Joe Rohde Discusses Encanto’s Fit and a Tropical Americas Without Live Animals

Joe Rohde is a skilled storyteller. One only needs to follow him on Instagram to learn that. The man can paint a picture in a few paragraphs that concept art can struggle to match.

He did that last night with a post about Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto, one of the new attractions coming to Tropical Americas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. In his post, Rohde makes a case for why an Encanto dark ride belongs in an animal-centric theme park. No, the movie isn’t a story about animals. But Imagineers chose a storyline that makes the IP appropriate for the park.

Let’s have Rohde explain:

“Plot lines are difficult to deliver in the context of a theme park because of time limits and the limited control of audience attention. Unlike film, the audience can look all over the place, and instead having of 90 minutes to tell a story, you have seven….if you’re lucky. Therefore, it’s kind of a fools errand to think that you can achieve the same dramatic effect using the plotline of a ride that you could achieve with the plotline of a movie. Rides need to be more focused on gestalt effect. A ride is more like a scene in a movie, where you already know the stakes and you can just enjoy the action.

“The Encanto attraction at Tropical America is just such a design. Not a reiteration of the plot of the movie, but a kind of revisitation of a scene. The ride focuses on Antonio’s gift day, because Antonio is connected to animals. Without this connection, there’s no reason this IP should be at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, because it’s basically an interpersonal family drama, a human story. And both of its chief protagonists Bruno, and Mirabel are less relevant to the park than the supporting character of Antonio.

“But as stated by Joan Hartwig, Creative Executive over the project, Antonio’s gift opens up the theme of ‘family’ and extends it to include all the creatures around us. We are all one family. Animals included. And that is a good moral lesson for Disney’s Animal Kingdom.”

So it comes down to whether Imagineers can use it to tell a story that supports the ideas Animal Kingdom was built around. Rohde sounds convinced they did.

An Animal Kingdom land without animals

Rohde, Animal Kingdom’s lead designer, is no longer a full-time Imagineer, but he remains involved as a consultant. He’s about as plugged into Tropical Americas as anyone outside the project team could be.

He isn’t pretending Tropical Americas checks every box. When a commenter raised concerns about the land opening without live animals, he agreed:

“I agree that live animals are an important part of the park and that Tropical [Americas] would be better with live animals. But each opportunity for expansion also comes from a business opportunity. And in this case, the park needs rides for young people…preferably air-conditioned rides for a young people. And so out of a total budget, which, let me remind you is a budget for a remodel not a virgin ground entirely built from scratch land, the driving business priorities have to be met… Because that’s where the deal comes from. However, I do believe animals are important, and I do believe that they should be included in the future when a business plan can be written for that effort.”

Rohde admits Tropical Americas would be better with live animals, but he’s also pragmatic. Animal Kingdom needs more rides, particularly for younger guests. It needs more indoor, air-conditioned attractions for everyone. Unfortunately, the budget to get those things done didn’t include animal habitats. Hopefully that money can be found in the future.

If you dig this kind of theme park discourse – you know, where there’s room for nuance – follow Joe Rohde on Instagram. You’ll learn plenty about Tropical Americas. And plenty about things that have nothing to do with Disney or dark rides.

Visit our Tropical Americas hub for more on Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto, Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, and the rest of Animal Kingdom’s newest land.