Disney's Animal Kingdom Original Artwork - Part One

Here is an article that i've promised to you a loooong time ago. It took me some time but this two parts Animal Kingdom original artwork article will show you more WDI renderings you've ever seen about this beautiful park, one of my favorite.

Let's begin with a bird eye view of the whole park. Released at the opening, it's an interesting rendering as we can see the Asia land - not yet build at that time - and most of all, the never built Beastly Kingdom.



let's have a look at the entrance with this first concept-art - a never realised concept.



Here is another early and never realised concept for the entrance by Joe Rhode.



Artist Gerry Dune did also a proposal for the entrance with this rendering.



Here is a Bryan Jowers rendering for the Genesis Gardens.



Joe Rhode did also this Oasis carousel concept, never realised.



Let's move now to the Tree of Life. You have a beautiful rendering at the top and below, a Dan Goozee concept-art.



Another Tree of Life concept by Dave Minichiello.



Here is an early concept for the whole island by Gerry Dunn and Joe Rhode.



Artist Ben Tripp did also this view toward the Tree of Life.



I've also added one or two pictures of models or imagineers at work, and here is one with a WDI imagineer working on the model of the Tree of Life.



Here is a picture of the Discovery Island model.



You may not know it but different concepts were envisioned for the show under the Tree of Life. As we know, the one which was realised is the "It's tough to be a bug" show. Here is a rendering for it.



Artist Bryan Jowers did a concept for a "Wonders of Nature" show...



...And Dave Minichiello did another one for a Lion King character show.



Here is a rendering showing the Creature Comfort shop interior by Karen Conolly Armitage.



On the east of Discovery Island is Camp Mickey, here is two Joe Warren artwork for it.




A Jim Heffron plan for the Pocahontas show theater...



...And a scenic design concept by Joe Warren.



Artist Jim Heffron did this design and elevation for a new bridge.



Let's move to Africa with this view of Harambe by Tom Gilleon.



A great rendering of the Kilimandjaro Safaris savannah by Ben Tripp.



Another view of the savannah and animals by Ned Mueller.



The famous sequence of the suspended bridge.



This Tom Gilleon artwork below is supposed to show Kilimandjaro Safaris, but if you look closer, it shows a raft ride and the temples on the left looks more Asian than African...except if the imagineers did envisioned another raft ride for Africa...



Some artwork for the research station by Mark Shumate.



A great concept-art for the Harambe train station by Zofia Kostyrko.



A rendering of the Wildlife Express train by George McGinnis.



And another one for the Wildlife Express locomotive.



As we know, the train bring the guests to Conservation Station, and here are three renderings showing it.



Always about Conservation Station, another concept-art by Zofia Kostyrko.



Some years after its opening, the Asia land opened at Animal Kingdom. Here is an Asian market concept by Joe Rhode.



A beautiful rendering by Ned Mueller for the tiger overlook.



Also by Ned Mueller, this concept for the grand ballroom.



Kali River Rapids is Animal Kingdom's raft ride, and here is a concept-art by Ned Mueller.



Always by Ned Mueller, this concept-art shows the burning forest sequence of the ride.



Before the Kali River Rapids concept was chosen, other "Asian raft ride" concepts were envisioned. Here are two renderings of these early concepts.




We will end this first part with this Alex Wright artwork for the Kali River Rapids FastPass structure.



Be sure to don't miss the part two of this Animal Kingdom original artwork article next week!

All artwork: copyright Disney - WED Enterprises.

Many thanks to Mark Taft for some of the renderings. I strongly suggest you to have a look on Mark's site Insights and Sounds, it's always interesting with rare pictures or renderings and Mark is posting new articles almost every day!

Some of the renderings you saw in this article are coming from the great "Imagineering Field Guide to Disney's Animal Kingdom" where you will learn all the WDI secrets in the making of the park. You can find it on Amazon.com from only $3.87!