Today is the start of Annual Passholder previews of the all-new Zootopia: Better Zoogether show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The new Zootopia show replaces It’s Tough to be a Bug within the Tree of Life Theater at the heart of the park. While many Disney fans haven’t seen the show in person yet, there is no shortage of opinions. Overall, the internet’s opinion of the show is that it is not a good fit for Disney’s Animal Kingdom for a variety of reasons. While our upcoming review will reach the same conclusion, we wanted to first take a look at what Walt Disney Imagineers who worked on the project had to say.
Imagineers Explain How Zootopia Show Fits Animal Kingdom
Two Imagineers were on a recent panel for a select number of fan sites and influencers during a recent media preview of Zootopia: Better Zoogether. While BlogMickey.com was not invited, a video of the panel was posted by Drew the Disney Dude, giving us some insight into the thought process of Imagineers who worked on and oversaw the project.
Two Imagineers were on the panel, Priya Sampat a Creative Producer at Imagineering, and Chris Beatty a Creative Portfolio Executive at Imagineering. From what it sounds like, Priya Sampat had been on the project for a while, and Chris Beatty was more of an overarching presence, as he is for many projects at Walt Disney World.
Here are some of the topics that were explored during the Zootopia: Better Zoogether panel.
Animal Kingdom’s Ethos & Challenge
We’ll start with a refresher of sorts of the ethos of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. As originally shared by Animal Kingdom creative lead and former Imagineer Joe Rohde, the driving principles of Disney’s Animal Kingdom are:
- The intrinsic value of nature
- Psychological transformation through adventure
- A personal call to action
Chris Beatty got pretty close to that same list when reciting the tenets of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Beatty’s list during the panel was:
- Intrinsic values of nature
- Transformation through adventure
- The interconnectedness of all living things
While Beatty’s list swaps “a personal call to action” with “the interconnectedness of all living things”, he’s not completely off the mark. The theme of interconnectedness is driven home during early literature about the theme park, specifically the Tree of Life.
While I think it’s clear that “a personal call to action” is a key pillar of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, it wasn’t a priority for the Zootopia: Better Zoogether team. I hope that this was a one-off decision by the team, and not a shift in priorities for the park.
A personal call to action is so unique to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and so crucial for a theme park dedicated to animals, that I hope it returns for future projects – including the upcoming Tropical Americas project.
When discussing the development of Zootopia: Better Zoogether, Beatty said that it is a challenge to create something new for Disney’s Animal Kingdom versus other parks, given how clear and unique the messaging of the theme park is and has been.
The Responsibility of Adding A New Show to the Tree of Life
Priya Sampat fielded a question about how the new Zootopia show fits into the story and the ethos of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Sampat called developing the show a “huge responsibility” because of its placement within the Tree of Life, which she called “the heart of the park”.
The show is in the Tree of Life, which is at the heart of the park, right? So we had a huge responsibility to put in the themes of Animal Kingdom. We explored a lot of different options, and it eventually came into: how are animals interconnected together and how do we celebrate that?
After exploring additional options, we came upon Zoogether Day, which is a holiday that all of Zootopia is celebrating together in their own different ways, but eventually the come together at the end.
Interconnectedness of All Living Things
Focusing on the interconnectedness of all living things, the team said that they were really focused on that specific pillar of the park. They didn’t speak too much about the other key themes, and I think it’s clear that the show doesn’t try to speak to those themes, either.
Beatty said that the team honed in on the interconnectedness of all living things and said, “that’s what the show needs to be about”.
We went to that tenet and said, you know what? That’s what the show needs to be about. That’s what Zoogether Day is about: it’s that harmony of nature and how each one of these animals and their biomes all have to depend on each other. And together, they’re stronger.Â
And so I think when we hit on that, OK, that’s the story we want to tell. And that’s really where Zoogether Day took root from.Â
Does Zootopia Fit in Disney’s Animal Kingdom?
While we’ll have a full review shortly, I think it’s worth plugging in my own opinions here at the end. Ultimately, I think Zootopia: Better Zoogether is the sloppy result of an IP mandate. It doesn’t fit in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and saying that it somehow carries forward a pillar of “the interconnectedness of all living things” is a stretch, at best.
Zootopia: Better Zoogether is not a better show than It’s Tough to be a Bug before it in terms of connecting with the themes of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. For all its faults, ITTBAB was at least in lockstep with the themes of the park that it was located in. ITTBAB even spoke to the interconnectedness of all living things 1000 times better than Zootopia does.
The best thing I can say about Zootopia: Better Zoogether is that it’s completely avoidable. That sounds like a backhanded compliment, but it’s true. The show is out of view, and with the exception of the upcoming Nick & Judy meet and greet, it doesn’t impose itself on Disney’s Animal Kingdom nearly as much as other Zootopia concepts would have.
Zootopia doesn’t belong in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and an extremely loose connection to a single theme of the park isn’t what Animal Kingdom deserves. Again, here’s to hoping that it’s a one-off and that the teams at WDI are a bit more focused on what an attraction at Animal Kingdom should be with regards to the upcoming Tropical Americas land.
UPDATE: Check out our full review of Zootopia: Better Zoogether in the article below!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
