Analysis: ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ echoes Disneyland’s hypothetical theme parks of the ’90s
In sharing plans for an expansion “beyond Big Thunder” at Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney Imagineering has openly expressed their ideas may change — a tactic that echoes the initial publicity of two never-built Disney theme parks in the 1990s: Port Disney and Westcot Center.
Disney leadership took to the stage at D23 events in 2022 and 2023 to tease concepts they “might” add to the parks. What “could be” beyond Big Thunder at Magic Kingdom? What is “being considered” as a replacement of DinoLand at Disney’s Animal Kingdom?
These hypothetical non-announcements may have seemed unconventional, but Disney has done this before — on a much bigger scale.
Port Disney in Long Beach
In the early ’90s, Disney publicly announced ambitious plans for two new theme parks in California — one in Long Beach and another in Anaheim — but openly admitted they would only build one of them.
On July 31, 1990, Disney revealed its Long Beach option, as reported the next day in the Los Angeles Times. The project, called Port Disney, would cost $2 billion (later reported as $2.8 billion), comprise 350 acres of land, and include:
- A theme park called DisneySea
- Five hotels
- An aquarium
Concept art for DisneySea, as described by the LA Times, featured “sketches of a vibrant shoreline with tropical reefs, teeming tourists, and circular structures rising like bubbles from its midst.”
Port Disney would have been about 25 miles from Disneyland. That’s roughly eight miles shorter than the distance between Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood. Three decades later, no such comparable Disney business model exists. All of its parks within the same state reside in close proximity to one another.
What was Disney’s other option? Well …
Westcot Center in Anaheim
On May 8, 1991, Disney unveiled its alternate plan for Anaheim, again reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Estimated at $3 billion, the project would include:
- A new theme park called Westcot Center
- Two new hotels called Westcot Lake Resort and Magic Kingdom Hotel
- Disneyland Center, a shopping and dining district
- Disneyland Plaza, the outdoor square between theme parks
- Disneyland Bowl, an amphitheater
- New parking structures
- A “people-moving system” to connect parking and theme parks
Westcot Center would be “patterned after” Florida’s Epcot, the LA Times reported. The park would feature a gold sphere called Spacestation Earth and internationally themed thrill rides.
Imagineer Tony Baxter served as creative lead for Westcot. He reflected decades later in episode 4 of “The Imagineering Story” on Disney+. Baxter shared that Imagineers would have integrated globally themed hotels into the park’s design. It’s unclear if these would have been encompassed within, or in addition to, the aforementioned Westcot Lake Resort.
On Dec. 12, 1991, Disney chose Anaheim over Long Beach as the location for its next California-based theme park. Still, though, Disney used all-too-familiar hypothetical verbiage. The next day, the LA Times quoted a Disney executive as saying, “We have not made a final decision to build in Anaheim.” Rather, the announcement, the Times wrote, was that Disney “wants to build” in Anaheim rather than Long Beach. This was still a maybe.
Introducing California Adventure
On Jan. 30, 1995, Disney conceded that Westcot and most of its surrounding additions were canceled, chronicled in the Los Angeles Times. The company would move forward with a downsized concept. On July 17, 1996, they revealed this concept to be Disney’s California Adventure. Disney expected to spend $1.4 billion on the park’s construction.
The park opened on Feb. 8, 2001, infamously underwhelming and later requiring a $1.1-billion overhaul. The tale is recounted in detail in episodes 4-5 of “The Imagineering Story” on Disney+.
Despite the previously announced plans, Disney never built Westcot or the amphitheater. The company scrapped the announced hotels in favor of other themes, while Disneyland Center survived as Downtown Disney. We can only assume the “people-moving system” became the trams traversing between the parking structures and the Esplanade.
In contrast, the Long Beach project — or, at least, its name — got a second lease on life as Tokyo DisneySea, which opened Sept. 4, 2001 as the second theme park at Tokyo Disney Resort.
Today, it’s bizarre to imagine Disney publicly announcing plans for two theme parks and being so transparent in its intention to build only one of them. And yet, the strategy is spiritually similar to the company’s playbook for two upcoming projects, happening before our eyes in real time.
Expanding “Beyond Big Thunder” and Re-Imagining DinoLand
In September 2022, Josh D’Amaro (chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products), Jennifer Lee (chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios), and Chris Beatty (creative portfolio executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, pictured below) addressed fans at D23 Expo in Anaheim. There, the trio unveiled concept art (below) which presented a re-imagining of DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom with attractions themed to “Zootopia” and “Moana.”
In the same presentation, D’Amaro, Lee, and Beatty shared more conceptual artwork depicting an expansion for Magic Kingdom. The park could expand, as they phrased it, “beyond Big Thunder,” referring to undeveloped land just north of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction. The visual (below) included attractions based on “Coco,” Disney villains, and “Encanto.”
Not so fast, though. These weren’t announcements; these were possibilities.
“I hesitate to even call this a concept,” Beatty said on stage, referring to the Animal Kingdom artwork. “We develop lots of paintings like this that help our team envision the possibilities of what could be. This is just one of them.”
When discussing Magic Kingdom, Beatty posed hypotheticals like “What if we could climb onboard the back of [an] alebrije and fly into the land of the dead with our family, just like the Riveras in ‘Coco’?”
Likewise, Lee asked, “What if you could walk into the Madrigals’ casita? … What if you could step up to a door and discover your own magical gift?” Emphasis on “what if?”
D’Amaro specifically noted the villains concept was “not planned anytime soon.” He referred to the artwork showing the three ideas together at Magic Kingdom as a “thought-starter.” D’Amaro concluded by saying, “That’s what could be out there beyond Big Thunder Mountain.” Emphasis on “could be.”
One Year Later
Almost exactly one year later, in September 2023 at Destination D23 in Orlando, Josh D’Amaro and Bruce Vaughn (newly returned chief creative officer of Walt Disney Imagineering) took the audience into brainstorm mode again.
Vaughn referred to the 2022 discussion of a “Zootopia” and “Moana” transformation of DinoLand as “an initial concept” and “one of many we were exploring at the time.” Now, though, the team was “looking at re-imagining DinoLand into something completely new. We’re focusing on a region of the world sometimes referred to as the tropical Americas.” Vaughn shared updated concept art, completely different from the 2022 version:
This revision swaps “Zootopia” and “Moana” in favor of “Encanto” and Indiana Jones. Consequently, Imagineers will adapt “Zootopia” for the Tree of Life, replacing It’s Tough To Be A Bug.
Vaughn’s language in 2023 was more definitive than his colleagues of the previous year, but still left some wiggle room. He said “we are creating” an attraction based on “Zootopia” for the Tree of Life. Definitive. He also said “our current concept” focuses on a visit to different animal biomes. Wiggle room. This implies Disney has approved “Zootopia” as an intellectual property for this venue, but the finished story may differ.
Meanwhile, no specific concepts were shared for the “Encanto” or Indiana Jones attractions. Vaughn said those stories “rose to the top” of Imagineers’ choices for Animal Kingdom and “feel like a natural fit for this park.”
Of Magic Kingdom’s expansion “beyond Big Thunder,” Vaughn didn’t share any further updates. He did, though, tease the project will be “similar in scale” to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Pandora – The World of Avatar. “I actually think this could be the biggest thing we’ve done in the Magic Kingdom, probably even bigger than New Fantasyland.”
D’Amaro added, “We are about to go into overdrive at the Magic Kingdom.”
A Self-Aware Strategy
In the 1990s, Disney shared ideas and concept art for two theme parks, all the while being fully transparent that one of those parks would be canceled. Here in the 2020s, Disney has shared multiple versions of ideas with complete transparency that all of it could change. The comparison between these two eras isn’t quite a 1:1 match, but there are similarities.
In reference to the 2022 presentation, D’Amaro said at Destination D23 2023, “I think by the end of that chat, we left some people really excited. Maybe some people were wondering exactly what we were up to. By the way, I think that’s completely ok.” He continued, “I want to use these D23 events as an open conversation. I see this as a chance to give some insight into how the Imagineers approach a new project and what the creative process is.”
These remarks provide a helpful revelation. Disney is fully aware that this “conversation” tactic can leave key details in limbo. However, the company currently values sharing in-progress ideas to an extent that outweighs the muddled misinformation that sometimes follows (whether through innocent confusion or intentionally manipulative headlines).
In any case, at the time of this writing in November 2023, both proposed development areas at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom remain void of any signs of imminent construction. Once ground is broken, it will likely be another few years before anything opens.
As a comparison, Disney broke ground for Pandora – The World of Avatar in January 2014 (notably, over two years after first announcing the project) and opened the land in May 2017. Similarly, the stunt show that formerly occupied a significant amount of space at Disney’s Hollywood Studios closed in April 2016; its replacement, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, opened its Florida campus in August 2019.
To learn more about abandoned projects like Port Disney and Westcot Center, check out our recent story about attractions Disney announced but never built.
