Dinoland, U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is endangered and will go extinct to make way for a brand new expansion of tropical-themed experiences.
Chester and Hester’s old stomping grounds at Dinoland, U.S.A., will be removed to make way for The Tropical Americasarea of the park. Dinoland has long been a favorite of Disney World guests since it first opened with the park on April 22, 1998. Fans of the prehistorically-themed land love the DINOSAUR! attraction, as well as TricerTop Spin, the Boneyard, and the previously closed Primeval Whirl attraction.
New experiences inspired by Encanto and Indiana Jones are being considered for the reimagined Dinoland U.S.A. land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, per an announcement at Destination D23 at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
On Saturday morning, Bruce Vaughn, Chief Creative Officer at Walt Disney Imagineering, shared the vision for a complete overhaul of Dinoland, U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which would include the addition of magical new experiences inspired by Disney’s Encanto (2021) and the Indiana Jones film series. Both are being considered as the inspiration for new featured attractions as part of a total revamping of Dinoland, U.S.A.
Vaughn said they have a long way to go and much more to discover before they begin the process of overhauling the guest-favorite area at Disney World’s fourth theme park, but he says that Walt Disney Imagineering teams are up for the challenge in the Sunshine State.
Today, at Disney’s 2022 D23 expo, it was teased by Josh D’Amaro, Chairperson of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, that DinoLand, U.S.A., could be completely reworked in an upcoming project.
Nothing was confirmed, nor were there any dates or specific themes given, but concept art was revealed from the “blue sky” idea. “Blue sky” is basically a design process that allows Disney Imagineers to think outside the box and not worry about budgets, not yet at least.
Below is the concept art for a potential DinoLand U.S.A. overhaul:
The Dinoland, U.S.A. section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park is somewhat divisive among Disney Parks fans. Some love the carnival-themed area, while others feel that it should be rethemed to feature a recent Disney IP, such as Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).
It is worth noting that, at this time, Disney World officials have not confirmed what will replace the Primeval Whirl Wild Mouse-style ride or if Dinoland, U.S.A. will be rethemed at any point in the near future. For now, Guests can continue to visit the area where carnival games, the Restaurantosaurs quick service location, and the Triceratops Spin ride are all available.
DinoLand, U.S.A. features what is possibly Disney World’s scariest attraction with DINOSAUR, a time-traveling adventure. DINOSAUR opened alongside the Animal Kingdom Park in April of 1998, although it had a different name and offered a slightly different experience. DINOSAUR is an intense, exciting, and downright prehistoric trip through time, letting Guests witness the moments just before the dinosaurs were wiped out of existence due to an asteroid impact. As its slogan states, “It’s fast, it’s a blast, It’s in the past!”.
Imagineer Joe Rohde has been taking Disney fans on an online digital tour of Animal Kingdom through his Instagram, providing deep backstory on its ethos and culture. He’s discussed the Tree of Life, Africa, Asia, and Expedition Everest, but now we’re heading to the American southwest to Diggs County and DinoLand, U.S.A.!
Joe starts out be giving us some context for the accuracy of the dinos you see in the land…
“A lot of our Disney’s Animal Kingdom research took us to far away foreign countries… But it also took us to some of the great paleontological sites in North America. Paleontologists like Phil Currie and Bob Bakker were kind enough to instruct us.
We are very liberal about the dinosaurs that you encounter in this land, both in geography and chronology, though they are Cretaceous era creatures….if you see something that looks like a fossil of a Prehistoric creature, it is either a real fossil of a prehistoric creature or a replica of a real fossil. (The Carnotaurus in the queue line for the ride is a composite. The real Carnotaurus is smaller.) The interesting thing about dinosaurs is that they are created by our imagination as a result of research and speculation….Because of this, there is always debate about their true nature. That debate is embedded in the land in the context of many of the graphics.
Dinoland has a lot of humor and because of that I think we can relax some of the seriousness of some of the other themes and get away with some hijinx.”
Joe continues in another post about all the dinos you can find in the land…
“There is of course the Brachiosaurus at the Gateway. Triceratops in the queue. The famous and controversial Sue tyrannosaur fossil. A Parasaurolophus in the Boneyard. A Pteranodon, a Styracosaurus, another Tyrannosaur skull, an Allosaurus skull and a Hadrosaur skull and Phobosuchus skull in Restaurantosaurus. The Brachiosaurus is substantially modified… Other than that, these are the same casts you’re going to see in a museum.”
“Dinosaur” in Dinoland at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is one of our few IP-based attractions. At the time, the film had groundbreaking CGI effects. Originally there was a Styracosaurus out front for no better reason than it’s my favorite dinosaur…and the attraction was called Countdown to Extinction. We renamed it when the film came out, but the link to the film was already there. It may not be obvious, but such decisions have to be made years in advance. You don’t get a figure that looks like a character in a movie unless you start way before you open.
The Carnotaurus in the ride is substantially bigger and wider than a real Carnotaurus would be. This is because we had to fit a whole bunch of machinery inside of it. So we invented a new species, Carnotaurus robustus. A real Carnotaurus is a pretty weird looking animal to start with… With really really stubby short arms. Our Carnotaurus kind of reaches out towards you with his little hands… But I’m not sure a real one could even do that.
Many plastic toy Carnotauruses seem to be based on our interpretation which is odd because it’s so specifically distorted for our own attraction reasons. Many toy Carnos are red…why?!? That’s a weird color for a big predator. We chose it for narrative and scenic reasons. They are often thicker and toad-faced like ours. Their arms reach out. Go check. Just do image search on Carnotaurus toy. Then look up Carnotaurus sastrei, the scientific specimen. Sometimes a popular image just takes over. Shows you the power of art.”
Lastly, Joe discusses some real folk art that you can find only at Dinoland!
“When we were building Disney’s Animal Kingdom The House of Blues was being built at what was then an expansion of Downtown Disney. They had employed a prominent folk artist, Gregory Warmack, who went by Mr. Imagination. We enlisted him to create an actual work of American folk art in front of Chester and Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures. He came out to our site and created the concrete dinosaur in this photo.
His other work has been shown or exists today in places like the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the American Visionary Art Museum in Maryland, The Smithsonian, The Dallas Museum of Art. I believe that the work he created for us is not actually included in his curriculum vitae. It should be. So I hope some art historian is looking.
He has since passed away, but I think it’s kind of interesting that our tribute to the unsung folk arts of America includes an actual work of unsung Folk art.”
Make sure to check out Joe’s Instagram for his own pictures and many more adventurous stories.
The seasonal Primeval Whirl attraction in Dinoland U.S.A. at Animal Kingdom will be reopening once again in March.
The attraction will be open for select weekends in March bracing for the start of Spring Break. We got confirmation today that the seasonal ride will open March 21, 22, 23, 28 & 29 to alleviate some of the wait time pressure from other areas. The attraction will be open from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. on those particular dates.
If you’re planning on catching that dino or taking a spin on a Triceratops, you should keep in mind that upcoming hours for various DinoLand attractions have changed.
The Boneyard, Fossil Fun Games, Triceratop Spin, and DINOSAUR are all scheduled to close at 6 PM on Thursday, November 14th and Saturday, November 16th. The rest of Disney’s Animal Kingdom will close at 8 PM.
