Disney's Animal Kingdom at Ten
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In the face of the gritty realism of Africa and Asia there is a land that stands out as the comic relief � DinoLand U.S.A. The area is an affectionate nod to the great American pastime of dinosaur study from the serious paleontological research of the original 1998 Dinosaur Jubilee attraction (which gave way to Chester & Hester�s Dino-Rama) to the wacky roadside souvenir stand (Chester & Hester�s) which is how most Americans interact with these prehistoric beasts. At first glance DinoLand U.S.A. could be seen as the Fantasyland of Animal Kingdom but Joe is quick to highlight the story behind the development of this chunk of Americana. �DinoLand U.S.A. was on the opening day menu despite what many people have said,� Joe avows. �DinoLand evolved to satisfy two criteria � to make the park distinct from the others at Walt Disney World and to meet Eisner�s philosophy � that the park played to a broad audience with easily understandable marketable ideas. Everyone gets dinosaurs.�
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�For me DinoLand U.S.A. feels very real. It is part of roadside America. Most Americans need to drive cross-country to see dinosaurs and invariably it means pulling off of the freeway and either looking at fossils and rocks or visiting museums which typically can only be found in DC or New York,� Joe continues. �There will be a dig site and a rock shop. This is our experience of dinosaurs. We tried to build in multiple points-of-view so what does it mean to study animals that do not exist anymore? What effect have they had on popular culture like kids� toys and movies? And anyhow besides all that they are big and green with claws! We were able to fold all of that into this very American dinosaur land.�
One criticism that has been leveled at DinoLand U.S.A. is that whilst the rest of the park offers the opportunity for the average guest to immerse themselves in continents and cultures that they are unlikely to see themselves (Africa and Asia) this area is a quintessential American experience. Joe is quick to scoff at that notion as he describes Animal Kingdom as not just about exoticism. �There is that issue of familiarization [with DinoLand] but kids love dinos and we wanted to be careful that the park didn�t just become a park about live wild animals,� Joe explains. �We knew we needed to fill out the park and that another ride was required. Ultimately not everything at Animal Kingdom could be this gigantic labor-intensive landscape exercise as you need a balance of concepts to create a theme park. Disneyland fulfils that model perfectly as it is dense and packed with lots of stuff in a small place. We needed that kind of theme-parky land and that is how we landed on Dino-Rama which has a quirkiness and level of irreverent humor that had never existed in Animal Kingdom before. We knew that there were levels of humor that were easier to get to than others and often you can reach those levels through realism. That realism led us to a real roadside shop in Chester and Hester�s. The more real it is the more humorous it is because it is in a theme park! If you were driving down the highway and saw Chester and Hester�s you would have to pull over. I like Dino-Rama � it is a parking lot which in itself is a beautiful work of art. People probably don�t realize that we can�t have asphalt as in the Florida summer you would sink into it. That simulated asphalt is probably one of the most difficult themed surfaces we have ever created. It is just funny � Animal Kingdom couldn�t be this serious, uptight and puritan park.�