Rare Beastly Kingdom Dragon Tower Attraction Artwork

I have a great find for you today, and you're not going to believe how i've found it. Last week i was surfing on ebay, having a look at a seller named "Sell and Ship". As they have sometime collectible items coming from Disney cast members or Walt Disney Imagineering, i regularly have a look on their page just to check if there is something really interesting...

And what do i see? A pin described as "Animal Kingdom Dragon Pin". I'm not at all a pin fan but it was supposed to be an "Imagineering limited edition", so i clicked on the item to have a closer look on the page and read the description:

- Walt Disney Imagineering Exclusive
- Limited Edition of only 300
- One pin in a series of artwork from WDI.
- Approx 2.25" across and 1 5/8" tall.
- The artwork is primarly red and black.
-It is framed by a red and black metal frame.

But the most interesting was:

- Inside artwork depicting the original concept that was supposed to features animals that never were, but later the concept was abandoned.
- When the Discovery River boats ran, passengers passed by a fire breathing dragon's cave.

And i thought: "A rendering showing the Beastly Kingdom dragon? Let's have a closer look to this". So, i took the pin image, opened the file through Photoshop and increase its size to have a better look.



And you know what? This rendering is NOT showing the scene with the Discovery River boat and the dragon's cave, it's showing a scene of the Beastly Kingdom Dragon Tower never built roller coaster attraction!! In fact, it is the very first rendering i've seen showing the inside of the castle, with the dragon breathing fire and the roller coaster train nearby - if you look closely, you can see the harness on each seat. As you can see on the full size picture below it don't look at all like a cave but more like the inside of a castle, not to mention the roller coaster train, so i think there is little doubt that we have here a rendering showing a rare scene of Dragon Tower.



I remind you that Beastly Kingdom was a land devoted to creatures of legend and mythology. Beastly Kingdom was to have featured mythical animals such as unicorns, dragons, and sea monsters. The land would have feature realms of both good and evil creatures.

The evil side would have been dominated by Dragon Tower, a ruined castle home to a greedy fire-breathing dragon who horded a fabulous treasure in the tower chamber. The castle - artwork below - would also be inhabited by bats who planned to rob the dragon of his riches. They would enlist the guests' help in their scheme and whisk them off on a thrilling roller coaster ride through the castle ruins. The climax of the ride would be an encounter with the evil dragon himself, resulting in a nearly-barbecued train of guests...as you can see on today's artwork.



You'll note that the picture with the dragon is not perfectly clear as the ebay picture was a shot of the whole pin - as you can see above - including the glass over the rendering and its reflection on the artwork. I've tried to improve the document with Photoshop, but it's still not perfect which is no big drama as we can see quite clearly most of the rendering.

Hope that all Animal Kingdom fans will be pleased by this find and if you're interested by exclusive Imagineering items "Sell and Ship" have quite a lot of them on sale right now on ebay!


Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

Picture: copyright Disney

Disney's Animal Kingdom Original Artwork - Part Two

Here is the awaited part two of the Disney's Animal Kingdom original artwork article , and if you've missed the part one you can find it HERE. Above, a great artwork showing different elements of the park!

We're back in Asia and we begin by Expedition Everest artwork! Below, a beautiful Dan Goozee concept-art.



Next, another early concept by Chris Turner showing the Tibetan temple where the train goes through on the first lift.



The most famous of all Expedition Everest artwork, as it was the one chosen when the announcement was officially released.



Below, a Ray Spencer rendering showing the village of Serka Zong.



A rare rendering showing the beginning of the Expedition Everest ride.



This next one, an early concept by Chris Turner shows a never-realised scene, and all i can say is that i regret it as it looks really great!



Below, a beautiful painting by Joe Rhode of the yeti.



This Chris Turner concept shows a giant yeti. There is still a first encounter with the yeti and projection effect, but the size is smaller.



There is one more early concept for this ride scene with this Joe Rhode painting.



Just like in the part one, you will also find some pictures of the imagineers at work. Here a WDI imagineer is working on the tea train locomotive model.



A close shot on the locomotive itself.



It's time to move inside Dinoland, U.S.A and this first rendering is a Joe Rhode early concept for the Boneyard.



Here is another one by James Wong, closer to the final result. Note the coaster in the back. It was never build and should have been called "The Excavator"...



But i've found for you a rare rendering of it!



Next is an early concept by Chuck Ballew for Dino-Rama!



A "Triceratops Spin" concept by Victor Post...



...and another one by Jenna Goodman.



Below, a Dinoland entrance concept-art by Tom Gilleon.



Here is a rendering showing the entrance of the "Dinosaurs" ride - formerly known as "Countdown to Extinction".



This next painting was released as a postcard at the park's opening.



A rare rendering showing the ride vehicle and the dinosaur to be rescued.



The Carnotaurus attack is the climax scene of the ride.



These next three renderings are particularly interesting as they are showing scenes that were NOT realised. This first picture by Joe rhode seems to indicate that at one point the attraction was envisioned as a walk-through, or at least a part of the attraction.



And this velociraptor attack never happened too.



This next one shows a gorgeous scene that we can regret, and i have a story about it: In 1997 or so i was at WDI for a series of interviews and in the office of a an imagineer friend i saw this painting. I asked him if it was in relation with Animal Kingdom - not open yet at that time. He answered me that it was indeed for the "Countdown to extinction" attraction and that "we would be lucky if it looks like that at the end...". He was unfortunately right, and this leads me to the biggest problem with "Countdown to extinction" - now "Dinosaur": the cuts in the budget. Personally, i still like the attraction, and i quite liked it the first time i've ride it, but when you see this kind of concept and know how great it could have been, you really not in the mood to thanks the suits who were Disney executives at that time. One more Michael Eisner "mistake" - and i'm kind - that we still regret today.



The next picture shows a WDI imagineer at work on one of the dinosaurs that we can see in the first scene - it's the one "eating" a smaller dinosaur.



The two next one are showing imagineers at work on the Carnotaurus or programming the Audio-Animatronic.




Theater in the Wild is also in the area, and the next rendering was done for "Nemo, the Musical" show.



Now, there is a land that we all regret that it was never built: Beastly KIngdom. When Animal Kingdom opened, even the Beastly Kingdom land logo was at the entrance of the park and renderings of it were printed in the AK making of book. And then, we know what happened: this Beastly Kingdom project disappeared and chances to see it built one day are more than low. Thanks god, the artwork still exist, and here are some of them just to dream and see how good it could have been.

First, a bird-eye view of the whole land.



The castle, supposedly inhabited by a dragon...



The next artwork shows the labyrinth - the maze...



..and this is one of the mythical animals - a Griffin - that guests would have encounter.



The goal would have been to find the Unicorn, in a grotto at the end of the maze.




And a Fantasia flume ride wold have delight young children.



Let's not forget the dragon firing at the river cruise boats.



This Animal Kingdom article won't be perfect without some renderings of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Here are two of them showing the entrance and the lobby.




While we're here, i join two other renderings of the Disney Vacation Club Animal Kingdom Villas.




That's the end of this Animal Kingdom artwork article!


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 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. It's a "must" and you can find it on Amazon.com from only $3.87!



Some other pictures are coming from Jason Surrell's fantastic book "The Disney Mountains", full of WDI artwork. You can find it on Amazon.com from only $8.90 and it's also a "must"!