Walt Disney World has announced officially confirmed that Indiana Jones and Encanto attractions will come to life in the Tropical Americas land at Animal Kingdom. This shares details, new concept art & model photos, and everything we know about the upcoming area. Plus my chance encounter with legendary Imagineer Joe Rohde at D23 and what he had to say about the expansion.
The official substantive details about the Tropical Americas and its attractions was first revealed during the Parks Panel presentation during the 2024 D23 Expo at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Josh D’Amaro was joined on stage by head Imagineer Bruce Vaughn for the second consecutive D23 event, and the two fully pulled back the curtain on what Tropical Americas would encompass.
Following that, the model for the Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom showed up on the D23 Expo show floor in the Walt Disney Imagineering booth, along with a separate model of the Encanto casita. This shows the layout of the land that’ll replace Dino-Rama and Dinoland, and how we can expect existing facilities to be replaced or reimagined.
Tropical Americas is one of several ‘shovel to soil’ projects that will come online in the next 5 years, and the first major addition at Walt Disney World that’ll open during that timeframe. Construction on this new 11-acre section of the park is set to begin later this year, as permits have already been filed and work is underway on backstage facilities for makeshift Imagineering project offices.
Just like Harambe, the Tropical Americas area feels lived in, with a long, rich history. There are essentially three areas of this land, the first of which is Pueblo Esperanza, the hub in heart of the rainforest that’s name translates to “Village of Hope.”
The Pueblo Esperanza community center will be lush and sprawling, featuring a large fountain in the center where the villagers like to gather and tell stories. There’s also a large hacienda which will be one of the largest quick-service restaurants at Walt Disney World Resort.
Additionally, a woodcarver has repurposed a horse stable into a giant working carousel for the kids from Pueblo Esperanza to enjoy. Thankfully, they get Disney+ out in Pueblo Esperanza (stellar broadband service in the rainforest) and the woodcarver crafted some of his favorite animals from Disney stories. Imagineering is promising a new take on a classic attraction that young families are going to love.
Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a land with just a critter carousel. After leaving the Pueblo Esperanza, guests can venture deeper into the rainforest to find not one but two signature attractions! To the left is the Encanto magical Madrigal Casita dark ride, which is likely to be a family-friendly Omnimover–perhaps like an Encanto-ized version of Mystic Manor.
If you’re a fan of drawers, floors, and doors, let’s go! The first-ever Encanto-themed ride-through attraction is coming to Animal Kingdom, featuring the beloved Madrigal family from the Walt Disney Animation Studios film.
Inside the Casita, Antonio has just received his special gift — the ability to communicate with animals — and his room has transformed into a rainforest. It’s time to go explore alongside him, and you never know what member of the family you might bump into.
To the right from Pueblo Esperanza is a new Indiana Jones Adventure attraction, which will replace DINOSAUR. This will be a new twist on IJA that will be different from the existing versions of the attraction at Disneyland in California and Tokyo DisneySea. Both of those are quite different from one another, and this will be the third non-cloned version of the attraction. Obviously, they all bear similarities–but also all tell unique and distinct stories.
In this new adventure at Animal Kingdom, the man with the hat has recently discovered a perfectly preserved Maya temple, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time to explore it. He’s heard rumors about a mythical creature deep within the temple — and he’s got to see it for himself. So, he brings us along on the adventure.
As a bit of an aside, I’ve seen speculation that the mythical creature will be Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl (the former being its Mayan name, the latter its Aztec). I’m sure someone with greater cultural/mythical creature knowledge can share insight into the distinctions between the two beasts, but both appear to be feathered serpent gods. This would be a fun riff on Indy’s fear of snakes, and in keeping with the culture meets creatures intersection of Animal Kingdom.
Construction on the land is set to begin in Fall 2024 and will open in 2027 — but don’t worry, you’ll still have plenty of time to experience Dinosaur again (and get that dino). Our expectation is that DINOSAUR will actually start construction last, meaning that it might not close until the second half of 2025.
If this land is opening all at once instead of in phases, there’s more work to be done on Encanto–a brand new build–than there is on Indiana Jones Adventure, which will reuse the existing ride system from DINOSAUR. Obviously, all of this is unconfirmed–and the longer DINOSAUR is closed, the more time Imagineering has to do justice to an ambitious reimagining. So we’d love to see it close earlier.
Anyway, here are the models and more from Tropical Americas that were showcased on the show floor at the 2024 D23 Expo:
I’m still torn on Tropical Americas. On the one hand, everything I’ve heard about this land makes me more optimistic about it. The Encanto casita attraction seems much more ambitious than I had first heard last year, and the size of the show building is further reassuring. This could be a blockbuster attraction, or at the very least, a high-capacity people-eater.
Then there’s Indiana Jones Adventure. This E-Ticket is so far superior to its prehistoric counterpart that it’s completely understandable that guests don’t realize they’re (basically) the same underlying ride. Whereas DINOSAUR leans heavily on darkness, more darkness, empty show scenes and non-working effects, Indiana Jones Adventure is jam-packed with brilliantly-staged show scenes and an interior that’s far more engaging and satisfying. It’s a definitive demonstration of why ride systems aren’t everything–or really, anything–and it’s all about how they’re utilized. I can’t wait for Walt Disney World diehards to experience this for the first time–they’re in for a real treat.
I’m also bullish on how both franchises will fit Animal Kingdom thematically. I’m not suggesting either will be pure or perfect fits–they definitely won’t. But Imagineering leaning into the wildlife, natural worlds, and animal-centric thematic elements of both seems fitting. Indiana Jones, in particular, has a lot of potential as a cautionary tale, much like Avatar. There are elements of that franchise that are thematically at odds with Animal Kingdom, which could be precisely the point–the park doesn’t have to endorse the titular character’s actions any more than Villains Land needs to endorse evil. It can exist as a thematic exploration, much like (again) Pandora or even Kali River Rapids.
The biggest wildcard for me is the actual wildlife. That’s integral to Animal Kingdom from my perspective, and the jury is still out as to whether it’ll be incorporated into the area. A couple of trails and exhibits would go a long ways towards appeasing fans and also just making Tropical Americas a better fit. Obvious candidates are capybara and chupacabra, both of which are definitely real animals and not at all made up freaks of nature.
On the other hand, I’m still disappointed that Disney is abandoning dinosaurs. That’s as a concept, with a lowercase “d.” Dino-Rama didn’t fail because it lacks recognizable animated characters or synergy. It failed because it sucks. Normal guests don’t care about backstory, and all that lipstick couldn’t save the pig that is Dino-Rama. The land being unpopular and bad has nothing to do with dinosaurs and everything to do with its original budget being, like, twenty-five bucks. Fix the funding and you fix the problem.
Dinosaurs are also basically the ultimate intellectual property, and it’s almost criminal that Disney hasn’t released a great movie featuring them. (The Good Dinosaur had so much potential–I still appreciate it as a weird little ‘warts and all’ movie.) It feels almost criminal to remove the one theme park land devoted to these magnificent creatures, rather than doubling down on them.
There is so much unrealized potential with a land devoted to dinosaurs, and if given a big budget, Imagineering could create something truly magical and awe-inspiring that would have tremendous guest drawing power. Even IP integration could come over time once the studios finally come to their senses, stop the gratuitous remakes, and start making movies about dinosaurs. Heck, that’s already happened once in Dinoland!
I get why Walt Disney World is doing this–because Universal has developed a monopoly on dinosaurs thanks to Jurassic Park. As much as I love that franchise, it’s a travesty. Universal has likewise mostly squandered dinosaurs, giving them a bunch of only okay attractions or great ones with very tenuous dinosaur connections. (If anything, what Universal has done is worse–since Jurassic Park is one of the all-time great brands and has a built-in theme park connection.)
The bottom line is that dinosaurs should not go extinct at Walt Disney World. But at the same time, this particular dinosaur land is absolutely nothing special, and doesn’t deserve to be mourned. My hope is that down the road, Disney will give dinosaurs a second chance–much like the late, great John Hammond–what could possibly go wrong?
Finally, by sheer chance and dumb luck, I happened upon legendary Imagineer Joe Rohde at the Tropical Americas model–or more accurately, he happened upon me. Like a total doofus, I got in his way while photographing the model, not noticing that he was behind me. (Side note: if you ever want to meet and chat with Imagineers, there’s no better place than the D23 Expo show floor–it’s always swarming with them.)
Anyway, it was a right place at the right time moment, as Mike from BlogMickey and I were the only ones in front of the model, and we had a chance to chat with Joe Rohde for a bit after he took photos of it on his phone. I figured this was worth sharing not as a humble-brag (although it is a two birds with one stone sorta deal), but because when I posted the photo on social media, everyone wanted to know what Joe thought of Tropical Americas.
This is obviously and understandable. Aside from Walt and Disneyland, there’s probably no one person as closely connected with a park as Joe Rohde is with Animal Kingdom. Yes, these parks are collaborative efforts and he had a huge team along with corporate mandates. Still, Rohde is as close to as an “auteur” as possible with Animal Kingdom. His word on the park is rightfully viewed by fans as the gospel, and he often is not shy about speaking his mind.
As far as Tropical Americas goes, Rohde was enthusiastic and optimistic. He indicated that this was a region of the world he’d wanted to see incorporated into the park, but could never get done. Rohde felt that it was time for the park to evolve in this way, saying it would be a good addition especially post-Pandora. He seemed most curious about the Encanto casita, and suggested one of the biggest challenges for Imagineering would be marrying the more whimsical style of that with the gritty look of the rest of the park. (All of this is paraphrased and to the best of my recollection.)
With all of that said, this was the day when Rohde was inducted as a Disney Legend. Although his social media posts offer a certain amount of candor (and always have), he’s also a skilled and savvy spokesperson. You don’t get as far as he did in a company like Disney without being adept at corporate politics. He’s not just going to start badmouthing upcoming projects in the presence of current Imagineers to random fans. There are ex-Imagineers who do this, but Rohde isn’t one of them.
To the extent he has critique of the Tropical Americas (if any), Rohde is going to share that in private with Imagineers working on the project. He’s already returned to Imagineering to lead master class workshops and (possibly) serve as a creative consultant. He’s been spotted with teams of Imagineers on both coasts in the last few months, so he has every opportunity to communicate with them firsthand and actually shape the Tropical Americas project from the inside.
Nothing would undermine that faster than criticizing Tropical Americas publicly, which also explains why he hasn’t posted an Instagram essay about it. Even with his own past projects, Rohde didn’t publicly share his concerns until long after they opened and were huge successes. Sure, we know now that he had misgivings about Pandora and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, but those are a lot easier to hear because we know that he managed to overcome those obstacles. At the time those were in development, his comments were positive and in keeping with Disney PR. It’ll probably be much of the same here with Tropical Americas.
Hopefully, Rohde is still “on the inside” enough to guide in the direction of this new Indiana Jones and Encanto expansion in much the same way, and it too will similarly be a success story about overcoming obstacles. It’s entirely possible that Joe Rohde was being frank, and his feelings about Tropical Americas are entirely positive. But our conversation with him wouldn’t necessarily be dispositive of that. Who knows, maybe the biggest challenge this project currently faces is making the fit and finishing on the Encanto casita feel at home in Animal Kingdom. That’s certainly my hope, but regardless, I cannot imagine it being worse than the dumpster fire it’s replacing in Dino-Rama.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Tropical Americas expansion announced for Animal Kingdom? What about the potential of Indiana Jones and Encanto in DAK? Excited or underwhelmed by the plan? Or, are you in wait and see mode with this? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
