A firey dragon. An intense roller coaster. The magical touch of Disney magic.
Welcome to Disney's Animal Kingdom's Cancelled Attractions. Be sure to go here for all previous entries in this series. This week we are discussing the lost dragon-themed roller coaster from Beastly Kingdom.
Disney cut Beastly Kingdom because it was so expensive and there just simply wasn't the budget for it. The 1990s brought several high profile failures for the Disney Parks, and they were trying desperately to recover. Disney's Animal Kingdom was a part of that, meaning it was something of a return to form. But the company was still struggling leading to one land not making it to opening.
This ride was fully designed and ready to be built along with the rest of the land, and luckily, due to some Imagineers being angered by its cancelation and leaving the company, we know a lot about what this attraction would have been.
This would have been one of three attractions in the land, and it would be by far the most intense, and the E-Ticket of the land.
It would have been followed the story of a castle, taken over by a dragon, which is guarding a massive treasure. The castle has since been abandoned, following numerous failed attempts to claim the treasure from the dragon.
The basic story of the attraction would have been you joining a group of bats as they attempt to steal the treasure from the dragon.
As for actual content beyond this, we really don't know. Concept art shows versions with both a traditional roller coaster and a suspended roller coaster. The final version is suspected of being a suspended roller coaster. It was supposed to be intensely themed and entirely inside, providing the park with its first roller coaster.
Disney lost Imagineers over the loss of this ride, and it is expected that the lost Dueling Dragons at Islands of Adventure was at least in part based on this concept, although differentiated enough to not anger Disney's lawyers.
This ride would never see the light of day, but it would have been something we have still yet to see Disney do, a fully inside immersive coaster. We may never have gotten the Dragon Coaster, but there are still references to it and Beastly Kingdom throughout the park, from the parking lot to the park entrance.
Do you wish we had gotten the dragon coaster? Let us know in the comments below and check out all the other parts of this series here, and also be sure to come back in two weeks as we explore Animal Kingdom's Lost Carousel.
I read somewhere that a Beastly Kingdom 5th park has been discussed. It would have a similar layout to it's sister park Animal Kingdom. With a mix of real and fantasy animals throughout the property.
ReplyDeleteThe lands would consist of a central Dragon section (Discovery Island), an Egypt section (Africa), Australia (Asia), a Stars Wars snow planet (Dinoland) and Fantasia (Pandora).