming for every second of animation per dinosaur. Each dinosaur represented about 14,000 hours of effort b
y WDI, or roughly seven years.
At the first formal review, and with appropriate dramatic lighting, CEO Michael Eisner, who had worried about the investment of time and money, was visibly moved. “It’s the first time I’ve been sorry they are extinct,” he said.
Animal Kingdom
Rivers of Light
Extending the night at Animal Kingdom with the typical Disney pyrotechnics extravaganza featuring noisy fireworks would frighten and stress the animals unnecessarily. So, plans were discussed to extend the operating hours with a Main Street Electrical Parade type of event that never evolved. Tentatively titled the “Rivers of Light,” it would feature lighted floats flowing through the parade corridor just like a river, and was meant to evoke nature.
In October 2013, Disney announced that it was developing a Rivers of Light water show on the Discovery River with a debut date of April 22, 2016. There was a media preview on April 19 where people were told that there were still technical difficulties and the show would be temporarily replaced by a smaller limited-run production called Jungle Book: Alive with Magic.
It wasn’t until February 17, 2017, that the new nighttime show made its official debut in the newly built 5,000-seat amphitheater along the Discovery River that creates two distinct “villages” separated by a bridge and the river.
The fifteen-minute show (trimmed from the original eighteen minutes) celebrates “the majesty of nature and the connection between animals and humans in the world” through live performers, giant floating lanterns, fountains, lasers, music, lighting effects, and animal imagery projected on giant water screens.
The pre-show begins with animal sounds, fireflies seemingly descending from the Tree of Life, and five lotus flower-shaped vehicles that each produce its own dancing water fountains moving into place.
