Any Good Disney Parks Piece Should Start Where It All Began

In March, as we stood inside the Opera House at Disneyland Park, looking on at the map of the original Disneyland, a discussion ensued…

“Fantasyland doesn’t totally fit the theme. It's sort of just a way to sneak kiddie rides into the park.”

“What?”

“Well the theme is 'dreams, ideals, and hard facts that make America'…”

“Yea, and ‘dreams’ is right in there!”

“Yea but Tomorrowland is really the part that has that covered.

So I thought for a second…

“They do different things. Look at how the park is arranged. Whether you go left and around or right and around, Fantasyland isn’t the first thing you come across. There’s an operations reason for that, obviously, but it also signals that our most fantastical dreams don’t come first. You have to choose how you get there.



“To the left, West, and the past on a timeline, you have the frontier. Along with Adventureland, this is about the willingness to explore. And it's a commemoration to those who already explored to get us where we are today, literally. Go that route, and boots-on-the-ground exploration is the route to your dreams.



“To the right, forward on a timeline, you have Tomorrowland. This is of course about the dreams we have yet to make a reality, but which we will continue to push to make come true. Go that way, and innovation and science are the route to your dreams.



“And straight ahead, to the north (like the north star) is what really guides us. It’s fantasy. It’s the things that are maybe neither past nor present. And as you move from yesterday to tomorrow (or vice versa if you always start to the right like we do), you’ll always pass through a bit of fantasy. It’s not something you can ignore or avoid.”

Now, this analysis is somewhat sloppy (and in truth was much sloppier when I first said it), but this post isn’t really about Disneyland and its design. It’s about Disney's Animal Kingdom and how that park has impacted me. And what that discussion reveals is something about me—I care.

I care to see how the park communicates, and I care what it represents. For that, I thank Disney's Animal Kingdom and its lead designer, Imagineer Extraordinaire, Joe Rohde.

A Kingdom Of Balance, Harmony And Survival

I was nine years old and already an admittedly spoiled veteran of probably three Walt Disney World trips when Disney's Animal Kingdom opened. For the first few years, I thought nothing of it.

The following year, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith (a ride I can be regularly found attacking on twitter these days) secured Disney-MGM Studios’ place as my favorite park into my teenage years. (Besides being a little young, I was the teenager Michael Eisner was looking to win over.)

What could a zoo masquerading as a theme park possibly have to compete with the thrills of Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster? (Keep in mind that Expedition Everest would not open until 2006.) And so, through my years as a rotten little child and angsty teenager, I ignored Animal Kingdom.

I missed out on a lot, of course. I was wrong.

The dedication to Disney's Animal Kingdom is:

Welcome to a kingdom of animals... real, ancient and imagined: a kingdom ruled by lions, dinosaurs and dragons; a kingdom of balance, harmony and survival; a kingdom we enter to share in the wonder, gaze at the beauty, thrill at the drama, and learn.

— Michael D. Eisner, April 22, 1998

Although the word is not explicitly in there, what "balance, harmony, and survival" refer to, besides just animals, is nature.

There are two Disney theme parks in the world that truly transcend their themes—Tokyo DisneySea and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. What’s brilliant about these two parks is the ambitious simplicity of their themes, and how much the Imagineers extracted from them.

In a word, Tokyo DisneySea’s theme is “nautical.” But rather than just building a water park (which many of us probably thought Tokyo DisneySea was) or a theme park with a few ships here and there, Tokyo DisneySea is mostly about people and culture. It’s specifically about how we as people relate to the sea.