Mouse Extra

Picture if you will a park dedicated to animals of all kinds, big ones, scary ones, and even mythical ones.  It is a place where lions and giraffes captured the imagination while unicorns and dragons sent it soaring.  That was something near what the experience was going to be like at Disney World’s latest, and quite possibly greatest, theme park.  But as fate would have it, Disney’s Animal Kingdom ended up being very different indeed.

It was to be called “Beastly Kingdom” and it would have included e-ticket sized attractions based on mythical animals.  The plans are simply incredible and there is little doubt how big the appeal of the Animal Kingdom would have been had this land been included.  For a terrific explanation of what the Beastly Kingdom was to be, read this Jim Hill piece from 2001.  It will make you more than a little frustrated that this dream still has not been brought into reality.

So what happened to this incredible sure-fire-hit idea?  Mr. Hill explains…

There was only enough money left to build one more land. Which should the Mouse go for? Dragons or dinosaurs?

In the end, the deciding factor here was the money the Disney Company had already blown on the soon-to-be-released computer animated film, “Dinosaur.” Even back in 1995, the Mouse had already invested upwards of $30 million into production of this movie. (Current estimates suggest that Disney may have spent as much as $150 million to finish this film, making “Dinosaur” even more expensive than James Cameron’s infamously over-budget 1997 epic, “Titanic.” ) Eisner wanted to make sure that Disney’s “Dinosaur” movie made a return on that investment, so he insisted that DAK feature an attraction that heavily hyped the forthcoming film.

This is the kind of annoying story that so often destroyed the best laid Eisner-era plans.  Because of this decision to prioritize one film over the park’s quality the Animal Kingdom opened to mixed reviews and is still the most criticized park in Disney World.  It was a decision that is still felt today at the park and may be felt for years to come.  Expedition Everest has helped, but there is more to go to turn this park into the type of experience that was once planned.

Now I am the first one to understand the importance of budgets in business, and the Imagineers certainly over extended their budget, giving the bean counters the ability to pull this plug.  But is this the type of legacy Walt Disney left behind?  Would promoting one film and a strict budget really have kept Walt from creating another “wow”?