On April 22^nd 1998 we saw the opening of the fourth major Disney Park in Orlando, Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Throughout the long history of the Walt Disney company they have had a long lasting reliance of using animals for inspiration. Films like Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book, The Lion King etc. as well as in their theme parks with attractions like The Jungle Cruise and The Enchanted Tiki Room.



In 1974 a small island at Disney World called “Adventure Island” opened and featured a large variety of animals where guests could interact with and witness how these animals lived.

However, in the early 1990s after the success of Hollywood Studios, executives at the company like then CEO Michael Eisner and Senior Executive Roy E. Disney thought of the potential of an entire park themed after animals.

Michael Eisner wanted a new park in Florida as part of the “Disney Decade” initiative that saw the creation of Euro Disneyland and the company’s expansion to Cruse Lines.

Designed by then up-and-coming Imagineer Joe Rhode, the park was designed to function as both a Zoo and Disney Park. Meant to educate and inspire guests about the world of animals, Past, Present and Mythological.

The company spent much time and research traveling around the world to places like Asia, Africa and South America for esthetic inspiration to make people feel that they’ve traveled to these far lands to witness the vast wildlife.

One of the big parts of the Park was its center piece, dubbed The Tree of Life. Originally going to be a replica of Noah’s Arc and was later dropped, the 145ft tall Tree was constructed using tactics normally used for Oil Rig construction. 325 Animals are carved onto the tree and symbolized how all of the animals in the world are intertwined and relied on each other.

The Park opened with a number of attractions, including Kilimanjaro Safaris, the ride was based on Walt’s original idea to feature Live Animals on the Jungle Cruse, but with more modern and safer ways to handle wild animals the vision could finally be realized, albeit in a Jeep instead of a boat.

Other attractions featured the Festival of the Lion King Stage Show, the It’s Tough To Be A Bug 4-D Experience based on the Pixar Film “A Bug’s Life”, the now defunct Camp Minnie-Mickey, and the Thrill Ride Countdown To Extinction, now known as “Dinosaur” based on the 2000 film of the same name, which borrows the track design of the “Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye” ride from Disneyland.

The Park featured Lands based on Africa, South America and Dinosaurs with an Asia Land opening up a year later.

However, the park was originally meant to feature Animals from the present, the past AND fantasy. So where was the Fantasy Section?

Enter “Beastly Kingdom”, or don’t enter it, because it doesn’t exist. You see there was going to be a land filled with Dragons, Griffons, Unicorns etc. but sadly Universal’s Islands of Adventure Happened. In 1999 Universal opened a second park in Orlando, and one section was called “The Lost Continent”. Many former Disney Imagineers were scooped up by Universal for the expansion and the land featured, well, Fantasy Creatures. This act of “Plagiarism” was one of the leading factors that lead to the cancelation of the expansion.

Over the years the park has received multiple new attractions such as the ever popular Expedition Everest, a Roller Coaster where you encounter the Abominable Snowman. But the biggest addition has to be the “Pandora” Expansion, an entire land featured after James Cameron’s 2009 Sci-Fi film AVATAR. The land took up what many believe was the original location for Beastly Kingdom, and the expansion is considered one of Disney’s best. It was one of Joe Rhode’s last major projects before retiring in early 2021.

Animal Kingdom is considered to be one of Disney’s best parks, it is the largest out of the four Florida Parks and to this day continues to attract guests and animal lovers around the world with their attention to detail and care for all the exotic animals and spread awareness of wildlife conservation. Many of the world’s top zookeepers and animal doctors work hard at the park to keep all the animals safe and healthy and all I can say is it is a wonderful park for families, especially the kids who love seeing animals. I do think they could recycle the Beastly Kingdom concept in the future, but not for a while due to the company’s current situation.

I hope you enjoyed the History of Disney World, exploring all four parks in time for the 50th Anniversary. I hope you all learned some new information and in the future we will hopefully have more exciting history to write about. Who knows, maybe 10 Years from now we’ll see a 5th Park? Only Time can tell.