Disney previews model of Encanto and Indiana Jones expansion at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Apr 04, 2024 in "Disney's Animal Kingdom"

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Dinoland U.S.A. Blue Sky Concept Art

Posted: Thursday April 4, 2024 10:42am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney Imagineering has released a behind-the-scenes look at work underway on bringing the Encanto and Indiana Jones expansion to Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

In the video, we see a working model for the new lands and some details of research trips to the Yucatán Peninsula for inspiration on creating the lush landscape of the land.

Disney announced in September 2023 that new experiences inspired by "Encanto" – the Academy Award winning Walt Disney Animation Studios film – and the fan-favorite adventurer Indiana Jones were being considered for the reimagined DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

New experiences inspired by “Encanto” and the fan-favorite adventurer Indiana Jones are being considered for the reimagined land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

The new land themed to the tropical Americas would replace the entire Dino-Land U.S.A. area, with Indiana Jones replacing the existing Dinosaur ride, and Encanto replacing Dino-Rama.

Dinosaur is replaced in this concept art with Indiana Jones

Dino-Rama is replaced with Encanto

Imagineering Boss Bruce Vaughn said, "Imagine a land filled with authentic experiences from this part of the world. With all of the placemaking and storytelling you'd expect. Look, it's a beautiful region to explore and has been the inspiration for so many magical stories over the years. We're looking forward to bringing all of that to life"

Tropical Americas Encanto land concept art at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Vaughn contninued, "Imagineering has been talking about stories from this part of the world; Encanto with Indiana Jones just rose to the top. They give us so much to play with. We have a long way to go now and a lot more to discover. But our team here in Florida is all over it."

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Nickm20222 days ago

I find the mayan playground area so interesting because 1. That sounds so cool and well positioned I don't know why Disney hasn't released concept art for it and 2. It could be food carts or something else like show. Personally I've been saying move the UP bird show here

Disstevefan12 days ago

Oh good. You had me worried.

lentesta3 days ago

It is. But Disney drew it differently in the two separate SFWMD filings, so I think it's going to be fully covered.

lentesta3 days ago

Upper left corner. :P

Trueblood3 days ago

I'm a little disappointed that there are no featured animals, and "Tropical Americas" ecology will likely only be represented in the attraction queues, if at all. At least you could squint really hard and see the conservation message in Pandora, this... they have some work to do.

Disstevefan13 days ago

Its about time since Primeval Whirl has been closed since 2019....

Gusey3 days ago

I think that the part labelled "New Indy Covered/Indoor Queue" is the Dinosaur extended queue? It just hasn't been used much in the past

MisterPenguin3 days ago

Where's the DVC kiosk?

lentesta3 days ago

I did a blog post that looked at the SFWMD filings for Tropical Americas, and then made some educated guesses about where and what everything is. Here's the end result map:

Starship8243 days ago

They aren't wasting any time with this project I guess.

Fox&Hound3 days ago

Yay!! Let’s get this thing started :)

sedati3 days ago

Exciting, though the sample more resembles the rock-work at Everest than anything we're expecting at Tropical Americas. In fact, the only new rock-work shown so far is some lush mountain backdrops on top of the Encanto show-building. Could this just be for training, or something else entirely? The mock ups done previously were never so large but did accurately reflect what was coming.

gerarar3 days ago

Trailers/offices now on site and a theme test wall in progress. Source and more:

GoofGoof10 days ago

I feel the same. I was at DLR shortly after Galaxy’s Edge opened (without Rise). I was still happy to see the new land and ride MF but it was disappointing that the headliner wasn’t open. I do think that if part of the land is ready by the start of the Summer and the rest won’t be done until Fall it will probably open in phases. If it’s a few months difference in off times maybe all at once. Disney also probably wouldn’t want people delaying a trip to wait for the land to open. That happened some with Star Wars and was a bigger deal for Universal in the year before each Harry Potter land opened. Maybe this is too minor an addition to move the needle. The Potter lands and SW were much more anticipated.