DAK’s birthday party in the works
Disney’s Animal Kingdom is approaching the big 2-0, and Walt Disney World is planning special events and activities to mark the occasion, starting with two weeks of Party for the Planet festivities.
Visitors will be able to attend conservation talks by animal-care experts and have enhanced interactions with some of attraction’s animals.
Party for the Planet activities kick off April 22, which is also Earth Day and the anniversary of Animal Kingdom’s official opening in 1998.
During the park’s yearlong anniversary celebration, Rafiki’s Planet Watch will offer backstage experiences about animal nutrition, the park’s veterinary hospital and Disney’s promotion of wildlife conservation.
The year’s festivities will include the debut of an “Up”-inspired bird show and a new Donald Duck-centric dance party, not to mention the one-year anniversary of Pandora — The World of Avatar.
Other elements of DAK’s birthday include oversize picture frames / opportunities and a special-edition print created by famed Walt Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde, one of the masterminds behind Animal Kingdom. (Rohde will be available April 22 from 1-4 p.m. to sign prints at the park’s Discovery Trading Company.)
In addition, kids can earn a limited-edition badge with the Wilderness Explorer program, there will be a commemorative adventure guide, limited-edition merchandise and an event called Tiffins Talks — six themed dinners hosted by animal experts.
Animal Kingdom will premiere its “Up! A Great Bird Adventure” on April 22. The show will feature “Up” film characters Russell and canine pal Dug encountering exotic birds.
On Memorial Day weekend, a dinosaur-themed party will be tied to Donald Duck, who realizes his ancestors are dinosaurs. The event will include characters such as Scrooge McDuck and Launchpad McQuack.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the 1971 Life magazine with Cinderella Castle and 1,500 cast members on the cover. I heard from a couple of people who were there that day.
That was, indeed, Debby Dane Browne, the first Walt Disney World ambassador, up front. She wrote and confirmed. “My Disney days were amazing,” she said.
Another reader who was there said the photo session took several hours and that it was “brutally hot.” Imagine the nightmare of getting the masses organized.
Another hypothesis was that the aerial photo of the ground was taken by Leep Zelones, who was hired to document the construction process. There’s no photo credit in the magazine, but Zelones’ obituary appeared in the Sentinel in 2014 and said he owned a commercial photography business. Among his clients were Disney, SeaWorld and Circus World.
If you saw the drones flying overhead during the Opening and Closing ceremonies for the recent Olympics, yeah, you saw it here first. The same type of drone — Intel’s Shooting Star — was used for shows at Disney Springs two Christmas seasons ago.
In South Korea, more than 1,200 drones were used in a prerecorded bit for the Opening Ceremony. At Disney, they used 300, the same number flying in the Closing Ceremony, where figures, including the white tiger mascot named Soohorang, were created in the sky.