Blue Sky projects hold a special fascination for many Disney adults. From rides and hotels to full-fledged lands and even whole theme parks, these unbuilt projects continue to tease the mind of diehard fans who imagine “What if?”
I’ve been reading about and researching the history of Disney’s theme parks for decades, and I can attest that I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about many of these projects. However, there’s one unbuilt land that holds interest above all others — partially because of what may have been, and partially because it may have actually been built by Disney’s greatest competitor. This is the fairytale-turned-nightmare of Beastly Kingdom.
The story of Beastly Kingdom began in the early 1990s, when the medieval land was planned to be a key part of Disney World’s then-upcoming Animal Kingdom theme park. Unlike the rest of the park, Beastly Kingdom was meant to celebrate mythical animals that never truly existed, and would have had an E-Ticket attraction.
The land, which was to be located where Pandora is located today, was to be split into two halves based on “good” and “evil.”
The “good” half of the land would have been built around a walkthrough attraction known as The Quest of the Unicorn. The large maze would have featured numerous “magical” encounters, and culminated with an encounter between guests and a “life-size” realistic unicorn animatronic. This side of the land would have also featured a boat ride attraction titled Fantasia Gardens themed around its namesake film.
The “evil” side of Beastly Kingdom was to have been the burnt-out remains of a medieval village, the skyline of which was to be dominated by a larger-than-life castle. The castle would have held the land’s, and arguably the park’s, premier attraction: Dragon’s Tower. The thrill attraction would have used an inverted roller coaster ride system to tell the tale of a group of bats stealing treasure from the evil dragon who lords over the castle and village.
Beastly Kingdom was promoted heavily during the design and early construction phase of Animal Kingdom, with artwork for the land heavily used to promote the park.
So, what happened?
Due to the ever-escalating budget that the live animal attractions required, projects needed to be cut from the initial construction. According to theme park urban legend, the choice came down to Beastly Kingdom and DinoLand U.S.A. Allegedly, Michael Eisner went with the latter, believing that toy sales would be higher and the land could be used to promote the 2000 animated film Dinosaur.
Beastly Kingdom was pushed to the second phase of the park’s development, but that didn’t initially stop Imagineers from planning it. To tease its eventual addition, numerous references to the land were included in Animal Kingdom on opening day. These included a Dragon in the park’s logo above its ticket booths, a parking lot named after the unicorn, and most notably, a dragon-shaped rock, melted suits of armor, and fire shooting from a cave located near the proposed site of the land, all of which were visible on the Discovery River Boats attraction. The temporary land Camp Minnie-Mickey was built in the land’s place, with plans calling for it to quickly be removed once work on Beastly Kingdom began. However, the 1999 opening of Universal’s Islands of Adventure put an end to those plans.
Long-held (and essentially confirmed by some) rumors in theme park circles maintain that once Beastly Kingdom was pushed back, many of the Imagineers who worked on the land were let go. They quickly moved over to Universal Studios to work on the then-upcoming Islands of Adventure and brought many of their ideas with them, inserting them into the land that became Lost Continent.
For example, Lost Continent’s headlining opening day attraction was Dueling Dragons, a dragon-themed inverted coaster which featured a queue that wound through a ruined castle, with the corpses of knights killed by the titular dragons scattered throughout.
However, some argue that the idea that Islands of Adventure stopped Beastly Kingdom from being built is simply theme park fans manufacturing drama. Instead, they argue that Beastly Kingdom was simply never built due to its large budget and the well-documented attitudes of the Walt Disney Company toward its theme parks in the late 90s/early 2000s. In any case, any hope fans had for the land to be built was extinguished in 2017 when Pandora: The World of Avatar was built.
Many Disney fans still dream about Beastly Kingdom, the legendary unbuilt Animal Kingdom land. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on (unbuilt) Disney history.
I Can’t Be the Only Disney Adult Who Thinks About This Abandoned Land in the Middle of the Night
Do you wish Beastly Kingdom existed in Animal Kingdom? Let us know in the comments below.
Yes! And I wish DinoLand had gotten to see it’s potential fully realized, instead of just a crappy midway